Early Risers.

[Winslow Boy]

56 minutes ago, Grizz said:

I have some very found memories of chatting with Jewish families in Stamford Hill area. Over 20 years ago my patch was what used to called ‘The North London Lines’, oddly it covered from Richmond in the SW to Woolwich in the East, and all S&C in between. 
 

We used to take a possessions for 053 facing switch inspection / maintenance on weekend nights, with the access at South Tottenham station, giving it up or hand it over in the early hours on a Sunday morning. 
 

From around 01:00 to 04:00 the road from Seven Sisters down through Stamford Hill towards Dalston was busy with Jewish families. All ages, from tiny tots to Adults, happily going to and fro in what was the middle of the night. Always very smartly dressed, with some clearly different denominations. Some Hasidic Jews wore shtreimel, that is the ‘Russian’ looking hat. They explained to us that they were very expensive and were an extremely important part of their religious tradition. Hand made and very precious. 

 

In the summer months we’d often take a break around 02:00, parking up near to the intersection at Stamford Hill, sitting outside the truck drinking tea and coffee. Familes would stop for a chat, asking how we were and what we were doing? Where we were working? We’d look forward to this as everyone would take part in the conversations, with subjects from football to food.
 

My favourite memory was from a chat with a very elderly orthodox gentleman, who was always surrounded by several generations of his family. To paint the picture, my beard was full and quite long even back then and I also had long hair but tied back under my hat.

I think that he had clearly been thinking about this for some time, when finally he asked me in a very quiet voice and with a definite twinkle in his eye, “tell me my friend, with such a beautiful beard like that, are you now or have you ever before been Jewish? He was trying not to laugh as he said it. Then he said “maybe you should check…because who knows? …you could be..”. Then he winked at me.  
 

He also took a great deal of interest in my food as I usually had ‘Sild’ (Danish pickled herring’ on rye bread). Herring was a particular favourite of his. He recommend a brisket recipe that his wife used to make, which Mrs Grizz still uses it to this day, it is melt in mouth and utterly delicious.

I do miss the social aspect of working in London, as over the years I have been fortunate to meet some wonderful people from every back ground imaginable. It is amazing how often that food and football would feature in conversations.
 

Hearty agree with there Grizz. Food and football are a great 'leveller' of people. No matter what team you support or what you eat there is always something that can be said about it. Whether you think what it is is nice or terrible you can really upon them to get a response.

 

Many years ago I worked in Barnet. One of the areas I covered was Golders Green and Hendon , so often had dealings with people of this faith. I always found them very polite and interested in what I was doing. Never had any problems with damage or litter as they respected the parks and open spaces.

Edited March 3 by Winslow Boy

[PhilJ W]

When I left school (60 years ago this coming July) I went to work for Kearly & Tonge in the City of London. Most of the company directors were of the Jewish faith and few if any could be found in the office after lunch on Friday. They were a very good company to work for. http://www.internationalstores.co.uk/

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Grizz said:

I do miss the social aspect of working in London, as over the years I have been fortunate to meet some wonderful people from every back ground imaginable. It is amazing how often that food and football would feature in conversations.
 

 

I've a suspicion (naturally there'll be exceptions, thankfully) that if you went back again you'd think "Jeez, what the hell has happened"

 

Bear here.....

 

Some minor washing on the go; I've also unpacked the new shaver and that's on charge before I give it a test run on the Beary moosh.

Some very minor muddlin' - I found the 1/8th pinpoint axles I suspected I had "somewhere" as I should be able to use these with the chassis jig (TBC); I also had a shufti inside the duff choo choo controller that arrived yesterday - pot. cleaned, diodes checked, no obvious faults, solder joints reflowed and.....it's still bvggered.  It now lives in The Great Beary Bin.....

 

Right, the Alexa timer has just gone off - meaning Sid the Shaver should now be fully charged; let's see if this thing was worth nearly a Deltic....

 

BG

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The sun is out and the sky is blue, so I’m going to do a few garden jobs this morning. These aren’t big jobs, so I’ll be watering the potted plants on the front door step and refilling the bird feeders etc. after that I’m hoping to get a couple of hours in the cellar continuing to lay the flooring. After dinner we are expecting Charlie and Max round, so an afternoon in the workshop is on the cards. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[Grizz]

58 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Hearty agree with there Grizz. Food and football are a great 'leveller' of people. No matter what team you support or what you eat there is always something that can be said about it. Whether you think what it is is nice or terrible you can really upon them to get a response.

 

Many years ago I worked in Barnet. One of the areas I covered was Golders Green and Hendon , so often had dealings with people of this faith. I always found them very polite and interested in what I was doing. Never had any problems with damage or litter as they respected the parks and open spaces.

 

Food and football.
 

Another memory of a fantastic meal. A Muslim work mate of mine had been fasting during the week and on the coming weekend he was looking forward to having his first hot meal. We were on shift together at Stratford and he said he’d buy us a take away, then we could eat it in our crew truck during lunch. 
 

We went to this warehouse looking place in a side street and I must admit it looked a bit dodgy. But he went in and came back with the take away. 
 

We parked up back in the old BR Stratford loco yard and ate curried goat, rice and peas (a famous Jamaican, dish brimming with flavour). I’ll never forget that meal.

It is still my favourite Jamaican food, although jerk chicken, with fired plantains comes close. My friend said growing he had eaten loads of different curries made by his family, but he that he preferred the Jamaican ones, although he might not admit that to his folks as they had a proud heritage of making them. And they were very competitively on some occasions apparently. It was his little secret and it was our shared go to meal of choice on shift. 
 

We didn’t talk much about football as he was a Palace supporter, despite coming from Finsbury Park (even he couldn’t explain that), and I am a Brighton supporter. So we diplomatically didn’t discuss our respective teams, even though back then we rarely played each other, apart from how much we both hated Man Utd…

 

[jjb1970]

Behold, a sight to chill the blood of anyone with a functioning sense of smell......

 

[Grizz]

Bear look away now….

 

I am cooking Mrs Grizz and I a full cooked breakfast. 
 

.….

….

Photo deleted…

 

I just couldn’t do it to you mate.

[polybear]

3 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Behold, a sight to chill the blood of anyone with a functioning sense of smell......

 

 

Durian Fruit?

I've heard the stories...and seen the "On punishment of Death" signs in Hotels...but never smelled it.

[polybear]

2 minutes ago, Grizz said:

Bear look away now….

 

I am cooking Mrs Grizz and I a full cooked breakfast. 
 

.….

….

Photo deleted…

 

I just couldn’t do it to you mate.

 

You're cooking Mrs Grizz??  What did she do FFS??

 

 

[PhilJ W]

Further to what I said about the Athens cafe. Only a couple of years later it was gone (slum clearance). It was very much a working class area and when I visited the military dictatorship in Greece had only recently been ousted and the new democratic government were eager to encourage the tourist trade so areas such as that were cleared. I have had the fortune to visit two other countries before they became too touristy, Malta in 1976 and Barbados in 1980.

[monkeysarefun]

35 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Behold, a sight to chill the blood of anyone with a functioning sense of smell......

 

 

 

THere are a few tropical fruit farms in the Northern Territory that are growing it, but not for expat Asians, there are Durian parties in Sydney and Melbourne.

 

At one of Ms Tan-Sheppard's first durian parties at Sydney's Paddy's Market, more than 100 people lined up and waited almost an hour to try several varieties of durian.

"It's one of those fruits, you either really love them or you really hate them.

"And if you love them, you can't get enough," she said.

 

Edited March 3 by monkeysarefun

[Hroth]

12 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Behold, a sight to chill the blood of anyone with a functioning sense of smell......

 

 

I'd heard of Wahoonie fruit before, but I never knew people sold them openly....

 

[Grizz]

9 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

You're cooking Mrs Grizz??  What did she do FFS??

 

 

No but…could I be blamed if I did. 

 

She  ate my slice of…….letter 12, letter 4, letter 3…. yesterday…..and it was weapons grade. And she didn’t even ask or anything. 
 

However she has promised to make another. So I have decided to cook a full cooked breakfast for us both. 

Edited March 3 by Grizz

[Hroth]

9 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

You're cooking Mrs Grizz??  What did she do FFS??

 

 

 

It was after she looked funnily at his Valkyries....

 

[polybear]

 

 

 

[Grizz]

4 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

It was after she looked funnily at his Valkyries....

 

Yeah..well..she said something along the lines of “you can forget planning ‘THAT LOT’ in your after life, if a) you don’t want to get there quicker than you thought you would and b) if you wish your Valkyries to remain were they normally preside. 

[New Haven Neil]

Not so early this morning, due to 'other duties' being prescribed.  You know how it is.

 

I have been on the fringes of Jewish society a couple of times, one of my besties in the UK married a Jewish girl (complicated, believe me) and he and his friends were accepted into the family provided some basic rules were followed - they weren't devout Hacidics or anything. Interesting times, boy do they love their food, and will share it with good grace.  Despite them now being divorced (also complicated) they are all still on speaking terms, right through the family.  His wife was something of a black sheep, if that's not too naughty a term nowadays, OK an outlier, and the family knew that and accepted it all - not usual at all in such society but they thought my friends was 'good for her'. 

 

Wind forward 20 years to over here, and my bestie here is marrying.....yup!  She's a star, lovely girl, and again while following beliefs is not devout.  So once again we find ourselves on the fringe of Jewish society, and again find them friendly, accepting and generous people, provided some basic rules are followed, which they are happy enough to explain.  Some interesting discussions result, from us as atheists, another in the same friend group who is a devout Catholic and thinking of taking Holy Orders or whatever going into the church is called, a smattering of Christians (my mum's maiden name!), and we all get on very well and respect one another's beliefs, or indeed lack of.

[jamie92208]

9 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

 Some interesting discussions result, from us as atheists, another in the same friend group who is a devout Catholic and thinking of taking Holy Orders or whatever going into the church is called, a smattering of Christians (my mum's maiden name!), and we all get on very well and respect one another's beliefs, or indeed lack of.

Some years ago I was involved in running a thing called Treasures Revealed, that got places of worship of all sorts to open for visitors.  The steering group was great, with lapsed Salvtionist who is now paga, sitting next to a Catholic Monsignor and various other faiths represented round the table.  We were also made very welcome at the places of worship.  North Leeds synagogue was very welcoming but as to food the Sikhs always came out on top. 

 

Jamie

[monkeysarefun]

My  contribution  to the ER weather stats, today was 31 degrees and sunny

 

 

This summer was forecast to be all doom and gloom and bushfires and El Nino record shattering  temperatures and drought   and so on but nothing like that happened, the grass is green, the dams are full, its a lovely place to b e right now!

 

 

(Currently, 20 degrees and dark.!)

 

 

Edited March 3 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

13 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

 North Leeds synagogue was very welcoming but as to food the Sikhs always came out on top. 

 

Jamie

Indeed, the Sikhs are also very generous with food. During Diwali many if not all Sikh temples will give a meal to all comers, it's all vegetarian as well.

[monkeysarefun]

13 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Indeed, the Sikhs are also very generous with food. During Diwali many if not all Sikh temples will give a meal to all comers, it's all vegetarian as well.

During the height of the 2019 bushfires Sikh restaurant volunteers were driving into the fire front to provide free meals to the volunteer fire fighters and also  to those who had lost their homes and were in emergency accomodation.

 

 

Edited March 3 by monkeysarefun

[Sidecar Racer]

45 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

and we all get on very well and respect one another's beliefs, or indeed lack of.

 

 If only everyone was the same, how much better life would be .

[jjb1970]

I find most human beings engage with each other as human beings and get on well when they meet as individuals and that most people are fundamentally decent. The problems arise when we congregate into groups/tribes and assign labels and think of people as just examples of another group rather than as individuals. Given my wife is from a predominantly Muslim country we have many Muslim friends and they're charming people and have never had any issues with non-Muslims despite the generally negative stereotypes of that faith.

[Grizz]

‘Funny that it always seems to be the folks who are most certain about things, and a the most vocal about it, that cause the most trouble….’..

 

 

Come on people let doubt into your lives….be less certain….it opens up the mind. 
 

That was a public information bulletin aimed at helping and being kind to people. 
 

Love Grizz

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

I find most human beings engage with each other as human beings and get on well when they meet as individuals and that most people are fundamentally decent. The problems arise when we congregate into groups/tribes and assign labels and think of people as just examples of another group rather than as individuals. Given my wife is from a predominantly Muslim country we have many Muslim friends and they're charming people and have never had any issues with non-Muslims despite the generally negative stereotypes of that faith.

Its a f*&$*&ed up world mate. Thanks to the internet you can go to youtube or TikTok etc and see any number of Russian or Chinese  people and they are fun and normal and  interested in the west and have no desire at all to invade us and nuke us and kill us.

But they are our enemy according to those in charge of us. 

 

But then again that orange pussball says that Russia isn't, the enemy -  the enemy is anyone who doesnt think like he does. But if enough of natures simple folk join his cult and let Russia do what it wants civilisation will end because Russia will invade some NATO country and it'll all end in a big bang. But its not those happy youtubers etc who want to push the button... they just want to buy our stuff and travel to the west and see Big Ben and Koalas and so on and post it all on line.

 

 Its a f*&$*&ed up world mate!

 

On another subject, I'm halfway through watching the Barbie movie right now - more enjoyable - and politically relevant -  than expected!

Edited March 3 by monkeysarefun