Early Risers.

[PupCam]

4 hours ago, rockershovel said:

No wonder we're not in Europe any more... coffee and a biscuit doesn't qualify as breakfast of any description over here, and ham sandwiches are for lunch. 

 

34 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

You do realise that charcuterie also includes

• sausages
• bacon
• black pudding
• ham

We also have eggs on the continent - just in case you're wondering.....

 

p.s. The Americans have a number of breakfast dishes featuring ham: such as biscuits and gravy, ham and eggs, etc...

 

 

I think the reference was to your second breakfast  which most certainly doesn't represent breakfast to Puppers.   Now, if it was an exceedingly large, plain unsweetened biscuit to which you were referring onto which bacon, fried eggs, fried bread & grilled tomatoes had been piled then that would constitute breakfast.    Whether the user chooses to consume the biscuit as well or literally just use it as a plate is up to them.  The Devil is in the detail ...

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

53 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

What about Castlemaine XXXX then? Reputedly so named because those who drank it couldn't spell beer. Another theory is if they called it beer they'd be in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act. We had our own P-water anyway called Skol, the only liquid that could pass through the human body completely unaltered.

 

 

 

Thats a QLD drop. Beer here is regional.  major beers in each state are basically Tooheys or Reschs in NSW, Vic Bitter down there in  Mexico. Tasmania is Boags in the North, Cascade in the South. Sth Australia haa Coopers ( a decent drop!), over in teh west its Swan. The Northern Territory has NT Draught.

 

Being a thirsty part of the world , it is available in  "Darwin Stubby" size.

 

 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Morning all.

It is overcast with a few sunny spells here. 
We aren’t going anywhere. The slightest hint of sunshine encourages people to go to Southend for the day. There is evening traffic to Southend now as a lot of people who like to display their cars go to the sea front roads. Canvey Island became an alternative but there are lots of notices prohibiting such things there now.

However I think a local pub (Hoy and Helmet) might be after a different sort of visitor.

 

< Camera Controlled Pub Guests > ???
 

So Cyborgs now have their own pub?

 

I’ve always wondered about Essex.

 

Edited August 26 by iL Dottore

[iL Dottore]

5 minutes ago, PupCam said:

I think the reference was to your second breakfast  which most certainly doesn't represent breakfast to Puppers.   Now, if it was an exceedingly large, plain unsweetened biscuit to which you were referring onto which bacon, fried eggs, fried bread & grilled tomatoes had been piled then that would constitute breakfast.    Whether the user chooses to consume the biscuit as well or literally just use it as a plate is up to them.  The Devil is in the detail ...

 

 

Err, what you are describing is a bastardisation of the American breakfast classic: “Biscuits and….” The “biscuit” being a savoury scone, with the “and…” being sausage, ham, bacon, “chicken fried steak” amongst many other things. But never, ever fried bread (carbohydrate sandwich anyone?), I mean Americans eat some pretty carb heavy breakfasts (such as biscuits and gravy with country fried potatoes), but even they draw the line at a breakfast biscuit with a fried bread filling.

 

As for grilled/fried tomatoes, they are an abomination. The noble tomato has much more important culinary duties to perform than acting as a “pseudo healthy stand in” (as in “of course my breakfast is healthy, it’s got tomato in it”).

 

I suppose I was a bit misleading and sent the culinarily naïve off in the wrong direction by using the term “second breakfast”. The culinarily savvy will have understood I was referring to Z’nuni. A snack - sometimes substantial - taken at anytime between breakfast and lunch, the exact time depending upon when you had breakfast and how hungry you are.

 

Then, of course, you have Z’vieri - which can be a slightly less formal version of afternoon tea at the Ritz (or Claridges).

[BSW01]

Good afternoon everyone 

 

A bit late on parade today due to having a bit of a lie in and breakfast in bed, I know, but it's the last bank holiday until Christmas! 

 

But since getting out of bed, I've been a busy boy. The washing machine has had a good clean and I've changed the mop head on the mop. I'm now currently sat at the computer in the cellar seeing what's going on here. 

 

Not much more planned. 

 

Back later 

 

Brian 

[iL Dottore]

As much as I consider myself as a well travelled, seasoned and adventurous Gastronaut, my gastronomic adventures are somewhat limited by my metabolism - which is, quite frankly, laggardly.

 

Were I to have the metabolic burn rate of, say, a English Electric Lightning on takeoff with afterburners, then every day would be a gastronomic indulgence of:

• Breakfast
• Z’nuni
• Luncheon
• Z’vieri
• Dinner
• After show supper

And should I be fortunate enough to be visiting a place renowned for its street food (like Osaka) luncheon and Z’vieri (and possibly even dinner) would be replaced by non-stop street stall grazing.😁👍🏻😄

But alas, ‘tis not to be, my Anglo-Saxon genes make sure of that….

 

Lettuce is likely to feature heavily in my life the near future 😢😞😥

[polybear]

59 minutes ago, PupCam said:

I think the reference was to your second breakfast  which most certainly doesn't represent breakfast to Puppers.   Now, if it was an exceedingly large, plain unsweetened biscuit to which you were referring onto which bacon, fried eggs, fried bread & grilled tomatoes had been piled then that would constitute breakfast.    Whether the user chooses to consume the biscuit as well or literally just use it as a plate is up to them.  The Devil is in the detail ...

 

Puppers appears to be getting somewhat careless - you forgot the Snaggers, Chips, Beans, Onion Rings......

 

32 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

As for grilled/fried tomatoes, they are an abomination. The noble tomato has much more important culinary duties to perform than acting as a “pseudo healthy stand in” (as in “of course my breakfast is healthy, it’s got tomato in it”).

 

Brace yourselves now....Bear actually AGREES with iD on this one.....Tommies belong on Pizza....

 

32 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

The culinarily savvy will have understood I was referring to Z’nuni. A snack - sometimes substantial - taken at anytime between breakfast and lunch, the exact time depending upon when you had breakfast and how hungry you are.

 

The more advanced of us refers to such things as "Elevenses"......

[Andy Hayter]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

HowcaboutvWatneys Red Barrel that really was just coloured water.  As bad as French curry powder which should be labelled food colouring. 

 

 

 

Jamie

 

Hence the old joke:

 

Q:  What is the difference between Watneys Red and two red indians making love in a canoe?

 

A:  Nothing.  They are both f***ing close to water.

[rockershovel]

44 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

As much as I consider myself as a well travelled, seasoned and adventurous Gastronaut, my gastronomic adventures are somewhat limited by my metabolism - which is, quite frankly, laggardly.

 

Were I to have the metabolic burn rate of, say, a English Electric Lightning on takeoff with afterburners, then every day would be a gastronomic indulgence of:

• Breakfast
• Z’nuni
• Luncheon
• Z’vieri
• Dinner
• After show supper

And should I be fortunate enough to be visiting a place renowned for its street food (like Osaka) luncheon and Z’vieri (and possibly even dinner) would be replaced by non-stop street stall grazing.😁👍🏻😄

But alas, ‘tis not to be, my Anglo-Saxon genes make sure of that….

 

Lettuce is likely to feature heavily in my life the near future 😢😞😥

During our trip to Japan for RWC in 2019, we stayed in Osaka where #2 Son had identified a location called Dotombori (?sp) which was a centre for restaurants and street food. I enjoyed it enormously, he..... didn't, really. 

 

[iL Dottore]

30 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

The more advanced of us refers to such things as "Elevenses"......

If you hadn't been so obstinately anglocentric and neglectful of your Schwyzerdütsch studies, you would have - of course - known that Z'nuni is Swiss German for "Elevenses".

 

Surprising as it may be to learn, but you can actually have erudite, concept-rich and sophisticated conversations in languages other than English (especially given the guttural gruntings that passes for "English" too often in the UK nowadays).

 

Just like many cultures around the world eat as well as - if not better than - the British, despite the total lack of chips n beanz, so do many cultures have just as a rich cultural and social history as the UK - in the case of China, perhaps more so.

 

You have to face up to facts Bear, the UK hasn't been the same since the Suez Crisis*

 

* nor does Britain have much nowadays in the way of gunships to show Johnny Foreigner what's what...

 

Edited August 26 by iL Dottore
Typo

[rockershovel]

Just to clarify, "first breakfast" is tea or coffee and maybe toast, taken around 0530 before commencing work or travel to work, or going hunting. BREAKFAST is a sizeable cooked meal of bacon, sausages, fried slice etc  taken around 1000 - 1030. Kedgeree is good; toast and marmalade, or marmite; boiled eggs have their place. It may be served buffet style or in a greasy spoon.

 

"Lunch" is a light meal of tea, possibly sandwiches, around 1330

 

"Tea" is for posh folk. About 1600

 

"Dinner" is a cooked meal served around 1900, except on Sundays when it is the main meal around the middle of the day, or after the pubs close (unless eating out)

[rockershovel]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Up early this morning - woken up at 4 am by the iPhone app that monitors the Schloss iD estate alarm system.  Outside there was a notable absence of sirens, floodlights, the crackle and snap of electric fences frying an intruder  or the sound of the automated sentry guns powering up. I checked the app - finding it was a “routine maintenance” notification.

 

GRRR!

Anyway, time for breakfast number 2

I must confess that this produces a mental image of the tramping of boots, crashing of doors and cries of " raus, alles raus

Edited August 26 by rockershovel

[Tony_S]

Many years ago, not long after we were married, my wife’s 14 year old brother came to stay with us for a week. When asked by his mother if he was being looked after, he said yes but “they only eat three meals a day and at funny times”. 

[petethemole]

37 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

Just to clarify, "first breakfast" is tea or coffee and maybe toast, taken around 0530 before commencing work or travel to work, or going hunting. BREAKFAST is a sizeable cooked meal of bacon, sausages, fried slice etc  taken around 1000 - 1030. Kedgeree is good; toast and marmalade, or marmite; boiled eggs have their place. It may be served buffet style or in a greasy spoon.

 

"Lunch" is a light meal of tea, possibly sandwiches, around 1330

Construction industry breakfast times like this can be disconcerting to archaeologists carrying out watching briefs.  Having been on site since 8am or earlier, the workers all disappear, giving you a chance to catch up on recording.  Then they reappear, and if you're lucky, take a short break at about 1.00, before finishing about 4.00.  They usually didn't; it wasn't unknown to eat on the hoof, as long as you had something with you, or take lunch coinciding with a pause in groundwork proceedings, such as muckaway or a concrete pour.  On one memorable occasion I had nothing with me as there were shops nearby, but didn't grab a bite at 10 ish as I was too busy.  the builders then worked right through until 3.30 when the concrete was due.  It rained all day and I was working in freshly dug trenches with my coat dragging along the sides.  I cycled back to the office via the chippy, still covered in mud, took my coat off and announced "Never mind core hours I am now having lunch!"

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

 

 I'm 74 , so a free trip to Oz would be good as with my health problems  I doubt I could

get travel insurance so that's one expense out of the way, I no longer have a days hard work

in me so the chance of getting seven years is slim to none . And then the funeral expenses

will be someone else's too . Sounding more like a win / win to me .    😎

 

 

 

 

No worries there - the oldest convict on the First Fleet was Dorothy Handland, aged 82 - sentenced to 7 years for perjury.

 

Folklore says that she  holds a second record -  in 1789 in a "fit of Despair" she hanged herself from a gum tree in Sydney Cove, making her our first recorded suicide.

 

However in official government records it lists her as sailing for England in 1793 at the age of 87:

 

On the alphabetical indents for the first fleet Dorothy Handland was given permission to leave the colony at the end of her sentence "left the colony June 1793 per Kitty for England"

 

Lt Col Collins mentions that Dorothy left the colony of Sydney on the 4 Jun 1793 on board the "Kitty" bound for England with other time expired elderly convicts. he stated that she commented  as she embarked for her return:   " Its too hot, there's spiders, you can't get a decent cup of tea ANYWHERE and the fish and chips are  nothing like  back home". 

 

Thus handing her her THIRD record: First recorded "Whinging Pom".

 

 

Edited August 26 by monkeysarefun

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

over in teh west its Swan.

Swan lager appeared in some pubs here in the late 1980s. I did try it as colleagues seemed to like it. It tasted soapy to me, so I wasn’t  inclined to repeat the trial. I have no idea if it carried on being sold here, I assume it was produced here too.

[petethemole]

4 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

It tasted soapy to me, so I wasn’t  inclined to repeat the trial.

I believe mass produced lagers use the same foaming agents as washing up liquid.

[monkeysarefun]

7 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Swan lager appeared in some pubs here in the late 1980s. I did try it as colleagues seemed to like it. It tasted soapy to me, so I wasn’t  inclined to repeat the trial. I have no idea if it carried on being sold here, I assume it was produced here too.

 

 

Alan Bond bought Swan brewery in the 80's, it was a time when billionaires were 10 a penny  due to the mineral boom and were buying up everything in sight and indulging in things like throwing millions into winning the Americas Cup. I don't think he ever laid awake at night wondering if his beer tasted any good!

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I’ve always wondered about Essex.

It is the big county between Suffolk and the Thames Estuary. 

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

Cutting bits of parallel metal was interrupted by going to a village fete.

The main objective for swmbo? Getting doggy cuddles as there was a doggy show on as well.

This she achieved in abundance, she has been offered doggy fur for weaving as well..

 

Swmbo has now moved from , "we're not getting another dog", to "if we get another dog", to today's, "we'll start looking next month"...

 

Major brownie points were got when she found on a second hand stall, a complete Bob Ross painting kit all tubes unopened, were an over priced £92, she got it for £5, one further inspection there are extra items in the box worth a further £40 ish..

 

We also got 1/2 a dozen books, including one on the middle and go nowhere which is very relevant to the bridge.

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, Tony_S said:

The main no no for travel insurance is if a doctor had advised against travel.

However the travel insurance company  charge more for each health problem  and also a supplement for age, in my case over 70. 

 

 

Because we get treated for free over there  on the NHS,  unlike many other countries (US cough cough) we return the favour for UK visitors here: 

 

While you are in Australia, you can access essential and urgent medical care through the UK-Australia Reciprocal Healthcare Agreement.  Essential and urgent hospital treatment is free.  There is a charge to visit GPs and receive prescriptions.  You can recover some costs through Medicare, Australia’s universal health insurance scheme. You can enrol with Medicare through Services Australia.

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

If a croc or shark gets you then you won't have to worry about a funeral.....

 

Sharks don't eat you. They typically take a bite, usually of a limb,  before realising you arent very tasty. A typical shark attack victim either makes it back to shore before dying from blood loss or is found floating in the water a day or so later.

 

Either way, you still need a funeral.

 

 

Horses on the other hand, will bury your body deep in the bush and then send mocking letters   to your loved ones. The bad spelling always gives them away however.

Edited August 26 by monkeysarefun

[jjb1970]

31 minutes ago, petethemole said:

I believe mass produced lagers use the same foaming agents as washing up liquid.

 

A few years ago I had the job of investigating friction reducing additives for water on behalf of my then employer to increase the capacity of a district heating and cooling network without increasing the pipe size. The additives worked effectively, but what I found eye opening was one of the companies manufacturing them told me some of their biggest customers were breweries, making beer more 'drinkable'.

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Because we get treated for free over there  on the NHS,  unlike many other countries (US cough cough) we return the favour for UK visitors here: 

 

While you are in Australia, you can access essential and urgent medical care through the UK-Australia Reciprocal Healthcare Agreement.  Essential and urgent hospital treatment is free.  There is a charge to visit GPs and receive prescriptions.  You can recover some costs through Medicare, Australia’s universal health insurance scheme. You can enrol with Medicare through Services Australia.

If I were  to travel to  Australia, I think I would still have travel insurance, in case I was taken ill en-route and left somewhere in between. 

[jjb1970]

On health insurance, south east Asia is full of idiots riding around on scooters and motorbikes appropriately dressed in tee shirt, shorts and flip flops, sans helmet, and/or doing various risky adventure stuff without insurance.

 

Then when it all goes horribly wrong they find out that although Indonesia,  Thailand, Vietnam etc may look cheap, medical bills become extremely expensive very quickly. And air ambulances are ******* expensive to get home. Cue campaigns on patreon, gofundme, demands for the government at home to pay for it all etc.

 

Even if they had insurance it will exclude riding a motorbike without a license, or illegally and even if you get a license and are legal it will have to be declared and incur a big surcharge.

Edited August 27 by jjb1970