It's odd how we've never come up with colloquial-type names like Hoover for fax machines or washing machines. (Vacuum machine)

Somewhat inundated with dirty diapers?

Aluminium cups for tea or coffee are anathema to me. The stuff just doesn't taste right.

To finish off the soup made with the liquid I cooked the ox cheeks in, I need chopped onion, carrot & celery. A tomorrow job after the fat is skimmed off when it's cooled down.

Never too late.

Ox cheeks cooked to gelatinous perfection. The cooking liquid, being tomato-based pasta sauce, water & meat juices will, once cooled & strained of fat, become the base for a fabulous minestrone-style soup.

Have had a couple of lumps of meat going in the slow cooker for the last 7 hours. Not ready yet, at least two more hours on the low setting. Cooking beef (ox) cheeks in a diluted tomato-based pasta sauce.

Thanks. I wondered where that had got to. Been missing for a few weeks.

When I first saw the headline last week I thought to myself, "Well, it won't have been 'research' work by those bastard Japanese whale researchers." Then I read the article and it was their work after all.

October 15, 2015: received a Logitech M558 Bluetooth mouse from the Apple online Store. It's allegedly designed to go for at least 12 months on a pair of alkaline AA cells. Granted, I've not used it daily, as it's paired with the MacBook Air & I normally use the trackpad but I just tested the cells & both are still around 90% of original capacity. I see little reason to dispute the 12 month battery life claim.