Early Risers.

[AndyID]

9 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I wonder how the Dorset cheese gets across the Atlantic. Do such products go by ship or fly?

 

It's aged for 15 months so there's no great rush to get it here. Judging by the number of customers Costco has in North America they can probably export a boat-load of the stuff.

 

During the dark days of the 2008 melt-down I noticed that people were spending money at our local Costco like drunken sailors. The stock price was well down so I bought quite a lot. The mistake I made was not buying enough.

 

The good people at Ford Farm in Dorset have tapped into a market that's probably far greater than the domestic UK market, and more power to them.

[Tony_S]

When Matthew used to go to student geography conferences there was always a cultural exchange involving food and drink. At one in Poland Matthew took a variety of English cheeses. The one that was really admired was Red Leicester. 

Tony

Edited June 12, 2019 by Tony_S
Missing word

[Ozexpatriate]

8 minutes ago, AndyID said:

The good people at Ford Farm in Dorset have tapped into a market that's probably far greater than the domestic UK market, and more power to them

According to Wikipedia, in 2017, Costco has 90.3 million members (presumably worldwide). Given that not everyone in a household would have a Costco memberships, this represents a very large number of consumers - certainly much more than the domestic UK market.

 

Frankly I am surprised it is that many but it pretty much proves your thesis. I did have a membership years ago but don't any longer - mostly because I live alone and can't consume the minimum volumes available for purchase quickly enough.

[Not Jeremy]

Many happy returns Brian, here's a Peter Barnfield drawing from the old Country.

 

 

Simon

[AndyID]

7 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

 The one that was really admired was Red Leicester. 

 

 

#1 Daughter sent me a selection of UK cheeses for my recent 70th orbit. There was some Red Leicester. I enjoyed it but MrsID was less keen.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[AndyID]

35 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

According to Wikipedia, in 2017, Costco has 90.3 million members (presumably worldwide). Given that not everyone in a household would have a Costco memberships, this represents a very large number of consumers - certainly much more than the domestic UK market.

 

 

That could make the annual revenue around 100 x 50 x 90 million dollars ($450 billion) but let's say it's only $200 billion.

 

Which does raise an interesting question. Countries, or associated countries (like for example the EC or even the US), impose certain barriers to free-trade, but at the end of the day, will global retailers simply overwhelm artificial political boundaries? If that's the case the UK could be sitting in the catbird seat

 

 

Edited June 12, 2019 by AndyID
.

[The Stationmaster]

Happy birthday Brian, hope you enjoy your birthday treat meal.

 

The Good Doctor has been in touch from Plovdiv where she has some sort of appartment accommodation so is havinga break from eating out conjuring up her meals oh ut of whatever the locality has to offer and there's a washing machine - just what you need after a visit to Chernobyl (although that was a while back now of course).

[Ozexpatriate]

5 minutes ago, AndyID said:

That could make the annual revenue around 100 x 50 x 90 million dollars ($450 billion) but say let's it's only $200 billion

From the same Wikipedia page, 2018 revenues are US$141B.  I haven't looked at annual reports. I assume this is worldwide revenue.

$5k per member is high but your $200B guess was close. 70% of the warehouse stores are in the US.

[newbryford]

3 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Happy birthday Brian. you're only as old as  the woman you feel

 

My bold - so that makes me three years younger.............

 

Cheers,

MIck

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[AndyID]

40 minutes ago, newbryford said:

 

My bold - so that makes me three years younger.............

 

Cheers,

MIck

 

That's a quintuple EA for you laddie.

[BR60103]

Motorhome declined to start this morning. There is a knife switch on the battery so that it doesn't drain, but it seems dead. There is an "Emergency start" switch that takes power from the house battery, i.e. the camping battery, and that got me moving. The battery didn't start the engine after we arrived, so we added an item to the list. We were there at 7:30 and got a good double parking space but the garage wasn't open until 8:00. Had coffee, then returned and it was still in position as they had a trailer on the lift. Have not heard back and it's nearly 11 at night.

 

Lazed about most of the day -- riverside walk cut short by mosquitoes.

 

 

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

First of all, a belated happy birthday to Brian.

 

We have a nice bright morning today.  The rain has stopped, and the forecast is for warmer weather.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[chrisf]

Good morning one and all, with a belated happy birthday to BrianUSA.

 

A pleasant surprise landed on the doormat yesterday, in the form of a remittance from Ernie.  Those of the monied classes, who have the maximum holding, can count on one every month. I am not of that ilk but in the ranks of those who expect nothing and are therefore rarely disappointed.  The latest arrival is sufficient to put a smile on my face, which after the events I described yesterday is not a bad thing.  I have holidays to fund.

 

If the rain will hold off for a decent interval before the weekend I should venture into the jungle to see how the strawberries are doing.  After the systematic neglect of winter came the triffid cull and to my amazement some of the strawberry plants survived, complete with flowers.  The benchmark date that I have for picking the first fruits is 15th June, which is in two days’ time and coincides with the anniversary of my father’s demise.  He had several bizarre reasons for being proud of me and being able to grow strawberries may have been one of them.  Please refer to remarks above about expecting nothing!

 

Today I need to venture out on the fodder run, rain or no rain.  I realised the other day that I tend to devote my stir-frying skills to feeding Poorly Pal and myself once a month so suitable ingredients for a couple of solo stir-fry sessions will top my shopping list.  It’s quick and easy and strangely satisfying.  One of the resultant meals will fortify me ahead of Friday night which could see me doing something extremely silly and new to me if I have the bottle to go through with it.  Hmmm … 

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris

[BoD]

Morning all.

 

Still persisting down.here.

Bloke down the road has been acting very strangely of late.  He recently acquired a number of different pets and has now started building a huge wooden boat.

Edited June 13, 2019 by BoD

[roundhouse]

Good morning and belated happy birthday BrianUSA.

 

A busy day yesterday starting with priming the timber beading around both windows in the shed then change into my suit and head off to the coast with my other half to her dads funeral. It was in the tiny village chapel a few doors down from her mums place. A friend up North emailed me asking if the pub was enroute to the Chapel. I replied that the pub is enroute to and from everywhere as its opposite her mums. 

Funeral went smoothly and my other half shed a few tears pretending that she hadn't  - that's OK as I tend to do so at each funeral. Hoping the tow in close succession are all for a while.

It was across the road to the village hall then after that me and the friend who also used to live in the village called in the pub. He is the friend who's parents used other halfs father for all their decorating and how I got to meet my other half well over 25 years ago.

 

A wet journey back home me guiding my other half ab ack way to miss the evening rush hour traffic around Crawley and Gatwick then into the shed to check all is free from rainwater as there was dampness in the floor when I lifted the polythene a few days ago but that must have been just sweat or dampness form before the roof membrane was put on a few weeks ago.

 

Also last night agreed the price with the electrician so hopefully we will have a new consumer unit and the shed wired. This morning I am off to collect the electrical trunking and hopefully install some of it.

 

 

 

 

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Hope everyone is as well as can be expected.

Damp outside but....... it isn't raining! Yipppppeeeddďooooooo!

Off to the "walk in " surgery to see if they can give me something to finally shift my cough/lurgy. It seems it is the same resistant strain that Chris had. Pah!

 

Could be a quiet weekend cricket wise due to the weather.

 

Crust earning completed yesterday. A bit more to start on today.

Mugadecaf to finish then off out. Back later

Baz

[Joseph_Pestell]

7 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

It's aged for 15 months so there's no great rush to get it here. Judging by the number of customers Costco has in North America they can probably export a boat-load of the stuff.

 

During the dark days of the 2008 melt-down I noticed that people were spending money at our local Costco like drunken sailors. The stock price was well down so I bought quite a lot. The mistake I made was not buying enough.

 

The good people at Ford Farm in Dorset have tapped into a market that's probably far greater than the domestic UK market, and more power to them.

 

I'm not surprised to hear that Coastal is from Ford Farm (I had never checked). Ford Farm is part of a much larger business, Barber's whose main base is at Ditcheat (near Evercreech Jct). As Ford Farm, they also do Dorset Smoked Red.

 

The 15 months aging would be before packaging. But once packaged it has a "best before" date of about 3 months, so plenty of time to get it across the Atlantic.

[BlackRat]

Morning one and all!

 

Generic greetings, commiserations, best wishes and congratulations!

 

Busy few days in a certain room refurbishing a certain layout, surprising how much goes up the Hoover, well Dyson, and I've an interesting bundle of steps, pipes, etc from I know not where.

 

One of the main issues has been dust, Mrs BR has confirmed my insanity when she caught me washing trees in the bath!

 

Saddened to hear about the passing of Roy Jackson......I always think on occasions such as this what happens to a lifetimes work or to a big permanent layout and I think of the superb professionally built P4 layout which was up for sale 5 years ago.

 

A retirement project for me, a price was agreed and I ended up being given the layout for free due to house moving deadlines. The layout is now under the custodianship of SWAG but so much more ended up in a skip.

 

Mustn't mention cheese as complaints have been received re the reeking items brought back from France which now languish in the fridge......happy days!

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Many happy returns for yesterday Brian.

Rather dull here here with the chance of some bright spells along with heavy showers and thunderstorms.

Rained for hours yesterday as well.

Parcel arrived in the appointed time slot and in good condition. The good news is that the loco (O gauge Class 08) ran smoothly up and down a short piece of track and then for a while on the rolling road. The not so good news is that the wagon that came with it was not what I ordered or what it said on the box (which was correct)

Today is a double celebration as Gemma reaches the grand old age of 15 and Chris and I have been married for 49 years.  We're going out for breakfast before the shopping today and tonight we're out with the family and a couple of Gem's friends for a meal. She's also having a party on Saturday. Only seems like yesterday when she was born. I'd not been retired long at that time so when Nicki went  back to work I became main child carer for her. Because of that I think we do have a special bond although I wouldn't like to say that I have a favourite amongst my grandchildren as I think the world of all three of  them.

Have a good one, I know I will.

Bob.

 

 

P.S. Cheese - normally Cheddar or Stilton for me.

Edited June 13, 2019 by grandadbob
Post decided to post before I was ready to er post!

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare,

A poor nights sleep 4 hours solid followed by an hour trying to get comfortable, giving up then the sofa and an hours intermittant dozing,

 

No rain this morning but drizzle, as I took a long way to work as BT have closed the most direct route for 3 days.

 

Real Cheddar, Cheddar Cheese and local to Cheddar Scrumpy  Cider  = heaven.. Used to get a real bakery loaf, real cheddar from a farm, and a gallon of Cider from another farm. £1 for the cider and 25p back on the container... this was 1975-76-77. That with an onion to make real cheese and onion Sarnies.

Made for a good weekend occasionally interupted by sailing round in ever decreasing circles round cheddar resevoir.

Often much better than the food in the Airmans Mess.  Though by no means was RAF locking catering the worst, that privalege went to RAF Swinderby followed closedly by the Army catering on Benbecula and at Driffield Barracks.

 

I just wish there was a costco or something similar in Norwich. I mean we don't even have a proper Ikea, just a small one that operates like argos..

 

Cutting lists will be made during the waits for settling of current shunts. This is for shelving inside the layout Carriages and to make bracketry for the lighting supports.  Also the official reason for A DIY Shed visit is more decking boards for SWMBOs strawberry planters, and something liquid to paint on all the cut ends.

 

This missive has taken 1.5 waiting periods

 

Time to do some cutting lists..

Edited June 13, 2019 by TheQ

[AndrewC]

Greetings all from the lost city of Atlantis boring borough. Our recently drained & cleaned water buts are now full and as usual our useless asshat of a builder f*cked up the installation of the down pipe so the overflow is, err overflowing instead of going back into the pipe and down the drain. I may need to dig out the angle grinder to cut a channel in the concrete to direct the flow into the drain instead of it flowing into next door's path. I don't fancy having to cut n shut the downspout to get the diverter at the right height. 

 

Belated happy birthday to Brian. 

 

Bit of sad news from the west country this morning. My second cousin has passed away peacefully in the night. She was 92 and the last remaining family member of the previous generation. With that I formally join the ranks of the family's oldest generation. I'm now #13 on the age list. Growing old sucks. Waiting to hear of the funeral date and just how that will p!ss off my new project mangler and his set in stone plans. 

 

After getting a default judgement against the builder he finally woke up and has filed a request to set aside the judgement. He'd asked for the application to be made without a hearing. Court said no as his statement is at odds with the submitted evidence. (ie, he lied on the application) Now we go to court in September. Joy of joys. In the mean time the CCJ against him remains in place, hopefully screwing him over financially.  

 

Work sucks, life in general sucks, yadda yadda. Our camping plans for early July are out the window as my knee isn't playing nice. I couldn't even get the bloody tent out of the loft without having to spend the rest of the day on Naproxen & the knee brace. Feck! As far as work goes it looks like I'll be spending at least 2 nights a week in a hotel in Telford to attend "meetings" and planning sessions over the next 2 1/2 months. Joy unbound. 

 

 

[jamie92208]

Morning all from a still dry Bournemouth.  However according to the seaweed twirlers this state of affairs will not last.  

 

Belated birthday greetings to Brian and I hope the meal was good.

 

Yesterday went well and the bowling balls were duly purchased and Brownie points were awarded. We then went to the Tank Museum, where one of Beth's schoolfriends is remembered on the memorial outside. (Sgt Paul Oram MM).  I spent some modelling tokens, and probably the brownie points, in the shop then we had a coffee upstsairs.  We did not, however, spend the eyewatering £14 per head to go round.  On our way back A rather large armoured recovery vehicle was comi g up the hill from Wool, so I gave way and pulled to one side to let it pass. It was rather larger than our Clio.  It rained most of the rest of the day but a nice Italian meal was consumed later. 

 

Not sure what we will do today, but a bit of shopping is being suggested.

 

Regards to all.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

9 hours ago, bbishop said:

 

Adopt the cat before getting the dog.  Hopefully the cat will then beat up the puppy until it knows it's bottom of the pack.

 

Bill,

It looks as though what you suggest is happening. The cat spent yesterday evening on our settee courtesy of SWMBO whose excuse was that it was upsetting the blackbirds who have a nest outside our conservatory and have fledglings at present. Of course, when we were going to bed it was my job to eject the cat, much to its chagrin, to spend the night on the chair outside. This morning she said that maybe we ought to take the cat in and when I said I wasn't sure about it I was criticised for not making a decision (??!!). Then there was a strong suggestion that I should talk to the neighbour about it....... Ho, hum.

 

Andrew C,

If you want an evening away from the hotel when you are stuck in Telford, PM me and I'll let you have our 'phone number then if we're in you would be welcome to come up for a visit - we're only about 25 minutes up the road.

 

Not a lot to report from a very soggy Salopland. Shortly off to the surgery to have the dressing on The Toe changed and see if there's any news about an appointment with a podiatrist. This evening we're going out for a meal before going to see The Blues Band in Stoke so something to look forward to.

 

Have the best day you can and if that's not so good my thoughts and prayers are with you.

 

Dave