Early Risers.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from a Sidcup which is beautifully sunny but not all that warm yet.

 

I have not been to Paris for a few years now (around 8 or 9) and I don't recall Paris being eye-wateringly expensive; perhaps that is because I am used to London prices!

 

I have stayed in a hotel at Mountparnasse in the past - it may well have been the Mercure. It was the first time Mrs Lurker had been there and we largely walked everywhere. 

 

The most recent time, we had the Lurker boys with us and stayed in serviced apartments not very far from the Champs Elysee (I think Boulevard Haussmann but don't quote me on that!). They were surprisingly good value.

 

I remember thinking that the West Coast of the states was expensive - but we did tend to stay in big centres for some of our trip (Seattle, San Fran) but some of the places we ate at were really good value. There was a little Nepalese place near one of the entrances to Mount Rainier national part that sticks in the mind. Having said that, we did used to have such big portions that we usualy skipped starters and puddings so it didn't work out too bad!

 

Have a good day all

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

Sun softly shining through a thin cloudy sky.

 

When I woke up, I had an unexpected shock. I realised I will not be able to do my daily toot-on-the-flute for awhile.    Poop!  So, folks, keeping your little pinkies away from cutting implements... <sigh>

 

Next up on my agenda is getting some little people sorted for painting into The Prisoner gear for my VW bus. Currently, the bus is covered in 1960s motifs.  Light bulb moment, earlier, while browsing the Portmeirion The Prisoner webpages - replace motifs and slogans with some  The Prisoner ones, No.6 and all that.  I will have to think about that one... Not sure I am up to it - maybe not quite "clever enough" as Bradley Walsh might say.

 

 

Time for another mugadecaf and start getting ready for painting some more cakebox figures.

 

Polly

 

 

[simontaylor484]

We visited Portmerion when we were kids . I hadnt seen the Prisoner i was too young it was full of stuff with 6 on it or a motif with a penny farthing with a canopy over it. Having seen a rerun of the series i would appreciate it.

 

 

More brilliant writing on the Daily Star website yesterday. It said a troop fainted at Prince Phillips funeral. I though that must be bad if a whole troop had fainted. Turned out it was 1 soldier.

 

 

[Tony_S]

56 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

we did used to have such big portions that we usualy skipped starters

Our trip round New England soon taught us to order one starter to share after a couple of experiences with the size of starters. The first time anyone ever presented us with a pre starter or amuse bouch was in Maine. They seemed to be offered frequently on further travels. 
In some places  we have stayed the hotels have had Gala Dinners which seem to have about 7 courses. We have been known to have the option of the appropriate drink with each course too. Fortunately not driving afterwards. I recall one meal in Austria where I think it was the third starter and the waiter asking if we would be ok with the Welsfisch. I said we were as long as it wasn’t a whole one. I didn’t know what it was so had Googled it earlier and had discovered it was a giant catfish. It was like a couple of vol au vent, so manageable. 

[Tony_S]

19 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

We visited Portmerion when we were kids . I hadnt seen the Prisoner

I went as a child on holiday but only as far as the sign near the entrance. It must have been 1963. My mother had been told (probably by one of her sisters) how wonderful it was but hadn’t been told there was a fee to enter. This was before “The Prisoner” series was broadcast.  Mum was always very anxious about money and Dad had been unemployed for a while the previous year so everything was budgeted. 
 

[simontaylor484]

It was probably mid 80s when we went 

[southern42]

We went to Portmeirion a few times, 80s-90s then were sent free entry winter tickets but haven’t been for some time. On one occasion we bumped into several groups of No.6 fans. You could tell them from their outfits! On another, there was a rather grand wedding party. The place is quite big, so there is always something new to see, find, explore. Food was good when we went. In winter, some of the shops etc are closed but it lies on the estuary and has its own woods, so still plenty to enjoy. And parking was no problem as I recall.

[southern42]

I used to watch The Prisoner at the time and some years ago they started to show the series again. To my surprise, I could not watch it - I found it too sinister. Oh what difference a few years on your life can make!

[southern42]

Forgot to mention, over the last few weeks, I have been following the Geldingaladir eruptions on youTube. One of today’s offerings included a link to something you cake lovers out there might like - snow covered lava cake. So for Polybear, HH and the rest of you:

 

 

[Tony_S]

I had a text from our GP surgery at lunchtime. It said they had vaccines available tomorrow and would I like to have one. I answered  the text and received an appointment for tomorrow morning at the clinic round the corner. This will be my second dose. 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Tony_S

[Simon G]

Another fan of Portmeirion here, having been a few times and also stayed in the hotel once (but just an overnight stop while on business at the nearby Trawsfynydd power station).  
 

A trip was made into the big city of Whitehaven today to collect new pairs of glasses.  After sitting in the waiting area for a few minutes, I was told that on inspection, neither pair of glasses was up to standard, so I came away with nothing.   Have said this before, but I shouldn’t have gone to Specsavers!

 

Now waiting for a telephone appointment with GP as I have an ear infection.  They fobbed me off with a telephone appointment for the same problem 2 weeks ago, so I will be rather more assertive when they get around to calling me today!

[Ian Abel]

Moanday...

 

Generally a good weekend was had, though "to-do's" managed to invade the little free time I was hoping for. All good in the end though.

Saturday saw us sort out various objects of interest the Mrs deemed needed "organizing", also hanging of a picture by a local artist that the Mrs wanted and was therefore secured as an early Mothers Day gift.

Had an exceptional dinner and game afternoon/evening with Trevor and Meagan - Mexican Train being the game of choice for the evening. I was an early leader then failed

Sunday the bicycles were retrieved from their winter hanging position in the garage, oiled/greased and initial forays attempted. Unfortunately the Mrs bike had a brake break so we had to return and I'm now in search of an open bike shop to obtain replacement parts.

 

Today, with closing arguments in the George Floyd case being presented as I write, we will grocery shop this afternoon for an impending siege possibility.

The streets of Minneapolis and some inner suburbs are starting to resemble Fallujah rather than a quiet upper mid-western city.

Possibly/probably some curfews will be in place the next few days, we will be listening for that information.

 

Our friends who wintered in Arizona are on the way home and due to arrive tomorrow, hopefully ahead of any "excitement" around town.

 

ZERO first thing with a couple of meaningless snow flurries, high to reach 5 later with cloudy skies all day.

 

Stay safe.

[jamie92208]

29 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

Moanday...

Had an exceptional dinner and game afternoon/evening with Trevor and Meagan - Mexican Train being the game of choice for the evening. I was an early leader then failed

 

 

Stay safe.

An excellent game.  Some friends of ours have a set and we played it on Christmas day afternoon/evening.

 

Jamie

[southern42]

Just been informed that my Cakebox Challenge Entry now has its competition webpage:

 

https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/information/brm-cake-box-challenge-2021-the-cob?openPageId=26797249-8bb1-4995-8cb2-e08bef35fa75

 

Link to all entries is at the bottom of the page.  Really worth a look!

 

Polly

Must dash - mugadecaf and crumpets time.

 

[Tony_S]

Flavio has often mentioned the difference between domestic and commercial catering equipment. One of Aditi’s cousins sent a video of the kitchens at a Gurdwara in Delhi. They produce 60000 meals a day, no cook chill. The pan for 350 kg of dal was most impressive. 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Tony_S

[Barry O]

Yes, at the Golden Temple they provide free food for all comers...

 

 

one of the "cooking" pots

 

and of course a mega sized washing up area

 

 

Brilliant place!

 

Baz

[The Stationmaster]

Afternoon all,

 

Up has been caught after spending much of teh day on photo selection for an article and task of writing captions to go with them.  The latter is never  an easy job as apart from requiring knowledge of what the photo - with few details about it shows there's a need to check dates and such like.  also finally found the proof of the other article so that was duly checked but mysteriously it had somehow acquired a photo which looked to be just east of Ipswich, goodness only knows how that got in?

 

Snap with Tony regarding Portmeirion - back in the '60s we duly arrived at the entrance and mum took one look at the entry prices and off we went in the opposite direction as she and dad regarded it asa rip-off (or whatever they called a rip-off back then).  

 

As for the output from dogs back ends we long ag reached the conclusion that Paris out does even barry Island in that respect - and that, in my experience, is really saying something.  The last time we were there the city seemed to be well loaded with Eastern europeans of various sorts whose favoured tactuic was to approach whoever looked like a tourist and ask them if they were English - clearly we, and other English speakers, were regarded as a soft target.  The fatal error was to reply to them in English even if you only said 'no' and the most effective deterrent was to swear at them in French or German which invariably frightened them off.  The police seemed to have little interest in dealing with them and even the CRS ignored them if they happened to be about which was very different from the way they dealt with Arabs/other North Africans who at certain times were a major target for the police to give a good hiding to.  If there was a vigipirate security alert on the coppers went around accompanied by a couple of soldiers in which case any Arab looking person who got their attention would also be on the receiving end of a few bashes with a rifle butt; you were best advised to keep well clear in such situations. 

 

And talking of London hotels there was the manager of one moaning on R4 today that their bookings are well down because they aren't getting foreign tourists.  Apparently, much to his dismay, they aren't getting many bookings from British people who he implied are too tight fisted to spend anything between £350 and £5,000 per night for a room and he couldn't afford to reduce his prices.  The latter seemed illogical as it means he'd sooner have an empty hotel losing money than knock a couple of hundred quid off his grossly inflated prices in order to get the punters in.

 

Enjoy the rest of your day folks and I hope that Gordon and Dave's dad are both making progress even if it is only in tiny steps.

[Coombe Barton]

9 hours ago, polybear said:

om Screwfix - searches could find nothing for Bear on the site, only leccy ones

https://www.screwfix.com/p/14tpi-wood-hand-mitre-saw-23-600mm/126fg#product_additional_details_container

[JohnDMJ]

Good evening,

 

It being necessary for the sake of survival to be absent from the house for a large portion of the day, observatons and comments may refer to some older posts (albeit within the last 24 Hours!).

 

Case in point, and very much tongue in cheek as always:

 

10 hours ago, polybear said:

Bl00dy hell, it's 0809 and Bear's not dressed yet....

 

Another task deferred! (Please add this as evidence to the petition for the reinstatement of the sadly missed Groan Button!)

 

Hotels in Paris: my last two stays were at the Ibis Chateau Landon and Ibis Gare de l'Est; both of adequate (for me) standard on a B&B basis; my choice of 'easy' food (I am not given to gourmet) - where's the nearest Frog Pub?

 

In other news, I am awaiting referral to ENT to investigate an apparent blockage on one nostril; today I have been plagued by  constantly running nostril and adjacent tear duct. Off to lay in a cool, darkened room with no LCD distractions in the hope that life will be more tolerable in this area tomorrow!

 

[New Haven Neil]

8 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Snip< Just thought I would put this in as people are quick to complain when something goes wrong but rarely comment when things work. /snip

 

Tell me about it - back in my outpatients department manager days it was a very rare thing indeed, despite making over 49,000 appointments a year.   Our service level agreement was for 35,000 BTW - just think about that one for a while, those who criticise the NHS staff.

 

One that does stick in the mind though was after a particularly obnoxious patient threatened to call his MP (can't go into the reasons he was so annoyed, although I would like to give details!) and I asked that he do so. In due course the MP actually showed up, having been fed a tale by the patient, so I showed him around the department and described the workloads the team was working under, both clinicians and administrators.  He left a very satisfied man and assured me we would never hear a complaint from that person again.  He was right on that one anyway!

[simontaylor484]

Oh well if looks like Kier Starmer has achieved something I havent done ,getting chucked out of a pub sober.

 

The Landlord was not happy with him see You Tube for the proper goings on the BBC website has missed the point of the Landlords protest.

[Sir TophamHatt]

Well...

 

The TV aerial saga is very slowly at the end.

 

Finished fitting the cables and tuned the TV, only got 40 or so channels.

Back up to the roof and turned it very slightly (about 10cm to the left), re-tuned and got 80+ channels but no Cbeebies HD.

Turned another 10cm and re-tuned.  Picked up 80+ channels again but upon looking through, Cbeebies HD was there!

A few hours later, TV says weak / no signal for that channel :(

 

I have one more trick to try and if it's still unreliable then looks like I'm gonna have to turn the aerial the opposite way round and receive West Midlands transmissions :(
Perhaps I'll just cut my losses and try this anyway as I know it'll work fine that way.

 

Bet if I try it tomorrow, it'll show all channels again!

[polybear]

9 hours ago, PupCam said:

You are probably correct and Puppers has just fallen for it!   

 

Still, looking on the bright side, clearly your cynicism level is still improving after the recent setback.   Spill the beans, how much LDC medication did you have yesterday?

 

None, sadly - Bear was brave enough to suffer the symptoms until today, when a planned visit to the local Co-op (walking the long way there for some much needed and long overdue exercise) only to discover that the place was full of some sort of smoke/mist.  And I really do mean FULL.  From what I could gather it sounds like the place has a security system that releases clouds of....something....above the tills/booze & fag cabinet when triggered.  And a fault had triggered it.....

Bear was wise enough to realise the place wasn't going to be open anytime soon (I wonder if smoked LDC will be on special offer tomorrow?) so it was off to the local "corner shop" - which isn't actually on a corner - for some milk; LDC was far too upmarket for this place.  It's only the second time I've ever been on there, and the prices show why.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that a 4 pinter of milk was comparable to the price of that sold in the Co-op....until I got home, that is.....

The Co-op one is 2.272 L, whilst the corner shop one is only 2 L.  Bear's been robbed

 

8 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I have never been to Korea (Aditi very nearly booked a cruise that went there) and so we have only eaten in Korean restaurants in London and Dublin. Of course they have have been doing Korean food in the same way as Indian restaurants do Indian food in the UK. The tearoom in one of the Southend parks served Korean food at weekends for a while a few years ago. We never went as we only went to that park on weekdays when it was less busy. 
Tony 
 

 

Korea does a nice line in Kimchi (pickled cabbage, that comes in about a million different flavours apparently).  The term "nice" is rather subjective though, but when you're comparing it to Deep Fried Chrysalis or Pickled Silkworm Pupae, Bear knows which of the three he'd rather have....

 

7 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

When (and where) we visited the dogs were, as is Parisienne and broadly French tradition, revered and got seats to eat and drink at café and restaurant tables.  We knew that was the custom but still found it offputting. 

 

 

I wonder if the waiters clean the seats down after doggie has been sitting there - or do they rely on the next customer's trousers or dress to do the job.....

 

7 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

This was a much more upmarket hotel than I normally stay in  but i was rather taken aback to see that they wanted something like €20 for the buffet breakfast. It didn't take me more than about five minutes to find a local café round the corner that would do a perfectly good petit dejeuner for about 4€ (5€ if I wanted an egg)  

 

 

There are many Hotels in the UK that now charge extra for brekkies - and they're charging that kind of money, or close to.

 

6 hours ago, southern42 said:

 

 

 

Bear rescued some toy cars from his youth from the loft; I've previously sort and saved my favourites, whilst others are now on the 'bay.  Most are of the fiver variety (if that) but get listed at that start price cos' selling at a quid just isn't worth the time in packing etc.  However, Bear was most pleased to discover a vintage VW custom camper with surf boards intact that regularly sells for the thick end of a ton, or even over the ton if you're a lucky Bear.  That's now listed - which hopefully should compensate for the day it's taken to photograph and list them all.....

 

2 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Today, with closing arguments in the George Floyd case being presented as I write, we will grocery shop this afternoon for an impending siege possibility.

The streets of Minneapolis and some inner suburbs are starting to resemble Fallujah rather than a quiet upper mid-western city.

Possibly/probably some curfews will be in place the next few days, we will be listening for that information.

 

 

 

Bear is of the view that the accused deserves everything he's got coming - in normal circumstances there would be no way he get acquitted (the powers that be must realise the sh*t storm that would erupt would be of biblical proportions)......but in the USA nothing would surprise Bear.  However, no doubt the defence legal team are ready to claim that there is no way on earth their client could ever get a "fair trial" based on the amount of publicity which has preceded it.

Stocking up seems to be a very wise precaution.  Don't forget the LDC.

 

38 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

And talking of London hotels there was the manager of one moaning on R4 today that their bookings are well down because they aren't getting foreign tourists.  Apparently, much to his dismay, they aren't getting many bookings from British people who he implied are too tight fisted to spend anything between £350 and £5,000 per night for a room and he couldn't afford to reduce his prices. 

 

 

Or perhaps British people have too much common sense?  Five grand for a hotel room? 

Bear doesn't even recall spending three fifty a night of the company's money on a room, let alone his own....

 

35 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/14tpi-wood-hand-mitre-saw-23-600mm/126fg#product_additional_details_container

 

Many thanks; in Bear's defence when you enter "Mitre Saw" in the S/F search box this device doesn't come up - only the leccy ones.  Even though it's listed as a Mitre Saw....

How's the accuracy?

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Spent a bit too long on eye lid inspection this afternoon so running a bit late. I have visited Port Merrion on two occasions, the first in 1986 in September with my parents. My mum always wanted to visit there and the cost didn't seem excessive but then our budgets were quite good. We stayed at a farmhouse B&B, the breakfasts I can't remember so they can't have been that bad. The only thing was as we were driving home it came on the news about Chernobyl and that one of the areas affected by fall out was North Wales. The second time was about ten years later, by then Arthur Itis was making his presence felt on the steep pathways.

 

[PhilJ W]

5 minutes ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

Well...

 

The TV aerial saga is very slowly at the end.

 

Finished fitting the cables and tuned the TV, only got 40 or so channels.

Back up to the roof and turned it very slightly (about 10cm to the left), re-tuned and got 80+ channels but no Cbeebies HD.

Turned another 10cm and re-tuned.  Picked up 80+ channels again but upon looking through, Cbeebies HD was there!

A few hours later, TV says weak / no signal for that channel

 

I have one more trick to try and if it's still unreliable then looks like I'm gonna have to turn the aerial the opposite way round and receive West Midlands transmissions
Perhaps I'll just cut my losses and try this anyway as I know it'll work fine that way.

 

Bet if I try it tomorrow, it'll show all channels again!

You could always fit a booster to the aerial. I had one until I went over to cable. Only down about one is it is fitted to the aerial and would mean getting the ladders out again to fit one.