Early Risers.

[The Lurker]

13 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

 

 What about an English breakfast casserole?

The Hairy Bikers in their book One Pot Wonders have bastardised the shakshuka and turned it into a full English shakshuka. I have not made it but the recipe does of course contain sausage, bacon, black puddings, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, haricot beans, and of course eggs. 

 

Edit - I found a link to the recipe online:

 

https://www.hairybikers.com/recipes/view/full-english-shakshuka

Edited May 13, 2021 by The Lurker

[tigerburnie]

Morning, looks like we have the Haar for the day, gentle breeze coming off a very cold North Sea, no idea what will happen today, some parallel bits of metal could do with having a few volts run through it as none has for a couple of weeks, going to look for my mojo. Take care all.

[TheQ]

A quick search on't net shows that Molasses is available in the UK,  but if you by it in large quantities it tends to have a picture of a horse on the front as it's intended destination..

it appears Blackstrap Molasses (USA) is sold as treacle in the UK... Tate and Lyle anyone..?

[Tony_S]

52 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

The Hairy Bikers in their book One Pot Wonders have bastardised the shakshuka and turned it into a full English shakshuka. I have not made it but the recipe does of course contain sausage, bacon, black puddings, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms, haricot beans, and of course eggs. 

 

Edit - I found a link to the recipe online:

 

https://www.hairybikers.com/recipes/view/full-english-shakshuka

We had a cassoulet last week with “French style” sausage and bacon using haricot beans. I will suggest perhaps the addition of black pudding next time. We eat loads of pea/bean/lentil based meals. I still like baked beans on toast though. Nowadays we have the reduced salt and sugar Heinz version. 
Tony

[Tony_S]

I always assumed ChrisF’s former comment was a reference to experts as used in the English legal system. Aditi’s brother is a GP and like all GPs have regular training update sessions. He said the definition of an expert is someone who has travelled over 50 miles and had a PowerPoint presentation to show you. 
Just to reassure iD I don’t think British people generally hold experts in low esteem. However some of those who are clever enough to succeed in politics seem to. Also “too clever by half” is probably used really to describe people who think they are clever, tell everyone how clever they are but actually are not. Alternatively affectionately about someone who perhaps who neglects ordinary tasks due to making use of their expert skills. 
Tony

[Simon G]

Morning all, I haven’t posted for a while as we have been away visiting our new granddaughter in a childcare bubble, and I don’t like to advertise our absence from home on any social media.  It has been an absolute delight to see our granddaughter and to see just how much she developed in our stay and it was a hard task to drag ourselves away and return home yesterday morning.  At least we had the consolation of meeting up with no 2 son for the first time in nearly 18 months for a very pleasant pub meal in the sun (mostly!) as a way of breaking our journey home from Cambridgeshire.  I now just want to get back down there again to see her again and Mrs G thinks the same.

 

In our absence the weeds have made a major bid to take over the garden, so weeding has commenced in the sun this morning.  Half the strawberry bed has been weeded, and now it is coffee time, followed by lawn mowing.  Looking out of the living room window tells me that the task of hedge trimming is nearly due, as there was significant growth while we were away.

[Winslow Boy]

Well today's the day. What's that I hear you shout from the back. Why its grass cutting day and quite a bit of it soi shall be away for some time. No cheering please.

 

Well its official. The NhS have decided to retain the triage system introduced at the height of the pandemic. So pupers I don't think your desire of seeing a human being when you are ill is going to be fullfilled. I think our surgery staff will be cheering as now they will have an excuse when they don't answer the telephone- well we've been told to direct you to the website. There is though a slight flaw with this  though in that they only allow a set number of queries and what does the partially sighted ninety two year old do as a)  she cannot see the screen and b) nor operate a computer.

 

Oh hum all to make the staffs job easier and the patients life more difficult. What was it they are supposed to be doing? Oh yes looking after poorly people.

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup which is wet and grey although currently not actually raining.

 

Today is LDC and Autosport day, which will intersperse work!

 

I would tend to agree with iD that there is an undercurrent in British society that disdains "experts" in many fields. We sneer at people who use "Doctor" in their title, unless they are medical, whereas in some places such as Germany in seems almost de rigeur to have one or two Doctors in your title with possibly a professor too. Even the term "Boffin", as beloved by the redtops, is not really a compliment. However I do think that this has been/will change slightly, certainly in favour of the medical sciences experts, because of the success in producing the vaccines. 

[The Lurker]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

A quick search on't net shows that Molasses is available in the UK,  but if you by it in large quantities it tends to have a picture of a horse on the front as it's intended destination..

it appears Blackstrap Molasses (USA) is sold as treacle in the UK... Tate and Lyle anyone..?

per Tate & Lyle's site, their Black Treacle is a blend of cane molasses and syrup.

[PhilJ W]

Molasses has largely been displaced by corn syrup in many food applications.

[The Lurker]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

We had a cassoulet last week with “French style” sausage and bacon using haricot beans. I will suggest perhaps the addition of black pudding next time. We eat loads of pea/bean/lentil based meals. I still like baked beans on toast though. Nowadays we have the reduced salt and sugar Heinz version. 
Tony

I make what I call a Spanish chicken (which has nothing directly to do with Spain, I made the recipe up from what I imagine Spanish meals might be like!).

 

It has chicken breast or thigh, chorizo, cannelini beans, red peppers tomatoes, paprika, saffron, thyme and parsley with obligatory onion and garlic.

 

We've upped the use of beans and pulses and particularly chick peas, not least because technically Younger Lurker has an allergy to them which was succsssfully challenged at the Evelina. He now has to have them regularly in his diet; same goes for cashews, sesame and Brazil nuts. His allergy to peanuts is too severe for the Evelina to challenge although they will reasses in a year or two's time

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

chick peas

One of staples of Punjabi home cooking. Chick pea curry seems to be called channas but isn’t the same as channa dal which is a yellow split pea. 
Tony

[Dave Hunt]

When I was a nipper in the mid '50s there was frequently a molasses tanker parked near my primary school. Us kids would scoop up the residue around the outlet nozzle with our fingers and lick it off, which we thought was yummy. Probably enough to send a 21st century H&S person into orbit but as far as I am aware, none of us ever suffered any ill effects.

 

Dave

[polybear]

5 hours ago, NGT6 1315 said:

However, last week, I got an oil pressure warning and noted the engine sounded increasingly rough.

After having it towed to our dealer, they were mystified to find particles of an almost waxy composition in the lubrication circuit, which seems to have clogged most of the oil conduits.

 

I suppose any guess will be as good as any other. Could‘ve been the new oil filter.....

 

 

Before Bear had read the words "Oil Filter" I'd already suspected this as a favourite cause.

 

Do you recall where you got the filter from, and can you rescue it for examination?  You may well have good grounds for compo to cover the damage....

 

In other news:

Bear has been fighting with bl00dy cabinets all morning

I got one levelled up nicely that had been causing trouble - but the small (300mm wide) one at right angles to it (it's the corner of the kitchen) is being a real pig to do.  Level up the back to match the adjacent cabinet - but when the front is then levelled it screws up the rear.  No end of battling has been carried out, but it just won't play nicely.  Bear has a cunning plan though.....

[NGT6 1315]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

Greetings all from Sidcup which is wet and grey although currently not actually raining.

 

Today is LDC and Autosport day, which will intersperse work!

 

I would tend to agree with iD that there is an undercurrent in British society that disdains "experts" in many fields. We sneer at people who use "Doctor" in their title, unless they are medical, whereas in some places such as Germany in seems almost de rigeur to have one or two Doctors in your title with possibly a professor too. Even the term "Boffin", as beloved by the redtops, is not really a compliment. However I do think that this has been/will change slightly, certainly in favour of the medical sciences experts, because of the success in producing the vaccines. 

Titles being actually used in addressing people is even more pronounced in Austria, to my knowledge. Here, it depends on various factors, from my impressions over the years. People who are familiar with each other (even in a patient-physician relationship which has been active for several years, for example) may eventually end using „doctor“ as an address and no offence will usually be taken, but as I said, there’s no universal rule really.

Edited May 13, 2021 by NGT6 1315

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

...I would tend to agree with iD that there is an undercurrent in British society that disdains "experts" in many fields. We sneer at people who use "Doctor" in their title, unless they are medical, whereas in some places such as Germany in seems almost de rigeur to have one or two Doctors in your title with possibly a professor too. Even the term "Boffin", as beloved by the redtops, is not really a compliment. However I do think that this has been/will change slightly, certainly in favour of the medical sciences experts, because of the success in producing the vaccines. 

A healthy degree of scepticism is always beneficial - science, technology, engineering and medicine are constantly moving forward and developing because practitioners of these disciplines tend to say “You claim that if you do “X“ then you will get “Y”, prove it/show it to me!”
 

In a way, I understand the general public‘s concern and scepticism about “experts“, especially the self proclaimed type, given the proliferation of less than - how can I put it diplomatically - intellectually rigourous degrees (surf science anyone? [University of Plymouth]).
 

With a certain political person’s emphasis on “educashun, educashun, educashun”, and the target of getting 50% of school leavers into higher education this has only led to the proliferation of so-called universities and colleges that are, again to be diplomatic, not incredibly academically rigourous (although has anyone noticed that even these fourth and fifth tier “universities“ never seem to charge less than the full whack for a year’s tuition. Whether it is the University of Oxford or Clapham Common University, you still have to stamp up £9000 per year).

 

Had Britain adopted - when reorganising education in the 1960s - the Technische Hochschule system of the DACH countries, realistic and well paying employment opportunities would have been now in reach of today’s  youngsters (many of whom sadly seem to have forked out £27,000 or more to get a degree in something like “postcolonial literature“ which eminently qualifies them to be a Barista at Starbucks). Not only that, but a TH is as rigorous in its own way as the more academic universities - leading to a well educated populace no matter whether academically or practically minded. And when you have significant and well trained/educated expertise in all walks of life, the whole idea of anti-expertism (to coin a phrase) is nonsensical

Edited May 13, 2021 by iL Dottore

[Gwiwer]

Happy Lunchtime all, welcome to Thor's Day, BIN Day and the wettest day for quite some time.

 

The House of Fun welcomed both Mr and Mrs @Chris116 with the former greeting me from an adjacent platform and "introducing" the latter at a very social distance across two tracks of railway and some.  

 

Speaking of railway some of the old hands here will recognise the level of paperwork which seems to achieve nothing but "must be done".  Today I was obliged to have a 30-minute interview with the Duty Manager.  Why?  Because 18 months ago I took a day sick leave which in turn triggered a "disciplinary stage" due to absence.  Only on the railway, surely, is being unwell and staying home considered a disciplinary offence.  So today's interview was to confirm that as it has been 18 months since my previous absence I was no longer "under review" and I was duly presented with not one but two letters the sum of which confirms the fact.  One confirmed that I am no longer subject to "Stage 1" because it has been over 12 months since my last sickness and the other confirmed the meeting today had agreed that.  A waste of everyone's time and resources.  Multiply that across perhaps 200 staff station-wide and the number of sicknesses in any given period even allowing for the railway to still have generally low levels of sickness and absenteeism.  Ho hum.  

 

I used to be qualified to lead Form 1 hearings.  Form 1 is basically the "Please explain" form still used by at least some rail businesses.  It is also a first, and can be the first-and-final, stage in termination of employment depending on the severity of the alleged offence.  On two occasions I dismissed the hearing knowing my staff were sufficiently reprimanded just to have received Form 1 and needed "No further action taken".  In truth there was an element of paperwork avoidance too because the hearings would have achieved nothing positive but could have taken hours to achieve precisely than much.  A case, perhaps, of the man knowing his men.  Females were not involved.  

 

Dr. SWMBO is engaged with the BBC as I speak as a pre-interview session with the presenter.  I remain none the wiser as to the reason nor the program other than that it is for Radio 3.  

 

In other news the Children's Garden we have suggested for the Hill of Strawberries is to go ahead with immediate effect and as a part of the new arrangements children are no longer permitted to play unsupervised on the front lawns; they must play in the designated play area which is the large back lawn.   Probably a positive move and clearly one the landlord was keen on.  They also seem to be amenable to tenant-led initiatives for improvements generally.  

 

It's time to put the Gwiwer in the shower.  If no-one throws the soap in I may be some time  

[Tony_S]

8 minutes ago, polybear said:

Before Bear had read the words "Oil Filter" I'd already suspected this as a favourite cause.

My first task would have been to see if there had been any coolant loss. Coolant + oil makes a horrible sludge. Though I am sure a Toyota garage would have mentioned that. 

[jonny777]

Overcast and wet in North Somerset. 9mm so far today; to add to the 14 we had yesterday and 7 on Tuesday. It would seem flood, drought, flood, drought is back. 

 

As for recipe books, I count them as a complete waste of money; mainly because most authors just make a few minor changes to someone else's recipes and then add those to their book. 

 

My goldfish arrived in the post yesterday. They were a bit stressed by the ordeal, but calmed down once they were tipped into the new home and could hide amongst the water lilies. Unfortunately, it has rained for much of the time and they have taken to the depths out of the bad weather. 

 

So now I have two ponds, the goldfish one and the frog one. I don't want the two combined because the fish would scoff any wildlife in the frog pond. 

 

 

 

 

[NGT6 1315]

16 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

My first task would have been to see if there had been any coolant loss. Coolant + oil makes a horrible sludge. Though I am sure a Toyota garage would have mentioned that. 

They didn’t mention any signs of coolant leakage. I had bought the oil filter from a retailer I had no reason to think of as being shady, and it had come sealed in original packaging. Like I said, very odd, but on The Replacement, I will stick with having the workshop do such jobs for at least the next several years!

 

But, yeah, I did find myself wondering if I might have done anything wrong during the oil change, even though I had done precisely what I knew the garage would have done.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, The Lurker said:

We sneer at people who use "Doctor" in their title, unless they are medical, whereas in some places such as Germany in seems almost de rigeur to have one or two Doctors in your title with possibly a professor too

We do???  Dr. SWMBO (of environmental history) uses her title professionally without fail though seldom in a casual situation.  She is introduced now when she presents papers, attends zoom-ferences and such like as "Dr. Sharon Xxxxxxxxxx" quite correctly and out of respect for her achievements and eight years of intensive high-level study.  While the levels of academic achievement have become devalued by stealth over the years, largely because more people are on the planet and therefore more people are attending more universities and entering the job market with Bachelor of Something-or-other there is still respect accorded to those in that minority.  For minority they are by some margin.  

 

German (and German-speaking folk of other nationalities) seem to insist on correct address; a good friend who herself insists on being greeted only by her given name reminded us to address her (now late) father as Herr Doktor Doktor B***** and sign off with "Auf Wiedersehen, Doktor".  We were only to use his given name if invited otherwise it was "Doktor Xxxxx" throughout.

 

30 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

there was frequently a molasses tanker parked near my primary school

United Molasses tankers would be found throughout the east end of London and its outer eastern suburbs at one time.  We often had one parked along the road from us when I lived in the delightful neighbourhood of E16.

 

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

Chick pea curry seems to be called channas but isn’t the same as channa dal which is a yellow split pea. 

I know chick-pea curry as chana (or channa) but add split-peas and it becomes chana dall.  Should be somewhere between soupy and gloopy and sufficiently spiced that it is neither hot nor boring on the palate.  Again something I learned during my days in the eastern parts of London where, at the time, Indian and Afro-Carib faces far outnumbered white.   Mobeen at East Ham (and who also had a shop in Upton Park) were my go-to for a wide range of Indian dishes.  There were many others.  Tipu's on Plashet Grove was a good sit-in.  The best chana dall came from a small place on the Barking Road whose name now escapes me.  

[TheQ]

To those of a level below that of Doctor, there is no legal status. You could be sent an "engineer" from Currys to see to your TV and he's had a couple of hours training on how to plug it in .

But me as a mere technician, has a degree, and  an additional 3 years + electronics training..

 

I'm now at home having a muggacoffee, in a half hour we're off to get Bill Gates chip 2.

 

The handicap spreadsheet now has two graphs. They look OK, I'm happy with the results. There's just prettying it up, and a review of data . I'll also have another search for anymore boats to add to the data, more data can only help.

 

[Tony_S]

18 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Should be somewhere between soupy and gloopy and sufficiently spiced that it is neither hot nor boring on the palate

Aditi made a lot recently when I was unwell. She has no problem with the consistency but I do tease her that what she makes is a bit bland for most British people. She, like her Dad, is not a fan of very hot spicy food.  Her Mum is though. There will be Punjabi food tonight, not sure what but it will feature matar paneer. 
Tony

[simontaylor484]

@Gwiwer your sickness procedure sounds similar to that of the Council where i used to work. Reporting sick did get silly at times i had to go for an operation i had to be at the hospital for 6am i was first on the list so i told them a week before oh that wasnt good enough i had to ring them at 7am on the day bit difficult when your anesthetized

 My wife was with me there is no mobile signal there i had to get my mum to ring in sick for me just like school

[Tony_S]

By the time Aditi worked her way up to her final post in higher education a doctorate was just another vocational qualification, as was the masters she had got earlier for what she was doing in further education. When representing her employer she used her Doctor title but doesn’t when we are on holiday as she said engaging in a bit of Foucauldian analysis was not going help someone who had fallen over.