Early Risers.

[Gwiwer]

Good morning from the London Borough of Cuckingfold. 

  
Your correspondent is rugged up yet shivering at the House of Fun. 
 

I’ll pop in later when I am home, warm and safely wrapped around a muggercoffy. 

[bbishop]

Sitting at home in my dressing gown; I'm on stand by today and, once the clock reaches ten, unlikely to be called.

 

Could be working on Paddleboxes today.

 

Bill

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Currently stood in the queue outside the butchers waiting to collect the weekly meat rations. Its sunny but cool, the only clouds to be seen are far away on the horizon. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

[Barry O]

@iL Dottore  authentic meals.. although the Goan "Vindaloo" is pork based don't expect much pork elsewhere in India. Pork (apart from some in Kochi) was definitely infrequently seen on menus there, and not seen in a "vindaloo" .. but then again there were very few of those on offer...

 

Chicken Madras was very good but the best curry I had was a Mutton Rogan Josh in Shimla.. you needed the curry as it was so flipping cold...

 

The Bolognaise sauces I have tried in Italy were, how can I say it delicately, very varied in flavour, taste and texture. One or two were too bitter for my taste buds.

 

 

I may just go wild and make some panacalty for lunch.. proper North East English food....

 

baz

[bbishop]

So they might be introducing  manual point switchers on the 1458.  I can imagine Dom sailing round and round the city to the sound of Richard Wagner's Flying Dutchman overture.

 

Back to Paddleboxes, Bill

[Happy Hippo]

5 hours ago, Lee Clarke said:

Oh, I didn't mean change avatar regularly, I meant use a

 

"gif. file"

 

as an avatar so it's a changing picture as opposed to a single static image.  Hopefully the one I'm currently using is an example. Creating it was like a major computer project with my IT skills.

I've got a particular gif(t)

 

It's do do with mud and manure, or so I'm told!

 

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Kingzance]

30 minutes ago, bbishop said:

So they might be introducing  manual point switchers on the 1458.  I can imagine Dom sailing round and round the city to the sound of Richard Wagner's Flying Dutchman overture.

Punters would be offered alternative selections of in-tram Muzak, might be fun to see what suggestions come up? I’ll start the ball rolling with:

”(You can) Ring my bell”

That covers circular routes and stops on demand 

[Simon G]

It is happening again!  There is all this talk of food on ERs, and all it is doing here is to make me hungry!  Admittedly that doesn’t take much, and I seem to be permanently hungry in lockdown.  It is probably a psychological thing, because I can’t go out personally to go shopping.  Last night we had a vegetable moussaka, and it was very nice and plenty of it, but I still felt hungry afterwards.  I just long for a large plate of fish and chips, or a decent Chinese takeaway.

 

It is another nice sunny but cold day here so far.  Having constructed the 4 sides for the cold frame yesterday, I have been using my old Black and Decker powerfile to make minor adjustments so that the bits will fit together.  That is what comes of using old and slightly warped wood!  There may be some grass cutting of hedge trimming later.  Having trimmed the hedges about 3-4 weeks ago, one needs another trim already.

[PhilJ W]

Morning (just) all from Estuary-Land. A bit late on parade as I had to nip down to the newsagents this morning. They had delivered the wrong newspaper(s). Instead of my usual Daily Mirror and I I received the product of a certain ex Australian. I have plenty of loo paper anyway and I wouldn't even use that particular rag for that. Researching your family tree can be both fascinating and frustating, I even have a spy amongst my anticedants. I also have a direct ancestor hung at Wapping for piracy. Thats where the frustration comes in, he was hung in 1584 and most of the records were lost in the great fire of London in 1666. Luckily for me many of my ancestral names are unusual which makes tracing them much easier. 

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Sunny but a bit nippy still and our night worker informed us that there was a touch of frost earlier (no problem, the runner beans are well wrapped up in fleece).   Alas my normal lunch menu is somewhat ruined as we have no mushrooms to hand and I doubt there'll be any until Friday.  yesterday was ok as there was freshly made leek soup but today I will probably have to open myself a tin - of baked beans and sausages (sorry Chris) although I might snack on cld quiche but I doubt the asparagus included in last night's version will be very nice eaten cold, ah well needs must an' all that.

 

The jungle is reasserting itself so that might need to rise up the leader bard but as I had to wear a jacket for watering the garden yesterday it might not be the best of weather for garden work but warmer days are promised.  little else of note to report so have a good day and stay safe one and all.  Now to explore idiot land to see who I have corrected upset.

 

PS I agree with Flavio, 'Idiocracy' can very definitely be seen as a documentary, or as a warning,  with even more outbreaks of Covid stupidity being reported and some of them clearly involving those of a youthful appearance who will no doubt get older.

[Tony_S]

Afternoon all.

Not much happening here so here is a photo of today’s garden produce.

[TheQ]

Rain stopped play, 

So ground clearance stopped after 2.5 hours,  although the shed is the same size as its predecessor we've decided to slab round on the outside to make it easier to keep the Ivy and other undergrowth down. 

 

At the back, a two foot high bank of earth had built up against the back wall of the tin shed... Or so we thought.. It turned out to be Ivy and leaf mould for six inches then various plastic bags,  containing,  a toilet seat,  various more plastic bags and several bags of, off cut glassfibre roof insulation. Also found, a wired together bunch of maybe 50 metal wall ties,  again something not used in our house which has solid brick walls. I'm begining to wonder if some sort of small house improvement had been planned by the previous owners .

 

There is a major crack in the wall of the garage,  hidden on the inside by a shelving unit that was there when we arrived and on the outside by the former tin shed.  I'll have to fill and fix that.

 

It's getting to stare time again,  for a stroll..

 

 

[Kingzance]

I find fresh vegetables, particularly home grown radish, carrots, peas and broad beans particularly enjoyable Tony. Once my trough is planted up with tomato plants, radish seeds will be added sequentially to give a continuing harvest.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Kingzance
4gotabit

[Gwiwer]

I have no idea why I "liked" Tony's radishes.  I detest the little bu99ers.  We managed to grow some in Australia which were just a couple of leaves one day but cricket balls the next.  As large, round and every bit as hard as one.  I'll eat them if sliced into a salad but generally avoid them.  

 

The good news - I am now home, warm, fed and watered.  Encaffeinated rather than just plain old water.  

 

There is a large number of emails requiring my attention.  I received a real "old-school" surprise too.  A two-page hand-written letter, with numerous enquiries, in the mail enclosing a stamped addressed envelope for a reply.  I had better not reply offering internet links to web sites!  

 

No-one has so far "tagged" me into the Facebook trend of listing ten influential music albums - several friends are doing it day by day as we speak - so I have started it all by myself and the rest of cyberspace be blowed   In no particular order and without going into reasons.  Just ten which have had a profound effect upon me over the years. 

 

1.  Santana's "Moonflower"  

 

 

[polybear]

6 hours ago, grandadbob said:

Very good of her but last time I looked I didn't think I needed her permission.  I might call her The Boss but that's really only an honorary title.   
 

 

Have you explained those facts to her by any chance?

Thought not......

[45156]

18 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

There is a good GF fish and chip shop in Skipton.  T

Ah yes, the most redoubtable Bizzy Lizzie's, with two branches, and one of the offers gluten free, and also cooked in vegetable oil intead of the more traditional beef dripping - which suits our taste a lot better, though touch wood we don't need the gluten free.

[iL Dottore]

5 hours ago, bbishop said:

Sitting at home in my dressing gown; I'm on stand by today and, once the clock reaches ten, unlikely to be called....

I can just picture it, Bill:  the watered silk dressing gown with the ornate brocade on the pockets; the Kenyan Mountain coffee in the silver coffee pot on the table, with coffee being sipped from a Limoges porcelain cup. Whilst on the accompanying Limoges plate lie fragments of an all- butter Croissant and a few smears of Dundee Marmalade...

4 hours ago, Barry O said:

@iL Dottore  authentic meals.. although the Goan "Vindaloo" is pork based don't expect much pork elsewhere in India. Pork (apart from some in Kochi) was definitely infrequently seen on menus there, and not seen in a "vindaloo" .. but then again there were very few of those on offer...

My extensive readings into Indian cuisine indicate, in various books, that Vindaloo is an Indian version of a Portuguese dish [carne de vinha d’alhos] and the original Portuguese dish contains both pork and vinegar (much like tempura is the Japanese adaptation of another Portuguese dish). With large Muslim and Hindu populations in the Indian subcontinent, beef dishes and pork dishes - including vindaloo - tend to be notable in their absence (as you have pointed out).  According to one, supposedly authoritative, book on curries, you can really only find a “proper” vindaloo in Goa (and unlike the vindaloo served to macho post-pub crawl boozed up youths who “go for a curry“ Vindaloo should not be that terribly hot).

Given the terribly bland approach the Swiss have towards curry, I would cheerfully knockback even an “inauthentic“ British vindaloo at the present moment in time!

3 hours ago, Simon G said:

It is happening again!  There is all this talk of food on ERs, and all it is doing here is to make me hungry!  Admittedly that doesn’t take much, and I seem to be permanently hungry in lockdown.  It is probably a psychological thing, ...

This is happening to me as well, and I can go shopping. This lockdown has played merry hell with my diet and I have put on, quite rapidly, 3 kg (which had taken a considerably lot longer to take off).  Fortunately, because I do do all the shopping it does mean I can purchase only those items that need to be cooked or prepared and are, thus, completely unsuitable as snacks.  Unfortunately, I still do have the best part of a 3 kg bag of mini Swiss chocolate Napolitaines and a big jar of Mitsubishi Japanese Wasabi rice snacks. Both of which have seen incursions on their sovereignty by yours truly.

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

... Researching your family tree can be both fascinating and frustating, I even have a spy amongst my anticedants. I also have a direct ancestor hung at Wapping for piracy...

I have never seen the fascination in digging up the roots of my family tree; as far as I am concerned my long dead and buried ancestors SHOULD remain dead and buried. However, my late father was very much an enthusiast in this regard, and while he was working as a researcher in the Vatican in the 1950s (well before I was born), he did a lot of familial genealogical research and found that our family originally came to Italy from Spain in about the eighth century and promptly split into two distinct branches: one branch remaining in southern Italy and the other - as my father put it - spending the next couple of hundred years wh0ring and fighting their way up the backbone of Italy (apparently we were  Mercenaries for hire - a.k.a. Condottieri And because of this, we are - apparently - distantly related to both the Medici and the Borgias).  Also according to my late father, were I to wade through centuries of bureaucratic paperwork, then I could quite plausibly lay claim to the odd castle or two in Northern Italy (one of my fathers many family stories that I have taken with a BIG pinch of salt).

2 hours ago, Kingzance said:

I find fresh vegetables, particularly home grown radish, carrots, peas and broad beans particularly enjoyable Tony. Once my trough is planted up with tomato plants, radish seeds will be added sequentially to give a continuing harvest.

I love very fresh vegetables and, counterintuitively and paradoxically, the freshest vegetables you can get in the supermarket are actually frozen vegetables, because these are processed within hours of picking whilst the so-called “fresh“ vegetables have been sitting around in warehouses for days if not weeks.

I did try to grow vegetables in my garden and describIng the resulting effort would indeed be a sad, but yet nonetheless enthralling, tale of disaster, rampaging vermin and rapacious insect life. A story, perhaps, for another day...

1 hour ago, polybear said:

..Have you explained those facts to her by any chance?

Thought not......

I wouldn’t be too harsh on grandadbob, dear Bear, Not everyone can summon the necessary iron will, flint hard determination and steely ruthlessness needed to take on SWMBO. To paraphrase a saying from the Bible: “many have been called to attempt it, few have succeeded“ The best most of us can hope for in such a conflict is a painfully obtained stalemate. The approach of the average SWMBO to a marital dispute can be best summed up by a paraphrased quote from Conan the Barbarian: “crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their men folk”

With my SWMBO currently absent, I am now off to kill things on the PlayStation 

 

Cheers

 

iD

Edited May 14, 2020 by iL Dottore
Website stupid censorship software

[NGT6 1315]

4 hours ago, bbishop said:

So they might be introducing  manual point switchers on the 1458.  I can imagine Dom sailing round and round the city to the sound of Richard Wagner's Flying Dutchman overture.

 

Back to Paddleboxes, Bill

Manual point setting happens by way of these buttons:

 

 

 

There is a zone ahead of each point marked with a blue and white „W“ board on the OHLE, which is where the transceiver for the relevant point control box is embedded and where these buttons must be pressed as required. There are various tram systems which have opted to pursue only this method, while others have chosen to automate point setting based on turn IDs transmitted through an underfloor antenna or by other technical means. That way, manual setting has to be done only in the event of ad-hoc diversions, or on empty stock movements and similar.

 

 

 

[BlackRat]

Greetings one and all.........Wonder if anyone can help........ please let me know what day/ month it is at the moment.

 

Asking for a friend......as he doesn't know either!

 

Stay safe!

[grandadbob]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Have you explained those facts to her by any chance?

Thought not......

 

25 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

I wouldn’t be too harsh on grandadbob, dear Bear, Not everyone can summon the necessary iron will, flint hard determination and steely ruthlessness needed to take on SWMBO. To paraphrase a saying from the Bible: “many have been called to attempt it, few have succeeded“ The best most of us can hope for in such a conflict is a painfully obtained stalemate. The approach of the average SWMBO to a marital dispute can be best summed up by a paraphrased quote from Conan the Barbarian: “crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentations of their men folk”

 

 

Gentlemen,  she is in fact well aware that I refer to her on here as The Boss and has stated on more than one occasion that she is not and has no wish to be.  This doesn't of course stop her voicing very loud opinions, suggestions and even instructions on a quite frequent basis.  Some of these I take notice of and some I ignore which can,  as you might imagine, lead to the occasional "tense" moment.   This is usually overcome by me making her laugh which I can manage quite easily and is probably the reason that we are still together after our first date some 54 years ago. 

 

The Defence rests.

[Kingzance]

7 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

 

 

Gentlemen,  she is in fact well aware that I refer to her on here as The Boss and has stated on more than one occasion that she is not and has no wish to be.  This doesn't of course stop her voicing very loud opinions, suggestions and even instructions on a quite frequent basis.  Some of these I take notice of and some I ignore which can,  as you might imagine, lead to the occasional "tense" moment.   This is usually overcome by me making her laugh which I can manage quite easily and is probably the reason that we are still together after our first date some 54 years ago. 

 

The Defence rests.

I'm sure that many would agree you get less than 54 years for murder Bob! 

[The Lurker]

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

 

No-one has so far "tagged" me into the Facebook trend of listing ten influential music albums - several friends are doing it day by day as we speak - so I have started it all by myself and the rest of cyberspace be blowed   In no particular order and without going into reasons.  Just ten which have had a profound effect upon me over the years. 

 

1.  Santana's "Moonflower"  

 

 

I will join you in this game. I do not have facebook so no-one can tag me there. 

 

1. First and Last and Always - The Sisters of Mercy

 

 

[Ozexpatriate]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Of course, I do have access to that culinary WMD: the tin of HERO Ravioli (this is possibly the world’s worst tinned pasta ...)

Flavio, I've not experienced that. Have you encountered Beefaroni? 

 

Actually, if I'm honest I find pretty much any tinned spaghetti with tomato sauce revolting and Beefaroni is an improvement over them.

 

Edited May 14, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[polybear]

1 hour ago, BlackRat said:

Greetings one and all.........Wonder if anyone can help........ please let me know what day/ month it is at the moment.

 

Asking for a friend......as he doesn't know either!

 

Stay safe!

 

It's Sunday April 30th.

[Chris116]

1 hour ago, BlackRat said:

Greetings one and all.........Wonder if anyone can help........ please let me know what day/ month it is at the moment.

 

Asking for a friend......as he doesn't know either!

 

Stay safe!

It is Someday 44th April possibly!