Refreshing a tired businesswoman's brain

Lots of quite nice things happened this weekend, only a few of which I'll write about in the interests of space and decency. After getting such a lift from the preceding two weekends of countryside and kayaking, we see we have to use our weekends, and use ourselves on the weekend. My own conclusion is that I need to spend more time staring at trees and birds, and less at people, as my misanthropy threatens to become unmanageable. I'm not unhappy these days, either in my personal or professional life, but I'm starting to feel a bit like an extra-terrestrial. Not in the sense of being above it all, or being a super-evolved intergalactic voyageuse, but in the sense of just not getting it a lot of the time.

Anyhoo. Weekend extended backwards by a staff trip to an adventure park on Friday - one of those places you chain yourself to security lines and swing around the trees. I lasted three hours before my vertigo insisted I sit down and start drinking, which is three more hours than I'd been expecting to last. Not one panic attack, though I did consider it as a possibility at one point. Out in a town called Wavre, which was lovely, green and much cleaner-smelling than Brussels - helpful, considering the sudden onset of warmth and summer. I like the people I work with well enough. The ones who I'm not actively fond of don't demand too much of my attention so it's all good.

Yesterday dealt with the continuing warmth and green by going to Tervuren for some fresh air, where we had a nice picnic in the grounds of the African museum. The F-word went in to draw some of the weirdo stuff they've purloined from the Congo and I went for a long walk in the woods, reflecting on my misanthropy (set off hard by the allegorical statues in the entrance hall of the Spirit of Europe rescuing the Spirit of Africa from the Spirit of Barbarism and Arabs; I've never seen such an elegant and unabashed translation of murderous hypocrisy into expensive kitsch, but then I don't listen to American political speeches), and then settling down to read about half of Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, by Dava Sobel. A neat little book, suitable for tired businessmen's brains, which means it's suitable for mine. It'd be perfect for a three hour flight. Opens a window on a time when our societal paranoia was the same, but with a different object. On a time when academics and scientists were just as territorial and bigoted, but in the sphere of Royal Commissions instead of universities, broadsheets and books for pop audiences. Oh, the humanity.

So enjoyed both Wavre and Tervuren, though my enjoyment of all that fresh air in Wavre would have been tempered if I'd known there'd been a radioactive gas leak from a facility close to Charleroi (Wavre is halfway there) which the government has been falling all over itself about after trying to cover it up or downplay it for a week or so. Fuck, Belgium is a mess.

Anyways, lots of other nice things happened. For example, I invented a new technique for making tomato sauce which is so revolutionary and so delicious I think it will become a Spliffe Family Secret. I also made rhubarb upside cake in the skillet for the first time, which is a work in progress - it was good but it could be brilliant, and when it is I'll release the recipe. And custard. I've never been the world's biggest fan of it, but I discovered that if you whisk it continuously as you heat it, adding the corn starch as you go, it gets all foamy and ethereally exquisite. Expect that to be posted soon, under some charming name like Fairy Cum or Mermaid Corpse.