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I've been on a flist catch up and it's been a very happy one with the no tags news and The Umbrella Academy trailer and Gerard's Hazy Shade of Winter song. I'm not linking as I suspect every one interested will have seen by now. But, happiness!

We went to see Glass yesterday. I haven't seen either of the two films that came previous to it, but it was entertaining enough. We had planned to go the day before but my MiL is ill again. With cellulitis, this time, which she knew was coming on days previously, said her leg was hurting but insisted she was fine until she couldn't actually stand up and agreed to call the doctor while packing up her stuff as she was sure she was going to end up in hospital again. Which she didn't, but why leave it that late? I really don't get it. Also, her GP is an idiot. We spent the afternoon at hers waiting for the GP to phone, when he did he prescribed antibiotics and said he may visit but may not as it's so hard to get parking outside her house. In the end he did turn up and was in all of a minute or so, and while there said she shouldn't run her electric heater as it's bad for her leg. And the damp is bad for her chest. Idiot.

We also saw Corey yesterday as he had a letter that needed dropping off. We chatted for a while and he seems so much happier than he was at the end of last year. Sleeping better and just better in general.

I'm going to Kayleigh's to meet her new girlfriend tomorrow. She told me she was dating again last week, and I'm happy for her as she said for the first time in months she wanted to smile again. But, I still feel bad about Shauna who still talks to me via FM messenger and is still heartbroken and doesn't know Kay is dating someone else. Plus, Kay actually said she wanted us to meet and gah, someone new and important in my sister's life. I need to make a good impression. Yikes.

At my latest trip to Company they were selling off live vac-packed oysters in the corner of wonder. Seriously, that corner is amazing, all the random oddments that end up marked way down as no one knows what to do with them I suspect. They were only £2 but I have no idea what to do with oysters. I've never tried them, have no desire to try them and don't understand how they can be alive.

However, the pre-cooked potatoes I bought were portioned up, frozen, and make excellent mash when defrosted, mashed and seasoned. So potatoes, yes. Vac-packed oysters, no.

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Oysters are intertidal critters, so once they're out of they water they can seal up their shells pretty tightly.

I was curious too, so thanks for the explanation.

They're remarkably good at surviving out of the water. The Romans used to ship them surprisingly long distances in barrels.

Ooh, now talking of Romans! I suggested to Pen a while back that we should have a Roman theme for the dinner at Camp this year. We could have some oysters then! That would be extremely Roman.

ETA: Although July is exactly the wrong time of year for oysters. But if people would generally prefer them cooked, maybe we could get frozen ones. Hmm...

Edited 2019-01-26 20:09 (UTC)

A Roman-themed dinner sounds great.

It would be interesting to see what else would be involved, and also a way to get people to try new food. Though I am amused imagining the surprise if you posted on the comm that the theme of the special dinner this year was Roman.

We used to do historical feasts at uni a loooooong time ago, so I thought it might be fun to try at Camp. For Bath I thought Roman or Regency seemed like the obvious choices. Regency food is awesome, too, (they were big into Weird Stuff in Aspic, for one thing) but if we wanted to dress up in period then we'd probably need to hire costumes. Whereas with Roman we can get everyone to bring a couple of cheap white sheets, and we're sorted.

Also, Regency women's clothes are hideous. It wouldn't be all bad, though, as we'd get to make the guys Mr Darcy it up in tight breeches :-)

But yes! There are lots of fun Roman recipes and ingredients. Sow's udders, flamingo tongues and dormice might be going a bit too far (also, you can't buy them, I looked) but there's lots of slightly unusual but not off-puttingly weird options, like oysters. Goat, rabbit, snails, ostrich, various offal, salt fish, sea urchin. They were very into turducken-style 'stuff things inside other things', too. Or maybe this could be the year that I finally get organized and order a sucking pig porchetta.

Because I am a curious bitch, I looked this up (not the fact that they can live after being removed from the ocean; I totally believed they could do that). I was more curious about what happens once they're vacuum sealed.

Wikipedia yielded the fact that oysters can live for up to four weeks after being harvested, as long as they are kept in the proper conditions.

But vacuum sealing and freezing them appears to be for later cooking, and not consuming them raw. Dead oysters are apparently not safe to eat raw.

So I think, in this particular case, the "raw" is meant to indicate "not cooked" rather than "to be eaten raw," which is how I incorrectly interpreted it.

Terri said they were live, though, not raw.

Frozen would make sense, too, though. Or I think I've seen Loch Fyne oysters in supermarkets, packed in trays with a film lid (but not vac-packed, I don't think).