Nargiles, fey allergies & a few other things

[narcasse]

Only a little while ago on the encouragement of my lieutenant I decided that I ought to invest in a nargile and decided to pick up a relatively tiny one (with an LCD light) just to see if the entire setup suited me. I also picked up some UAE molasses to go with it: mint and double apple, respectively which I was quite pleased with at first. Both Al Fakher flavours did what they said on the packet after all and having spent an evening with a friend where we bracketed dinner and a cinema trip with some smoking beforehand and after we were both of the opinion that flavoured molasses weren’t half bad. That was also an evening where we discovered that my chilli tolerance was rather higher than I’d thought it was though that’s an aside. So flavoured molasses I thought were the way to go, the next step being to experiment with other brands which lead me to pick up some Afzal Lemon & Lime and Rose to sample. And both flavours did smell reasonable once I’d put them in jars. Unfortunately they also didn’t entirely work when I smoked them. Both could quite generously be described as tasting like I was sucking hose for all the flavour they were meant to have. They both tasted the same to me and the rose once it had been sat in its jar for a while began to smell particularly noxious. So I moved on to another brand, this time mint flavoured Nakhla and after smoking that I can honestly say that I really have no desire to smoke anything else. In the jar it smells gorgeous and when smoked it’s absolutely perfect for my tastes. So much so that I’ve only smoked one cigarillo since and no cigarettes because they simply don’t compare. Granted, I’m not exactly giving up anything else since I’m owed a Romeo y Julieta cigar at some point but smoking cigarettes while I’m out, at the current time feels like it’s losing its appeal if I can just come home and smoke some perfect Egyptian ma’sal instead.

And having settled on that now, I’ve also invested in a less miniature nargile because it was on sale and was really quite pretty. The misfortune in this case being that the tip of the hose is metal and with my ludicrous metal allergy that’s meant that I spent most of yesterday with slightly swollen lips for my trouble. Though at least it wasn’t half as bad as the usual results of holding metal plates in my mouth when I’ve been working on machine cases. But luckily in this case there’s a handy solution to be found in the free disposable plastic tips that came with my otherwise useless Afzal molasses. They’re meant to be used for hygiene purposes if you have several people sharing a nargile but one is likely to do me for a while as a permanent fixture to that hose really.


In other news:
Pi, Phi and the Great Pyramid - Al-Ahram (Issue no. 890)
The face of Julius Caesar? Come off it! - A don’s life

And, courtesy of herzog_ludwig: E. S. Posthumus, whose album Unearthed is particularly lovely.

Comments

[herzog-ludwig.livejournal.com]

I read on the BBC the other day the article regarding the discovery of that Caesar bust, and the thoughts that went through my mind were something like: "It's very unlikely anyone will welcomely accept that as Caesar's 'real' look, if not because of the sure conclusion made by France's culture ministry that it is the face of Caesar, but because the vast majority of people only know the image of a glorified Roman ruler."
Confounding or not as it may be, almost all Roman figure busts, Caesar or Nero or the bloke next door, don't appear to be too different from one another to me. :P Blast my mind for not being more artistically wired.

And a narghile with an LCD light? I apologise for the rather clumsy question, but how does that work exactly? [very curious now]

I'm delighted to hear you enjoying Unearthed!

[reichsfreiherr.livejournal.com]

I’d love to know exactly what if anything it has to do with the French ministry of culture but then I suppose if they can lay claim to the true face of Caesar being found on French soil then that’s something else for them to boast about.

Confounding or not as it may be, almost all Roman figure busts, Caesar or Nero or the bloke next door, don't appear to be too different from one another to me.

To be entirely honest, I blinked at the image and muttered “It’s not?” when I first saw the article not because of an instinctive belief in the claim but precisely because I can’t usually tell the difference either. To be technical about it I’m sure there’s something about the tone of flesh that triggers human recognition so that grey stone is much harder to register as a human image but then I’m also pretty sure that my lack of differentiation is most likely the result of every Roman bust I’ve seen registering as bowl haircut, large nose and eyebrows to me.

And a narghile with an LCD light?

Oh, yes (http://www.theshishashop.com/shop/images/Multi-Light-Pumpkin_L.jpg). There are in fact two settings so that you can have it flash too. Full image being this (http://www.theshishashop.com/shop/images/1054-pumpkin_lights-_blue_M.jpg).