OWWW! Repeatedly.

My Batteries Are On The Fritz
     Yes.  Conrad may have to check into a laboratory for a checkover.  Every time he touches anything metallic there's a big flash, the air reeks of ozone and he leaves a scorch mark on the floor.  Don't believe anyone who tells you it's "simply static charge"; today I melted the sink taps at work.  Luckily nobody else was present so Conrad got away with it.

The "After" photo

Fun With Dangerous Chemicals!
     Let me introduce you to Lead Azide, Pb(N3)2.  As you surely know by now, anything bristling with nitrogen (that's the "N") is liable to do interesting, explodey go BANG! things.   This is so true of Lead Azide.  It is one of those compounds to be treated as you would HM The Queen - with a great deal of respect*.  It will detonate if dropped from a height of more than 6". It will detonate if hit with a static charge (another reason I need my batteries seen to!) of more than 7 millijoules - i.e. the amount of energy release by dropping an apple 7 millimetres.  It will form even more dangerously sensitive azide compounds if it comes into contact with copper, zinc or alloys containing these metals.
     What is it good for, I hear you ask?  Recall my blog about TNT.  TNT is an explosive with the personality of a Labrador dog; it will sit there and endure what you chuck at it, regardless.  If you want to set it off - turn the Labrador into a ra- actually no, Anna might be reading this and I'll get into trouble - to detonate the sulky teenaged TNT you need an explosive that goes BANG! at the slightest opportunity.  Enter lead azide.

Lead azide ?  Caster sugar?  Who can tell!

Uh - it was lead azide.

Conrad Goes Catering
     Tomorrow Conrad is off to Dungworth** in Yorkshire, in the rolling and scenic countryside outside Sheffield.  People who think of Sheffield as a giant industrial wart on the landscape should get out to Dungworth, which is pitched right in the scenic Yorkie countryside and makes Nowhere, Utah, look like Hong Kong at rush-hour.
     Anyway, I have to provide cake for our team meeting.  My official title is "Vice President In Charge Of Cakes".  Here are some:

     These are Banana Bread Muffins.  The recipe used is actually for a loaf, so getting the bake right takes some luck and judgement, and I used a 50/50 mix of pistachio and walnut, with crushed banana flakes on top.  Nicely browned, don't you think***?

Andreivia - Crisis Looming
     It appears that various armed forces and factions are heading for Tcherbervan, the Andreivian capital.  Already elements of Russian Spetznaz have arrived to secure the airport for a potential airborne insertion of Russian paratroopers, whilst NATO considers how best to intervene and avoid triggering bloodshed.  

Tcherbevan's historic Armenian Quarter

          The plot thickens with the newly-arrived Andreivian jihadis, a third force whom nobody expected and who seem to be hostile to everyone else.
     Expect further in-depth reports over this weekend - BOOJUM! has a man on the ground with a worms-eye view of the troubles.

Funny How The Short-Term Dissociated Data-Bit Dump^ Can Play Tricks On You
     Yes indeed.  Conrad happens to see the annexe building here every day:

The building lower right, with bright blue windows

     This seemed to recall a building from long ago, one that had been similar in design, to do with an Expo, and wire suspension came into it.
     Aha!  It was the British Pavilion at the Japanese Expo 70.  This is what it looked like:

Guyed on cables.

     :(  No similarity at all.  Dog buns!

A Short Discursion About Tea
     Even Simona, our exotic Latvian lady, has learned to drink tea after a couple of years here in the UK.
     Oh, I should explain this is at work.  We here at  the Mansion function efficiently with just the messenger mice, guard hog, hard hog, visiting wolfpack and occasional giant mole.  No need for bods from the Baltic at BOOJUM!
     This little chap has proven his worth when it comes to brewing-up:

Why so?  Because he manages to just fill my Sports Direct bucket-with-a-handle mug:

"Step aside puny mug!  Or Sports Direct SMASH!"

     Not only that, I can now use the Darjeeling tea bags that Darling Daughter bought in error, since loose-leaf tea makes a terrible mess in the sink.  And since the taps are melted, cleaning up is  bit trick ...

*  All you Republicans had better run and hide when my invasion fleet arrives, o yes.
** Yes, it is a proper place, and no, it's not full of the stuff
***  Ah the pretentious witterings of the self-satisfied cook, eh?
^ "Memory" to you, human