The Night Mail

[polybear]

5 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I am sure we used to bake our lemon drizzle cakes in a loaf tin…

 

No Loaf Tin either......

I did discover a couple of tins but both are very shallow (1.5" tops) as well as a fairy cake tin.  Bear won't be beaten though........

[Tony_S]

23 minutes ago, polybear said:

The Chef appears to have come out of the kitchen wielding a Meat Cleaver...

That happened to Matthew in Cromer on a college geography field,trip. He and some friends went into a kebab shop. He wanted one with chilli sauce. The server said it wasn’t for “little boys”. Matthew asked for a taste and told him that his Nan wouid describe it as ”bland”. The owner got really cross, grabbed the big doner knife and chased him out. 

[Tony_S]

4 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

No Loaf Tin either......

I did discover a couple of tins but both are very shallow (1.5" tops) as well as a fairy cake tin.  Bear won't be beaten though........

LD fairy cakes would be nice. I did the reverse once many years ago. I needed to make a cake for Aditi’s birthday and ended up using one of Nigella Lawsons cherry muffin recipes but baked a giant one rather than lots of individual ones. 

[Oldddudders]

27 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We are off to Southampton next weekend.  A chunk of the M25 we would normally use will be closed for the whole weekend. There is a diversion but a suggestion that going round the  northern half might be quicker seems attractive.  

I'm not sure which section of M25 is closed, but suspect you will not be alone on the northern section. Have you ever used the A25? If the M25 is open as far as the Sevenoaks junction, come off there and find A25 which is quite pretty and goes through lovely villages like Godstone, Buckland and Abinger Hammer. You can then take the A31 Hogs Back from Guildford which will get you somewhere near M3. Leisurely, but effective, perhaps. 

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

You missed the joke Tony

Thank you for explaining. I couldn’t understand the link between a list of psychiatric conditions and babies with birth defects. 

[monkeysarefun]

56 minutes ago, ian@stenochs said:

Where do you stand on deep fried Pizza?   With or without batter?

 

 

Yeah - And Marshmallow Peeps?

 

 

 

 

They are my go-to option whenever a cyclone wipes out the pineapple crop.

 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

The Chef appears to have come out of the kitchen wielding a Meat Cleaver........all I did was ask for some Brown Sauce....  😱

 

It's still "game-on" as far as Bear is concerned - in fact I've just been sorting the shopping list and digging out the leccy mixer (no, I'm not using the Black & Decker with a paint paddle in the chuck....).  Hang on....slight snaggette......no cake tin.....oh Poo.....

Wonder if I've got a paint tin I can rinse out?

Use a cardboard former and lots of silver foil for an impromptu bread tin

[Northmoor]

36 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Nigella Lawsons cherry muffin 

Four words to set one's mind off onto a seriously inappropriate thread drift.........

[DenysW]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I have now actually run trains on Emily's layout, purely for test purposes of course

Based on the the requirements of No. 2 Grandson, when aged about 6 ...

-   It has to go as fast as possible

-   It has to be fun

-   It doesn't matter if it de-rails at speed

 

My solution was a Thomas the Tank Engine 'model' hitched to a single open wagon, in which rode a plastic dinosaur, plus an LMS brake van, run on a 3' radius roundy-roundy on a board. Thomas held the curves, but the wagon and brake van tended to fly off, to much mirth. Essential that the child holds the controller so it WILL go  as fast as possible.

 

I still use the roundy-roundy (it has a couple of long-radius points to enable laying track onto Nana's kitchen floor) as a test track.

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

39 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

 Nigella Lawsons cherry muffin  

Now that has just raised my temperature, Dave Hunt fell in his pond to cool off and Olddudders gave out a slight titter.

[Tony_S]

10 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I'm not sure which section of M25 is closed, but suspect you will not be alone on the northern section. Have you ever used the A25? If the M25 is open as far as the Sevenoaks junction, come off there and find A25 which is quite pretty and goes through lovely villages like Godstone, Buckland and Abinger Hammer. You can then take the A31 Hogs Back from Guildford which will get you somewhere near M3. Leisurely, but effective, perhaps. 

It is the A3 /M25 junction that is completely closed.  We used the A25 through various villages when the southern M25 was blocked by a series of accidents when we returned from our last cruise. The diversion this time asks people to follow it rather than seeking alternatives or following sat nav suggestions, unless it is to head round the northern route. In normal traffic the northern route to the M3 is about 20 minutes longer but we have never done it in “normal traffic”. We expect delays and will have snacks  and drinks at hand in the car! At least we are not driving on the day our cruise departs. We learned our lesson on our first cruise when we were stuck in a huge traffic jam outside Southampton on the day of sailing. We usually stay in hotel overnight now so close to the docks that we can see the cruise ships. This time we are staying in a hotel on the north side of Southampton  with lovely views of the Motorway. Apparently this hotel is popular with families visiting Peppa Pig World. It only according to Google Maps takes 20 minutes to get to the cruise terminal. We can have a leisurely breakfast (probably better not to mention bacon if there are Peppa Pig fans there) , check out and head for the docks. Usually we have time to go to John Lewis at West Quay for,last minute shopping but probably won’t need to this time. As we now qualify for priority boarding (at lunchtime) we should have time to go and have lunch while our luggage makes its way to the cabin. I find the process of arriving at the terminal, a porter taking away your luggage and handling the car over to be taken away quite relaxing. I do know people who get really anxious seeing their car disappear. We use the “approved“ parking service which is one that doesn’t use the car as a taxi or dump it somewhere on an industrial estate. 

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

We are off to Southampton next weekend.  A chunk of the M25 we would normally use will be closed for the whole weekend. There is a diversion but a suggestion that going round the  northern half might be quicker seems attractive.  

 

 

From the "Thats Not a Diversion, THIS is a diversion!' file.

 

 

The trip from say Halls Creek to Fitzroy Crossing is usually pretty short:

 

 

 

Last year floods washed  away the bridge at Fitzroy Crossing. It took 12 months to rebuild it, in the meantime this was the diversion:

 

 

 

 

 

[Happy Hippo]

3 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Four words to set one's mind off onto a seriously inappropriate thread drift.........

Too late...

[polybear]

18 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

At least we are not driving on the day our cruise departs. We learned our lesson on our first cruise when we were stuck in a huge traffic jam outside Southampton on the day of sailing. We usually stay in hotel overnight now so close to the docks that we can see the cruise ships.

 

Bear does exactly the same thing when flying from Gatwick - I'm just not into verysillyo'clock starts/will the Motorway be closed/will I get a puncture/will I break down kinda stress that could wreck a holiday if I miss the flight.

 

18 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I do know people who get really anxious seeing their car disappear. We use the “approved“ parking service which is one that doesn’t use the car as a taxi or dump it somewhere on an industrial estate. 

 

The Gatwick Official Parking Boss was on the telly a couple of days ago, talking about supposedly reputable (but unofficial) parking that has caused some people all sorts of problems - car left in a field/used as a Taxi/keys lost etc.; another one was the car being left in the short stay car park for a week, leaving the owner with a mahoosive bill at the end of their holiday.

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

I'm not sure which section of M25 is closed, but suspect you will not be alone on the northern section. Have you ever used the A25? If the M25 is open as far as the Sevenoaks junction, come off there and find A25 which is quite pretty and goes through lovely villages like Godstone, Buckland and Abinger Hammer. You can then take the A31 Hogs Back from Guildford which will get you somewhere near M3. Leisurely, but effective, perhaps. 

Beaten to it.

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Now that has just raised my temperature, Dave Hunt fell in his pond to cool off and Olddudders gave out a slight titter.

Do you need some bigger buns for the cherries to go on. 

 

Jamie

Edited July 6 by jamie92208

[monkeysarefun]

22 minutes ago, polybear said:

The Gatwick Official Parking Boss was on the telly a couple of days ago, talking about supposedly reputable (but unofficial) parking that has caused some people all sorts of problems - car left in a field/used as a Taxi/keys lost etc.; another one was the car being left in the short stay car park for a week, leaving the owner with a mahoosive bill at the end of their holiday.

 

 

 

In 1999 my exes uncle got a brand new company car a couple of weeks before he went on a business trip to Melbourne. His company paid heaps for top notch parking at Sydney airport, it was apparently in a fully enclosed roofed garage  with security monitoring  and gates,  and it cost a heap.

 

While he was away we copped this.   Basically an evening of insane hail up to cricket ball size, it was estimated that half a million tonnes of hail landed on the eastern seaboard.

 

Anyway, Uncle whatever his name was returned from his trip confident that his car  would be untouched due to it being parked undercover, only  to be told that somehow for a reason that the carpark company  couldn't explain, his new car had been completely trashed   by hail.....      

 

 

 

Edited July 6 by monkeysarefun

[Hroth]

17 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

 

Do you need some bigger buns for the cherries to go on. 

 

Jamie

 

Better not suggest a wet tshirt contest too....

🤪

[iL Dottore]

19 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Better not suggest a wet tshirt contest too....

🤪

No milk based treats????

[Hroth]

4 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

No milk based treats????

 

Mmmmmmmmmmilky goodness!

 

And after that, I think we all need to go and lie down in a darkened room for thirty minutes or so to compose ourselves.

 

Edited July 6 by Hroth
missed out a few words

[monkeysarefun]

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[Flying Fox 34F]

7 hours ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

Any run down, back-street joint that's on it's last legs.........

 

To be fair, in my experience, the best meals I’ve had in Italy, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, etc; have usually been in out of the way locations.

The place may not look special, but it will be clean and the food made in the traditional way for the area with pride.  
Usually, if I do eat in a more mainstream / tourist location, it’s either a letdown or worse still, I end up with an upset stomach!

 

Paul

[monkeysarefun]

13 minutes ago, Flying Fox 34F said:

To be fair, in my experience, the best meals I’ve had in Italy, Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, etc; have usually been in out of the way locations.

The place may not look special, but it will be clean and the food made in the traditional way for the area with pride.  
Usually, if I do eat in a more mainstream / tourist location, it’s either a letdown or worse still, I end up with an upset stomach!

 

 

The best steak I've ever had was in a rundown looking place in the Cook Islands. We do have steaks here in Australia  and I've had a lot of them, and the Cook Islands unlike here does not have cows so I assume it was flown there in  frozen form from New Zealand so that's not a good starting point..

 

The guy who ran the place was American and it had that midwest cowboy  tavern vibe about it with American license plates on the walls etc and I remember that it was hot as bu99ery and there was no one else in there  so we asked him if he'd turn on the ceiling fans but he refused. IT was like "Hey mate, can you turn on the fans?"    "No.".

 

But he could cook a brilliant steak -  I still remember it, 30 years later.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 6 by monkeysarefun

[Tony_S]

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Too late...

I did actually wonder how long it would take after I posted my comment.  

[Happy Hippo]

 

For some unfathomable reason, I have been put in charge of cake security whilst the party games are being played.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

"No.".

When we stayed in France last year a diner was making quite a long request trying to alter a menu item. Eventually he stopped and the waiter said “No”. The diner said why not and was told “because we don’t do that”.