Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I had a call from my sister this morning which put me behind. To make matters worse I've slipped even further behind and there's still a lot of stuff to be done. Now I've got a bit of catching up to do on RMweb. 

[iL Dottore]

58 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Gone are the days when you contacted someone to apologise for being late or having to cancelled. Perhaps its me but I think manners are the difference between us and animals.

I totally agree. good manners cost, nothing, lubricate the runnings of society and are conducive to people doing a good job (if you are in a customer facing job [as the jargon has it] Would you prefer to serve someone or assist someone who is pleasant, says “please“ and “thank you“ and regards you as a fellow human being, or serve someone who believes that you are “beneath them”, and doesn’t even bother to say thank you after what you have done for them.
 

What’s more, (returning to the topic of his students) I think either he is being far too soft on these students or his hands are tied by his administration.. Quite frankly, I do hope I never have to encounter any of his students, but with that sort of attitude, I think they will be very difficult to employ – unless they are able to be shoehorned into a job by daddy.

To be honest, I certainly wouldn’t want to be a university lecturer, in the UK at the moment. Apart from having to worry about my course material containing this-ism or that-ism (or whatever the Twitterati consider totally “unacceptable“ this week), I have to consider whether or not I need to put in “trigger warnings“, just in case the poor dears might encounter a word or a concept that bursts their little bubble of ignorance, nor would I be able to introduce them to the real world by having them face the consequences of what they do (such as being rewarded for good performance, or be penalised for substandard or bad performance).

 

I really wonder how these kids are going to manage out in the “real world“? All the things these kids fret about the real world does NOT care about. Furthermore, some of the - how can I put it – [ahem] “concerns” that they have are not shared by the majority of the population in the majority of the countries in the world.

 

“Self entitlement” has a very short shelf life in most of the world

[monkeysarefun]

5 hours ago, Barry O said:

 I hate it when someone bends the truth to get them out of a big pit.. well what that does is just add   a large Komatsu excavation device to help them dig the hole deeper and quicker ready for when the bomb lands!

 On the contrary  - in this post-truth world Truth is a quaint preserved branch line where those who love to reminisce about how much better things once were  indulge in an abandoned world of gentle summers and butterflies, when a Word was a persons bond and owning up and taking responsibility was a lovingly polished and tended tank engine pulling craftsman-restored coaches.

 

Meanwhile in the Real World,  Lies are a bullet train that you can pilot full-speed to positions of limitless  power and influence, filled with  inanely shrieking  passengers who believe 2 plus 2 equals 5 because you told them it did, all cheering you on as you set the throttle  to Maximum Mayhem.  

 

5 seconds after  Artificial Intelligence figures out the vast benefits of lying we may as well bend over and kiss our bums goodbye!

Edited June 12, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

After my return from my scan, I didn’t do a lot. I’d phoned Sheila on my way home and she very kindly had a muggertea ready for when I got back. As for the trace that was injected into me, I was lucky in that I didn’t feel like I’d p!ssed myself, instead I feel very nauseous. Thankfully this feeling didn’t last long and and had gone before I left the hospital. For the rest of the morning I relaxed and started a new book, ‘The Escape Artist’ by Jonathan Freedman and is about the first men to successfully escape from Auschwitz. 

 

After dinner I’d originally planned to go to Costco, but I didn’t feel up to it, so I read some more of the book instead and also successfully coma spot of eyelid inspection. 

 

After tea, I felt refreshed enough to complete the Sainsbury’s Grand Prix, which was a higher priority that Costco as we were running low on fresh fruit etc. However, whilst shopping it started to rain, absolutely chuckinitdarn, I could literally see it bouncing off the pavements through the shop window. It then started raining inside the shop and I meaning pouring through the roof. It got so bad, they asked all customers to stop shopping and head to the tills. When I got out of the shop I found the car park flooded in many places, I had to wade through 2-3 inches of water just to get to the car. On my way home, most of the roads were flooded too. So, once back home, I dropped the shopping bags in the kitchen and headed downstairs to the cellar. There was water coming in through the seals where the glass meets the door frame of outside door, but there was a lot more water on the outside. Through the glass of the cellar doors I could see that the water level was between 20 and 24 inches deep! So, I spent the next 40 minutes alternating from outside bailing the area in front of the cellar door and inside the cellar as well, I must have emptied the buckets at least 40 times! But thankfully that was only about 1 inch deep, but I had to keep swapping from inside to outside to keep up the inside level low. By the time I’d finished I was soaked and had to get changed before I could sit down with a well earned glass of beer. 

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[iL Dottore]

12 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Hmm.  In my experience it was:

 

Regional raw fish, seasonal raw fish, fresh raw fish, and allegedly, but not for me, healthy raw fish.

 

I'd starve.

You may not have been looking hard enough for example, you could’ve had

> Okonomiyaki

> Yakisoba

> Tonkatsu

> Karaage

> Wafu spaghetti

> Soba (and dipping sauce)

 

None of which even remotely involving fish (with perhaps the exception of Okonomiyaki - although you’d have to order it [usually shrimp] as an extra).

 

It seems to me that as many tourists come to Japan expecting to only get fish to eat, the Japanese as good hosts, make sure that they do only get fish to eat.

 

Certainly, my guide yesterday was a bit surprised to learn that I not only know about Okonomiyaki, but I also knew the difference between Osaka style and Hiroshima style.

[jjb1970]

The Japanese eat a lot of chicken and pork, beef is popular but can be expensive, good beef is very expensive but it is extremely good. And as with most of Asia there is a wealth of excellent vegetarian options which are actually vegetarian and not trying to offer meat eaters a way to try and replicate meat without actually being meat (though the ersatz meat thing has also hit Japan). A common denominator in East and Southeast Asia is the status of noodles as a great comfort food, Japan, China, Korea and most of SE Asia love noodle dishes as a quick and tasty dish that leaves a full stomach.

[jjb1970]

In some ways fish is more of an issue in China and SE Asia for people that prefer not to eat fish and seafood. In Japan there tends to be more of a distinction between fish dishes and none-fish dishes. In China and especially SE Asia it is quite common for fish and seafood to be used as a flavour in meat and vegetable dishes. And in some cases not just a mild part of a more complex flavour, fish sauce in Vietnam can reach the point of almost being weaponized with its potency and some pork belly dishes in China are much more akin to eating fish because of the use of fish sauce. In Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore a standard condiment served with many dishes is sambal, a chilli sauce made using fermented shrimp paste, it's one of those flavours which can be an acquired taste but is excellent when well done. You do find it to a degree in Japan but not to the same extent as China and SE Asia.

[Ozexpatriate]

50 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

In China and especially SE Asia it is quite common for fish and seafood to be used as a flavour in meat and vegetable dishes.

An observant Hindu, former colleague would usually ask for food at Thai restaurants to be prepared without the fish sauce base. Most Thai restaurants in the US will cater to vegetarians. I imagine that the resulting dish does not taste the same.

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

The Japanese eat a lot of chicken and pork, beef is popular but can be expensive, good beef is very expensive but it is extremely good. And as with most of Asia there is a wealth of excellent vegetarian options which are actually vegetarian and not trying to offer meat eaters a way to try and replicate meat without actually being meat (though the ersatz meat thing has also hit Japan). A common denominator in East and Southeast Asia is the status of noodles as a great comfort food, Japan, China, Korea and most of SE Asia love noodle dishes as a quick and tasty dish that leaves a full stomach.

(My emphasis). Precisely!
 

This is what really annoys me about many of those who purport to be vegetarian; if you truly are vegetarian – for whatever reason – then why on earth do you need to have a meat substitute? Especially as many of the meat substitutes are highly processed and mostly synthetic substances (vegan “bacon“ being one, good example,).

 

I am definitely a bonafide, hard-core omnivore; but when I eat vegetarian food, I want to enjoy the vegetables and what can be done with them and not be eating a stew of chemicals purporting to be a meat substitute.
 

Chankonabe, which is a one pot stew favoured by sumo wrestlers for bulking up (provided that you eat a lot of rice as well) and it comes either as a version with meat or fish or as a completely vegetarian version. I have cooked the vegetarian version and believe you me it is so good that you don’t even notice that there is no meat or fish in the bowl.

[The Lurker]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

An observant Hindu, former colleague would usually ask for food at Thai restaurants to be prepared without the fish sauce base. Most Thai restaurants in the US will cater to vegetarians. I imagine that the resulting dish does not taste the same.

You'd hope not, or else there would be no point to including the fish sauce at all.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Blackbird has been singing happily since about 04:00 this morning.. Guess how i know the time?

 

Off to Boughton Hall via the valley of death on the M62, M60, m6, m.....pah!

 

Never had a lotbof Japanese food.. the bits that I have eaten were enjoyed .. but its not cheap. A business trip to KL included entertaining a guest to a meal in the Japanese Restaurant in the Shangri-la La Hotel. Very nice but...OW MUCH??

 

Time to get myself up and ready to go I suppose..

Stay safe!

 

Baz

[Coombe Barton]

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I think either he is being far too soft on these students or his hands are tied by his administration

These are voluntary turn up support sessions for resitters.

 

However getting them to turn up to scheduled sessions is another thing, and without going into detail a direct correlation between not turning up and failing is established and I've been trying =for twenty years to get something done about it it but ...

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a once again warm 'n sunny rock.

 

My fishy comments about Japanese food were of course tongue in cheek, but having been to quite a few ports in Japan for work, not as a tourist, in the late 70's and early 80's, I found fish hard to avoid in food.  The shipping agents would sometimes entertain a handful of officers and knew to be careful where we were taken to eat, as Europeans.  

 

Old farts bike club day, not sure where our travels will take us, but pretty sure it won't be off island!  The world has returned to a semblance of normal as the visitors have left, not seen any figures yet but there will have been about 40,000 or so.  As our population is about 83,000 you can understand how different the rock feels TT week!

[AndyID]

10 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

We had lots of enjoyment from mixing Iodine with ammonium hydroxide. The result is perfectly stable when in solution but when it dries out will explode if a fly lands on it.

 

"Ginger", a pupil in my 5th year math class liked to distribute a little on the floor before the math teacher arrived. The teacher wore shoes with tackets in the soles.

[Hroth]

15 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

The world has returned to a semblance of normal as the visitors have left, not seen any figures yet but there will have been about 40,000 or so.  As our population is about 83,000 you can understand how different the rock feels TT week!

 

Loud and overcrowded?

Good to hear that the IoM is returning to the even tenor of its ways!

 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Thought it was about time I made an appearance.  Still mis-firing but having to put up with it for now.  This means that the almost cheerful MOG (Miserable Old Git) that you are used to is mainly a very MOG at the moment.  

Sunny and hot (again) although we did have a torrential downpour and thunderstorm yesterday afternoon but luckily no flooding here.  Must admit I don't like it too hot and that means anything over about 23°C.  It was 32°C at one stage over the weekend and 29°C forecast today.  I will be staying inside with fans moving the warm air around.

 Double celebration today, Gemma is 19 and it is our 53rd wedding anniversary.   A meal and a few drinks are scheduled later.  

In muddling news I have actually got off my ar$e and spent a few hours in The Shed.  It's taken some work to get various reluctant toys moving again but I'm getting there.  Also revising the track layout and hoping that a parcel containing a few yards of parallel bits of nickel silver will arrive today.

With regard to the manners comments my stock answer when asked by the medics if I'm allergic to anything is "nothing apart from bad manners and rude people."

Have a good one,

Bob.

[DaveF]

Another nice sunny morning with a very light breeze off the sea so it feels fresh.  I don't think I'll go inland today, it looks as though the coast will stay fresher.

 

The groceries have just come, there was one missing item which I don't need urgently and all the fresh stuff is very long dated.  While I put the wheelie bin away (my bin men come around 8.30 a.m.) I saw a couple of neighbours and had a brief chat.

 

Next job is to drop stuff off at church for asylum seekers and then to fill a charity bag ready for collection tomorrow while I am in the mood for clearing things out.

 

After that I may have a walk or do some gardening until it gets too hot to be outdoors.

 

David

[TheSignalEngineer]

17 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

To be honest, I certainly wouldn’t want to be a university lecturer, in the UK at the moment.

About 25 years ago our son took a job working at a university. It was in a civil engineering department which also ran a course in town planning. His main job was working on projects for councils in his own speciality of transport planning. During his time there he was asked to write a new module on transport planning and ended up supervising it's delivery, setting and marking the exam. His big gripe was that half of the students weren't really capable of doing any university course and that he spent most of his face to face time explaining things that were in the 'O' level geography syllabus. It put him off looking for any academic jobs for life.

Edited June 13, 2023 by TheSignalEngineer

[PhilJ W]

5 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

In some ways fish is more of an issue in China and SE Asia for people that prefer not to eat fish and seafood. In Japan there tends to be more of a distinction between fish dishes and none-fish dishes. In China and especially SE Asia it is quite common for fish and seafood to be used as a flavour in meat and vegetable dishes. And in some cases not just a mild part of a more complex flavour, fish sauce in Vietnam can reach the point of almost being weaponized with its potency and some pork belly dishes in China are much more akin to eating fish because of the use of fish sauce. In Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore a standard condiment served with many dishes is sambal, a chilli sauce made using fermented shrimp paste, it's one of those flavours which can be an acquired taste but is excellent when well done. You do find it to a degree in Japan but not to the same extent as China and SE Asia.

I wonder what they would make of garum?

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A sunny start here in England’s northwest corner, the temperature is currently 18C and it’s going to get hotter. I had planned to take the workshop door off, sand it down and repair the bottom edge, as it’s showing some signs of rot, where the paint has flaked off. However, instead I’ll be giving the cellar and the area just outside the outside cellar doors, as well as the bottom 2 stone steps a good clean after yesterday’s flood. Thankfully this isn’t as bad as it was 11 years ago, when the flood wasn’t kept back by the then wooden cellar door, the whole of the cellar was flooded and I had 15 inches of water to get rid off that time no it took the best part of 3 days to clear up properly. Once I’ve cleaned up, I’ll make a start on the workshop door, but I don’t think I’ll get the repairs done. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[southern42]

14 hours ago, Tony_S said:

At the practice in Sussex where my nephew is a GP he is the only male working there. 

 

Our practice currently has 8 ("f") GPs - largely part-time, I hear.

I have only been there for the usual jabs, in recent years, so I have no comment to offer on service other than they were friendly and organised, etc. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Temperature hit 28C. in my bedroom last night but despite that I went out like a light as soon as my head touched the pillow. Six hours solid sleep and I feel bright eyed and bushy tailed. No cooked breakfast this morning, just a slice or two of bread and honey.

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all.  Posts not read due to the absence of reliable intertubes. 
 

We’re off later to start looking at houses in a meaningful way. 
 

In the meantime here’s a snap from last night. I shall call this work “Passing Place”.  I find the predisposition of the subject to the object leads the soul to an eternity of peaceful contemplation whilst retaining the integrity of the inherent artistic values. 
 

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