Early Risers.

[Andrew P]

Too this day I will not eat liver & onions (uck!!!)

Luv it, I could eat it a couple of times a week if I had to.

[Tony_S]

Luv it, I could eat it a couple of times a week if I had to.

We used to eat liver, bacon and onions quite frequently but just stopped for some reason. Perhaps it was during the BSE event. I can't remember. However it is one of the meals I favour on our occasional pub lunches.

Tony

Edited March 2, 2018 by Tony_S

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. My neighbours SiL parked in his usual position this afternoon, between my drive and the corner. Right where cockwomble-of-the-year (CWOTY) bounced of the kerb earlier, if only. At least its stopped snowing, Emma has moved north but its still freezing so its going to turn icy. My bin bags are still out front and it appears that Basildon district council are not even going to try to collect them. Not so the postman, the post has been delivered every day this week. There was no milk delivery Wednesday but the pinta was on the doorstep this morning as usual. A funny film on Facebook with dogs in deep snow but its defeated my attempts to post it here, reminded me of our boxer dog who was just 9 months old in the winter of 1962/63 when her favourite game became jumping into a snowdrift.

[JohnDMJ]

We used to eat liver, bacon and onions quite frequently but just stopped for some reason. Perhaps it was during the BSE event. I can't remember. However it is one of the meals I favour on our occasional pub lunches.

Tony

Liver (decisions: chicken or lamb?) and bacon, steak and kidney, tongue, pig's trotter, tapioca, where did those great dishes go? Prepared and cooked properly, they were delicious! Oxtail soup - another classic! Sausages in ex-intestines. Eyup, them were t' days.

 

My (late) father was shown round a butchery factory on one occasion. His description was "pig in one end, pork chops, sausages and bacon out the other. Not even a waste bin for the 'oink'".

 

How times and attitudes have changed!

[Horsetan]

Too this day I will not eat liver & onions (uck!!!)

Not one of the school's culinary strengths. The liver was generally grey in colour, and as for the texture..... *shudders*

[PeterBB]

Happy Birthday Ian.  

 

Potholes are unfortunately the result of the sort of weather we are having and the recent repairs were just 'fill-it-in' type so most have and will turn out to have been a complete waste of resources.  Our clubhouse is on an unmade-up road and for some reason the 'holes' are bigger than they have ever been and now ... they seem to be more like a trip on the ocean waves as you negotiate them.  The club house drive contains an appreciable snow drift.

 

Looking back Jamie seem to have organised great wedding and when he goes  across the stream I am sure will be sorely missed in Leeds.  Gwiwer always gives good advice and his descriptions are literary masterpieces.   Thanks to John and Sister Jen for keeping us in touch with Debs who we know as a 'fighter with humour' in spite of the trauma that she is going through. Thoughts with Darren's loss and the continuing health problems with Allan on other blogs.

 

 

Traffic wise - well, good to hear that Sherry was rescued and is on her way to meet Olddudders and on a personal note hope our son makes it up to us on the delay-ridden M40 if this the route he takes.*

 

The lighter vein was the video of the Border Collie making the best of the snow on the hill.

 

Cheers Peter 

 

Edit = spelling

 

Later edit - Son met cockwombles at times during the journey, took the odd detour but finally got here safely.  Asked what he would have done had he got stuck said "I've had my -37 sleeping bag with me and a flask of hot tea -no problem"

 

[BoD]

All the descriptions of school meals from right across the country are exactly how I remember my school dinners too.

I wonder if Carillion had the contract.

[Coombe Barton]

I used to enjoy some of my school dinners. the potato was not really lumpy, neither was the gravy - or the custard.

 

However the 'healthy' protagonists would have had a field day. We were a part boarding school, so the meals had to keep everyone fed and watered.

[Coombe Barton]

Heard from Debs and Jen

 

Debs - not really with it as she was but getting there - only brief contact. She's asked that all your individual wishes be sent later hen she can appreciate them

 

Jen - has explained to me Debs' initial reaction to the drug and the slow response to the reversal drug, but says that Debs' is feeling a bit better.

 

Jen's also spending her second night at the hospital - she couldn't get home last night and is not even trying tonight. I call that dedication.

 

More when I get it

 

John

[Horsetan]

All the descriptions of school meals from right across the country are exactly how I remember my school dinners too.

I wonder if Carillion had the contract.

Up to 1985, it was all in-house for me. Then I went up to the Senior Branch in Frognal, which had already outsourced to Gardner Merchant (later Sodexho). Since I left, it's all gone to pot.

[newbryford]

Good to hear Debs is recovering.

 

HB Ian.

 

My two days off were well timed. According to reports I may have had some trouble getting to work.

Tomorrow will hopefully be relatively trouble free.

 

It hasn't been too bad around my way apart from a bit of drifting snow onto the roads,

 

I went to my local GP surgery for a repeat painkiller prescription ans inquired about the results of my MRI scan 10 days ago. The receptionist then told me it could take up 6 weeks. I wasn't overly enamoured with that, but then she did say that if anything was seriously wrong then they would have contacted me - so no news is good news.

It's the sitting and getting up from seated that is the difficult bit - I can twist OK and move around easily once it has loosened, so I'm actually tempted to have a gentle swing with a golf club in the next day or two.

 

I've been tracking a model railway delivery from Canada.

 

It arrived at the international hub in Coventry two days after it was dispatched from the shop in Ontario,

Then it sits there for three days "awaiting customs clearance"

Then the following appears on the tracking data.

 

1/3/2018 15:01 International Hub Customs charges raised      

 

B*gger says I. So I await the letter from Parcelfarce. The delivery is to my work address to avoid the prying eyes of Mrs NB. Not that I could do anything about it as I wasn't at work until tomorrow

 

Then upon checking earlier this evening.

 

2/3/2018 11:49 International Hub Revised Customs charges raised 2/3/2018 11:51 International Hub Released from customs 2/3/2018 18:05 National Hub

Sorted

Result!

One happy bunny. Lets see if they deliver tomorrow. I may post pics to avoid the prying eyes of her Debship......

 

Have a good/safe weekend folks.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[PeterBB]

Today is obviously memory day for school meals.

 

Earliest was nursery in John Innes's Manor House (significance later).

 

Frog spawn (tapioca) was probably one of the first things that I found totally inedible and sick-making .. they stood by you until you ate it ... all the others had finished and gone to the beds for rest.  For some reason or other, probably to go to the loo, the 'observer' disappeared so, quick as a flash I got up, tipped the frog spawn out of the broken window and sat down again.  When she came back I joined the others in rest.

 

Dinner money 1940's was 2/1 = 25 old pence (denarius) so 5p per day; then it went to 3/9 at 9p per day then, as stated above 5/- at 12p per day.  Favourite was jam tart and custard (couldn't stand marmalade tart and still do not like marmalade but apart from tapioca the other thing around was horse meat with yellowy fat globules.  As junior school kids we also took the tables down and stacked them (1940s).

 

At senior school a friend's mother fed me for the same price as school meals and this was much better.

 

Part of the old school had a direct hit in WW2 and it took until the 50s to replace the temporary buildings on the part hit - BRM had a model layout of the local station last year that was probably the target.  The new school was built on the site of John Innes horticultural grounds but the Manor House remained as administration and 'senior boys' common room .. I ended my school days in the same building in which I had tipped tapioca out so many years previously!

[NGT6 1315]

The livery was generally grey in colour, and as for the texture..... *shudders*

For a moment there, I thought you were quoting from a less than enthusiastic model review, and was baffled as to what this had to do with school meals...

Edited March 2, 2018 by NGT6 1315

[Gwiwer]

Leather and onions, as we used to know it.

[jamie92208]

School dinners were torture for me. We had to sit at set tables according to which house we were in. A Senior and a Junior table for each house. As iy was a boarding school, that took day boys like me, we had both lunch and tea at school. The tables were overseen by the Housemaster and his deputy. My housemaster insisted that we eat everything we were given and if we asked for a 'small' gave you extra. As a result I can still not eat rice pudding in any form as it was so atrocious. It usually reappeared later in the afternoon. Some of the other stuff wasn't too bas, such as jam roly poly with custard. However I later got to know the housekeeper a bit when I organised packed lunches for transport society trips and how she managed to feed us all on the budget she was given I don't know. I did survive however.

 

One amusing bit was when we were all issued with halibut liver oil capsules. They were just the right diameter to fit nicely into a pea shooter. Enough said.

 

Jamie

[The Stationmaster]

Hmm, my mum was an excellent cook so no problems there.  I was shoved towards school dinners while at the infants school and I'm not sure at this distance in time if I absented myself or they threw me out as I refused to eat the atrocious muck they served; my attendance for school meals therefore lasted exactly one day.  Once I got to the grammar school it was school dinners all the way through and generally they were extremely good, the worst thing by far was the boiled fish but at least you didn't get penalised there for not eating things.  The mashed potato was a bit variable so sometimes was best left as were the peas but just about everything else was really good including the superb, very liquid, custard.  We also had an excellent system where the food was served in open top containers - one of each part of the meal per table then we served our table from the containers.  the advantage of this system was that some tables, especially the girls, tended to not get through their full ration of various things so it was time for the gannets to go a hunting, a great way to get extra chips (which we only had every second Friday.

[newbryford]

I never had a school dinner at "proper" school as I lived about 1/3 mile from my primary school and 1/2 mile from secondary.

I always went home at lunchtime - usually by bike. There were odd days at secondary where I took a packed lunch in and we had to sit in a separate section of the school canteen. There was also a very good fish and chip shop just round the corner that had a large queue at lunch.

 

My only recollection of school dinners as such was as a 4 year old at nursery, being told that green veg is good for you and the staff hid it in the mashed potatoes to try and catch me out [*]. Since then,I have mild lachanaphobia!

 

Cheers,

Mick

[*] It wasn't unknown for Mrs or Junior NB when making my meals to try the same approach. Many's the time, there has been a pile of illicitly hidden and since discovered, contraband greenery shoved to the side of my plate.

[Horsetan]

.....only recollection of school dinners as such was as a 4 year old at nursery, being told that green veg is good for you and the staff hid it in the mashed potatoes to try and catch me out [*]. Since then,I have mild lachanaphobia!

 

....[*] It wasn't unknown for Mrs or Junior NB when making my meals to try the same approach. Many's the time, there has been a pile of illicitly hidden and since discovered, contraband greenery shoved to the side of my plate.

 

Ah, but if the greenery had been coloured yellow......

[newbryford]

Ah, but if the greenery had been coloured yellow......

 

I'm ok with pale carrots.......... and can sometimes manage a swede.... (preferably blonde please!)

 

Cheers,

Mick

Edited March 3, 2018 by newbryford

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[pH]

I saw an LAPD cruiser here in Vancouver today - one of the occasional side-effects of a thriving film industry.

[AndyID]

I saw an LAPD cruiser here in Vancouver today - one of the occasional side-effects of a thriving film industry.

 

Many ex-LA cops retire around here. Some of them are able to buy remarkably large premises too. Must have done a lot of overtime.

[Ozexpatriate]

Many ex-LA cops retire around here.

At least one very famously so.