Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

Just now, JohnDMJ said:

ChrisF, given your musings about music:

 

 

Put the track by the Carpenters, "It's Yesterday Once More" or even Jethro Tull's "Living in the Past" away and thrive on Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop"!

New Day Yesterday?

Also by Jethro Tull, a fairly under appreciated band outside of the cognoscenti

[JohnDMJ]

23 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

New Day Yesterday?

Also by Jethro Tull, a fairly under appreciated band outside of the cognoscenti

 I suspect you side with ChrisF!

 

Nostalgia ain't what it used to was!

Edited May 24, 2020 by JohnDMJ

[Kingzance]

Morning from AnyHearts,

 

Greyness is gradually being replaced with occasional sunshine, speeded by a brisk westerly. Yesterday’s visit by our son - who did keep six foot six and three quarters of an inch away at all times - was a pleasant diversion from the mundane routine to which we ascribe at the direction of our leaders - even as the number and frequency of their deliberate breaches of such strictures grows. Of course we have a free press that can and should question such behaviour, although obviously most reporters are already breaking government guidelines as they create their reports. This we accept in our sort of democracy. Clearly it isn’t without its faults but we are better off than those in Hong Kong, where Beijing has decided that The Basic Law and the citizens’ rights should be brought into line with the rest of The People’s Republic (i.e. none) in the sure knowledge that The West will not protect the several million citizen’s of Britain’s former colony. An article about those in HK who are resorting to efforts to wipe data and records from their mobile devices was reported earlier in The Times today has been pulled. It is impossible not to conclude political pressure for censorship is the reason for that. Not satisfied with being the source of Avian Flu, SARS and now Covid-19, China is ruthlessly determined to dominate the world and brooks no challenges. Our politicos would do well to avoid becoming further beholden to such a ruthless regime.

 

Anyway, yesterday’s curry was in my book a success with new and nuanced flavours; SWMBO spent the meal making exaggerated coughing noises so that is another dish I shall be making solely for personal enjoyment! We came second in the wider family quiz but as the winners created the previous week’s quiz, we will do next week’s edition. Who knows, perhaps we shall all be a little freer after next weekend?

 

Today’s protein will come from the carcass of a small hen and will be presented with broad beans, spring cabbage and a few Jersey potatoes. A walk must be endured enjoyed later but first I shall make myself a damn fine cup of full-fat coffee. Be good, stay safe and above all, stay sane!

[jamie92208]

Good moaning. It's nice and sunny here and I even managed a 10 mile bike ride before we went to the market.  Some friends have just arrived for coffe so I will wish you all a good day.

 

Jamie

Edited May 24, 2020 by jamie92208

[southern42]

3 hours ago, chrisf said:

Greetings one and all

 

Here once again is the parallel universe diary.  Were it not for that ruddy virus I would have been at Stoke Mandible today for Railex and finding a kindred spirit or several with whom to put the world to rights over breakfast.  On Tuesday afternoon I would have made the effort to drive down to Welwyn for a talk by Chris Green.  Wednesday evening would have seen an HMRS study walk from Luton Airport Parkway to Harpenden East, sticking as closely as possible to the disused railway.  With the aid of Zoom we will get that in virtual form!  On Thursday I would have been visiting the shed where the layout lives, in Stevenage, to do some m*d*ll*ng and stir-frying lunch for me and Poorly Pal before dinner in the local ‘Spoons and the outbreak of democracy that is the AGM of the Stevenage Locomotive Society.  How unreal all that seems now.  On Saturday I would have contemplated catching the bus over to Oxford for Pride, possibly wearing the new and eminently suitable T shirt which JohnDMJ recently drew to my attention and which is somewhere in the postal system as I type.

 

Roasting a chicken for Sunday lunch is getting to be a habit and is some compensation for the loss of Railex.  It was good to rediscover early in the lockdown that I can get at least three meals out of the leftovers – a risotto and two portions of tikka masala, the latter thanks to a proprietary sauce.  Those who enjoy curry made properly will pooh-pooh this timidity but it’s an advance on korma, albeit modest.  I’m not all that fond of curry but I’m even less fond of losing out on social occasions through not liking it.  To be the only person in an Indian restaurant who is not eating curry is not a situation that I relish.

 

Tony S, I can believe anything of Amazon.  My e-friend Harry might be able to explain how your eBay purchase arrived with an Amazon label.  His job is to manage relationships with people that sell on Amazon.  Thanks to the huge growth in online shopping he is super-busy and I fear for his mental health.  If you like, I will ask the question, though his current attitude to social media does tend to build in delays.

 

Best wishes to all.  It will always be OK to not be OK.

 

Chris

 

Since  Tess Coe's decided to close the deli counter on our previous shopping days (Mon-Tue) we started to get a chicken to roast and slice it up when cold on the 2nd-3rd days instead of having sliced ham/pork/turkey.  With Lockdown there is no deli, anyway, and we have continued with chicken.  However, Sunday roast dinner, in pre-lockdown days, was usually midweek roast.  In lockdown, with doing click n collect on Thursdays we are more likely to have roast chicken on a Sunday but cold.  As this weekend was a Bank Holiday, I roasted it yesterday and that will see us through the 3 days, easily.  Some days, I will use up 2 days worth to make a chicken pie with either pastry crust or topped with potato (sliced or mashed), half of which sometimes goes into the freezer.  

 

I must give credit to the click n collect service from Tess Coe, although we do have to be patient to get a slot up on screen before we start.  That the technology keeps a list your past purchases is brilliant, and being able to change your order up to the evening before is ideal.  I do not know about other websites, but this one reserves your slot when you start your order and gives you 2 hours to complete it.  The collection point is a building on the far side of the carpark away from the main building, so no contact with store staff or customers.  We expected the food to be supplied in their blue boxes so, on his first visit, Ray took our bags to put the items in but they are, currently, bagging up everything themselves.  

 

________

Polly

[grandadbob]

8 minutes ago, southern42 said:

I do not know about other websites, but this one reserves your slot when you start your order and gives you 2 hours to complete it.  

 

Sainsbury's online delivery slots are held for 2 hours and you need to put in a minimum £25 order to keep it. Very easy to do that. You can add to or amend the order up till 11pm the night before delivery.  It shows a list of your "favourites" * but that becomes a pain when you want to check out (which you have to do every time you amend the order) because it keeps asking if you've forgotten one of them or something,else!

 

*Strangely some of our "favourites" are things we've never had in our life!

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, TheQ said:

Mooring awl, Inner Temple Hare, 

 

 

It's noticeable that he who keeps getting the mower out across the road,  is missing,  along with wife and children, I've not seen them for several days,   also the grandmas have stopped visiting. I suspect they have done a Cummings. 

 

 

Congratulations, you have just come up with a new saying/expression. "Doing a Cummings." Meaning to ignore the lock-down rules. Lets see if we can make it spread by using it on social media and the media in general. 

Edited May 24, 2020 by PhilJ W

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

Cloudy, sunshine due immently, supposedly.  We will see.

 

Already mugadecaf time so just to pass on my greetings.

 

Fitt   and   Elfie doing their best.

 

Keep well, play safe.

_________

Best wishes

Polly

 

[Chris116]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

With exception of our current car and the two “company cars” I drove when based in the UK, all my cars have been either “used“ (Showroom models, or 1 year old trade ins) or extremely second hand (such as the last car I bought when living in the US. I found it through the newspaper small ads and it was a great little car even though the radio could only get C&W stations, but it only cost me $600 [1982 dollars]).

 

That car sounds perfect, well at least the sounds from the radio would be perfect! Says he currently listening to Chris Country. 

Edited May 24, 2020 by Chris116
Spelling

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all. 
 

A slow start with no need to be up and about as the small brown birds break wind. 
 

@iL Dottore 

Old English Shrub Alcoholic Cordial is originally distilled from Devon herbs and spices. Shrub was originally used in Cornwall during the old days of rum smuggling to disguise the taste of sea water let in during the perilous journey from ship to shore. Shrub is still Rum's perfect partner to warm up a winter evening.

from drinksupermarket.com which is the portal through which I order. Wikipedia offers other suggestions indicating the term is used elsewhere for something rather different. Rum and Shrub is a common Cornish “winter warmer” as its its sweeter partner Brandy and Lovage. The latter being another powerfully alcoholic cordial. 
 

I am assured that I shall be weeding the borders very soon. Wish me luck. I am going outside - I may be some time. 

[Barry O]

18 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Congratulations, you have just come up with a new saying/expression. "Doing a Cummins." Meaning to ignore the lock-down rules. Lets see if we can make it spread by using it on social media and the media in general. 

Ere! Leave my fraternal grandmothers family name alone! One drongoid doesn't represent the views of the family.. and its "Cummings" not "Cummins" the latter are also originally Highland Scots...

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Still bone dry though we might get a thunderstorm or then we might not according to the seaweed twirlers, no wonder Arther Itis is confused. He's having a sulk at the moment and very quiet. Tony, is the village you mentioned Fobbing? It featured strongly in the Peasants Revolt as did a lot of other villages in the area. The term 'Peasants Revolt' is a bit of a misnomer, in fact medieval spin. The leaders, as were a lot of their followers were not peasants. Wat Tyler was a self employed builder/bricklayer (The word tyle, spelt with a y is an old word for brick.) and John Ball was literate when even most of the aristocracy were not. Iroically today Wat Tyler would be driving around in a white Transit and probably voting tory. Few if any revolutions do not come from the bottom but from the middle or even the top as in the American Revolution (The founding fathers were all millionares if their wealth was adjusted to modern rates.) Lenin was a minor aristocrat and the Castro brothers were scions of a wealthy family.

[Coombe Barton]

2 hours ago, 5 C said:

Today will be more of the same, along with an assault on a steadily growing pile of ironing.

What's ironing?

[Happy Hippo]

9 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

What's ironing?

I believe it is a rather pressing engagement.

[PhilJ W]

14 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Ere! Leave my fraternal grandmothers family name alone! One drongoid doesn't represent the views of the family.. and its "Cummings" not "Cummins" the latter are also originally Highland Scots...

 

Baz

You may think that you have a cross to bear. My mothers paternal grandmothers maiden name was Mogg, as in Rees-Mogg, and yes he is a distant cousin. I do have an ancestor on my dads side of the family who was hung for piracy, I like to think that as being one up on stealing sheep.

[Tony_S]

15 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Fobbing

No. Horndon-on-the-Hill.

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

26 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

What's ironing?

Unnecessary and a major waste of energy too. (Mentioned this before, the smart meter was effective in getting my wife to end this wasteful practise. Circa 3% reduction in our household energy consumption.)

[New Haven Neil]

A'noon.

 

Still windy sur le rock, but not at gale force now.  There are leaves everywhere, many plants and shrub ruined with wind burn.

 

A morning was spent in the garage where the unmentionables live, with a little more Slartybartfasting completed, and scenic detailing ongoing.  Bike work this afternoon, now it has warmed up a little, chain and sprockets to change on one of Mrs NHN's street scramblers.

 

Mrs NHN is off to Archery again, for a practice round on the new course - a few others will attend, at respectable distances hopefully, but her usual group have called off as 'Big Geoff' has pulled a muscle....ahem.. and is too sore.  He shoots a longbow with a LOT of tension (IRO 60lbs or more) so maybe he has a point as well as a cracking euphamism.

 

 

[BSW01]

Good afternoon everyone 

 

A bit late on parade today, but it's Sunday! Anyway I'm off to the workshop so I may be some time. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later 

[southern42]

33 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Unnecessary and a major waste of energy too. (Mentioned this before, the smart meter was effective in getting my wife to end this wasteful practise. Circa 3% reduction in our household energy consumption.)

 

My washing machine has a no-crease button. Who needs an iron?   

[PhilJ W]

37 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Unnecessary and a major waste of energy too. (Mentioned this before, the smart meter was effective in getting my wife to end this wasteful practise. Circa 3% reduction in our household energy consumption.)

 

2 minutes ago, southern42 said:

 

My washing machine has a no-crease button. Who needs an iron?   

When I remove them from the washing machine my shirts go straight onto hangers to dry and therefore don't require ironing.

[The Stationmaster]

G'day all.

 

Mrs Stationmaster is a slave to ironing despite having the recipe of a miracle preparation you can spray on newly dried clothes before putting them on hangers and it removes all creases - great stuff for holiday use and I existed on it for dealing with shirts when working in Aus.

 

Now a nice little quiz question for KZ, part of the clue is in the precise wording of the question, so here goes - 'Glasgow has had one twice, Bristol has had one twice, but Exeter has only had one once.  What is it?'

 

And back to normality with the incoming shopping duly quarantined or, where the packaging allows, disinfected while the newspapers are left out in the porch subject to uv treatment for a couple of hours.  And yes, we are back to receiving some uv although it is still occasionally breezy and the clouds are racing about occasionally blocking the uv.   The lad has departed to carry on painting signal boxes on the small gauge GCR while I thinking about lunch preparation.  Dinner tonight will be a lamb curry at teh request of the Good Doctor who celebrates her latest orbit today and there is also a carrot cake which was made yesterday in honour of the event.

 

Little else to report at present so enjoy your day and - so it appears - steer well clear of the state of Michigan where an earlier post seems to indicate that the loonies are well and truly in charge of the asylum.  I hold no firm views one way or the other regarding the origins of Covid-19 but if - as some allege - it was produced in a lab in China financed by US money it certainly seems to have been produced with exploiting the dumba*se stupidity of numerous US citizens in mind.

[JohnDMJ]

38 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

 

When I remove them from the washing machine my shirts go straight onto hangers to dry and therefore don't require ironing.

 

And as for linen handkerchiefs these days; why preserve it?

[roundhouse]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

You may think that you have a cross to bear. My mothers paternal grandmothers maiden name was Mogg, as in Rees-Mogg, and yes he is a distant cousin.

You have my deepest condolences

[roundhouse]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Ere! Leave my fraternal grandmothers family name alone! One drongoid doesn't represent the views of the family.. and its "Cummings" not "Cummins" the latter are also originally Highland Scots...

 

Baz

So any more thoughts of an ER's meet up for a cummings??