Early Risers.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Dull here at the moment and we had a light shower earlier but hopefully it will brighten up after lunch.

Rather a late start for me due to possibly over indulging last night but a great time was had by all.

Regrettably I've never given blood but will always be grateful to donors as I had to have a transfusion back in 1996. Unfortunately because of this I'm not allowed to give any back.

Have a good one,

Bob.

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon all.   Slightly more time now as we have had our morning expedition and returned safely. The trailer is fine and on the way back we got a few things that we needed. The last bureaucratic phone call to the DWP has been made and all things such as pensions/benefits seem to be sorted out. Refunds from Leeds City Council and our energy suppliers have arrived ready safely in the bank. The car has been filled with diesel and a meal has been booked for tonight.

 

As to the saga of the woman whose furniture is in the shed, that has progressed. I got a phone call yesterday from her. She now wants to arrive on Sunday morning at 8am along with her daughter and a pantechnican. I tried to tell her that there might be problems getting a large lorry through the gate and that her arriving on Saturday wasn't feasible as I have things to move in the shed to give her access. At this she got annoyed and started to slag me off for being negative and trying to tell me how good she's been at paying. I ended up having to put the phone down on her but told her that we would see her at 8am on Sunday. She was meant to be arriving on Monday which would have given us chance to sort things before she arrived. All will be revealed in due course.

 

 

C'est la vie.

 

 

Anyway lunchtime has arrived.

 

Regards to all.

 

 

Jamie

[The Lurker]

Greetings all, good to see updates from our French exiles, albeit not all the news is good. Congratulations to GDB and Mrs GDB and best wishes to those who are ailing, physically, mentally, or spiritually.

 

Tomorrow sees Elder Lurker's last GCSE. Where has that time all gone? Not on revision, from what I observe!

 

It's funny, all this food thing. Not being part of the 50s I only have family anecdotes to go buy. My Mum relates her horror that my Grandma used to serve my Dad curry with both chips and rice, and that he expected the same once they were married. The conclusion I draw is that curries were known in both northwest and southeast London.* My Grandma had been in service before the war, but worked as a cleaner thereafter. My recollection of her food was that it was generally very tasty but not always meat and two veg. And her bakestones made every visit worthwhile for her favourite grandson (an easy win, there was no competition). My Mum is still a very adventurous cook; the last time we went, she produced a chicken tagine. She often cooked Chinese or Indian style foods and made her own pizzas etc; but this was in the 70s, not the 50s.

 

What I also have observed is that families either have a tradition of enjoying food, well cooked at home, or they don't. It doesn't necessarily seem to be a class thing; more that some people live to eat while others eat to live. I would place myself in the former category!

 

 

 

*The other conclusion I draw is that their relationship was very conventional...if I had suggested something like that to Mrs Lurker, she would probably have countered with the suggestion that I cook it myself. Which I would have done.

[Happy Hippo]

 

Regrettably I've never given blood

You could have fooled me!

 

Is there anywhere in your humble abode which has not had it's fair share over the years?

 

The transfusion service might not want it, but from your musings, plenty of other inanimate objects have benefited from your generosity.

 

Funnily enough, I cannot give blood either after an odd lump was discovered on my chest. Although it has been seen by various quacks, no one has come up with a definitive answer as to what it is.  But on declaring it to the blood letting persons, they decided not to take any more of my blood, until a diagnosis had been made, just to be on the safe side.

 

20 + years later, I am still waiting!

[Purley Oaks]

Afternoon all

 

Really good to see Smiffy back here, and belated happy anniversary congratulations to Mr & Mrs GDB.

 

Still blustery here - has been all night. Was expecting hours of heavy rain, too, but it must have fallen elsewhere, it's been dry here.

 

Robert, do you know if it's just Germany or do other European countries deny UK blood donors from donating? Wonder how long the BSE-related ban will last - another 20 or 30 years?

 

Have a good day

 

Mal

[Horsetan]

No better off Ivan ... what are 'mung beans'.  .....

 

Here, these are mung beans

 

 

....Regrettably I've never given blood.....

You could have fooled me!

 

Is there anywhere in your humble abode which has not had it's fair share over the years?

 

The transfusion service might not want it, but from your musings, plenty of other inanimate objects have benefited from your generosity....

 

I'll say.

 

My advice is: wash your hands after touching anything that "grandadbob" might conceivably have stabbed himself on.

Edited June 14, 2018 by Horsetan

[TheQ]

SInce Granddad was able as an NCO in the British Army to take Grandma out to British India ( an uncle was born out there) I suspect that side of the family were quite well aquainted with curries by the time they came home. Though I remember food from the early 60's as being roast on Sunday, cold sliced on monday, and something made from the remains on Tuesday.

 

In the late 1950s  on average one third of wages was spent on food and non alcoholic drink and that was food to live not to like...

Today thats 15% with a large proportion being food to enjoy...

 

In the late 1950s the average spend on clothing was 10% of wages.... and again that was mostly because you didn't want to be naked. 

Today the average is 5% again a lot of that on non-essentials.

 

1950's 6% on heating and lighting,

now 3%

 

Housing1950's 9%

Now 20%

 

entertainment 1950s.. 9%

Now 20%

 

Of course travel has gone up because we all do much more travelling, from 9% to 18%..

 

All the above is of course after the Tax man has been...

Edited June 14, 2018 by TheQ

[Ian Abel]

BIN day, "who cares" says I nonchalantly as I'm here in Long Island not needing to worry. The Mrs, however, will have moved said BINs last evening, I'm sure

 

A few more reports defined yesterday, one manager also lamenting that so far (I'd been here TWO days already) that her attempts to schedule some time with me keep going awry - apparently she'll try again for today!

 

US Open starts today - no interest for me but --> it's being held 60 miles EAST of where I am, and traffic is expected to be horrible starting tomorrow, hopefully I'll manage to miss it though the morning commute, same direction as the hoardes will be going, may be more miserable than usual, we'll see...

 

Weather on the up-tick here, 20 driving in, expecting 28 and sunny all day.

 

Hi ho, hi ho... off you go, those that have to toil for their respective crusts.

[81C]

Afternoon Peeps

Really late up today I still feel ruff SWMBO  T.F.C  . has been on my case since the week end  (a disorder known as SWMBOitus)

perhaps its that.

 

Yesterday I recieved my first coach for my Indian Hill layout, some names I have been batting around for a while and decided on

"The Charwallah & Tetley Hill Railway" (C. & T. H. R.)  it's a bit of fun and something to mess about with in the winter when I can't 

access the main layout in the garage it was costing a fortune to heat it. 

 

Her is out shopping hopefully there will be a "Super Soaker" in the arsenal today to combat the wood pigeons they are carping on

everything in the garden, a brain dead neighbour   has taken to feeding them.                                  

 

Saw this in a shop last week while away on holiday 

 

 

Off to the layout. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                               Enjoy your day C.R.Eamcrakered 

 

 

      

                                                                                                                                                          

 

[Gwiwer]

Aft-a-noon all

 

Belated anniversary wishes to GDB and his good lady. And a warm welcome back to a couple of recent absentees.

 

Still feeling tired today but sat on the terrace in the afternoon sun after another act of Normacy. DiL spent over an hour trying to plan a trip to Selfridges then missed the train which was somehow my fault. She had clear instructions but decided they were not good enough and wanted an app that would know where she was and tell her the way. Apparently Siri and Alexa can’t do that .......

 

No matter. The music is on, the glass is full (though is being steadily half-emptied) and I took a picture of our strawberry plant in flower.

 

Edited June 14, 2018 by Gwiwer

[Simon G]

 

Please don't forget everyone.  Today is World Blood Donor day.  If you can give blood, then please do!  Every drop saves lives.

 

Have a good day everyone...

.

 

I got to 50 something donations, then got the lymphoma diagnosis, so no more donations, sadly.

 

Relaxing day so far, trying to fix my mothers security light, and then a walk through Wokingham town centre, which is currently mostly dug up, and is thoroughly ghastly.

 

Having a meal tonight with youngest brother who I haven't seen since his eldest daughter got engaged, so that should be a good night.

[Black Marlin]

Home from work, in a breezy and bright Aberdeenshire, and heading out for a pizza dinner later with a friend from the office. Because of the nature of our individual responsibilities, his work is required to cross my desk (several times) and I am required to highlight and correct any errors I find in it. That we get on at all is extraordinary; that we voluntarily see one another outside normal working hours is little short of miraculous. It helps that we share leisure interests - he is a very keen fly fisherman,and while my ardour for the pastime is not as all-consuming I can at least cast a fly with reasonable accuracy - and a vaguely similar background (ex-Forces, though different services).

From the weekend on my ability to access t'interweb shall be curtailed for a few days, but fear not, ERs; assuming I don't disgrace myself or have my ER privileges revoked in the interim I will return, like MacArthur wading up the beach in one of history's most glorious...err...photo-ops.

And now, to sign off in the words of HRH the Queen Mother when she concluded her private correspondence:

"Tinkety-tonk, old fruits, and down with the Nazis".


Edited to add: Please, Olddudders, you have no idea how much I look forward to continuing episodes in the saga I have taken to calling 'Song of the Sarthe' (although I confess I am a little confused as to whether or not there's a difference between Tom and Francois), so should the mood take you, I hope that I and everyone else can benefit from the exercise of your observational and narrative talents! 

Edited June 14, 2018 by Black Marlin

[Smiffy2]

I said I would recount the story of my French neighbours to counterpoint Ian's tales of rampant randyism and festering feuds.

 

We bought our place in 2000, and we have a house in a hamlet of 2! Our neighbour then was Marie-Louise and her son, Claude. Marie-Louise was old, and beaten down by a lifetime of farming. I remember her, at the age of 70+, rolling her sleeves up as she went up to the barn on the other side of our house to perform a difficult calving. Over a few short years she was claimed by arthritis, new hips and age. I went in for one of our customary 'petit-verres' a bit before she died, and she told me that she couldn't sleep for pain, that it was all terribly hard and she yearned for release...

 

When she die the farm was worked by Claude - all dairy in those days, when ordinary farmers could make a living out of milk, before 'les grandes surfaces' pushed the price down to such an extent that there are half as many dairy farmers in Normandy now as there were in 2000. 

 

Claude was a lovely man, tall, lollopy and invariably cheerful - he even laughed when he told me how he has been standing on a pile of pallets when his foot slipped between the planks and he fell over the edge - only to be stopped by his ankle breaking! He was a devil with a chainsaw, never any safety gear, and I remember him working to cut down a willow tree (one of mine) laying on his stomach with his head inches from the blade.

 

He had a sister, Elisabeth, and she has two sons, Florian and Gautier. We are pretty sure it was Florian, about fifteen years ago, who threw rocks through our windows. He showed up one day asking if we had any peat that he could use for planting something up. When I said I didn't think we had any he told me it was in one of our outhouses. The boy who tried to destroy a wasp nest by pouring boiling water on it. Elisabeth (who lived in the Ile de France) was always distant when we met her, unlike Claude who was the best neighbour we could have.

 

Florian eventually came to live with Claude, sent from Paris because of 'some trouble'. He never seemed to do much, like school, but he did make heroic attempts to ride a motorbike whilst smoking a cigarette.

 

Then we got a letter, in England, telling us that Claude had died. In strange circumstances. It seems that after a storm he had been trimming back an oak with some broken branches. Being Claude he was doing this standing in the bucket of his tractor, and possibly a couple of straw bales. He either fell and had a heart attack, or had a heart attack and fell. It was three days before he was found, and he was still alive, but brain dead. Three days. Whilst Florian was living with him.

 

Elisabeth has taken over the farm, but is relinquishing the rented fields and selling the others. She has resigned from a good job in Paris (in a bank) to look after Florian in la France profonde. She has found him training and a college course but he has never lasted more than a week.

 

Elisabeth is now much more friendly - we share cake and wine every week or so - but Florian is still a nightmare. "My cross" she calls him. The last time I spoke to him he was telling me how the allies used nuclear weapons on Normandy in WW2 and hw the Welsh are angry about Brexit because it means they will have to leave the Euro. Just say no, kids.

 

He is also obsessed with kittens, but that's another story, which may not always turn out well for the kittens.

 

I'll leave that for another day, the couscous is ready!

[Horsetan]

.... Florian is still a nightmare....

D'you think he and Valentin (see previous) might get on like a house on fire? If so, whose house?

[Barry O]

afternoon form a still windy but very sunny North West Leeds Highlands. Listening to Essex v Yorkshire on the radio.. some of teh players take me back to their time in Junior county cricket...Coad, Fisher, Carver, Tattersall.. lummy am I that old???

 

Time for some wine of the red variety as I have added yet more items to Ebay...

 

BUT food wise.. Dick I was force fed smoked roll mops and also plain roll mops.. but I do enjoy the odd one nowadays.

 

Our treat if we went down the allotments was a piece of fresh rhubarb and a bit of sugar....or fresh "scotch" tomatoes (the yellow ones).

 

As her indoors was born and brought up in Grimsby we don't eat Cod (its for fish glue/feeding to cats) but I love all sort of fish.. but generally cooked although I really like sushi... enough about food..I need a drink!

 

Baz

Edited June 14, 2018 by Barry O

[Happy Hippo]

D'you think he and Valentin (see previous) might get on like a house on fire? If so, whose house?

Perhaps they can both play banjoes!

[New Haven Neil]

Evening.  I think I missed yesterday.  Work was manic, my head was mince.

 

My best wishes firstly, to those unwell or with unwell relations etc.  There's getting to be too many to name individually, without forgetting someone and then I would feel bad about that, so please all take that you need.

 

We had a really rough night, 65 mph winds at sea level, the garden is trashed.  The spuds and several tall plants were chopped off, a wheelbarrow was found forty feet from its(sheltered) home, etc etc.  Even a small Beech tree looks as if the leaves are so wind burned it may die.

 

As for food, we always had a varied diet.  Dad served in the Navy in the far east, and later (when married)  in oil exploration in several middle east countries,  so we were brought up on the foods they had enjoyed there.  Sorry Peter BB, but our favourite foods are Indian and Thai! Mrs being a Cornish farm girl had little of excitement in her diet until she met me, but now 37 years down the road eats just about anything, preferably spicy.  But, for iD's pleasure, tonight's creations were Italian.

 

My day of rest tomorrow, OF's club at 10, model railways at 12 hopefully.

Edited June 14, 2018 by New Haven Neil

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Many of the poppies that were flowering this morning have lost their petals to the wind. However replacements are still coming on especially with this afternoons sunshine. I did volunteer to give blood once and was rejected! The reason was I was taking medication for my arthritis, I am now considered to old to give blood.

[newbryford]

Congrats to MR & Mrs GDB.

Welcome back Dick.

Thoughts to others that are numerous.

 

Golf was played today. By 'eck it was a bit windy out there. Plenty of "allow for t' draft" as my playing partner advised.

A good win - my first away win for the Senior League team with a 3-match each draw at the end, but as away match wins count for 3 points to a 2 point home win, the team were victorious 9-6.

 

Another day off Friday - golf at 5pm. Club doubles knockout.

Not quite certain of daytime plans, but the first part will probably include a lie-in.

 

In the meantime, the modelling shed beckons - I may be back later.

 

Cheers,

Mick

[Tony_S]

Flavio mentioned having to travel into London to find exotic foodstuffs. I can remember struggling to find an aubergine in Southend in the mid 1970s. It hadn't been a problem the previous year when I was at Keele University. The nearest town, Newcastle under Lyme, had a wide range of produce.

Mung beans are used to produce one of my favourite Indian dishes, moong ki dal. Not sure if it features on restaurant menus. MiL is pleased I like it as it wasn't something her family liked.

Tony

Edited June 14, 2018 by Tony_S

[Horsetan]

... I can remember struggling to find an aubergine in Southend in the mid 1970s. ...

Sarfend has widened its culture to such an extent that Ryanair is coming to Sarfend Airport, also known as London East.

Edited June 14, 2018 by Horsetan

[lightengine]

Back in the early 80's I had to travel to London to buy Fosters, in big cans. In those days I didn't give a xxxx (4x).

[bbishop]

 

 

Which will unfortunately exclude you from donating, Bill!

 

 

90 donations!  I thought that I had another 3 years to achieve the remaining 10 donations to my ton.  But apparently, so long as I can achieve 2 donation per annum, I can carry on beyond the age of 70.

 

Bill

[Barry O]

Hey up!

Youngest Herbert had to fly to dublin today for meetings with his new employers. They booked his flight from Manchester as they didn't realise leeds has an airport doh! He says it was a bit "bumpy"

 

Yorkshire won, now to take on the kolpacks.. sorry Hampshire.

 

Red wine was ok, food was excellent so now time for some eyelid inspection.

 

Night to most! I hope that all who ail have a restful night!

 

Baz

[Horsetan]

HM Revenue & Customs tend to take all my bloody donations (sic)