Early Risers.

[polybear]

 

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I’m also planning to make a classic boiled fruitcake (and if Mr Bear can get past the electrified fences, the antipersonnel minefields and the armed guards and make it to my Alpine Redoubt by 4 pm, he is welcome to have a very large and generous slice).

 

 

 

Fear not, Bear is already in......

This particular Bear has a such fine-tuned sense of smell that he has the ability to smell which cake you are thinking of making; the actual warning system goes something like this:

 

Level One:  iD is thinking of making a cake

Level Two: iD has the cookbook out

Level Three: Ingredients are opened and preparation begun

Level Four: It's in the oven......

Level Five: Look out, here I come.....

 

Bear doesn't normally make a move until Level Four has been triggered, but a rumour that a certain Hippo had got wind (fortunately not in the bodily sense) and was in the vicinity made early action wise essential.

Edited November 1, 2020 by polybear

[TheQ]

Breakfast and pills taken,  Ben is tucking into his food with bacon fat dripped over it... 

 

If The year is speeding up, then good riddance, 2020 has not been a good vintage.. 

 

One wonders if the political considerations to delaying the lockdown, was so that it will be low for the Cxxxxxxxs season... If you had held it earlier then the figures may have been  rise again.  Also it brings it closer, to the arrival of a vaccine so that may prevent or reduce a third wave. 

 

Muggacoffee 2 is due... 

 

[BokStein]

Good Moaning!

 

Sounds blustery outside so will probably spend most of the day reducing the content on the Freesat box's hard disk!.

 

3 hours ago, chrisf said:

I handed in my choices from the menu, which is a bit arty-farty but what did I expect from the poshest place in town?  Within two months I will know what is meant by Turkey Ballontine.

 

Sounds interesting but, no doubt, you will post photos to enlighten us all!

 

Here's what's on my menu:

 

 

 

[Tony_S]

10 minutes ago, BokStein said:

Ballontine

I know what ballotine is but Turkey Ballontine  sounds like something the Montgolfier brothers would have produced.  

[grandadbob]

Good morning all, 

It's rather grey here in the Land of Sutt with wind, brighter spells and showers, possibly heavy,  forecast.

Rugby was watched and I suppose you could say I'm happy that England are Champions but not really with the way it was achieved.  (and that's putting it mildly)  I wasn't so mild at half-time yesterday.  Many thanks due to France for their assistance.  They will be the team to watch next year without a doubt.

No trick or treaters here but there was a constant barrage of fireworks in the adjacent road for a couple of hours.

Breakfast has been downed and very nice it was too.  Apparently my services will be required shortly to place various online orders for C#######s for The Boss as she doesn't "do" computers.

The Shed is still being avoided, I'll have to brave it sometime but not today.

Apart from that nothing is planned until the F1 highlights later.

Have a good one,

Bob. 

Edited November 1, 2020 by grandadbob

[southern42]

‘ morning all from red dragon land.
 

I would not like to say good riddance to 2020 despite Covid & other inconveniences which in themselves have lent a hand in being able to enjoy activities etc that would otherwise have been difficult to fit in or would not have been there at all.

 

Change of plan, yesterday.  None of the M word, after all. This was halted by a necessary decision to clear out the kitchen cupboards.  A dehumidifier was set up a couple of weeks ago. I then started to notice little patches of fine brown dust on the front edge of the shelves  - coming down from the inside of the worktop?  Friday I moved a couple of packets and noticed a thick layer of the stuff...

So, yesterday, it was Battle Stations. By the time I had cleaned every item on the top shelf, hoovered & wiped clean shelf & under surface of worktop, and put most of the items back, the day had gone. 
Today’s delight - the rest of the cupboard. 

Fitt  and  Elfie putting their backs into it.

Take care and play safe.

—————

Best wishes

Polly

[tigerburnie]

Morning, drier and brighter, though still windy, might venture out later as the weather might just be iffy enough to keep the crowds in home eating Sunday roasts. Those 66 thingys are they buses or lorries as I can't see where you put the coal and water to properly pull a train along those parallel bits of metal.....................................................

[iL Dottore]

4 hours ago, chrisf said:

...  I handed in my choices from the menu, which is a bit arty-farty but what did I expect from the poshest place in town?  Within two months I will know what is meant by Turkey Ballontine....

I had a look at the menu and, to my eyes, hardly “arty-farty” and not even remotely “fine dining”. I would even say the menu is fairly pedestrian (and for that price I’ve eaten in Michelin starred restaurants). Chucking a load of expensive ingredients (like truffles) into a dish does not make it either “arty-farty” (or Haute Cuisine for that matter). Some menu items are quite appealing (the game terrine, for example) and you can’t go wrong with a Christmas pudding. But overall??? (and I pity the vegetarians who are stuck with a “Cashew, Brazil nut and cranberry nut roast” when there’s so many amazing vegetarian dishes out there).

 

And to answer your implied question, a ballontine is a a de-boned leg of chicken, duck or turkey stuffed with forcemeat or other ingredients (and, yes, I can debone a turkey leg, but it does require a very sharp boning knife [which I have] and lots of practice [not so much]). I wonder if they are making their own ballontine or “buying in”?

 

I’ve mentioned before that because I have my own consulting company I can shop at the local “trade-only” supermarket. And since starting to shop there I've pretty much stopped eating out (and this is pre-CoVID), because half of what is usually on the menu I can cook myself and the other half of what’s on the menu I see in the “trade supermarket” in 5kg and 10kg boxes in the deep freeze (and the mark-up on such things would make a racketeer blush: frozen samosas at CHF 0.45 each, are throw in the deep-fat fryer and served with a little lettuce and a dollop of [bottled] sauce at CHF 7 - CHF 9 for three). Things are probably very similar in the UK.

 

Now I’m hungry and lunch awaits.

 

Cheers

 

iD

Edited November 1, 2020 by iL Dottore
Duplicate wording

[southern42]

66 thingies.

We were at an exhibition some years ago. Ray was back & forth to one of the trade stands. So I meandered off nearby & on a small demo (or maybe organisation) stand, a long green thingie with large yellow letters along the side was running up and down a short strip of metal bits. It was well out of my knowledgeable-Ish range of M7s & paneers.  It was  at first sight!    So hands off! 

[iL Dottore]

58 minutes ago, BokStein said:

Here's what's on my menu:

 

 

 

Oh dear.

It sound like you need a Swiss Red Cross parcel!

Edited November 1, 2020 by iL Dottore

[Gwiwer]

Morning all.  Good it is not.

 

I have nothing to say which would not see me taking an enforced holiday from this place.  Events of yesterday have left me in a seething pool of frustration, anger and despair.  I am heartily sick of constant indecision and lack of leadership.  If I continue with this then Mr. York may have to intervene.  

 

Stay well all.  

[chrisf]

8 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I had a look at the menu and, to my eyes, hardly “arty-farty” and not even remotely “fine dining”. I would even say the menu is fairly pedestrian (and for that price I’ve eaten in Michelin starred restaurants). Chucking a load of expensive ingredients (like truffles) into a dish does not make it either “arty-farty” (or Haute Cuisine for that matter). Some menu items are quite appealing (the game terrine, for example) and you can’t go wrong with a Christmas pudding. But overall??? (and I pity the vegetarians who are stuck with a “Cashew, Brazil nut and cranberry nut roast” when there’s so many amazing vegetarian dishes out there).

 

And to answer your implied question, a ballontine is a a de-boned leg of chicken, duck or turkey stuffed with forcemeat or other ingredients (and, yes, I can debone a turkey leg, but it does require a very sharp boning knife [which I have] and lots of practice [not so much]). I wonder if they are making their own ballontine or “buying in”?

 

You can diss my seasonal repast as much as you like but it's a case of needs must.  I am spending more than I would wish on one meal and the prospect of not being alone on the one day of the year when no-one should be alone.  Perhaps I should have described it as pretentious rather than arty-farty: whatever, it is further upmarket than I would normally choose but it's one day a year - a day when I would so much rather have been in another country among friends.  It saves me the torture of slaving over far too big an item of poultry that seems to last for ever with no-one to share the experience.  I can cook OK.  Mostly I enjoy cooking and for most of the year I have to.  I might eat in a Michelin star place if someone else was paying but I don't move in those exalted circles.  Bully for those who do.

 

Chris 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, BokStein said:

Here's what's on my menu:

 

 

 

 

Oh dear, no....that's the offerings of food banks, left over from last Chr*****s.  Here's how do do it in style (iD, look away now....):

 

 

46 minutes ago, southern42 said:

I then started to notice little patches of fine brown dust on the front edge of the shelves  - coming down from the inside of the worktop?  Friday I moved a couple of packets and noticed a thick layer of the stuff...

So, yesterday, it was Battle Stations. By the time I had cleaned every item on the top shelf, hoovered & wiped clean shelf & under surface of worktop, and put most of the items back, the day had gone. 
Today’s delight - the rest of the cupboard.

 

 

It's one of life's mysteries just how does so much sh1t manage to get inside a closed cupboard??

[Coombe Barton]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

If I continue with this then Mr. York may have to intervene.  

... which is why my views are on my blog.

Edited November 1, 2020 by Coombe Barton

[Coombe Barton]

I'm afraid that many people are going to be alone at Christmas if what Michael Gove said this morning comes to pass.

Edited November 1, 2020 by Coombe Barton

[BokStein]

Pushing the boat pout:

 

13 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

 

A luxury four course meal!!

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Thought I'd start here today instead of in other areas but even that got delayed while searching out the official list of do's and don't\s and can's and can't's.  I see 'vulnerable' now starts at age 60 but most of the rest is pretty straightforward and compared with the previous lockdown there area lot more things which aren't locked down.  But no doubt notwithstanding essential shopping opportunities remaining freely available the buyers of panics will be out there doing their best to empty the shelves of things they haven't been bright enough to stock up over the past three months.  And at least NHS appointments etc will be maintained this time round under the genral rules.

 

Back to local matters and it is again wet and soggy out there with a bit more breeze than yesterday so the G word is definitely off the roster and some testing of function via parallel strips of metal and rollers might well be taking place instead.  As far as real trains are concerned I think that those Class 66 things are something of an acquired taste - and it is not one which I have acquired although I'm a great fan of the abilities of their earlier cousins the 59s.  In my book the letters 66 are correctly followed by XX.

 

Another taste which I have never acquired is for turkey which has the unfortunate habit of reminding me of a cross between cardboard and and a poorly fed chicken which has not spent several months scratching round a proper farmyard.  In my opinion Bernard Matthews should have long ago been strung up for insults to human tastebuds.  But each to their own and far too few people grew up (or are growing up) with access to a decent farmyard chicken which spent its day out in the open eating a lot more than 'corn'  so have never found out what chicken really can taste like.  Oh and its roast chicken for dinner tonight and while it definitely won't be quite the real thing it's a Waitrose offering which gets a bit nearer than a lot of what is offered nowadays.

 

Lunch I think is going to be beans and sausages because I'm fresh out of mushrooms.  And the management has just put the kettle on which might herald a fresh pot of as i just heard the pot being emptied although she is making stuffing for the chicken.

 

And on those happy thoughts I will wish you all a good day and trust taht you will find some enjoyment in it.  I'm off to fill my mug with freshly made tea

[monkeysarefun]

How messed up is the world getting! Today our Department of foreign Affairs and Trade issued a travel advisory against the US of A citing risk of civil unrest and potential violence.

 

Not that we are allowed out of the country and if we were we'd be nuts to go to the worlds Covid hotspot, but who'd have thunk a couple of years ago that it would join Afghanistan etc on our list of no go countries?

[The Stationmaster]

10 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

I'm afraid that many people are going to be alone at Christmas if what Michael Gove said this morning come to pass.

There is of course a way round that but it depends on who you happen to know or if you have family relatively close at hand.

1. If you are a single person living alone you can still become part of another household's bubble so you can visit their home.

2.  if you have, or area 'a carer' (which is not defined in these regulations etc - but might be elsewhere?) you can visit or be visited at home.

 

So maybe a good deed for Christmas might be to 'adopt' as part of your support bubble a single person who lives alone thus enabling them to enjoy a Christmas dinner - if nothing else - with others at the festive time.  As ever the thing about regulations and rules is not to barge through them breaking them willy nilly but to understand them to the extent that you find out any ways in which you might use them to ease the burden for others.

 

[greatcoleswoodhalt]

A long-time reader of Early Risers, herewith my first entry with an intention of posting each weekend...

 

 

16°C

SW 18kt, gusting 36kt

 

Weather much like the news overnight, though the sun is now making fleeting appearances.  Slow start to the day but a tour of the Bombay Sapphire Distillery, Whitchurch awaits with Mrs C - desperately trying to make use of gifted vouchers before expiry.

 

The poor state of our roof means that the lounge continues to leak, but hopefully assistance will be forthcoming soon.  Yesterday's announcement presumably means our new drive will be okay to start Wednesday, but wait with bated-breath.

 

With little now on the horizon, I look forward to what Bachmann will announce on Tuesday.

 

Stay safe.

Edited November 1, 2020 by jafcreasey

[Tony_S]

12 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

 

So maybe a good deed for Christmas might be to 'adopt' as part of your support bubble a single person who lives alone thus enabling them to enjoy a Christmas dinner

I wondered if perhaps MiL could come to us for a couple of weeks over Christmas as it would give her family in Enfield a break. However she is already in a bubble with them and since September you can’t change a bubble. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. We seem to have missed an anniversary?  Ian and Sherry's fifth a couple of days ago. Belated good wishes to you both. It's still dry outside but a bit blowy so no outdoor stuff will get done. I'm with Mike with regard to turkey's. The way they are interbred to produce something that mother nature would abhor makes the Kennel Club look like a paragon. I've found that Tess Coes still stock venison, as steaks or burgers would you believe so a venison steak is pencilled in for C*******s dinner. I have had venison before, that was in a restaurant at a family celebration. I quite liked it and as I recall it was a bit like beef but sweeter and stronger. That was forty or so years ago though. Welcome to our newest ER, jafcreasey, you will find us a friendly lot but guard your cakes if a certain Polybear and HH are in the vicinity.

[Coombe Barton]

10 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Welcome to our newest ER, jafcreasey, you will find us a friendly lot but guard your cakes if a certain Polybear and HH are in the vicinity.

And there is also the Awl to beware

[Happy Hippo]

58 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

I'm afraid that many people are going to be alone at Christmas if what Michael Gove said this morning come to pass.

That's ok by me, a long session in th workshop will suffice, but:

 

Who would dare to remove the Obergrumpenfuhrer?

 

Hereford and Poole have both declined in the past.

 

MG would be mincemeat

[The Lurker]

35 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning all from Estuary-Land. We seem to have missed an anniversary?  Ian and Sherry's fifth a couple of days ago. Belated good wishes to you both. It's still dry outside but a bit blowy so no outdoor stuff will get done. I'm with Mike with regard to turkey's. The way they are interbred to produce something that mother nature would abhor makes the Kennel Club look like a paragon. I've found that Tess Coes still stock venison, as steaks or burgers would you believe so a venison steak is pencilled in for C*******s dinner. I have had venison before, that was in a restaurant at a family celebration. I quite liked it and as I recall it was a bit like beef but sweeter and stronger. That was forty or so years ago though. Welcome to our newest ER, jafcreasey, you will find us a friendly lot but guard your cakes if a certain Polybear and HH are in the vicinity.

It’s a long time since I have regularly done my major food shop at Tesco, but I recall that they used to stock both ostrich and kangaroo. I made myself a kangaroo bourguignon which was quite successful although as kangaroo is a lot less fatty I ended up overcooking it. The most tasty ostrich I ever ate was in Cape Town where I had it in a red wine and gooseberry sauce served on a bed of garlic mash.