Friday, October 30, 2020

Windows 10 Start Menu disappeared


Recently noticed (after a Windows 10 Update) that my st6art menu had disappeared and the Cortana search was retuinring results but not letting me run programes from the results. Search for a bit and found this which fixed it

Run CMD as administrator (by pressing Ctrl-Shift_Enter)
sfc /scannow

https://windowsreport.com/start-menu-disappears-windows-10/#10

Tuesday, June 02, 2020

No Fuss, Lacto Free, Two Ingredient Bagel Recipe


Ingredients

  • 245g Tesco Lactose free Greek Yoghurt
  • 210g Self Raising Flour

Method

  • Preheat oven to 180C
  • Sift the flour into a big bowl
  • Mix the yoghurt in to make a dough
  • Split it into 4
  • Shape it into rings
  • Whack 'em on a floured tray

Optional fancy bit:

  • brush with butter if you want and sprinkle with stuff like poppy or sesame seeds if you want


Bung em in the oven for 20 minutes until golden, take 'em out and cool on a wire rack

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Cryptic Phrase Puzzles

There are a few of these going around just now and I want to be able to find them again and the answers but of course I'm missing some. If you have an answer that I don't or a better answer than what I think it is please add it in the comments
  1. Sandbox
  2. Man Overboard
  3. I understand
  4. Reading between the lines
  5. Long underwear
  6. Crossroads
  7. Down Town
  8. Tricycle
  9. Split Level
  10. 3 degrees below zero
  11. Neon Lights
  12. Circles under the eyes
  13. High Chair
  14. Paradise (pair o' dice)
  15. Touchdown
  16. 5 feet underground
  17. Mind over matter
  18. He's beside himself
  19. a backwards glance
  20. Life after death
  21. G.I. overseas
  22. Space Program
  23. See through blouse
  24. Just between you and me


















  1. The Seven Seas
  2. Split Level
  3. Forgive and Forget
  4. Missing You
  5. Downtown
  6. Lucky Break
  7. He's beside himself
  8. See through blouse
  9. First Aid
  10. West Indies
  11. 6 feet underground
  12. a backwards glance
  13. Tricycle
  14. Reading between the lines
  15. Crossroads
  16. 3 degrees below zero
  17. Neon lights
  18. Just between you and me
  19. One in a million
  20. Broken Promise
  21. You're out of touch
  22. Life after 40
  23. Jack in the box
  24. growing economy
  25. Up before 8
  26. Just around the corner
  27. Apple Pie
  28. Making Up for lost time
  29. Standing ovation
  30. I understand you undertake to undermine my undertaking

Tuesday, March 24, 2020

A simple white loaf

Ingredients

  • 800g strong white bread flour
  • 14g fresh yeast or 7g sachet dried yeast or 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 550ml water at 30C/85F
  • 2x1kg bread tins greased with butter or lard (or dairy free alternative)

Method

Place the flour in a large bowl and, if using fast-action dried yeast, stir in the salt thoroughly before adding the fast-action dried yeast

If using fresh yeast or dried yeast, in a small bowl, wet the yeast with a little warm water and stir it ot a cream. Add the remaining water, then add this mixture to the flour. Mix well together.

Tip the mixture onto a clean worktop. Knead for 10-15 minutes until the dough is shiny and elastic. Don't worry if it sticks to your hands initially; just keep cleaning them with a plastic scraper. try  not to add a significant quantity of extra flour to prevent the dough from sticking - this will only make the dough firm up and dry slightly.

Put the dough back in the bowl and cover with a damp cloth. Leave the dough to rise at a warm, but not hot, room temperature for 1-2 hours until it has doubled in size.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured worktop and knead it for 2-3 minutes to even it out. Divide the dough into two equal portions. Knead each lightly to form a cylinder that has a crease at its base. Place in the tins crease down and cover them with a damp tea towel. Leave the loaves to rise at the same warm room temperature for 45-60 minutes until they have doubled in size -- this will be when the dough just mounds over the rim of the tins by 1-2 cm.

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7 and adjust the shelves so that the loaves have room to rise.

When  the oven is hot, remove the tea towel and sprinkle the loaves with a little flour. Carefully slice a shallow groove along the centre of each loaf. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, then turn the loaves around so that they cook evenly. Reduce the temperature to 180c/350F/gas 4 and bake for a further 20-25 minutes

The loaves are ready if they sound hollow when tapped on the base

Turn the loaves out onto a wire rack and allow them to cool fully before using.

Perfect Vegan Soda Bread Recipe


Ingredients

  • 250 g plain white flour
  • 150 g wholemeal flour
  • 50 g oats (plus extra to scatter on top)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda, not baking powder)
  • 300 ml neutral tasting dairy free milk (Alpro Unsweetened Oat Milk is my favourite)
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice, or white wine vinegar)
If you really don't like the brown-white mix, this works well with 350g white, 50g brown, 50g oats

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 220C / 200C fan / gas mark 7 / 425F. Lightly Dust a baking tray with flour.
  2. Mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly. 
  3. Add the oat milk and vinegar, and stir to combine.
  4. Keep stirring until the ingredients come together as a dough, then squidge together to form a ball.
  5. Place the ball of dough on your baking tray and cut a deep cross in the centre. This is really important as it helps the centre of the bread to cook properly – so cut nice and deep, almost to the bottom.
  6. If you wish, you can dust the loaf with a little flour and a sprinkle of oats, then place the bread in your preheated oven for 30 minutes.
  7. That's it, take it out, cool it on a rack. Enjoy

Thursday, February 20, 2020

#soldier #vss365 #poem

#vss365
He was in the merchant navy
He didn’t have to fight
No #soldier he but fought as hard
Striving day & night
To bring us food & fuel
To help lessen our plight
The U-boat sank the unarmed ship
No hero’s grave in sight
Now he sleeps with Davy Jones
At the dying of the light

Sunday, February 16, 2020

#creed #vss365 #Jared

#vss365
Kneeling, bound wrist and ankle, someone grabbed Jared’s hair from behind pressing a blade to his throat.
“If you follow the #creed then speak it.”
“I cannot, for it is forbidden but ‘Steadfast’ is the watchword and brotherhood the path.”
The knife sliced his bonds

Friday, January 24, 2020

#happen #vss365 #Space #Bio

When I was little I wanted to be an astronaut. Then I found out you had to be born American or Russian and, being British, that it was never going to #happen for me. I wish I’d had more vision and faith in myself. I could have been up there now instead of writing about it.

Although this was written as a "story" in response to today's #vss365 prompt, it is completely autobiographical

Thursday, January 23, 2020

#cacophony #vss365 #Space #Chris

When Chris arrived on the ISS the first thing she thought was there ought to be an odour equivalent of #cacophony, a noisome miasmic mix of machinery, body odour, antiseptic and garbage assaulted her nose.

It wasn't microgravity that made you space sick; it was the smell.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

#rigmarole #vss365 #Space #Chris

Chris thought learning everything in Russian a right palaver but now that #rigmarole saved her life. Being fluent when the fire broke out on the space station meant not pausing to translate in her head and those fractions of a second made the difference.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

#obstinate #vss365 #Bio

I decided to climb 4413ft Ben Nevis with my son. It took us 6 hours but, #obstinate old fool that I am, I wouldn’t give up even when i was in obvious pain. This is us at the top covered in snow and we still had to get down again. I was sore for days. It was worth it.



Although this was written as a "story" in response to today's #vss365 prompt, it is completely autobiographical.

It only took 3 hours to get down and I was running down the mountainside in the snow taking great leaps until we got below the snowline and back onto the scree. When we finally got back to Fort William we had the best curry ever.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Web Comics

In the past I've occasionally mentioned a webcomic or two and that I didn't read them all that regularly. This is my guilty pleasure and I still follow some of the ones I've been reading for years and a couple of new ones. The current list is

https://xkcd.com/
https://satwcomic.com/
https://www.smbc-comics.com/
https://questionablecontent.net/
https://dilbert.com/
https://www.fowllanguagecomics.com/

and the latest addition to the list https://www.webtoons.com/en/comedy/adventures-of-god/ep-23-the-tower/viewer?title_no=853&episode_no=23

#jasmine #vss365

It was a beautiful early summer evening, the sky was a glorious pink and the smell of #Jasmine hung heavy in the air.
« Désolé pour ça » elle dit « C’est le faute aux haricots »

Yes, I am ashamed of this one but it still got a retweet and 7 likes so someone's sense of humour is as puerile as mine.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

#articulate #vss365 #Guru

He told the world that the guru said "Never put your happiness in someone else's hands."

"That's not what happened," the guru thought. "When he came and asked how to become happy I said 'Don't ask me' but what he said is very #articulate. I'll take it."

Saturday, January 18, 2020

#SatSplat #SlapdashSat oops sorry TJ

I got mugged. I wasn't paying attention walking & reading my iPhone. They ran off with my phone & wallet. I picked myself up & pulled another phone from my pocket. I called the police then made another call. The little buggers better hope the cops find them first. #SatSplat #SlapdashSat

This one is a fiction. My first for the #SatSplat and #SlapdashSat tags but it prompted a genuine reply of concern from one of my friends who thought I had actually been mugged. I decided that from now on I will put the hashtag first in order to reduce the risk of causing worry to people.

#muddled #Bio


I remember distinctly the first time I got my words #muddled.  I had gone blank on Air Conditioning Unit and has to say that thing at the back of the class that makes the room colder. I probably still do it but I notice don’t so often nowadays #vss375


This one is autobiographical and I even got the hashtag wrong. I hope people thought that was deliberate 'cause it totally was, honest.

Friday, January 17, 2020

#riparian

"I'm not a real vegetarian, I eat fish sometimes", he replied.
"So, a pescatarian?"
"Yes, it's handy I live right next to a river. I catch my own."
"Oh, a #riparian pescatarian?"
"As we're discussing food, I'm a cibarian riparian pescatarian," he said, not to be outdone.
#vss365


So this one caused me quite a pause. A word I have never seen or heard before.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

#yearning

"No John, it should be 'pining for the fjords' not #yearning"
"What's the difference?"
"Well, Norway doesn't have any yearn trees for a start."
"You don't say much but when you're right, you're right Graham. Pet Shop not car salesman, parrot not dog, pining not yearning."
#vss365

Although this is an imaginary convesation it has elements of truth in it, see

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/monty_python_the_true_story_behind_the_dead_parrot_sketch

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

#flourish #Space #Niamh


With a #flourish Niamh removed the fusion splicer from the repaired cable bundle. “There you go, Jonesey everything’s back online. No harm done. What, no comment about how long it took?” She turned  to see his lifeless body and a flicker of movement by the door #vss365


I love it when the prompt lets me carry on a scene. story from the day before.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

#fibrous #Space #Niamh


The electrics were mostly OK but someone or something had sliced through the optical cables leaving a severed #fibrous bundle. All the computer and sensor systems were down and it would take ages to fix. Niamh hoped she had time before it struck again #vss365

Windows 10 Start Menu disappeared

Recently noticed (after a Windows 10 Update) that my st6art menu had disappeared and the Cortana search was retuinring results but not letti...