Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning.

 

Having visited Kiwi three times, it is rather warmer than England but not too hot,  a most agreeable climate in fact.  We almost emigrated there as Debs' parents are Kiwi citizens so we have right of access but the Isle of Man won out.  It was close though.

[lightengine]

Another decent day in sunny Teignmouth.

We had pancakes yesterday with my Mum, niece (30+) and nephew (14 coming on older). We have a table top pancake maker which makes 6 pancakes quite quickly. Loads of toppings and plenty of fun. Much easier than standing in the kitchen tossing on your own.

[Coombe Barton]

Another decent day in sunny Teignmouth.

We had pancakes yesterday with my Mum, niece (30+) and nephew (14 coming on older). We have a table top pancake maker which makes 6 pancakes quite quickly. Loads of toppings and plenty of fun. Much easier than standing in the kitchen tossing on your own.

Does this qualify as TMI?

[grandadbob]

I called an old school friend who had become an engineer, and
asked what was he was doing. 
He explained  that he is working on "Aqua-thermal  treatment of ceramics, aluminium and steel within a constrained environment".

 

 

 

I was very impressed……

 

 

Then upon further inquiring, I learned that he was washing dishes

with hot water under his wife's supervision. 

[81C]

I called an old school friend who had become an engineer, and

asked what was he was doing. 

He explained  that he is working on "Aqua-thermal  treatment of ceramics, aluminium and steel within a constrained environment".

 

 

 

I was very impressed……

 

 

Then upon further inquiring, I learned that he was washing dishes

with hot water under his wife's supervision. 

very interesting, I've a robot called Bosch who does the dishes shame the bloody thing doesn't stack everything in the cupboards when it's all been cleaned. 

[AndyB]

Good morning one and all

 

I was listening earlier to the profile of the new Met Commissioner, Cressida Dick, and realised that I knew her father.  Described in the programme as an Oxford don, he was professor of philosophy at the University of East Anglia, where I was a student between 1966 and 1969.  

 

Presumably he was known as "Clever Dick". 

[Coombe Barton]

Been setting up Siri on iPad and iPhone - just got them talking to each other - and confusing the hell out of each other

[81C]

Presumably he was known as "Clever Dick". 

He is a she so smart @rse might be more appropriate.

Edited March 5, 2017 by 81C

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I did do a bit more exercise than Coombe Martins dog this morning, I opened both eyelids, and at the same time. Hows the diet going GDB? you haven't mentioned it lately.

 

It was quite surprising to see that most of England is in Canada.
It is usually said living in NZ is similar to living in UK. But with NZ being opposite to Spain that seems a bit odd.

The UK benifits from the gulf stream which brings warm water from the Carribean and drops it between Scotland and Norway. New Zealand catches the full force of the roaring forties hence the differing climates. 

[PhilJ W]

He is a she so smart @rse might be more appropriate.

I think Andy is refering to the father rather than the daughter.

[Smiffy2]

Rain and high winds. Vide Grenier cancelled. Reading. listening to BB King, painting figures, drinking tea. Julie sticking stamps onto picture frames. Excellent.

 

Have a good day, all.

[lightengine]

Been setting up Siri on iPad and iPhone - just got them talking to each other - and confusing the hell out of each other

You make me laugh Cortana. (That tv ad grated. Grrrrrr)

Edited March 5, 2017 by lightengine

[grandadbob]

Phil, since 9th January I've lost 12lbs  but due to partying over the past week I have in fact put back on 4ozs which TBH I'm quite happy with considering how much I've drunk and eaten. Today will be the last day of celebrations for a while so it's back to the diet proper tomorrow. 

[Happy Hippo]

Phil, since 9th January I've lost 12lbs  but due to partying over the past week I have in fact put back on 4ozs which TBH I'm quite happy with considering how much I've drunk and eaten. Today will be the last day of celebrations for a while so it's back to the diet proper tomorrow. 

 I lost a lot more than that yesterday at the G0G show at Kettering.

 

How can such small insignificant items suddenly add up to so much?

 

And I was lucky: as both my cronies from the OFMC ended up buying either a loco or a loco kit!

 

After yesterday's wonderful weather, today has turned out to be rather damp, which prevents one from trying to clear out the latest twig fall from the muddy hollow.

 

I am currently considering a cup of tea, followed by a fighting withdrawal to the workshop where I could do some single line shunting with my sound fitted 08.

[BSW01]

Morning everyone (just)

 

A very wet day here, it's been raining ever since I got back from Preston yesterday. I've just finished my second cup of tea and once Sheila has finished in the bathroom I'll have a look at the light fitting as it has started to flicker quite a lot recently.

 

Back later.

[grandadbob]

Just had a call saying there's no need for me to walk to Nicki's as SiLSteve will pick me up.  What a crying shame, I was really looking forward to the exercise! 

On the other hand it does mean that I get to my first pint a bit earlier.     

[lightengine]

Morning everyone (just)

A very wet day here, it's been raining ever since I got back from Preston yesterday. I've just finished my second cup of tea and once Sheila has finished in the bathroom I'll have a look at the light fitting as it has started to flicker quite a lot recently.

Back later.

You know the old saying,

When the light flickers, hang onto your knickers!

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,  

 

Intermittent real sunshine has succeeded the heavy dousing of liquid sunshine which started the day and it is supposed to stay this way.  To add to the bright and sunny aspect I have duly visited the barber shop in our kitchen where Mrs Stationmaster has carried out her self-appointed task with her usual skill and left me with shorter hair and no bleeding from misdirected scissors etc.

 

I'm told we will be visiting Tesco in the not too distant for 'a bit of shopping' and as laddo is away on his hydraulic tour of Belgium I have requested cabbage instead of broccoli to accompany this evening's roast beef - which will make a nice change.  We normally have broccoli as it is the only green he will eat.

 

On a different note the invoice has arrived from Trinity house for this year's voyage so the piggy bank will need to be robbed.

 

Have a good day everybody.

[JohnDMJ]

He is a she so smart @rse might be more appropriate.

Her father was a 'She'?

[lightengine]

Her father was a 'She'?

Maybe he/she hailed from the long gone Bugis Street, Singapore.

[Tony_S]

Morning all,  

 

 

 

I'm told we will be visiting Tesco in the not too distant for 'a bit of shopping' and as laddo is away on his hydraulic tour of Belgium I have requested cabbage instead of broccoli to accompany this evening's roast beef - which will make a nice change.  We normally have broccoli as it is the only green he will eat.

 

...

 

Have a good day everybody.

We like cabbage too. Matthew and I were chatting yesterday about what versatile vegetables cabbages are.

He was on his way to meet a friend who was in the Netherlands for a day. They met in Haarlem and got a bus to the seaside. Matthew was late. His friend didn't mind.

We are just off to the park. It had stopped raining!

[bbishop]

Afternoon all.

 

So, I've just finished work on the Charles Roberts photographs. So that is 21 "books" logically named, with the quality of the photograph noted on a spreadsheet. I've graded them A to D, and will re-photograph C, D and X (those I'd missed).

 

So another five books to photograph next week, together with the repeats. Then, in my own time, to annotate the spreadsheets with Type of wagon, Name and Address (one word) of the recipient. Then get the files to be converted to PDF and they can be loades onto the NRM search engine.

 

Which means I shall be missing in action next week. Behave.

 

Bill

[iL Dottore]

Afternoon All,

 

Interesting discussion about education, standards, abilities and the lack thereof. Very bluntly, I am of the opinion that many of my younger colleagues are well trained but poorly educated. Perhaps I am an anomaly (no sniggering, please) but I think that one should read as widely as possible so that one can ask intelligent questions about diverse topics AND understand the answers. My interests are multiple and varied and - in a way - I am pleased that I am only "comfortable" for were I rich my house and grounds would be scattered and cluttered with items as diverse as an observatory, a professional (catering) kitchen, a helicopter, a fully kitted out laboratory, a canal boat and more books than the British Library - such are the wide nature of my tastes...

 

I am feeling both humbled and smug. Smug, because my instant read food thermometer (for taking accurate readings for gauging doneness of food) stopped working and I took it apart, found that one of the battery terminals had badly corroded (note to self: don't drop thermometer in soup again) and made a new sprung battery terminal from scratch, soldered it into place and got the machine running again.

 

Humbled, because a friend came over to help me move the screen in the home cinema/library* (I now have a short throw video beamer which required moving the screen nearer the projection booth**), whilst - conceptually - I knew exactly what to do, my friend's practical abilities far outstrip mine and with his pro power tools to hand, made a short and effective job of the repositioning.

* a spare bedroom kitted out with shelving for books, a desk, a sofa and a screen. **The cupboard outside the bedroom, with a hole cut through the wall for projection.

 

As they say, no good deed goes unpunished: so my friend and his wife had to suffer through one of my dinners: fresh salmon "cured" with fennel & dill seed, pepper, salt, treacle and whisky; roast leg of lamb with roast potatoes and asparagus spears, followed by a baked jam roly-poly for pudding. One of the nice things about roasting a joint, is that there are usually leftovers: beef goes into a cottage pie and lamb into a Shepherd's pie and once you've eaten a cottage pie or a Shepherd's pie made with left over roast meat you'll never want to go back to the minced meat versions...

 

Tonight will be a relatively simple supper: griddled Wild Boar Chops, Griddled Fennel and (for Mrs iD and the Wolfpack) Polenta. I was given a whole loin of chops in one piece by a friend, so now I get to try out my brand new bone saw and cut the loin into chops! I have invested in various bits of Butcher's gear (bone saw, boning knife, cleaver, sausage filler, etc) so that I can buy half or quarter of a carcass, break it down into primal cuts and vacuum pack and freeze the result secondary cuts. By buying a portion of a carcass, the more expensive cuts (such as loin or fillet) become cheaper and you get lots of less commonly found at the supermarket cuts - which are also very tasty. Once I have made space in my deep freeze, the next time the local COOP offers half a pig (they break it down into primal cuts, but I'll order it as a whole - trotters and everything), I'll get one and spend a pleasant afternoon breaking up the carcass and saving up the scraps (meat and fat) for making my own sausages.

 

I'm very much in favour of "nose to tail" eating - both for culinary, economical and ethical reasons. Culinary - because often the neglected cuts are often the tastiest; economical - because with the butcher selling ALL of the animal, the cost of the more select cuts will drop as the butcher can recoup the cost of buying a carcass across all cuts of meat, not just a few prime cuts and ethically because if we eat ALL the animal, then fewer animals are needed to meet our meat needs and (one hopes) fewer animals translates in less intensive and therefore more humane rearing. Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy being on top of the food chain, but I firmly believe (and this seems to be borne out) that a happy animal is a tastier animal. Some of the best pork I have ever eaten comes from a local butcher who gets his pigs from a local farmer where they (the pigs not the butcher or farmer) range free and get a daily bottle of beer.

 

As you may have discerned I am almost, but not quite, an obbligate carnivore.

 

And on those tasting notes I bid a you a pleasant Sunday afternoon and evening and a reasonable start to the working week.

 

iD

Edited March 5, 2017 by iL Dottore

[Tony_S]

We had a nice lunch. While I cleaned myself up, for it was I that was smelly, I am not sure what I trod in the park but it wasn't nice, Aditi had coated some pork slices in eggy breadcrumbs, fried them in butter and steamed some new potatoes, cabbage and carrots.

I found some quite pleasant rose in the refrigerator.

I thought we were having pizza so it was a pleasant surprise.

It is quite overcast and drizzly now but I am not going anywhere so it isn't a problem.

Tony

[lightengine]

We had a nice lunch. While I cleaned myself up, for it was I that was smelly, I am not sure what I trod in the park but it wasn't nice, Aditi had coated some pork slices in eggy breadcrumbs, fried them in butter and steamed some new potatoes, cabbage and carrots.

I found some quite pleasant rose in the refrigerator.

I thought we were having pizza so it was a pleasant surprise.

It is quite overcast and drizzly now but I am not going anywhere so it isn't a problem.

Tony

What rosè do you recommend with pizza Tony? I guess for pizza with pineaple on it you would need acidic overtones with a hint of blackberries.

 

We have overtones of rain this afternoon. It's sunny, then suddenly lashing down before the sun comes out again.