Oddities and randomness

[stellar_muddle]

What does it say when the cheap meats are kangaroo ($7/kg diced) and turkey ($4/kg drumsticks)?

4 light bulbs have blown since we moved in ie since living here less than 4 weeks (I think). Good excuse to get the long life ones, especially when they are $5 for a pair (15W) and give a nice white light.

Smelling slightly of wood stain/varnish. No large stains though. Raspberry tommorrow I think.

Got Z hooked on Robin McKinley's Sunshine. Up til 2am last night and he is currently not moving out of the beanbag, not even for beer, til he has finished it.

When googling on oilskin cloaks and the first 10 results give only D&D pages, you start suspecting they may be difficult to document. Round 1 with wikipedia et al appears to give a 19th century origin to oilskin (as a cotton impregnated with linseed oil fabric). This was only about 1/2 hour looking vaguely though. Viking brand wet weather gear doesn't help.

Edit:
And while searching, found a good site on viking archeology. Mainly good photos of ships and digs. Their clothing stuff is less interesting.
And The Viking Ship Museum (Roskilde). I should stop drooling over some of their books.

Nne of which has got me anywhere near oilskin though.

Edit2:
Oilcloth, oiled silk and oiled linen give more results though (Z searching given he has been there and looked before wrt period waterproofing techniques).
Oil cloth making
"... oiled linen has been mentioned in eighth-century accounts in relation to the glazing of windows in York Minster."(Stained glass window construction. No reference given in online version.)
Googling on "oiled silk" gets you an article on "Costumes of al-Andalus: the Umayyad Caliphate", (Moorish Spain 900 - 1000 AD), "Mushamma was an oiled silk used for rainproof cloaks", citing as reference for this:
RB Serjeant Islamic Textiles: Material for a history up to the Mongol Conquest. Beruit, Libairie du Liban 1972
Earlier than that, and you just start getting lots of references to oiled silk paper condoms in China.
There may be more reports when I find more.

Comments

[mr-bassman.livejournal.com]

Edit:
And while searching, found a good site on viking archeology. Mainly good photos of ships and digs. Their clothing stuff is less interesting.
And The Viking Ship Museum (Roskilde). I should stop drooling over some of their books.

OTOH pearl is nuts for Scandinavian Stuff of all kinds and has a lot a links that you might find tasty.

[stellar-muddle.livejournal.com]

Mmm met her at Festival this year - she is doing some brilliant stuff on Finnish and other Baltic state things.

[lacedwaist.livejournal.com]

So what does kangaroo taste like? Inquiring carnivores need to know... :-)

[alpha-angel.livejournal.com]

In my recollection, the farmed stuff tatses a bit like a cross between lamb and venison, a bit like hare, which is also surprisingly cheap.

[basal-surge.livejournal.com]

AFAIK, it's all shot, not farmed. They seem quite happy to farm emus, but not kangaroos, I think.

[stellar-muddle.livejournal.com]

Fairly close to venison. Lean meat, casseroles well, is nice as steaks, though the price on those is up at the cheap beef steak end ($13-15 per kg). The mince is good as well. Most of the cheap stuff we have been getting comes pre marinated as bagged rolls for roasting, but we have been cutting them up and frying with added sauce, onion and garlic, and serving with spicy wedges...