Early Risers.

[pH]

Yay! Hockey season is here! First preseason game on just now.

Edited 13 hours ago by pH

[polybear]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

MR KIPLING 6 CHERRY BAKEWELLS
Ingredients
WHEAT Flour (with Added Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Sugar, Vegetable Oils (Palm, Rapeseed), Plum and Raspberry Jam (Glucose-Fructose, Syrup, Plum Purée, Sugar, Raspberry Purée, Gelling Agent (Pectin), Acid (Citric, Acid), Acidity Regulator (Sodium Citrates) Colour (Anthocyanins), Preservative (Potassium Sorbate) Flavouring), Glucose Syrup, Glacé Cherries (Cherries, Sugar, Acidity Regulator (Citric Acid), Preservatives (Potassium Sorbate, SULPHUR DIOXIDE), Colour (Carmine), Sweetened Condensed Skimmed MILK (Skimmed MILK, Sugar), Ground Rice, Desiccated Coconut (contains Preservative (Sodium Metabisulphite [SULPHITES], Whey Powder (MILK), Dried EGG White, Ground ALMONDS, Salt, Dextrose Emulsifiers (Sorbitan Monostearate, Polysorbate 60), Raising Agents (Disodium Diphosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), MILK Proteins, Humectant (Vegetable Glycerine), Flavouring, Preservative (Potassium Sorbate).

 

HOMEMADE 

Ingredients

PASTRY

200g plain flour

2 tbsp icing sugar

100g cold unsalted butter, diced

1 medium egg

1 tsp lemon juice

2-3 tsp ice-cold water

FRANGIPANE FILLING

100g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

2 large eggs

50g plain flour

75g ground almonds

A drop of almond extract (optional)

100g raspberry jam

100g raspberries

20g flaked almonds

TO FINISH

Icing sugar, for dusting

 

Just thought you'd like to know...

 

("proper", my a***)

 

 

Mr K's:

 

Time Taken:  About 5 seconds

Cost:  I guess a couple of quid or less (especially if they're the Supermarket fakes).

Mess:  Diddly Squat.

Yumminess Factor:  oodles.

 

Homemade

 

Time Taken:  For most of us, bluddy hours

Cost:  A lot more than MK's I'll wager

Mess:  oodles

Yumminess Factor:  Good question...the missing Cherry doesn't help.

 

😁

 

[polybear]

A somewhat belated VHBBW's to SeeBee @Coombe Barton  🎂🎂

 

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Cool Charente.  It is definitely getting colder.  I instructed the hairdresser not to lower my ears too much as winter seems to have come early. 

 

Various tasks were completed after the shopping.  A jigsaw with about 20 locomotives on it was completed. Very enjoyable.  A quack bird curry for tea then a game of Rummykub with Beth.  Not a bad day. 

 

Some storage boxes to put together this morning then the ironing.  I might even make a start on fitting handles to a pair of IKEA Chests of drawers.  Beth finds the drawers difficult to open.  I plan to make a marking out template for the first one then use that to mark the others. 

 

Jamie 

[Grizz]

Morning All

 

Up a bit earlier than normal on Mokka detail this morning. 
 

Not a great nights sleep but not the worst. 
 

Up early today because I have got to oversee highways herberts on the railway. Always fun, especially when there is a comedian amongst the group.

Starting with the opening line of the mandatory safety briefing…..

 

“On the highways, out on the street, basically anywhere you are in the UK that is away from the railway, you can do anything you like as long as the laws say that you can’t…….here on the railway you cannot do anything unless the rule book says that you can, that you are trained, assessed and deemed competent AND most importantly you have authority to do so!”

 

Line Two….

 

”…And the reason for this is???…….(I usually ask it as a genuine question at this point)….Anyone?……Nope?…..Ok the reason is because we have killed people in the past and we will again if we don’t follow this simple premise!”…..

 

I usually then ask them if they have ever worked with anyone who was killed at work…..then I tell them about two of the people I worked with that were hit by trains and killed. Both closed coffin funerals. 

By this time they are usually slightly more subdued.

 

But the best bit is when I get to ask questions about the briefing to see if they have been paying attention. 
 

“So how far away is the nearest hospital, by ambulance with Blue Lights, if you are seriously injured and bleeding badly?”…..

 

Yep that’s right 20-30 minutes and given that we can’t land a helicopter near hear, would anyone like to take a bet on whether you are likely to make it……?”…… 

 

“Anyone got any questions? Nope? ….ok if you are happy with my safety briefing please sign the part of the form that says you have received a full briefing, you have understood it and that you will follow all rules, regulations and RAMS….”

 

Usually it is very quiet at this point. 
 

Today it is mostly going to precipitate down….a lot. So perhaps they will leave the comedian of the group behind anyway. 
 

Have a great day all.

 

ATB Grizz

 

[iL Dottore]

39 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Mr K's:

 

Time Taken:  About 5 seconds

Cost:  I guess a couple of quid or less (especially if they're the Supermarket fakes).

Mess:  Diddly Squat.

Yumminess Factor:  oodles.

You really are addicted to cheap, quick, synthetic UPF “food”, aren’t you?

 

If more people actually paid attention to what’s in their food and what (and how much) they eat, the NHS would have less of a problem with lifestyle associated illness (estimated several years ago, by the NHS itself, as consuming 60% of the NHS budget, and probably consuming a lot more NHS resources today).

 

Unfortunately, the big food conglomerates have big advertising budgets that they use effectively, especially in targeting young people (which is why in places like Italy or France, customers at places like MickeyD* tend to be young people or foreigners afraid of real food).

 

Also, unfortunately, even Switzerland, Italy and France are seeing more “convenience” foods being available - such is the influence of the food conglomerates - but it’s still a fraction of what is available in the UK (a recent trip to a M&S Food Hall showed that at least 50% of the store was taken up by convenience food)

 

* unfortunately the fast food chains have been able to get a toehold in places like France or Italy, principally by targeting children** and young people. I was pleased to learn, however, that Dominos failed miserably when it tried to conquer the Italian market.

** one of the easiest ways of shutting up a fractious child is by stuffing them with junk food - something far too many frazzled parents have resorted to. And this is not helped by childish lamentations of “but all my friends go there”

[Ozexpatriate]

Tonight saw a quadrennial, dual-biography on PBS' flagship "Frontline" documentary series. As usual every four years, the episode is called "The Choice".

 

It dovetails the biographies for both candidates for high office. I don't know if it is accessible in the UK, but I recommend it to anyone looking to comprehend the candidates (and indeed, the 'choice') in ways you might not expect.

 

It is two hours and is on YouTube. As I have done with previous versions, I found it insightful.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Off to get my heart monitor fitted. It's in a Surgery in one of the less well liked parts of the city. It may take a while to get there in the rush hour...

 

I need to make sure that I act "normally" when fitted with said device.. me? Acting normally?? How quaint!

 

Yes @iL Dottore my reasonably regular trips to Oz and NZ have shown me the impact of "fast" food.. in the shape of the children and parents...at my junior school our "fast" food was likely to be a carrot or apple.. how times change.

 

Time to finish my tea and get off to the delights of.. Beeston..

 

I may be gone for a while.

 

Stay safe! 

 

Baz

 

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

Just now, Barry O said:

I may be gone for a while.

Best wishes for your procedure Baz.

[jjb1970]

Best wishes and godspeed Baz!!

[Hroth]

Mornin' All!

 

Dry at the moment, heavy rain "predicted" from noon onwards.

Having located the cardboard skip on yesterdays tip trip, I'll ram the back of Yeti full of collapsed cardboard boxes and dispose of them before the rain comes...

 

Breakfast calls!!!

 

[Coombe Barton]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Mr K's:

 

Time Taken:  About 5 seconds

Cost:  I guess a couple of quid or less (especially if they're the Supermarket fakes).

Mess:  Diddly Squat.

Yumminess Factor:  oodles.

 

Homemade

 

Time Taken:  For most of us, bluddy hours

Cost:  A lot more than MK's I'll wager

Mess:  oodles

Yumminess Factor:  Good question...the missing Cherry doesn't help.

 

😁

 

Some of us, however, enjoy constructing food from quality materials, We know exactly what's going in it.

[Coombe Barton]

Today's rain predicted just when I have to go out for routine doc's visit.

 

As I don't consider getting wet a pleasure the planned walk up will now be driving up

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Coombe Barton
I thought Typoman was still asleep!

[BoD]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

at my junior school our "fast" food was likely to be a carrot or apple.. how times change.

I was thinking along those lines when reading through these and earlier posts and wondered when, how and why things have changed.

 

Ok, I’m not getting the rose tinted specs out but everything we ate back then was cooked at home from mostly fresh ingredients bought at local shops, of which there were usually one of each type (butchers, greengrocers, bakers, etc) within walking distance.  Yes we had sausages, but you could go to the local butcher and watch him cut the meat and perhaps add his own secret recipe ingredients (not masses of  chemicals) before putting the mix through his own mechanical sausage maker and hanging them from a hook on a rail.  Often made to order and certainly none left over by the end of the day.
 

 Ok, it wasn’t always healthy food (suet pud anyone?) but the contents were fresh - mince, leek,  onion or fruit spring to mind.  None of the dishes were ‘fancy’, we couldn’t afford fancy, but were always fresh, or used leftovers of fresh. Such was the lack of variety of recipes (a spin off from rationing?)  that you could tell which day it was by what the evening meal was. We always called it tea and ate it when dad got in from work so there are cultural factors at work too.  The first ‘exotic’ meal we had was a dehydrated Vesta Beef Curry. Our first fast food. Yeuch.

 

It didn’t matter that some of the food wasn’t healthy, although most of it was, because when we weren’t at the table (not eating it in front of the TV, note) we were outside running it off and we did that until called in for bath/bedtime.

 

Where and when did it all go wrong?  Answers on the back of a five pound note to ….

Edited 9 hours ago by BoD

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl,

4.5 hours sleep, long awake, 1 hours sleep, short awake, 1/2 hours sleep.

 

100% Blue Welkin out there, Fife has returned to the north Shore, whirly things on the hills are not rotating.

 

During the long awake, Much thought went into transportation of unmentionables, mostly because it's likely I'll be single handed. Whilst ideas have been formed, weighing of sections will be required. If they are light enough then two pairs can become two, folding legs can be fitted, trestles not used as they take up a load of transport space.

 

Today there will be some packing, this will include dad's old PC, and all his data CDs . Once home all his records of family ancestry ( going back to 1553) will have to be extracted, put into a format I can email, then distributed to the family...

 

I've looked at tomorrow's forecast, soggyness is likely, now to look at planned road works before a decision is made as to routes..

 

Time to drink muggacoffee number 1

 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

 

Off to get my heart monitor fitted. It's in a Surgery in one of the less well liked parts of the city. It may take a while to get there in the rush hour...

 

I need to make sure that I act "normally" when fitted with said device.. me? Acting normally?? How quaint!

 

Good Luck!

 

Assuming that you are having a Holter Monitor (or similar) fitted, I do hope you are not a hairy person. The electrodes have to be affixed firmly to the body - which can mean they whip out the disposable razor and give you an unexpected shave - in order to get hairless skin they can attach the electrodes to.

 

I do recall seeing one particular hirsute gent just after he had his Holter Monitor electrodes removed - his chest was like a wheat field full of crop circles.

 

We await a status report upon your return

[Coombe Barton]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Acting normally?? How quaint!

Once, when the doc said I was normal, Sandy demanded a recount.

[PhilJ W]

I hope the op goes well Baz. A bit of discomfort but quality of life should be vastly improved.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Had at least six hours sleep last night but still feel as if I could do with more. Just got to sit around waiting for parcels today and tomorrow so I might do a bit of mudelling while I'm waiting.

[The White Rabbit]

11 hours ago, BoD said:

What?

No cherries?

 

Sounded like the raspberries in il D's list were a substitute. That's fine for me, I am not overly keen on cherries but like small raspberries - and have some growing in the garden I can harvest - but other opinions/preferences are available. 

 

4 hours ago, polybear said:

Mr K's:

 

Time Taken:  About 5 seconds

Cost:  I guess a couple of quid or less (especially if they're the Supermarket fakes).

Mess:  Diddly Squat.

Yumminess Factor:  oodles.

 

Homemade

 

Time Taken:  For most of us, bluddy hours

Cost:  A lot more than MK's I'll wager

Mess:  oodles

Yumminess Factor:  Good question...the missing Cherry doesn't help.

 

😁

 

At the risk of sounding like I don't get the joke, I would challenge time, mess and yumminess... I've made a Bakewell a few times, as a large traybake rather than individual slices. I didn't have a stopwatch on but prep time wasn't that long. I can't remember if I posted any pics but I have mentioned my efforts before on ERs. If I didn't post the recipe or you can't find, PM me. Go on, give it a go! And - if you make it yourself you can control the ingredients and tweak it to suit your tastes. Extra cherries? Certainly sir... 

 

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

Some of us, however, enjoy constructing food from quality materials, We know exactly what's going in it.

 

Wotesed.... 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

Some of us, however, enjoy constructing food from quality materials, We know exactly what's going in it.

I think most of our meals are too but if someone enjoys a Kipling cake while having tea at a friend’s house it isn’t going to do much harm. 

[DaveF]

I was up early this morning, before 07.00 to give me time for breakfast etc before taking the car for its service - it takes just over 20 minutes to drive to the garage at that time in the morning so I left at 8 and was there by 8.20.  I picked up the courtesy car, a Yaris Cross, a little bigger than my Yaris.  It was nice to drive but having a different locking system it took me a few minutes when I got home to work out how to lock the car.  It was easy once I'd realised I had missed an instruction on the screen after I pressed the button to turn off the ignition.  The only "dislike" is the constant noisy warnings about speed limits as on all very new cars.  I wouldn't mind if it got them right!

 

I will now spend the day at home until the garage rings me to say my car is ready.  I don't really like going out far in a courtesy car - partly because of the problem of finding it in a car park!  After i have picked my car up I might go the Silverlink shopping centre across the road from the garage, the shops there are open until 9p.m. 

 

I have just received an email and text with the inspection report on my car, as you would expect on a 1 year old car all is OK.

 

When I got home I had a look at my e mails and found one from the NHS about booking for Covid jabs, they are available at another surgery in my town from next Thursday so I am booked in for 08.05 on Thursday 3nd Oct.  So by the end of next weekend all my jabs will be up to date as my 'flu jab is on Saturday 6th and I've alreday had the RSV.

 

I am hoping the rest of the day will be quiet, I have a number of odds and ends to do but first on the list will be a relaxing coffee.  While having it I will ring the dentist as I lost a piece of filling yesterday, the second bit to come off the tooth recently, but it isn't painful (yet).

 

David

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Today I’m staying inside, either sat at the dining room table, or in the office, downstairs. The reason for this is I’m expecting a couple of parcels and Sheila wants to get some ironing done, so I’ve volunteered to answer the door if/when the bell rings etc. I’ve got plenty to keep me busy, building more corridor connections etc, although I do need to cut some more card for the ends and paper for the sides, as I’m almost out of these now! 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian 

[iL Dottore]

4 hours ago, Barry O said:

Yes @iL Dottore my reasonably regular trips to Oz and NZ have shown me the impact of "fast" food.. in the shape of the children and parents...at my junior school our "fast" food was likely to be a carrot or apple.. how times change.

Until you go to a country where convenience and UPF fast food a rarity, you don’t realise the extent of obesity amongst the UK population.

 

I recall seeing two contrasting images on the nightly news during the “demonstration season”: one of the Police at a demonstration in London and one of the Police at a demonstration in Paris. What was notable was how fat so many of the Met Police (and the protesters) were - the French (Police and demonstrators) seemed malnourished in comparison

2 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

Some of us, however, enjoy constructing food from quality materials, We know exactly what's going in it.

That’s the whole point: good quality ingredients, properly prepared (perhaps even “prepared with love”). It doesn’t have to be “posh” or “fancy” (two really loathsome words [and redolent of inverse snobbery] when it comes to food), it has to be just “honest”.

 

A decent chunk of cheese from a local producer, bread and pickled onions made locally (or at home), bereft of E=Numbers and additives, plus a pint of a good ”craft” beer and you have a meal that can make both a king and a knackerman happy.

2 hours ago, BoD said:

fresh ingredients bought at local shops, of which there were usually one of each type (butchers, greengrocers, bakers, etc) within walking distance.  Yes we had sausages, but you could go to the local butcher and watch him cut the meat and perhaps add his own secret recipe ingredients (not masses of  chemicals) before putting the mix through his own mechanical sausage maker and hanging them from a hook on a rail.  Often made to order and certainly none left over by the end of the day.

The thing is, as you point out, you knew the suppliers, you knew how they made their wares and as their reputation (income and continued commercial existence for that matter) depended upon providing wares which were good enough to bring them regular customers.

 

Of course there were “food adulteration” scandals involving small producers - but many of these scandals were just the period equivalent of “click bait” I saw a TV programme that investigated whether or not the claims of bread being adulterated with things like ground up bone were true. They tested a number of adulterants and found that most of them stopped the adulterated bread from rising and the few adulterants that did allow the bread to rise produced a loaf that looked, smelt or tasted foul (or all three)

2 hours ago, BoD said:

Ok, it wasn’t always healthy food (suet pud anyone?) but the contents were fresh - mince, leek,  onion or fruit spring to mind.  

“Healthy Food” is, I think situational. Clearly anything taken to an excess can be deleterious, but suet pud, per se, isn’t necessarily unhealthy: if you are a growing child burning up fuel (calories) like a EE Lightning with afterburners on, or an adult male working in an intensely physically demanding job, the occasional bit of stodge and custard (especially if it’s made from scratch stodge) will have no lasting health impact (every day? Perhaps not a good idea)

2 hours ago, BoD said:

None of the dishes were ‘fancy’, we couldn’t afford fancy, but were always fresh, or used leftovers of fresh. Such was the lack of variety of recipes (a spin off from rationing?)  that you could tell which day it was by what the evening meal was.

Here I beg to differ. Inverse snobbery about food (a curiously British phenomenon) and the influence of the big food conglomerates have so corroded people’s attitude towards food so that  something like “sausages from locally reared pigs, handmade mashed potatoes from sustainable local sources and our own homemade onion sauce” would be considered “fancy” by some today. In the 60s it would simply be “bangers and mash with onion gravy: sausages from the local butcher, spuds and onions from the local greengrocer”

 

Your second point touches on something that was considered as “good practice” by many - certainly in my family. Left over roast beef became roast beef sandwiches, left over spaghetti was made into a frittata, left over veg into some sort of “bubble and squeak” kind of thing. Assuming, of course, there were any leftovers to be used.

 

Nowadays, it does seem that using leftovers is a dying art.

2 hours ago, BoD said:

We always called it tea and ate it when dad got in from work so there are cultural factors at work too. 

Not only does it highlight a social and socio-economic divide, but a regional divide as well. The further North you go from London, the more likely “Tea” will be the name given to the evening meal in all but the upper middle class and the  Gentry.

In Italy (and other European countries) this is not an issue: no matter the socioeconomic class, you only have: prima colazion, pranzo, cena

2 hours ago, BoD said:

because when we weren’t at the table (not eating it in front of the TV, note) we were outside running it off and we did that until called in for bath/bedtime.

British (and many other expats) are utterly horrified to learn that children here actually walk to school - even the kindergarden children. There is a primary school nearby Schloss iD and when school gets out there is a total absence of idling Chelsea Tractors spewing noxious fumes into the air (the same air, ironically, their “little darlings” have to breathe) so that mummy can collect little Jacinta or Tarquin so that their precious offspring don’t have to walk home or - worse - actually use public transport.

 

It will come as no surprise, I am sure, to learn that the only school round here that has a parade of Chelsea Tractors at chucking out time is the International School where the expats on short term contracts send their sprogs (the same expats that don’t even try to assimilate).

 

Edited 6 hours ago by iL Dottore
Wrong were there

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Definitely overcast and drizzly here. We need to go out so Aditi can deliver her blood pressure results to the doctors and then collect some medication from the chemist. She was going by herself but it is easier if I drive in case there are no parking spaces. I am expecting g a parcel but it will probably be a small padded envelope. It is three tiny PCBs (Next 18 decoder socket boards). It should easily fit through the letterbox. 
We had an email yesterday from the organisation that arranged the scheme through which we had our solar panels installed. They are now promoting a scheme for air source heat pumps .We have “expressed an interest”. One of the requirements if we progress further is an energy efficiently rating for the house. So we thought we may as well get one anyway, it will be valid for 10,years and who knows what will happen in that time. We aren’t planning to move but who knows? (Really need rhetorical question mark). 
Tony