Early Risers.

[The Stationmaster]

Beast: That notice surely belongs in the 'Things that make you : )' thread.

One would assume that trains would be in possession of train staff.

You might think that - past experience suggest that it might be unwise to comment further .....

[The Stationmaster]

Anyway good morning (more or less) all,

 

Late today as being chiropracted and visiting the bank (painless - paying in) came first then herself was in full possession of MY keyboard when I got home.  having read some of today's news I'm surprised that Ash's customer survey didn't ask about sexual orientation as that seems to be an in question nowadays - latest use is in respect of a questionnaire about wheelie bins in Birmingham (now that is strange, I mean pvc or leather is one unusual thing but such activity in a wheelie bin .. the mind boggles, and the chiropractor would make a fortune).

 

I'm told we're off to Tesco shortly but meanwhile I shall try and sneak a few minutes on RMweb.  Have a nice day folks.

[Oldddudders]

You might think that - past experience suggest that it might be unwise to comment further .....

This, at Barnstaple, suggests NR find it a common problem.

 

 

[Tony_S]

Southern Indian.

Interestingly most of them over here have no connection with Britain at all, one who did, when I asked him, said that British Indian restaurants have a cuisine of their own...

 

Best, Pete.

Most of the catering and waiting staff on the cruise we went on last year were from Goa or Kerala. There was a restaurant that served "pan Asian cuisine" in the evenings but did South Indian lunches. Aditi had a nice time talking with the head-waiter and manager about the food. The manager was from the Philippines. She was learning Hindi as it is now the "kitchen" language on many cruise ships. 

 

Aditi came to England when she was six. Her father had arrived a year earlier. In those days it was usual to come by liner. Aditi travelled with her sister and their mother on one of the P&O ships that went from Australia via Bombay to Tilbury. Aditi and her sister wouldn't eat the very English food served in the first class dining room. MiL told me that a really kind Australian waiter arranged for food from the crew mess to be sent up for the children.

 

I think it was food that Aditi's family found most difficult to cope with on arrival in the UK in the late 1950s. Not language, (both Aditi's parents spoke English fluently and Aditi and her sister soon learned) or the cold (bought nice coats!) just coping with 1950s Yorkshire hospital food, it was totally unlike anything they had eaten before.

[Debs.]

"it may well be syphon time"

 

Or Instruction Book time.

 

Pah!, instruction books!?!?!..........they`re for girls.

 

Oh, hang on a minute..........

[Donw]

Unless it was a Punjabi restaurant it wouldn't have been like what we get at home. Many of the Indian restaurants in the UK are Bangladeshi and serve meals Aditi is totally unfamiliar with. Tandoori recipes in such restaurants are the only familiar thing she recognises. All those Vindaloo, Madras, Phal, Jalfrezi etc are exotic mysteries! Although Aditi isn't vegetarian, her favourite Indian recipes are vegetarian. Tonight's meal will be Rajma (red kidney bean) with mushroom and potato curry. Ideally it should be with chapati but rice is nice too.

 

Tony

 

As a vegetarian that red kidney bean mushroom and potato curry sounds just the job. I think you will find all immigrants communities have to anglicise their menus for restaurants we English have our own ideas on food. In London were are a number of cafes that catered for the waiters lunches (lots of the fancy restaurants only opened in the evenings) and you got food closer to their native dishes.  These were obviously not tourist spots but tucked away in back streets.

 

Don

[Donw]

Those muddy footpaths in Beast photos are as bad as the ones round here. Our usual daily walk involves one where the water off the field overflows the drain and runs down the path which is being eroded. Large quantities of mud get deposited on the road and the houses opposite have sandbags along their drive gates to keep the mud out.

Don

[AndyB]

All this talk of Indian food is making me feel quite hungry.

What time is the dinner gong, Tony? The M25 can be hell so I'll need to set out in plenty of time. 

 

Probate oath this morning followed by a sausage sandwich on Alresford station this lunchtime. Not sure what engine was shunting in the yard though. Clue - it was black. Big help, aren't I !!

 

Had a chance to go round one of the seafarer training schools in Manila a couple of years back. The catering school was for normal crew meals, but looked top notch.

Sadly not always the case - had to deal with quite a few crews whose ships had been abandoned by their owners - not in the sense of jumping over the side, but taking the business decision that the ship was worth less than refuelling, re-provisioning it and paying local habour fees etc. and doing a runner leaving the crews held effectively hostage by the port authorities till the owner could be brought to book. A hard life.

 

Andy   

[Danemouth]

O/H is at the theatre painting the Ladies' toilets, reluctantly as he has yet another cold. Retirement seems to have compromised his immunity - this must be his fourth or fifth in less than a year. Perhaps it's the unfamiliar Devonian bugs wot get 'im!!

It's funny you should say that Ash, been retired almost four months and on my second cold - hadn't had one for ages before that!

 

Regards,

 

Dave

[gordon s]

Ever watched a film you wish you hadn't?  Saw some very good reviews for a film called 'Detachment'.  The main character is a teacher dealing with hopeless kids at school. 'To Sir with Love' it isn't.  For the first time in years we actually turned it off as I found some scenes shocking at worst and depressing at least.  Of course since then I've been trying to understand the very good reviews and wondering if I'd watched something else...

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1683526/reviews?ref_=tt_ov_rt

Edited March 19, 2013 by gordon s

[trisonic]

Quite a few but luckily I've never heard of that one.....did the music suck too?

 

Best, Pete.

[Tony_S]

Once upon a time if I started a film or book I would continue to the end. I decided against that a few years ago. My taste in films tends to be "not too intellectually demanding". What is nice is when I watch a film I didn't expect to like and then do.

 

I can't say that the IMDB description would encourage me to sit down and watch "Detachment". Now if the substitute teacher had been chased by aliens or werewolves I may have watched!

[Gruffalo]

"it may well be syphon time"

 

Or Instruction Book time.

Syphon F or Syphon G???

[New Haven Neil]

Yeah, seen that a few times, Andy.

 

Talking of curry, some of our ships had Indian crews, I always ate the 'crew curry' much to the disgust of my colleagues, who wouldn't have known a decent curry if it hit them.  Making me hungry just recalling it.....yum.

 

Our curry house of choice here is Bangladeshi, as suggested by Tony.

[Gruffalo]

Yeah, seen that a few times, Andy.

 

Talking of curry, some of our ships had Indian crews, I always ate the 'crew curry' much to the disgust of my colleagues, who wouldn't have known a decent curry if it hit them.  Making me hungry just recalling it.....yum.

 

Our curry house of choice here is Bangladeshi, as suggested by Tony.

I had Greek, Chinese, Indian and Philippine crews during my days steaming and throbbing around the seaways of the world. Nothing to say about the Greek crews, we just took what was put in front of us. Chinese food cooked by the Chinese for the Chinese is highly recommended - not a hint of MSG or general sliminess! Like you, I was really comfortable with the Indian food and preferred to take that than their versions of standard British food for the ossifers. The Philippine crews were ok at producing something western and edible but were also good at fishing and fish dishes. Those were the days, 6'2" and under 160lbs! It certainly gave me an appetite for what today is called World Cuisine and even now influences some of my culinary creations ("that muck" is how SWMBO describes it).

[Tony_S]

My late FiL was very interested in how Asian food, especially Indian had influenced British eating habits. I used to get lots of fun winding him up telling him(not always honestly) that such and such an ingredient had originally been taken to India by the British (usually for some nefarious colonial purpose). It turned into almost a parody of the BBCs "Goodness Gracious Me" once aubergines (genuinely India's contribution to world gastronomy) got a mention.

[AndyB]

Don't want to interrupt folks' thoughts of world cuisine but just had a call from one of the companies quoting for our fence. 

 

They were about £1000 more expensive than the option we went with (and the cheaper company were VAT registered) but gave the reason that they were using 4" wide concrete posts and were a foot longer than the 3" wide posts we are having. Apparently they were "happy" to lose the job for the reason of sticking with top quality and that the 4" posts would not break "unlike the willowy 3" posts" which apparently will be "thrown up" in double quick time (I'd pointed out they were taking an 2 man days).  

 

Bad as the weather is sometimes I don't see 3" concrete posts breaking, and surely the wooden panels and clips attaching the fence to the post would yield first?  

 

We had, I think, 18 posts. This, I believe makes their posts about £55 more expensive per post. More if you make a 20% allowance for VAT. 

 

I think I just did a body swerve round a right con, but interested to hear your views. 

 

Now, back to curry talk....! 

[Tony_S]

I shall pop out, measure my concrete posts and report back!

[gordon s]

Just done the same.  Our posts are 4" and the fences were erected in 1992 when our place was built.  They have certainly stood the ravages of time and all components were sourced from Bouchier in Reading.  Like most things in life, you get what you pay for and I would always err on the higher spec side if it made financial sense.  

 

Here's a copy of the Bouchier price list for components.  Concrete posts are on page 27.

 

I would probably agree that 4" posts are certainly stronger and likely to last much longer, after all ours have been going 21 years now and look like they'll go another 21....

 

http://www.bouchierfencing.co.uk/PriceListM_1.html

[Tony_S]

Reinforced concrete, 4 inches by 4 and 3/8 inches. Been up for 21 years and are supporting their second lot of fence panels (the ones supplied by the builder were not very good)

Edited March 19, 2013 by Tony_S

[Tony_S]

Here's a copy of the Bouchier price list for components.  Concrete posts are on page 27.

I think the concrete morticed ones for panels are on page 5

[The Stationmaster]

Yeah, seen that a few times, Andy.

 

Talking of curry, some of our ships had Indian crews, I always ate the 'crew curry' much to the disgust of my colleagues, who wouldn't have known a decent curry if it hit them.  Making me hungry just recalling it.....yum.

 

Our curry house of choice here is Bangladeshi, as suggested by Tony.

Strange how 'crew food' seems to be that much better than that up above.  During our trip on the 'Patricia' last year I was told by several of the officers, including the Captain, that the crew food (cafeteria messing for all ranks) was better than the stuff we were getting and that the curry was something else.  Curry was never on our menu although one previous passenger had caused a right upset with the passengers' chef by asking for some from the crew's mess.

 

BTW dunno what will be happening with 'Patricia' this year as the whole programme is quoted as 'West Coast' apart from 2 weeks 'South West' (one of which is probably Biscay) and the programme starts in 4 weeks time although she only came out of dry dock in Sunderland on Saturday and is still alongside at the repairer's yard.  But mighty tempting again as prices have not been increased this year.

[Tony_S]

We had, I think, 18 posts. This, I believe makes their posts about £55 more expensive per post. More if you make a 20% allowance for VAT. 

 

I think I just did a body swerve round a right con, but interested to hear your views. 

Mrs S would have accepted this as an invitation to haggle.

[Gruffalo]

I put in Metposts as old wooden posts rotted at the soil line along my boundary in the late 80's and early 90's and drove them into the ground through the concrete balls that had secured the old (and rather short) posts. Fast trip out to touch the wood and can report that these replacement 4x4 posts of 2m length have withstood gales, rain and whatever over the intervening years without giving me grief. I may well have to replace the feather-edge board that spans between the posts in the next few years but I am happy with the pressure treated wooden posts when installed this way.

[gordon s]

Thanks Tony.  I'm not sure that Bouchier even quote 3" posts.  On that basis and my own experience I would agree with the quality based company that 3" posts are likely to be inadequate for the job.