Early Risers.

[Adam88]

30 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I thought that it was common practice to gut all animals immediately after slaughter; you certainly do that when you shot a deer or a wild boar, even though you may not skin and dress the animal until it has hung for some time. There is an excellent reason reason for getting an animal immediately after slaughter and that is all the cheerful little microbes in the animal’s gastrointestinal system are still happily alive and, worst case scenario, will start consuming the gut contents and happily produce methane  - causing the belly of the ungutted animal to swell and possibly to explode. Furthermore, even if the guts don’t swell and explode, they can leak colonic contents into the abdominal cavity contaminating the meat with little bugs like E. coli (not all E. coli are malicious little pathogens, many are quite beneficial, but in the absence of a proper analytical laboratory , you’d be hard pressed to tell which was friend and which was foe).

 

 

Something similar happened after William the Conqueror died.  He is reputed to have exploded causing his mourners to beat a hasty retreat at his funeral in Caen because of the smell.

 

[pH]

2 hours ago, Adam88 said:

 

Something similar happened after William the Conqueror died.  He is reputed to have exploded causing his mourners to beat a hasty retreat at his funeral in Caen because of the smell.

 

Reminds me of the first line in “The Crow Road”, a novel by Ian Banks, which opens with the funeral of the narrator’s grandmother:

"It was the day my grandmother exploded."

 

(It wasn’t caused by gut bacteria.)
 

Edited September 21, 2020 by pH

[Northroader]

[simontaylor484]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I wonder if that is the reason that the British are reputed to have the worst teeth in Europe, if not the world. Almost as if some people act/think that if they can’t get it  for “free” on the NHS they won’t bother taking care of their teeth...

but I can understand why the NHS might be somewhat reluctant to cover all dental procedures, given a huge amounts of sugary drinks, sweets, confectionary and the like consumed on a daily basis by many people in Britain.

You jammy so-and-so!

I do have one or two good local butchers, one of which gets his pork from a local farmer who feeds his pigs a bottle of beer each day. With the result that they are very happy pigs and very tasty pigs as well.

Where I usually shop it is difficult to get meat on the bone, although occasionally you can get an entire lamb carcass or a quarter lamb carcass to butcher yourself (I’ve done this a number of times - dismembering a quarter lamb carcass that is - and I can tell you it’s not as easy as dismembering a human   The anatomy being the same, yet very different [if that makes any sense to you.])  I can get, thankfully, entire pork bellies with fat and skin, although not on the bone. And I have to confess, that abundant quantities of slow roast pork belly help to get me through the more challenging months of my diet. It’s surprising how quickly you can go through a 3 1/2 kg pork belly, depending on how I prepare it I might get as much as six meals out of one.

 

I thought that it was common practice to gut all animals immediately after slaughter; you certainly do that when you shot a deer or a wild boar, even though you may not skin and dress the animal until it has hung for some time. There is an excellent reason reason for getting an animal immediately after slaughter and that is all the cheerful little microbes in the animal’s gastrointestinal system are still happily alive and, worst case scenario, will start consuming the gut contents and happily produce methane  - causing the belly of the ungutted animal to swell and possibly to explode. Furthermore, even if the guts don’t swell and explode, they can leak colonic contents into the abdominal cavity contaminating the meat with little bugs like E. coli (not all E. coli are malicious little pathogens, many are quite beneficial, but in the absence of a proper analytical laboratory , you’d be hard pressed to tell which was friend and which was foe).

Thank you, Mike, for the links to the various butchers, although I am sure they can do mail order, there’s no point in shipping things to Switzerland, even paying a premium for next day airfreight, the Swiss would still impose the limit of 1 kg of meat that can be imported at any time duty-free (apparently they even have tables indicating how much meat contents various items, such as salami, contains. So, apparently, you could import 3 x 1 kg salamis, providing that the meat content  In each salami  does not exceed 330 g of meat).

Game, most surprisingly, does not have a limit as to how much you can import (but given the cost of venison you soon bump into the upper limit of how much you can import into Switzerland in terms of Swiss franc value).

Well, I’m off to have a brandy (the one brandy I can drink by the bucketful comes from my adopted home town of Bologna and is called Vecchia Romagna, Etticheta Nera. An eminently drinkable brandy for very little money.

 

zum Wohl, mitenand!
 

iD

My Grandad my dads dad used to like vecchia romagna he used to get annoyed when few people had hrard of it in pubs in this country.my grandparents had many holidays in italy usually Rimini or Sorrento. He first went to italy in the war after chasing Rommel out of North Africa

[Barry O]

Goodnight all!

[brianusa]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I wonder if that is the reason that the British are reputed to have the worst teeth in Europe, if not the world. Almost as if some people act/think that if they can’t get it  for “free” on the NHS they won’t bother taking care of their teeth..

 

Its amazing, especially with the 'free' NHS which seems to mean if you want it done -  you will pay for it!  One of the things that amazed me on arriving in the US were the number of children with braces on their teeth as well as some adults.  Having never seen this in the UK it was unusual at the time, but the result is worth the effort.  Even still, the British seem to suffer bad teeth; one would think pride and their appearance would induce them to visit a dentist now and again.

     Brian

[Coombe Barton]

... and a Postlude to the Lumberjack's Song ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/09/21/spoke-too-soon/

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Erichill16]

Goodnight All,

Robert

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, Adam88 said:

 

Something similar happened after William the Conqueror died.  He is reputed to have exploded causing his mourners to beat a hasty retreat at his funeral in Caen because of the smell.

 

To stop something similar happening to Nelson after Trafalgar they put him in  a barrel of brandy which pickled him nicely.  I think that the brandy was sold off afterwards.

 

Now where's that bottle of cognac.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

It was a glorious day here in North Salopshire so Jill and I went for a couple of hours bike ride. The timing and distance were dictated by us meandering along back roads that we had never used before and didn't know where they led but eventually we happened across a place we recognised and were thus able to find our way home. Almost no traffic was encountered and the time spent was very pleasant. It was followed by coffee and cake on the patio, a wee bit of workshop time and a 'let's see what's in the freezer' dinner as neither of us felt like spending much time in the kitchen. En route we espied some blackberry bushes that have so far escaped the depredations of the pickers so tomorrow morning we may well return equipped with suitable containers.

 

Night night everyone. Stay safe and well.

 

Dave     

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Had a call from my friend this evening. His daughter, the one with autism and learning difficulties is to be placed in sheltered accommodation. Hopefully they can find a place not to far away. I was wondering how the extension that enables you to stay on the old Farcebook works. Apparently there's some very old browsers about that cannot accept the new Farcebook and there's something set up so that they can still use the old system. So what the guy who set it up has done is moved it onto Google Chrome and Firefox as well. Farcebook are not happy but there's not much they can do about it other than take out the group(s) promoting it. This is what I understand to be the case but I've probably got it completely wrong.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

It’s been a good day to be outside, lots has been done, mainly clearing away fallen leaves. This unfortunately will be an on going thing well into next month as there are lots of trees around and our gardens seem to be a leaf magnet. The only thing I didn’t get done was moving the plants that I want to lift, divide and reposition, but that will be done tomorrow, if the seaweed twirlers have got there predictions right. 

 

After tea I completed the Sainsbury’s Grand Prix and I called into the pharmacy to drop of prescriptions for both myself and Sheila, these will be collected next Monday. It was a lot quieter than usual and 99% of people were wearing masks correctly. I don’t know why some people find it so to wear them properly. 

 

Below is a photo of one of our named plants, this is a viburnum and he’s been named in honour of the mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham, so he it is, meet Andy (ViBurnham). 

 

 

Goodnight all. 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[southern42]

‘ night all and nos da

[Winslow Boy]

48 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

Good evening everyone 

 

It’s been a good day to be outside, lots has been done, mainly clearing away fallen leaves. This unfortunately will be an on going thing well into next month as there are lots of trees around and our gardens seem to be a leaf magnet. The only thing I didn’t get done was moving the plants that I want to lift, divide and reposition, but that will be done tomorrow, if the seaweed twirlers have got there predictions right. 

 

After tea I completed the Sainsbury’s Grand Prix and I called into the pharmacy to drop of prescriptions for both myself and Sheila, these will be collected next Monday. It was a lot quieter than usual and 99% of people were wearing masks correctly. I don’t know why some people find it so to wear them properly. 

 

Below is a photo of one of our named plants, this is a viburnum and he’s been named in honour of the mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham, so he it is, meet Andy (ViBurnham). 

 

 

Goodnight all. 

That's a  very nice Andy Burnham you have there. Would it be presumptuous to suppose you have another Andy Burnham on the other side of the step to match it?

Edited September 21, 2020 by Winslow Boy

[simontaylor484]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

To stop something similar happening to Nelson after Trafalgar they put him in  a barrel of brandy which pickled him nicely.  I think that the brandy was sold off afterwards.

 

Now where's that bottle of cognac.

 

Jamie

Brings a whole new meaning to cask aged

[Erichill16]

Can’t sleep again, so much going round in my head.
There’s a butchers near me that does a rabbit pie amongst other things. I’ve never had one (or any of his other pies) due to my diet. He says he can do my a pie, he’d replace the pastry with mashed potato- but that’s not a pie is it!!!!!!
Robert

[iL Dottore]

7 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

My Grandad my dads dad used to like vecchia romagna he used to get annoyed when few people had hrard of it in pubs in this country.my grandparents had many holidays in italy usually Rimini or Sorrento. He first went to italy in the war after chasing Rommel out of North Africa

Now that brings back memories. During my teenage years in Bologna, during the summer weekends we were all piled into my father’s light blue Fiat something (not sure what model, but certainly not a cinquecento) and go down to Rimini where there was a beach restaurant called the Caponero which did amazing, incredibly fresh, seafood.

Returning to Vecchia Romagna brandy,  The company currently has three types on offer: a relatively young Classico, the Etichetta Nero and the, presumably prestige, Riserva Tre Botti (A blend of three of their finest brandies, each aged in a different type of barrel).  The latter being something I very would much like to try.

A quick Google showed that Vecchia Romagna has produced, over the years, many interesting short production run brandies (such as a 10-year-old reserve); time, inclination and budget allowing, I might see if I can track down some of these rarities (it’s sometimes quite interesting to see what one can find on dusty shelves in the back of little corner shops).

7 hours ago, brianusa said:

....One of the things that amazed me on arriving in the US were the number of children with braces on their teeth as well as some adults.  Having never seen this in the UK it was unusual at the time, but the result is worth the effort....

     Brian

Apparently, or so I have read, one of the things that “gave away“ American spies during the Cold War was perfect teeth: a product of both extensive, preventative (and sometimes corrective) dental intervention and a juvenile diet rich in milk.

I recall that my maternal grandfather (and as this is a childhood memory, so my grandfather at the time would not have been more than, say, 50 years of age) already had dentures and this was not uncommon. It would be interesting to learn what percentage of the over 50 population in the UK versus that in the US actually are denture wearers in 2020.

6 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

To stop something similar happening to Nelson after Trafalgar they put him in  a barrel of brandy which pickled him nicely.  I think that the brandy was sold off afterwards.

 

Now where's that bottle of cognac.

 

Jamie

Ah, “Nelson’s Blood”! Legend has it that after the Battle of Trafalgar, with Nelsons body placed in a cask of Rum (not brandy, it being the RN), some enterprising sailors managed to tap the cask and supplement their own rum rations. Such is the pervasiveness of this legend, that there is even a cocktail called Nelson’s Blood made, of course, with rum.

Nothing quite like distilled spirits and there seems to have been an explosion in their variety over the past few years. The “trade” supermarket where I shop (and it’s not a specialist wine & spirits dealer) has over 20 types of gin and similar numbers of different types of whisky, vodka, rum and brandy (not to mention various liqueurs). Funds permitting, I plan on performing an extensive in-depth analysis of the differences between the various bottles of each type of distilled spirit. Of course, if I approach this with same rigour as I do my “day job”, I’d have to set up a Phase I, single-centre, dose-finding study with Healthy Human Volunteers (and where do you think I would find those, I wonder....)
It would be interesting to see how how long it’d take to fully sample 20 different bottles of single malt whisky....

 

And on that ethanol fuelled note, I bid you a happy, and boozy, Tuesday .

 

iD

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all.  I yearn for the day when "good morning" rings true.

 

I have finished taking my own BP readings and must take to the Stalag the sheet on which the horror story is recorded ahead of the telephone inquisition tomorrow.  The readings are uniformly above the recommended 120/80 so I may expect something in the nature of a rebuke.  I should keep the whole of tomorrow free for it since I have not been given a time at which to expect the phone call but I suspect that there will be time for the hearty breakfast beloved of the condemned man.

 

Yesterday Q name-checked Cardboard Shoes, Keith Skues, as his spell of duty on BBC local radio in the Eastern Counties draws to a distinguished end.  If anyone has the perfect voice for radio it is Keith Skues.  I had the pleasure of meeting him aboard the MV Galaxy, home of Big L, on 20th May 1967 and we still exchange festive greetings cards.  Despite it being a precarious existence, what with short term contracts and the like, I yearned to work in radio but the management of BFBS and Radio Bristol were not persuaded of my talents and I had to get a proper job instead.  Radio Bristol could have been interesting, for if I had got the job there I would have been working alongside the likes of Michael Buerk and Kate Adie, or Kathryn Adie as she was then.  I've just realised that I failed to tune in when I was in Bristol a fortnight ago to see how they were getting on without me.  Perhaps I have got it out of my system at last after 50 years.

 

I cannot help noticing a note of desperation on the part of those who rule us as measure after measure is announced to keep that ruddy virus under control.  Maybe we should all carry on regardless and just let it rip through the community.  It's the only thing that has not been tried.  Am I being serious?  You decide!

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris 

Edited September 22, 2020 by chrisf
typo

[TheQ]

2 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Can’t sleep again, so much going round in my head.
There’s a butchers near me that does a rabbit pie amongst other things. I’ve never had one (or any of his other pies) due to my diet. He says he can do my a pie, he’d replace the pastry with mashed potato- but that’s not a pie is it!!!!!!
Robert

Shepherds pie doesn't have pastry on it, I suppose a mash covered rabbit pie should be called a Warreners pie.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

@chrisf  my BP is not 120 over 80.. normally I can see BPs frpm 130/65 to 140/75.. Sister Drac rarely comments on it. They took it yesterday in the scanner.. woke me up the first time..

 

Today is the last Over 60s crickey of the season. We are off to Hewood to play Lancashire. I will need to be on my toes as they really do push the laws and rules as far as they can.

 

Have as good a day as you can. Hope our missing ERs are safe and well.

 

Baz

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, Inner Temple Hare,

6 hours sleep with a couple of wake up and turn overs and that was it except for a doze off just as I was supposed to get up which meant a rapid charge around to get ready for work..

 

Ben the desperate Collie overcame his fear of the darkness this morning, and a considerable watering was followed by charging down the garden after a rabbit..  No rabbit pie though.

 

The drive in was enlivened by disturbing a small owl on the road, it flew off as I approached, in the landrover leaving it's catch on the road.. 

I then followed a white van man  marked up ToolBank, 40mph on the country "A" roads and about 35 in town, I was very glad when a big gap opened up on the other lane, so I could get past in the Landrover..

 

Clear Skies fairly cool, but dry out there. Our forecast is for rain most of tomorrow, but I note Shawbury's is that the rain will have passed through, So Dave's blackberries should be well washed. I note we have a large tub of blackberries in the fridge so SWMBO must have been picking down the lane on Ben's long walk yesterday.

 

I've decided the first stage of raising the boat is imminent, so I'm going to collect a load more blocks on the way home to support the boat on it's frame. This should raise the bottom of the boat to about 3ft, allowing me to add the board which will spread the weight of the keel onto the hull. Unfortunately this also means I'll need a ladder to get into the boat as the cockpit edge will then be 5ft 6inches above the ground.

 

Todays work, measuring 100M Ohms down to 0 Ohms, with many measurements in between, it will take all day. Electronically it's quieter at this time of Day, so High Ohms first, as they are much more susceptible to electronic noise than low Ohms due to the lower current used.

 

100 M Ohms came out as 100.01405 M Ohms,

 

Time to set up for 19 M Ohms..