PhilJ W

Vegetarian sausages are no good for toad-in-the-hole.

Better still offer to fix it for him for £200 and just remove the air filter.

A young lady I worked with admitted that her cooking was so bad she could burn water. If she could do that coking brussell sprouts should be easy.

Apparently the shops are being allowed to stay open but pubs and restaurants can only do takeaways. That was from the BBC London news this evening.

Thats better.

Thats what makes skew bridges more dangerous. They tend to topple vehicles over when they strike the bridge with sometimes fatal consequences for those they topple onto.

Just been announced we are going into tier 3 from Wednesday. It applies to all boroughs in Essex south of Chelmsford and Maldon as well as Epping. I was was planning to do a bit of Christmas shopping later this week but thats off until the new year.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. I wangled early retirement, only by a few months though. My line manager had a blazing stand up row in the office with the head of HR which resulted in my line manager telling the HR person to stick the job where the sun doesn't shine and walking out of the door. This was at Christmas so I waited until just after Christmas and then all innocent like asked HR what was happening about my early retirement. The answer was "What early retirement?", "The early retirement Mr. ******* (the line manager) had agreed too." In normal circumstances they would have checked but they didn't in this case due to the way he left. So a couple of months later I got the early retirement. One of my former colleagues met up with our ex manager a couple of years later and when he was told of what I had done he was highly amused and said that if they had ever asked him he would have told them that he had agreed I could take early retirement.

I did note that one of the wines mentioned, Selkirk Island is only bottled in Scotland, it originates in Chile. It actually comes from Selkirk Island off the Chilean coast. So named as it was where Scotsman Alexander Selkirk was marooned. His story (with a few embellishments) was turned into Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

I see he has the much sort after Bachmann LT S stock set listed. At the moment its only £59 but is bound to rise a lot more.

Interesting, what scale and is there a link to the maker please?

Oops forgot. Mention of wines reminded me that there's vineyards even in Scotland. https://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&dataid=171427

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Mention of guitars reminded me that a family friend went into production of his own design of guitar about forty years ago. He was a professional musician, principally guitar named Terry Pack and being based in Blackpool there was plenty of work for him. The guitar was called the Pack Drill but unfortunately just as he started production the firm producing the guitar bodies folded and he couldn't find anyone else to produce them. Only a couple of dozen made it on to the market but they were well thought of apparently. So if you come across a guitar labelled Pack Drill you've got a rarity. Terry is still alive, he's now in his 80's though I haven't been in touch with him for years I think my sister still exchanges Christmas cards with him.

Goodnight all.

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I won't be having sprouts for Christmas dinner. Not that I don't like them but I prefer other vegetables and there is a limit to the different veg you can have when cooking for one. I do recall that when I was younger you used to be able to buy 'brussel tops' from the greengrocer, made a change from the usual 'greens'.

Yes, for Christmas 2021.

Hello again from Estuary-Land. I've been playing with testing this mornings arrival. Its made by a company called TINY HK who make diecast vehicles very much like Oxford Diecasts offerings but with a Hong Kong theme. This is the second such item to arrive this week that I was expecting to arrive much later. Well done to the Hong Kong postal service and Royal Mail. I already have my Christmas dinner in the fridge, the venison steaks. There's two of them so I will have one for Christmas dinner and dice the other for a casserole. I did notice a warning on the packet saying 'may contain bullet fragments'. As I understand it the venison comes from wild herds of deer, that is why I like to make sure that it is thoroughly cooked. Whats more it is sustainable, the meat is a by product of the culling of the herds which is necessary to keep the herds healthy as a lot of their usual predators such as wolves are no longer there. There are plenty of rather good German wines. Back in the 70's I travelled up the 'Weinstrasser' beginning at Bad Durkheim where every few kilometres there was a stall giving out samples from the adjacent vineyard. Regrettably it was my turn to do the driving and my parents selected the wines so I was able to sample them later. Bad Durkheim is also the home of the 'Wurst Market' where they hold a festival every September.

Go on, rub it in.

That has appeared already on the bridge bashing thread

Thats not exactly low at 15 feet, it must have been a very high truck.

Reminds me of when I lived in Romford in a Cul-de-sac. The Cul-de-sac formed the base of a triangle approximately 80 metres on each side. Entry was via a street forming the left hand side of the triangle and a footpath made the other side. There was a pub at the Apex of the triangle. The end of the Cul-de-sac was a T shape so that cars and small vans could turn. However one guy living at the top of the road usually parked his car at an angle in the T rendering it unusable. He only ever used his car to go to the pub, 80 metres away by foot and 160 metres by car! When in the pub he usually had a skin full and a few cars parked in the Cul-de-sac bore witness to that with bumps and scratches along the sides. After a number of complaints the police were waiting for him to come out of the pub but they didn't catch him as the grim reaper got him first. He keeled over in the pub with a massive heart attack and was dead before he hit the ground.

The parcel I received this morning contained this:- Its one of a series of models commissioned by Shell Oil, Hong Kong and sold by them through their filling stations. Its to 1/76 00 scale but some of the others are different scales. They come in a nifty metal 'oil can' container. I have ordered another model from the series, a recovery truck which might just reach me by Christmas.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. A (pleasant) surprise this morning, a knock on the door. It was the postie with a parcel. The surprise was that it was an item I had ordered from Hong Kong and I didn't expect it until the new year. I'll tell all about it later.

Goodnight all.