Early Risers.

[polybear]

59 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Served with mustard and (for Mrs iD) buttered boiled potatoes. Very satisfying, very filling and very warming.

 

With chips? 🤣

[Coombe Barton]

... Are we looking at a superspreader event? ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2022/09/21/similar-pattern/

[Ozexpatriate]

7 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Are we looking at a superspreader event?

Locally, the State of Oregon stopped reporting on a daily basis (weekends excluded) on September 14. This wasn't picked up by any local television news source that I saw. (I had noticed the daily numbers at zero and found the Oregon Health Authority notice on their website.)

 

Case reporting had become meaningless since there was no requirement for people self-testing positive to notify authorities - but there were still weekly fatality counts (statewide) in the 40s (which is higher than other minima during the pandemic).

[simontaylor484]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

Try not to laugh at the back....oh, alright, if you must......🤣

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-62986812

Is it Whitewater all over again?

[iL Dottore]

28 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

With chips? 🤣

I hope you are sitting down, Bear, as what I have to say may upset you.

Ready?

 
Every day about 20 - 24 billion meals are eaten. No more than 0.87% of these might include “chips”

 

Culinary Life goes on just fine without them….

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

An Indian friend of mine is critical of "Indian Restaurants" in the west.

I wonder what your friend might make of the local here.  The chef advertises that he is "Michelin-starred" which I take to mean he was awarded at a previous restaurant but the stars don't transfer.  The chef keeps their accolades but the new restaurant doesn't get them automatically.  

 

https://shiulirestaurant.com

 

The prices are on the menu; top end for the High Street but very reasonable for the quality and quantity offered.  The food is truly superb and definitely not your average "after the pub" curry.  

 

[Ozexpatriate]

21 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Is it Whitewater all over again?

That treads very much into matters political. Feel free to read up on Jim and Susan McDougal and their failed Whitewater development. Messy but despite a lot of concerted effort to find a fire in all the smoke, the Clintons were never charged.

 

This is different from a suit by a state attorney general over inflated valuations in a company directly owned by the defendants.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Completed reading through the pile of the GE Journal I purchased at the Shenfield show, very interesting and informative. Arthur Itis has been suppressed by Nurofen and more will be taken before bedtime to keep him quiet.

[NGT6 1315]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 

The Swiss have really "gotten into" Single Malts as of late. One of the big Swiss Wine & Spirit Merchants, Ullrich, lists 31 diverse Swiss Single Malts - ranging in price from SFr25 to Sfr149 (see https://ullrich.ch/de/sortiment/whisky/schweiz/?o=3&p=3) and other merchants - such as Galaxus also have a decent selections (https://www.galaxus.ch/de/search?filter=t_2581%3D36&is=whisky&q=whisky&so=4&take=84)

 

Not as pricey as Scottish Whisky, yet....

 

Given that producing spirits based on grain or potatoes was actual illegal in Switzerland until 1999, they do really seem to have caught up. With that said, I've also tried Japanese whiskies, which I found very agreeable as well. Not that I'd expect anything else but top quality from either country (at least based on the clichés one would most commonly associate with them)!

[Ian Abel]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Ian, where is your mailbox? I've had:

• a mailbox on the porch (mounted to the wall next to the front door), with a mail carrier on a walking route
• a mailbox (the ubiquitous 'loaf of bread' shape with the please collect flag) out front on a post on the street, which the mail carrier serves through the window in the ubiquitous Grumman LLV
• a community mailbox (currently across the street but also bigger ones in apartment complexes) where the mail carrier has to leave the LLV

I imagine carriers on walking routes *love* the friendly dogs. One was killed by a pack of five dogs in Florida recently when her truck broke down.

 

My parents 'postie' still uses a small motorcycle with saddlebags for rounds. The letterbox is mounted on the front fence.

Not actually a "box" in the more exurban/rural sense. Given we're a first ring suburb of Minneapolis, all the single-family houses here have either a box attached to the wall of the house directly by the front door, or, as in our case, a mail slot that puts the mail into a box inside the coat closet by the front door.

Originally we had a box as below;

 

discovered it covered the original slot/box, so replaced the box with a hinged brass cover (Sorry only front shot of house showing it!!);

 

Again, with the urban nature of the neighborhood the postie walks sections leaving the van at some strategic points. Gets plenty of exercise, and only stops on a house-by-house basis in the van if there are larger/heavier packages to delivery.

Edited September 21, 2022 by Ian Abel

[monkeysarefun]

6 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

 

 

Delivery services: We must be in a blessed part of the world! USPS, UPS, FedEx and Amazon are all excellent here, and always seem to be friendly and timely.

 

 

No complaints here either - i think I've mentioned the Amazon guy who battled flooded roads and torrential rain to deliver me a paperback book on a Sunday.

 

Today is a one off public holiday to commemorate the Queen dying if that is the right phrase . Like her birthday holiday  here, this day too seems to be on a  somewhat random date given the flags are all up- at full mast again etc. Given tomorrow is the Grand Final DAy Off in Victoria I suspect todays date originated from there to give them a 4 day weekend.

 

Most retail places and services seem to be still working as is I guess that Amazon delivery guy who like all the shop workers will at least get an unexpected bonus of being  paid double for working the day.

Edited September 21, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

My parents 'postie' still uses a small motorcycle with saddlebags for rounds. The letterbox is mounted on the front fence.

 

 

Australia Post is slowly swapping over to electric powered trikes.

 

As a bonus the plastic roof shield will give extra benefits this time of year.

They'll have ya eyes out!

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

Spare a thought for Mailman Jimmy!

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-25/outback-mailmans-delivery-round-eucla-to-fowlers-bay-nullarbor/101361646

 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

After my efforts in the front, clearing the few weeds that were in the block paving of the drive, it all looks a lot better out there now. Whilst I was out there I also did a little pruning of the rose that grows beside the front door and also the topiary ivy that’s in a pot on the front door step, so they too now look a lot tidier. Once I’d finished and packed away all my gardening tools etc, I came inside and did some more work on the circuit diagrams I’ve been working on. 

 

Once I’d got as far as I could today, I came upstairs and had a muggertea, whilst I changed the filter in the water jug.  I then completed making the fruit tea loaf that I’d left soaking overnight. An hour or so later, the aroma emanating from the kitchen was lovely. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

I wonder what your friend might make of the local here.  The chef advertises that he is "Michelin-starred" which I take to mean he was awarded at a previous restaurant but the stars don't transfer.  The chef keeps their accolades but the new restaurant doesn't get them automatically.  

 

https://shiulirestaurant.com

 

The prices are on the menu; top end for the High Street but very reasonable for the quality and quantity offered.  The food is truly superb and definitely not your average "after the pub" curry.  

Looks truly delicious Rick. With a quick inspection, I'd happily eat anything on that menu.

 

I'm sure my friend would find something to enjoy as well, but I think his observations about regional authenticity would stand in much the same way as Flavio's  @iL Dottore's comments on regional Italian food, insofar as this is a menu for western tastes inspired by Indian food. I wouldn't expect to find lamb chops very often in India.

 

It's a bit like the local Thai place that would happily serve you Massaman curry with pork. Hardly 'authentic'.

 

It cuts both ways of course. The Pizza Hut chain in India does not offer ham and pineapple, but does offer chicken pepperoni, Chicken Tikka pizza, lots of paneer options and corn on a lot of pizzas for some reason.

[pH]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Every day about 20 - 24 billion meals are eaten. No more than 0.87% of these might include “chips”

 

Culinary Life goes on just fine without them….

Alternatively, that means that at least 99.13% of the world’s diners are deprived.

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, NGT6 1315 said:

 

Given that producing spirits based on grain or potatoes was actual illegal in Switzerland until 1999, they do really seem to have caught up. With that said, I've also tried Japanese whiskies, which I found very agreeable as well. Not that I'd expect anything else but top quality from either country (at least based on the clichés one would most commonly associate with them)!

Suntory was pretty good back when I had some during the Hawk's "show-the-flag" week-long visit to Sasebo that also gave the crew some much-needed R&R.

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

... all the single-family houses here have either a box attached to the wall of the house directly by the front door, or, as in our case, a mail slot that puts the mail into a box inside the coat closet by the front door.

A house I rented close to the 'downtown' area of a suburban Chicago town (on the old CNW, now UP mainline) had a white box next to the front door - it was taller than it was wide.

 

One November day the mail carrier on the porch told my wife "I know what you're having for Thanksgiving". She was confused until she saw the dead rabbit the cats had left us by the front door.

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, Ian Abel said:

Not actually a "box" in the more exurban/rural sense. Given we're a first ring suburb of Minneapolis, all the single-family houses here have either a box attached to the wall of the house directly by the front door, or, as in our case, a mail slot that puts the mail into a box inside the coat closet by the front door.

Originally we had a box as below;

That is what I had in Ft. Lauderdale; it was a thick plastic material and lasted the twenty-plus years that I lived there:

Oddly, in all the years that I lived there, this is the only photo I took that includes the letterbox.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[monkeysarefun]

Back in the days before cheap flights, when  east coast Aussies wanted to get import-tax free goods the place to go was Norfolk Island, former secondary punishment penal colony off the NSW coast.

 

My parents went there in the 80s and I'd forgotten all about the 1/8th scale Pocher car kits my dad  bought at the time, until I was going through my cupboard under the stairs and found the unmade ones he'd given me almost 20 years ago when his eyesight started going.

 

 

They  make up my entire model stash since I'm primarily a scratch builder (if 3d printing counts as that!).

 

I did do the Bugatti, which took 2 years and drove me nuts with its wind up windows, operating cable brakes and not-quite fitting parts. 

 

 

 

I can't imagine myself ever doing the others, fortunately they are still bagged up as-new because being so long out of production,  as the song goes "they fetch a pretty penny on Ebay!"

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/185585460462?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-154756-20017-0&ssspo=C057Jw4pQ4u&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=W61VV2lfQo-&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/144691066870?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-154756-20017-0&ssspo=zwnvoj4hq16&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=W61VV2lfQo-&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

14 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

I can't imagine myself ever doing the others, fortunately they are still bagged up as-new because being so long out of production,  as the song goes "they fetch a pretty penny on Ebay!"

The prices (asked) on those are quite staggering!

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by Ozexpatriate

[monkeysarefun]

15 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

The prices (asked) on those are quite staggering!

 

 

Unmade kits are like unicorns!

 

Pocher cars are  a whole modelling subculture. Check out this site for extras and enhancements, such as 4 wheel hubs for the Pocher Alfa at $125 US or a scale model RR spanner for $45...

https://www.modelmotorcars.com/

 

Edited September 22, 2022 by monkeysarefun