Early Risers.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

I see another person has missed the orange one...

Not clear that he got off a shot. From what I read he was spotted and engaged by Secret Service and he ran away.

 

I expect the narrative will be clearer tomorrow.

[PhilJ W]

Third time lucky?

[BoD]

8 hours ago, TheQ said:

Oi BOD, wave to me too,  as at the moment, as if I look out of the front and a little to the right of the house  I can see three bridges, that's two suspension and one cantilever painted red.

Fife or The Lothians?  I wouldn’t want to wave at the wrong end.

[Grizz]

Good Morning All

 

Funny how when I do get a good nights sleep, like l did last night, I seem to struggle to wake up. It’s like my body goes “Ooooo I like that, I’ll have a bit more please”…….

But luckily no1 cub is on earlies this week, and I was woken by his activities in the kitchen. Bit of a result as I’d forgotten to set my alarm….🙄

 

Yesterday I managed to do some muddling and then go to work, which for the first time in many years was less than ten minutes up the road at…

 

 

Ive just noticed the what three words….Heartache.liberty.kebab…..😂

Most of the work had been completed over the weekend and my involvement wasn’t needed until the end.

It was a very pleasant evening and the worksite was handed back without issue…..which was nice.

 

The final road railer off tracked….

 

 

Then home in time for tea and medals. Well actually it was Mrs Grizz’s very slow cooked roast beef, yerkshire puds and all the trimmings. 
 

Time to get a wriggle on…

 

Have a great day all.

 

ATB Grizz

Edited Monday at 05:18 by Grizz

[Grizz]

8 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Ick.....

 

ION

 

Just paid my water and wastewater charge, AKA the Water Bill.

I've used less water, and they charged me ten quid MORE!

 

 

Perhaps their slogan should be….”Now we proffesionally take the Pi$$”…

[iL Dottore]

12 hours ago, Tony_S said:

The paper suggests It was a panda burger?

Indeed it was a "Panda burger". Panda being the name of this little burger shop pop-up, not the content of the burger patty.

Jamie had a Raclette Burger - the standard Panda Burger with melted raclette cheese on top.

 

In regards to the "skinny fries" I suspect that they were frozen. Very few places make their own fries. Once I helped out in the kitchen of a friend of a friend's restaurant and they used frozen fries, although they did make their own mashed potato/potato purée. The owner explained that high quality frozen fries for the trade were basically just potatoes that had been prepped, given the first fry and then frozen, whereas "instant" mash had all kinds of added (ahem) extras!

 

This article supports the use of good quality frozen fries: https://www.foodrepublic.com/1365352/scientific-reason-chefs-prefer-frozen-fries-vs-fresh/

Basically it all come down to the ingredients: good quality frozen fries are just potatoes and a little oil (from the first fry), whereas oven fries prepared for the domestic market typically contain

Potatoes (89%), Vegetable Oils (Rapeseed, Sunflower) – in varying proportions, Batter (Flour (WHEAT (with Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Rice, Broad Bean), Dextrin, Starch (WHEAT, Potato), Vegetable Fibre, Turmeric Extract, Colour (Paprika Extract)), Salt

So...

 

Professional Product = potatoes & some oil.

Domestic Product = potatoes plus all kinds of s***!
 

And there are plenty of good reasons why professionals don't use oven fries or make much use of the "air fryer" - at least for "frying" (forced hot air ovens [I think that's the correct term] are widely used, but not for frying)

 

Edited Monday at 06:32 by iL Dottore
Added text

[New Haven Neil]

Tch, frozen fries, whatever next. 🤣

 

ION the rock is a mere 9c, not great, but sunny at least.  Lot of skeins of geese flying over.

 

Off to the eye doctors late morning, seeing how a cataract has progressed, or hopefully not.  Then an afternoon of dark glasses and shadowy places.  I hate having this done. And then some.

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, PupCam said:

Excuses, excuses.

Oh dear! And you were doing so well...

Does this bit of insolent sarcasm put you on A List?

 

Heaven's no. Lists are..... so........ yesterday, so amateur DIY...

 

No, all that's happened is that you have become A Subject Requiring The Personal Special Attentions of Captain Cynical

 

Far be it for me to spread alarm and despondency, Puppers old chum, but if I were you I'd be very carefully checking motorcycle brakes, lights, petrol tanks and anything involving mains electricity from now on..,,

 

Just saying..  

Edited Monday at 08:12 by iL Dottore

[jjb1970]

As a former box used to say in response to excuses - 'spare me the details, just fix it'.

[polybear]

On 14/09/2024 at 17:11, New Haven Neil said:

Um, not so early riser.  I is ris though, and done all sorts of husbandly duties taking Mrs NHN shopping etc. A rsther windy 16c most of the day, and not really very nice out although dry.  Mega heaps of washing done too, house is like a charity warehouse full of clothes hanging all over the place.

 

In Bear's experience a Charity W/H tends to have clothes in bin bags rather than on rails (the latter takes up far too much room); once they've been thru' the sorting process** they get re-bagged into different categories (Mens/Womens - tops, bottoms, coats, summer, winter etc. etc.) ready for transfer to the shops (that's the bit where Bear steps in) - the shops could be of the high-end variety (designer, unworn good brands with tags on - we have a couple of those shops), run-of-the-mill (we have quite a few of those shops) or finally clearance (two of those - which are basically "last chance saloon" shops).

Once the clothes arrive in shops they are steamed (makes 'em look good - but they'd still need washing by the purchaser if only on the grounds of hygiene, which is often recommended on new shop-bought clothing labels anyway).

 

Bear in mind also that we collect oodles (and I really do mean OODLES) of stuff from the shops at the same time as we deliver; very few shops "stock themselves" via their own donations only.  The shops will also look out for "good stuff" that'll attract a better price in one of the other shops, or via Ebay (e.g. Designer Clothing being donated at a Clearance Shop will go back to the W/H).

 

**The Sorting Room:  If stuff gets thru' the Eagle-Eyes of those in the S.R. it's worth having; some (much?) of the stuff that the Public donate should have Government Health Warnings attached (one shop had some clothes dropped off a few weeks ago and the Manageress refused them on the grounds of "condition" - his response was "can't you just wash them??").  Unfortunately many just use the W/H drop-off point as being closer than the local tip - one reason why our Rubbish Disposal Cost is £90K a year....

(The S.R. Ladies had a bag of clothes with the remnants of a Mouse Nest in it a few weeks ago - fortunately there were no Tenants included, just what they leave behind; such bags don't even go into the Rag Cage - they're in the skip).  We do get paid for Rag, incidentally - but it's 2/3rds of 3/5ths of F.A.

 

edit:  The most profitable type of Shop we run?  The Clearance Shops, by a big margin; very low prices - but the amount of stuff they shift is amazing.

 

On 14/09/2024 at 17:11, New Haven Neil said:

A question for the ER Collective - anyone got any idea how/what/where to get a microfiche parts list (no, not for one of Baz's rockets) printed or digitised?  Motorbike bits if you need to know, honest, not anything naughty or OSA restricted!

 

A quick Google suggests that it may be possible to scan them on a P.C. Scanner - depending on model etc.

 

ION.....

 

Apparently "someone" has stated "Don't Worry - I'm Safe and Well"

Not exactly sure who was worrying...it sure as hell wasn't This Bear....

 

TTW.....

 

BG

Edited Monday at 07:21 by polybear

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Recovered from getting very wet yesterday.. all in vain as well..pah!

I am venturing North this week. Locomotion tomorrow then Beamish for a couple of days.. beware @Two_sugars and @BoD.

 

@polybearher indoors is a sorter. At the shop they do hang up clothes on proper rails, specialist items are sold on at different shops or via the bay of E.

 

This year they have also been sending items darn sarf as they had a major shortage of items. Some of the stuff she sorts is less than nice to handle. 

 

Time for my mugatea methinks...

Stay safe and well!

 

Baz

Edited Monday at 14:39 by Barry O

[BoD]

7 minutes ago, Barry O said:

I am venturing North this week. Locomotion tomorrow then Veamish for a couple of days.. beware @Two_sugars and @BoD.

 

We'd heard.  That's why I booked to go to the North of Scotland for a few days.

[Coombe Barton]

Off to Sister Drac shortly, then a wander round with the camera on a cool, slightly misty but fine morning.

[tigerburnie]

Off to St Andrews for a mooch round the harbour and the whisky shops, enjoy your day.

[Gwiwer]

36 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

a cool, slightly misty but fine morning.

Same here. Or it was a moment ago. Thickly foggerous and damp abruptly gave way to wan sun, dry air and the local cockeroosterdoodler telling us it’s morning!  
 

Can’t be all bad when one is sat indoors and the loudest sound is a boy-chicken singing a quarter-mile away 😂

 

Dr SWMBO is at her desk upstairs. Cross ants croissants and “Wonky Coffee” have been consumed and all seems right with the world. 

[TheQ]

Lothian , my view is Fife... Which is a very clear view today, sunny with broken clouds.

 

Stayed in St Andrews many times, liked the place, I was working across the bay at RAF Leuchars. Used to normally use the Ardgowan hotel, which is on the right looking North on North Street. Good food in the bar downstairs or the restaurant upstairs, mind you that was 30 years ago!! I doubt that owner / head chef is still alive now.

 

Mooring Awl,

Another bad night for swmbo, therefore I only got about 4 hours sleep, then after breaky this morning another hours sleep.

 

Plans for today,

definitely shopping.

Probably more thoughts on the cramped layout, some sort of small extension is getting more likely.

 

Time for muggacoffee number 2

 

 

 

[PupCam]

Morning

 

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Off to the eye doctors late morning, seeing how a cataract has progressed, or hopefully not.  Then an afternoon of dark glasses and shadowy places.  I hate having this done. And then some.

 

I've had a number of eye tests lately where drops turn your eyes yellow and everything seen  goes bright blue.  The eye is examined by use of a very bright light and a moving slit.    Quite weird the first time I had it done and the procedure was uncomfortable   rather than desperately unpleasant.   I should imagine the result was more unpleasant for small children who are frightened of yellow Panda eyes*

 

* Or should that, given recent conversation, be classed as Burger Eyes?     With or without frozen Artisanal fries I wonder?

 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

edit:  The most profitable type of Shop we run?  The Clearance Shops, by a big margin; very low prices - but the amount of stuff they shift is amazing.

 

The original Mr Marks and Mr Spencer business model I believe.  Of course they went all upmarket later on and then, it would appear lost the plot and didn't know who they wanted to cater for

 

1 hour ago, polybear said:

A quick Google suggests that it may be possible to scan them on a P.C. Scanner - depending on model etc.

 

Depends on the particular type of Microfiche undoubtedly (aka how large or small each document image was and whether they  represented fine text or large pictures)  and would certainly require very high resolution with no prior optical magnification of the image.

 

ION

 

It's Monday morning and the gas man has cometh (cue the song) and now goneth and the old battleship boiler lives to fight for another year - Yippee! 

 

I think another walk beckons this morning and possibly a bit more digging into the acquisition of the necessary spares for Monty's restoration to rude health.

 

TTFN

 

 

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

We had a good evening yesterday, as usual, the food was excellent but the company was even better. Much merriment was had by all and a booking has been made for November for the next get together. 
 

Today, we are going to attempt our first ‘day out’ heading off to RHS Bridgewater for a walk round the gardens etc. of course, they’ll be the obligatory drink and a slice in the cafe too, we’ll, it would be very rude not too! 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian. 

[DaveF]

Somewhat late this morning as it is Monday so I have been tidying and dusting before Amanda comes to do the "heavy cleaning".  For some reason the last couple of days I've been sneezing and wheezing so I am going back on to antihistamines, I thought it was time to manage without them but there are still lots of allergens around, especially when the wind is in the west.  It's less bad when it comes off the sea except that then I can get sinusitis - I can't win sometimes.  I've been like it for as long as I can remember so it isn't life threatening just mildly annoying.

 

It is sunny and cool with a few little bits of cloud around.  I don't think I'll be going far today, I really want to get some stuff in the garage sorted out and put in the bin to go tomorrow.  I may get a quick walk at some point and I think my regular prescription should be ready to collect this afternoon so I could combine the two.

 

David

 

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

@polybearher indoors is a sorter. At the shop they do hang up clothes on proper rails, specialist items are sold on at different shops or via the bay of E.

 

 

Snap - on rails in the shops, but in bags in the W/H.  

Many don't realise the scale of such operations (I sure as hell didn't); as an example we have something like (at a guess) at least 150 six-foot high Roller Cages (like wot you would see in a Supermarket when they're restocking the shelves) full of stuff in the W/H at any one time.  Plus there's the trays of "Brick" (Bric-a-Brac) - maybe 200+ of those (easily).  And then of course there's all the stuff in the Charity Ebay W/H that's in the process of being listed/sold on the 'bay......

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Indeed it was a "Panda burger". Panda being the name of this little burger shop pop-up, not the content of the burger patty.

Jamie had a Raclette Burger - the standard Panda Burger with melted raclette cheese on top.

 

In regards to the "skinny fries" I suspect that they were frozen. Very few places make their own fries. Once I helped out in the kitchen of a friend of a friend's restaurant and they used frozen fries, although they did make their own mashed potato/potato purée. The owner explained that high quality frozen fries for the trade were basically just potatoes that had been prepped, given the first fry and then frozen, whereas "instant" mash had all kinds of added (ahem) extras!

 

This article supports the use of good quality frozen fries: https://www.foodrepublic.com/1365352/scientific-reason-chefs-prefer-frozen-fries-vs-fresh/

Basically it all come down to the ingredients: good quality frozen fries are just potatoes and a little oil (from the first fry), whereas oven fries prepared for the domestic market typically contain

Potatoes (89%), Vegetable Oils (Rapeseed, Sunflower) – in varying proportions, Batter (Flour (WHEAT (with Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Rice, Broad Bean), Dextrin, Starch (WHEAT, Potato), Vegetable Fibre, Turmeric Extract, Colour (Paprika Extract)), Salt

So...

 

Professional Product = potatoes & some oil.

Domestic Product = potatoes plus all kinds of s***!
 

And there are plenty of good reasons why professionals don't use oven fries or make much use of the "air fryer" - at least for "frying" (forced hot air ovens [I think that's the correct term] are widely used, but not for frying)

 

Tesco's do three different grades of (own label) chips, Value, Standard and Finest. The Value chips are the cheapest and full of the additives mentioned above and made from pureed potato, the Standard chips have just salt and oil and are proper chips, they even have the skins on. The Finest are much the same but made from peeled potatoes which IMHO removes all of the flavour. 

[PhilJ W]

7 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Snap - on rails in the shops, but in bags in the W/H.  

Many don't realise the scale of such operations (I sure as hell didn't); as an example we have something like (at a guess) at least 150 six-foot high Roller Cages (like wot you would see in a Supermarket when they're restocking the shelves) full of stuff in the W/H at any one time.  Plus there's the trays of "Brick" (Bric-a-Brac) - maybe 200+ of those (easily).  And then of course there's all the stuff in the Charity Ebay W/H that's in the process of being listed/sold on the 'bay......

 

 

A former member of the MRC's wife used to manage a charity shop and some of the items 'donated' would make your hair curl. The worst she said was female hygiene items that had been used.

[The White Rabbit]

12 hours ago, polybear said:

.... Looks excellent - I'd like to add Pesto (I've a sneaky feeling that's what gives a Dr. Oetkers it's distinctive taste) but it seems a jar full from the Co-op only has a shelf life of about 3 days once opened; there's no mention of being able to freeze it either.  Is there a secret trick? ...

 

I use Sacla (bought from Ocado or Waitrose) and they have a longer fridge life. If you go into the listings, for example - https://www.ocado.com/products/sacla-sun-dried-tomato-pesto-24119011 and go down to 'usage' and then storage - this says you have two weeks. In my experience you may squeeze another few days out of it. Maybe the Co-Op uses a brand which has 'better'/fresher ingredients? 

 

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/shop/search?&searchTerm=sacla shows that there are quite a few varieties, the tomato one I used yesterday as well as the basil version mentioned in passing. 

 

As well as pizzas, I find they add taste to some toasties and pasta bakes. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Slept in this morning and didn't wake up until gone eight. Now catching up with things. I have to nip out shortly to renew my prostate prescription and have a word with the practice manager about recent events.

[PhilJ W]

I will watch tonights Nightsleeper episode, despite the number of 'disaster movie stock characters', The flawed hero, the mouthy politician who is a right PITA and the lost child among many others.  As for the accuracy concerning the railway such as the train moving without a driver for instance. The hackers had the entire system under their control and we have had driverless trains for many years now so it might be possible but the person to explain it has to be a computer expert rather than a railway expert.