Proceedings of the Castle Aching Parish Council, 1905

[monkeysarefun]

10 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

They've sense enough to stay out of it..

 

Haven't been forced to play it myself since I was at school.

As far as I can remember, the matches went like this:

 

Only the popular boys get to bat or bowl.

 

The other twenty or so stand around the edges discussing more appealing subjects such as girls and motorbikes.

 

 

 

Here being a summer sport there was the added attraction of standing around the shadeless  outfield in about 40 degrees.

The catchable balls always dropped from the sky right from out of  the blinding midday sun like  Jerry in a Messerschmitt in the Battle Of Britain so it always cracked you right in the face. 

 

There were invariably 3 kids who played grade cricket who were dead keen plus the teacher, the rest of us would rather be down  at the beach like normal people.

Edited January 12, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[MrWolf]

I remember an odd occasion when I got to bat and was yelled at by the teacher that I wasn't playing baseball when I kept slogging the ball.

 

One lad tried catching a ball that had clearly been dropped by a Stuka, his last words before being knocked unconscious were "I've got it!!!"

 

Sadly we were about as far away from a beach as you could get, but we felt the same!

 

[Nearholmer]

I was a pretty good wicket-keeper at school, because I can catch well with either hand, but was such a terrible batsman, always accidentally running other people out, that that’s what people focused on!

 

The main positive about cricket at school so far as I was concerned was that when the annual county game was played in our nearest town, members of the school team were allowed time off from lessons after lunch to go and watch (that would never happen these days!). I used to make a fleeting visit to the ground, so that I could honestly say I’d been there, then go and do interesting things (mostly involving visiting railway yards) instead.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I was a pretty good wicket-keeper at school,

[Compound2632]

11 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Haven't been forced to play it myself since I was at school.

As far as I can remember, the matches went like this:

 

Only the popular boys get to bat or bowl.

 

The other twenty or so stand around the edges discussing more appealing subjects such as girls and motorbikes.

 

Much that sort of thing. In my case, I'd manage to get put in the outfield near the railway line. That led to the nadir of my popularity: the ball sailed through the air in my direction, when asked if it was a four or a six, I replied that it was a 25...

[Nearholmer]

On a slightly different topic: I've just spotted an article about building N scale Caledonian rolling stock in a 1970 Railway Modeller. 

 

Is this the apprentice phase of a Master Builder who is a member of the parish council?

[Edwardian]

In Punch today:

 

Man at the Back with his hand up: ''Er, Sir, in what sense is this a work meeting?''

 

The Stout Party: ''Ah ........''

 

 

Meanwhile, the customary slumbering of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office is disturbed ...

 

[Regularity]

I am waiting for someone to edit in a large piece of cheese, filling that open, vacant space.

(I refer to the mouth, rather than between the ears. In this instance.)

[alastairq]

I cannot see BJ refusing a knighthood[of the Garter variety]? 

 

Oh, wait a moment, BJ isn't a member of  the one-time Labour government, is he? 

 

Personally, I don't know what all the fuss is about?

Especially when I get informed of all the ''work-related'' junkets that the private sector jobs-world gets up to?

When all I would ever get from 'work' would be a stale marmite sandwich?

 

I mean, how comefolk get to swan around in brand new electric cars......obtained on the 'business?'

When the money could be better spent helping to offset our tax burden??

 

Also, exactly what are plant-based meatballs made of?????

 

 

 

 

[MrWolf]

I don't care for any of the political parties, but this is simply being used by opposition supporters as ammunition because they don't actually have any workable solutions for the country either.

It would be interesting to know how many corporate beanos have been held over the last couple of years, by other public and private sector top dogs.

In my former occupation I've seen a good number of planning and safety seminars at golf resorts etc.

It was interesting to note that various events connected with planning European projects coincided with the Munich beer festival or Milan fashion week. 

 

 

[MrWolf]

My concern @alastairqis what is plant based dairy made from? I read the ingredients in a pack of vegan cheese a while since and saw the list of chemicals, including Annatto, not good stuff!

I'm also confused about plant based dairy in that, dairy starts with grass and ends with milk. No animals die to produce it.

Whilst I'm only too aware of the claim that cows are farting the planet to death, I have another question:

 

If you are wanting to save the planet (most laudable) by going vegetarian (your choice) please ensure that you ONLY eat what can and importantly is grown in your country.

Obtaining non meat products from the other side of the world, such as rice even, flown in by gas guzzling jet freighter or brought in by ships that consume mammoth amounts of oil isn't helping. 

[Regularity]

59 minutes ago, alastairq said:

Personally, I don't know what all the fuss is about?

Especially when I get informed of all the ''work-related'' junkets that the private sector jobs-world gets up to?

1) Because that affects the bottom line of the business, I.e. it reduces their profitability, which is based in the private sector of earnings, not on taxpayer’s contributions;

2) Because the Government’s job is to tell us how to behave, and since 1215 (with a few gaps) the basic principle in operation is that no one is above the law, not even the law makers.

 

So, if the private sector does this, it is up to them how they spend their money as it is their money, so long as they are not breaking any laws, and they don’t have to justify themselves to anyone but their shareholders. The public sector is spending our money, so has to manage its behaviour accordingly as they have a different set of stakeholders to justify themselves to - the electorate.

Edited January 12, 2022 by Regularity

[Regularity]

11 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Whilst I'm only too aware of the claim that cows are farting the planet to death

It turns out to be m90%-95% belching, not farting, which is the problem, due to the ruminant nature of the four-chamber digestive procedure.

[Nearholmer]

However many other wrongs you can point to, and add to the PM's wrongs, they won't sum to a right, because for every person who has bent, stretched, or broken the rules, hundreds of thousands of others have respected them to the letter, and a high percentage of those find his attitude over all this contemptible.

 

That said, clearly someone is drip-feeding this stuff into the public domain, and they must by definition be in opposition to the PM, but whether that means from outside his party, or inside it, is another question, to which none of us know the answer.

[monkeysarefun]

12 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Obtaining non meat products from the other side of the world, such as rice even, flown in by gas guzzling jet freighter or brought in by ships that consume mammoth amounts of oil isn't helping. 

A couple of years ago one of our two major supermarket chains was fined because it's claim that it's bread was "baked in store daily" should have said "par-baked in Ireland, can you $##@%% believe, then flown all the way across the  world to Australia where we chuck it in our oven to crisp it up a bit". 

[Caley Jim]

I did play a few times for the school team, but, being of little use with the bat or ball and not having excelled behind the wicket, I ended up as long on, which meant I had the longest walk of anyone at the change of ends!

 

Jim

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, Regularity said:

1) Because that affects the bottom line of the business, I.e. it reduces their profitability, which is based in the private sector of earnings, not on taxpayer’s contributions;

2) Because the Government’s job is to tell us how to behave, and since 1215 (with a few gaps) the basic principle in operation is that no one is above the law, not even the law makers.

 

So, if the private sector does this, it is up to them how they spend their money as it is their money, so long as they are not breaking any laws, and they don’t have to justify themselves to anyone but their shareholders. The public sector is spending our money, so has to manage its behaviour accordingly as they have a different set of stakeholders to justify themselves to - the electorate.

 

I think what the honourable minister for proper cars (sidevalve sector) was questioning was not about the money spent, but how many "essential meetings" in the private sector had been conducted during the lockdown in the same manner as those which members of our government did, rather than the financial cost.

 

That said, our political leaders and their entourages should have been leading by example and if Nero was fiddling whilst Rome coughed nervously, you can bet that the centurions did too.

 

I can only presume that Boris, with all his, erm.... quirks is the aunt Sally to protect those who are really running the show.

But I also believe that he won't be having to choose between freezing and starving in his dotage and it's probably worth being a hate figure for a term or two, given the potential future earnings. 

 

[petethemole]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

I'm also confused about plant based dairy in that, dairy starts with grass and ends with milk. No animals die to produce it.

In order to keep the milk flowing, cows bear calves once a year.  Approximately 50% of calves are male.  With the exception of good quality pedigree bulls, they become meat sooner or later, as do old cows whose milk-producing lives are over.  This involves dying.  I'm neither vegan or vegetarian, just pointing out a fact that is commonly used as an ethical argument against dairy farming. 

Edited January 12, 2022 by petethemole
typoman

[MrWolf]

58 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

I did play a few times for the school team, but, being of little use with the bat or ball and not having excelled behind the wicket, I ended up as long on, which meant I had the longest walk of anyone at the change of ends!

 

Jim

 

At least it was played during summer. The real horror was cross country running, when the fields surrounding our school were either like the Somme or Stalingrad. Yet another opportunity to reinforce the adolescent heirachy. 

"You need the excercise!" (Then why can't we run around the outfields of the school? ) Besides, I cycled five miles to get here this morning!

I'm certain that they could have found a more enjoyable method of us getting exercise (Which I am all for considering the state of subsequent generations.) than either getting caked in mud or feeling your lungs freeze.

Then they stopped us playing proper rugby on safety grounds and turned it into a game of tag! I might not have been able to run as fast as some of the others, but I could sure stop them!

[MrWolf]

7 minutes ago, petethemole said:

In order to keep the milk flowing, cows bear calves once a year.  Approximately 50% of calves are male.  With the exception of good quality pedigree bulls, they become meat sooner or later, as do old cows whose milk-producing lives are over.  This involves dying.  I'm neither vegan or vegetarian, just pointing out a fact that is commonly used as an ethical argument against dairy farming. 

 

Shame on me, I should have thought of that having grown up around dairy farms. 

I was a vegetarian for a couple of years (I went to art college and it was pretty much non negotiable as my housemates didn't eat meat.) I just got fed up with the self righteous attitude amongst my peers, not to mention that it didn't suit me, health wise, my metabolism is a bit weird and I'm a very active person. The memsahib did the same thing and blames her vitamin and iron deficiency on her eating habits as a 17 year old.

 

I never went non dairy, I put soya milk in my tea once. 

 

I nearly hurled.

[Nearholmer]

We had both cross country and rugby, one involved running or walking through a muddy wood in the freezing cold, the other involved a lot of tedious hanging about on a windswept and muddy field while bizarre and meaningless rituals were enacted, in the freezing cold. I preferred the running in the wood to the standing on an open field.

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, alastairq said:

Also, exactly what are plant-based meatballs made of?????

 

Venus flytraps.

 

Carnivorous plants - work that out, vegans. Nature red in tooth and meatball.

 

Just half an hour ago I drove past a billboard advert for vegan mayonnaise. That really has me stumped, as mayonnaise is mostly egg yolk. If one is going to object to mayonnaise on a vegan principle, or for medical reasons, why not just choose a more interesting dressing?

[Caley Jim]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

On a slightly different topic: I've just spotted an article about building N scale Caledonian rolling stock in a 1970 Railway Modeller. 

 

Is this the apprentice phase of a Master Builder who is a member of the parish council?

Guilty as charged, m'lud.  I have no plea in mitigation (is there a good lawyer in the house?)  Am I guilty of not declaring an interest?   Will you include the offences in the two following years in the same charge?

 

Jim

[MrWolf]

I'm sure that any crimes against model making will pale into insignificance compared to my early attempts to make panelled coaches using postcards and a Stanley knife.

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Venus flytraps.

 

Carnivorous plants - work that out, vegans. Nature red in tooth and meatball.

 

Just half an hour ago I drove past a billboard advert for vegan mayonnaise. That really has me stumped, as mayonnaise is mostly egg yolk. If one is going to object to mayonnaise on a vegan principle, or for medical reasons, why not just choose a more interesting dressing?

 

Such oddities are part of the drive to recruit the eaters of "regular" food to the vegan ranks. One of the things that turned me back into an omnivore was the radicals, those who would stand in the queue in the university canteen and rant at anyone eating a burger. Now we have public demonstrations, demands, threats and general aggro.

When food becomes politicised, it's all getting silly. Unfortunately, I found as stated earlier, the loudest voices weren't so much concerned about the welfare of animals or the planet, more about bending everyone else to their very rigid world view.

 

The term "veganazis" is quite apt in some cases.

 

I'd like to point out though, that we don't subscribe to the opposite extreme either. We don't do fast food in this house, it's been detrimental to the health of the population for three decades now, but I suspect that is in part because you can press a button on your phone and receive far more food than you should be eating in minutes.

I'm lucky, I learned to cook even in school, it's a basic survival skill. I taught the memsahib to cook because cookery classes were seen as outdated when she went to school.