Early Risers.

[jjb1970]

On chicken, in much of Asia thighs are seen as the premium part, breasts are considered bland. Chicken thighs have a stronger flavour, I think the problem with many British and American people especially is people demand boneless chicken, but the bone makes a big difference when cooking and helps keep meat from drying out and going rubbery.

[iL Dottore]

I agree @jjb1970, there’s nothing quite like meat cooked on the bone. I suspect that people want meat “off the bone“ because they are thinking about the “waste“. But there is no waste with meat on the bone: the bones can get chucked into a stock pot with some veggies and turned in to either a stock or a soup.

 

Furthermore, another thing I see many people do, is cook seafood and fish for far too long. A few minutes (and for some seafood and fish it’s just a few seconds) is more than enough to cook the fish/seafood properly

[polybear]

7 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Did you check to see if there was any change down the side of the sofa?

 

Used needles, more likely....

 

Bear here (at 05:00...😱)

 

First Job Of The Day is a flying visit to Toolstation to collect a door latch compatible with Bear's shiny new door handles; I may also do a flying visit inside the very nearby Tess & Co for a few minor bits - but they won't be getting much of this Bear's gronkits cos' I've "seen the light" and decided Mr. Lidl is fay more deserving (not to mention a bluddy sight cheaper - but such petty considerations never entered this Bear's bonce - honest.....).

After that?  Well I've a shiny new TV Stand to put together, followed by a sideboard to start filling up with, er, stuff; hopefully the said "stuff" may be able to be culled slightly in the process - but if it can then it won't be by much cos' I culled it as it went into storage boxes.

Bear gone.

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

 

So just finishing 'our' breakfast. I use that term in its loosiest possible sense as DD operates under the assumption that what is hers is hers and what is mine is hers as well.

 

This morning we are off to help at the Paddock. We are in count down mode to our big day at the end of month when we be having our first open day  Picnic in the Paddock.y. There's plenty still left to do plus of course the usual jobs that this time of year brings around.

 

I'm making bird boxes and providing stones for the stone painting plus hyacinths- providing enough chutney jars can be found.

 

Anyway DD appears to be asleep so I have time to finish my tea.

 

 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

The 1/48 Bell Huey I was working got binned as the parts were so badly out of alignment that even with a bucket load of plastic filler, the model could not be saved. Whilst the subassemblies went together well enough, the subassemblies would not align together and marry up to make the whole  (I suspect that at least one of the sprues suffered some shrinkage when it came out of the mould).

 

Out of interest, what make was the kit?

 

 

[Tony_S]

26 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

This morning we are off to help at the Paddock

I hope there are no free range chickens for DD to investigate. 

[iL Dottore]

5 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Out of interest, what make was the kit?

 

 

Italeri. From what I can gather from online commentary they are either very very good or very very bad – depending on the kit.

 

Poor instructions (such as putting a fragile sub assembly into place before doing work on more robust pieces) didn’t exactly help.

[Tony_S]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

  Let's not mention who Koogee Koala's offsider (or vice versa) is / was.

A whole generation of children in the UK will have associated cartoons on the television with Australia thanks to Rolf Harris.

Edited September 3, 2022 by Tony_S

[monkeysarefun]

6 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Humphrey B. Bear is one thing.  Let's not mention who Koogee Koala's offsider (or vice versa) is / was.

 

My brother's stuffed koala plush toy was named "Koogee".

 

Gotta admit that I'm not familiar with Koogee Koalas body of  work. 

I know of Blinky Bill obviously, he does actually wear pants unlike polybear, and there are all those other oz books we grew up with, the Muddle Headed Wombat, the Gumnut Babies etc all  made the bush seem like it was  full of talking animals wearing pants, but Koogee Koala doesn't ring a bell.

The other books we grew up with were the Magic Pudding and Seven Little Australians. I remember they filmed that and showed it as a series on Sunday nights  when I was in 3rd grade. All of us real Little Australians were inconsolable at school the next day when the big  tree fell on Judy and snapped  her back like a twig.

 

But it was a valuable life lesson to teach little kiddies in a brutal land that  takes no prisoners...

Edited September 3, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Having said that, it does look like a pretty straightforward build except for the planking of the hull – as that has to be fitted plank by plank. And if it all goes spectacularly wrong all I have lost is a few hours of modelling and a fiver.

 

May Bear suggest a Plank Bender, if you don't already possess one?  Could make the task an awful lot easier - and with a much better end result.

 

Bear back.....

Well I went out at 0630 - and with the Bearmobile possessing a very large quantity of carboard for a local recycling bin "somewhere"; I'd looked up the various locations of such things and now know the five local ones - I often find that the cardboard bins are "full" yet only possess half a dozen boxes because some stupid ********************* (insert your own favourite very rude words here) is too f.thick/lazy to flatten their offerings before binning them.  Well I was somewhat taken aback to discover that all Bear's cardboard would happily go in the first bin I went to (despite aforesaid ************* having visited 🤬) so that was a result.  Tick.  Then it was Tess & Co - they're getting into "Aldi Price-Matched" more and more, and also offering some pretty good discounts on various items if you're a Clubcard Member (Bear is).  As a result I saved 20% off a thirty quid bill.  Result.  Then it was Toolstation to collect the door latch, then back to Bear Towers to discover that the Leccy Vertical Blind Motor in the Lounge has thrown a tantrum - the motor works but the pully doesn't pull.  Turdycurses.  This happened once before - the cause was a busted plastic drive shaft so I expect the replacement has gone the same way.  Piggin' Turdycurses.  There's zilch chance of getting a spare - and that would be pretty pointless anyway cos' this one has only lasted a few weeks.  It looks like Bear might be searching the 'net sometime today for a suitable replacement; meanwhile it looks like the paws are gonna be pulling the chain twice a day until further notice.

Bear gone.

 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Already 20C this morning and getting warmer. Interesting item on the news this morning. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-39678924 another one for the bucket list. Just watched the BTF film on the Talking Pictures channel, all ten minutes of it. I couldn't help noticing that most of the films on that channel are even older than the BTF films. The BTF film was preceded by a film called 'Sons of the sea' dated 1939.

 

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Some people suggest using chorizo as an alternative, but chorizo is a completely different and much stronger flavour and the result is a perfectly enjoyable dish which tastes nothing like gumbo or jambalaya

We use chorizo as a general purpose substitute for any spicy sausage in a recipe. Mainly because as we don’t go shopping still it is always available with our online shop. Other than assorted English sausage types we do buy something called “Toulouse style sausage” for some French recipe that also has a lot of beans. Andoille doesn’t seem to be available from our usual supermarket. Various salami and nduja are though. 

[simontaylor484]

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

On chicken, in much of Asia thighs are seen as the premium part, breasts are considered bland. Chicken thighs have a stronger flavour, I think the problem with many British and American people especially is people demand boneless chicken, but the bone makes a big difference when cooking and helps keep meat from drying out and going rubbery.

Diner the "Waiter My chicken is rubbery"

 

Waiter "Thank you very much"

 

 

Diner "Waiter what's the Duck like"

 

 

Waiter "well sir its like a chicken but it swims"

 

Thanks to Terry Wogan and Paul Walters a duo sadly missed

[simontaylor484]

25 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I hope there are no free range chickens for DD to investigate. 

Especially those belonging to His Reverance

[jjb1970]

19 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Italeri. From what I can gather from online commentary they are either very very good or very very bad – depending on the kit.

 

Poor instructions (such as putting a fragile sub assembly into place before doing work on more robust pieces) didn’t exactly help.

 

Most of the Italeri kits I built were 1/35 vehicles and figures and I also found it a jeckyl and hyde company. They do some very interesting stuff and their better kits are excellent but they have some junk. At one point their British Crusader tank was also sold by Tamiya as part of a mould sharing agreement, I suspect if Tamiya's own people produced moulds of the quality of the Crusader they'd only do it once.

[simontaylor484]

31 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

A whole generation of children in the UK will have associated cartoons on the television with Australia thanks to Rolf Harris.

Can you tell what it is yet?

 

It's never had the same meaning since.

 

I have a criminals record now thanks to Rolf.

[simontaylor484]

I would love a Trumpeter kit of a Nimitz class carrier. The 1/200 scale are huge 

[PhilJ W]

11 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

I would love a Trumpeter kit of a Nimitz class carrier. The 1/200 scale are huge 

There is (or was) a 1/72 scale kit of the USS Nimitz available.

[Tony_S]

38 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Gotta admit that I'm not familiar with Koogee Koalas body of  work. 

I know of Blinky Bill obviously, he does actually where pants unlike polybear,

For some reason when I was young our regional ITV company decided a continuity announcer (Auntie Jean)  talking to a pair of toy koalas was a good thing and this led to the Tingha and Tucker club with Willie Wombat and Katie Kookaburra. Possibly the scripts were reused for Neighbours. 

[PhilJ W]

Talking of kits the aforementioned HP Herald kit by Novo used the original Frog moulds. By the time my kit was produced the moulds were pretty much worn out so the first job will be to remove the flash.  

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

I would love a Trumpeter kit of a Nimitz class carrier. The 1/200 scale are huge 

How long would it be?

Edited September 3, 2022 by iL Dottore

[The White Rabbit]

44 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

We use chorizo as a general purpose substitute for any spicy sausage in a recipe. Mainly because as we don’t go shopping still it is always available with our online shop. Other than assorted English sausage types we do buy something called “Toulouse style sausage” for some French recipe that also has a lot of beans. Andoille doesn’t seem to be available from our usual supermarket. Various salami and nduja are though. 

 

Cassoulet? One of those dishes with plenty of variation and scope for 'author's tweaks'. 

 

 

29 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

I would love a Trumpeter kit of a Nimitz class carrier. The 1/200 scale are huge 

 

You won't fit that in your bath! The real thing's something like 1100 feet long. 

 

16 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

There is (or was) a 1/72 scale kit of the USS Nimitz available.

 

Crikey... what's the size of the box? And do you need a forklift to move it? 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Somebodies nicked the sun! This is the first morning in weeks that we’ve not got sunshine, alright, it might not be raining, but it’s cloudy, I’m not used to this! 

 

Anyway, I’m off to collect Ava shortly, this will be the first time she’s been for over 2 weeks, as we weren’t feeling go good one weekend, so she stayed at home and last weekend Vickie, Ian and the kids were in Lanzarote. To say we’ve missed her is a bit of an understatement.

 

So, time to set off, back later. 

 

Brian

[Tony_S]

13 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

Cassoulet? One of those dishes with plenty of variation and scope for 'author's tweaks'. 

 

I think that is what it was called. A lot of what we eat at home is “influenced by” rather than an accurate recreation. 

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

There is (or was) a 1/72 scale kit of the USS Nimitz available.

You’d need a BIG shed for that. My rough “back of the envelope” calculations puts it at 4.6m long! (332m/72)

Edited September 3, 2022 by iL Dottore