The Night Mail

[SM42]

We ended up going to Congleton, " a traditional market town"

 

What we got was Congleton Pride 

 

That was an eye opener for the in laws. 

 

BiL delivered safely to airport and we returned over the cat and fiddle for the views.

 

Chip shop chips and BBQ left overs washed down with Polish beer for tea. 

 

Heaven

 

Andy

[Dave Hunt]

By 'Compo', HH refers to the tinned, pocketed and otherwise long shelf life rations that we used to get when on exercise or in operational situations. They weren't actually inedible but did leave something to be desired in culinary terms. They ranged from tinned, processed cheese to oatmeal blocks that were supposed to be cut up then boiled to make porridge (what they actually made was thick, lumpy wallpaper paste) via tinned stew etc. To say they had long shelf lives is probably illustrated by the fact that in the late 1970s and early 1980s we were eating stuff that had been made in the closing years of WW2.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

Entered in error

Edited July 23, 2022 by Dave Hunt

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

Entered in error

 

Left in the lurch?

[simontaylor484]

I had the dubious pleasure of said rations when I was in the Air Cadets gold coloured tins with the contents labelled in black on the top. I remember the tin of possessed cheese the biscuits (brown)  and the tin of boiled sweetsin the top of the 24hrs ration pack   there was a clear plastic bag with white label milk chocolate, lifeboat matches,bog roll and the all important tin opener .then they moved onto boil in the bag stuff much lighter to carry 

[AndyID]

50 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Chip shop chips and BBQ left overs washed down with Polish beer for tea. 

 

Heaven

 

 

We buy a lot of this Danish jam in a discount grocery store here. It's excellent, far better than the stuff from the usual US big-name brands. (I keep the jars for nails etc.)

 

 

 

 

But if you look carefully at the label it actually comes from Poland 😀

 

 

 

 

 

[simontaylor484]

Compo and Cleggy are buried next to each other in Netherthong nr Holmfirth making exhumation a little easier

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

@polybear wants Compo,I am afraid to say the decomposing remains of Compo will be a bit difficult to send to Bear Towers

As long as he has a tin opener.

 

Jamie

[J. S. Bach]

24 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

We buy a lot of this Danish jam in a discount grocery store here. It's excellent, far better than the stuff from the usual US big-name brands. (I keep the jars for nails etc.)

 

But if you look carefully at the label it actually comes from Poland 😀

I bought this Walmart house-brand jar of orange marmalade:

It was every bit as good as the name brands; and half the price.  Anyway, reading the label showed that it is a "Product of Poland". Poland? Oranges? As I said, it was quite good. They also had peach preserves from the same source; they were good, too.

 

 

 

[SM42]

Decamping to North Devon for a couple of days. 

 

Only problem is I have lots to do and no time to do it.

 

Hopefully I can get some done before departure. 

 

Anyhow, it's beer o'clock and who am I to argue?

 

Andy

[Winslow Boy]

13 minutes ago, SM42 said:

Decamping to North Devon for a couple of days. 

 

Only problem is I have lots to do and no time to do it.

 

Hopefully I can get some done before departure. 

 

Anyhow, it's beer o'clock and who am I to argue?

 

Andy

 

Anything stopping you taking the beer with you or would that double the amount of work?

[AndyID]

37 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

I bought this Walmart house-brand jar of orange marmalade:

It was every bit as good as the name brands; and half the price.  Anyway, reading the label showed that it is a "Product of Poland". Poland? Oranges? As I said, it was quite good. They also had peach preserves from the same source; they were good, too.

 

 

 

 

We used to enjoy marmalade locally made by Robertsons from oranges grown in the famous Paisley orange groves.

[SM42]

17 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Anything stopping you taking the beer with you or would that double the amount of work?

 

Nope. 

But the two don't mix.

 

Except for the one task I just did. I hope.

 

The others require a clear head and thinking time.

 

Andy

[polybear]

8 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I bought this Walmart house-brand jar of orange marmalade:

It was every bit as good as the name brands; and half the price.  Anyway, reading the label showed that it is a "Product of Poland". Poland? Oranges? As I said, it was quite good. They also had peach preserves from the same source; they were good, too.

 

 

 

 

Ship the oranges to Poland, make the Marmalade then ship it to the states.  Could that be why the world has global warming?  We're living in a mad world.

[Happy Hippo]

I redressed my fingers yesterday lunchtime: I worked on the principle that keeping the dressings fresh would lessen any chance of infection. All is looking good, so far.  This is the last time I will be doing them for now as I am off to the fracture clinic on Wed afternoon for an inspection and with the possibility for the stitches coming out.

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Happy Hippo

[Nick Holliday]

9 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

I had the dubious pleasure of said rations when I was in the Air Cadets gold coloured tins with the contents labelled in black on the top. I remember the tin of possessed cheese the biscuits (brown)  and the tin of boiled sweetsin the top of the 24hrs ration pack   there was a clear plastic bag with white label milk chocolate, lifeboat matches,bog roll and the all important tin opener .then they moved onto boil in the bag stuff much lighter to carry 

I like the idea of possessed cheese, presumably only to be eaten when on exorcises.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Nick Holliday said:

I like the idea of possessed cheese, presumably only to be eaten when on exorcises.

GROAN!

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

I redressed my fingers yesterday lunchtime: I worked on the principle that keeping the dressings fresh would lessen any chance of infection. All is looking good, so far.  This is the last time I will be doing them for now as I am off to the fracture clinic on Wed afternoon for an inspection and with the possibility for the stitches coming out.

 

 

 

That's what you think - nurse bring the tin snips in when you come, please. Oh and I'll have some chocolate fingers with my coffee when I've finished here.

Edited July 24, 2022 by Winslow Boy

[iL Dottore]

18 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I suspect that diagnoses of autism/Asbergers is one of those things that has become much more prevalent nowadays compared with when many of us were not too much younger. Some of the descriptions I have read and heard of concerning symptoms of those conditions are things that I would not consider as being outside the range of fairly normal behaviour and certainly not anything to be concerned about. I wonder whether this trend has been driven by the apparently ever-increasing litigation culture leading the medical profession to be scared of 'missing' something that could later be held against them and become the possible basis for some sort of legal action? 

 

Dave

You raise a very interesting point, Dave.

 

One of the most valid criticisms of the DSM III-R, DSM-IV and now the DSM-V, is the creeping medicalisation of the extremes of normal behaviour. (DSM stands for “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual“ and was originally designed so that American psychiatrists could get paid for diagnosing and treating their patients). Based upon research (some of which, in my opinion, is somewhat flawed), the DSM is regularly updated – although I don’t recall on what sort of regularity.

 

If you look at behaviours, they generally follows a bell shaped curve – with the bulk of the population in the middle, tailing off to the left and the right of the curve. At the very end of each tail you have the pathologies - often a number of standard deviations away from the bell shaped curve mean. Critics of the DSM system (as mentioned above – American – but with considerable influence on psychiatric practice world wide) claim that with each new addition of the DSM the cut-off point for a pathological diagnosis of a behaviour gets pushed ever more from the extremes towards the middle.

 

Some updates of the DSM the APA does get right – such as removing homosexuality from the list of sexual abnormalities and paraphilias; others – such as lowering the criteria for a diagnosis of Asperger’s or autism are more controversial. Interestingly,  depending on which version of the DSM criteria (or the WHO criteria for that matter) a psychiatrist refers to, the patient being examined may or may not be diagnosed with “X“ (whatever “X” maybe).

 

Finally, a somewhat caustic observation from my side, psychiatry is probably one of the few (If not only) medical specialities that is heavily influenced by trends and politics. Not so therapeutic areas like oncology or cardiology. Either you do have breast cancer/a myocardial infarct or you do not diagnosis is 95 to 99% objective – unlike psychiatry.

[iL Dottore]

On 23/07/2022 at 15:24, Dave Hunt said:

What HH and Bill day about ‘black’ sense of humour certainly rings true in the world I used to inhabit. There have been occasions when Jill or some civilian friends have overheard conversations among Squadron guys following accidents and accused us of being sick or uncaring when it is exactly what others have said,I.e., a subconscious coping mechanism.

 

Dave

Most definitely.

 

Two of my good friends are retired physicians: one a GP (who was initially a pathologist) and one a radiologist. Often times, when we meet up with our assorted SWMBOs and trade “war stories” we are eventually begged to stop by our “better halves“.

 

Of course, talking about “crispy critters“, 1 kg/side breast reductions and things like the “scumbag index*“ is usually enough to make any civvie turn pale. 
 

One of the best books about real life medicine is The House of God by Samuel Shem (a pseudonym). It seems like reading this book is an unofficial part of medical school curricula across the world: whether Italian, German, Spanish, British or American “Key Opinion Leaders” (senior doctors with extensive research experience and credentials), all seem to have read it. I for one have had more than my fair share of GOMERS and LOLs in NAD. Heartily recommended if you love black humour of a medical kind.

 

* although there is a erudite and lernéd debate about whether or not the scumbag index refers to the patient’s intelligence, willingness to cooperate or social and physical hygiene, everyone agrees that it is calculated by multiplying the number of tattoos by the number of missing teeth!

Edited July 24, 2022 by iL Dottore

[iL Dottore]

12 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I bought this Walmart house-brand jar of orange marmalade:

It was every bit as good as the name brands; and half the price.  Anyway, reading the label showed that it is a "Product of Poland". Poland? Oranges? As I said, it was quite good. They also had peach preserves from the same source; they were good, too.

 

 

 

I think it is a sign of how debased mass market, mass production food has become that they have to advertise the content on the label as containing things like “real“ sugar or “real“ fruit.

 

Soylent Green I fear is not too far away in our future!

[Happy Hippo]

I have just read out, to the entire pod, Flavio's explanation of The Scumbag Index.

 

Much spinning of tails and lots of bubbles in the water ensued.

[simontaylor484]

My Grandad had to deliver some machine parts they had made to a marmalade factory once. It put him off marmalade for life

[SM42]

3 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

My Grandad had to deliver some machine parts they had made to a marmalade factory once. It put him off marmalade for life

 

I once had an interview at a well-known producer of cheddar cheese. 

 

The smell and seeing cheese being vacuumed* was enough to put me off cheddar for a while.

 

I would suggest most food factories would have similar effects on the attractiveness of their product.

 

 

* they do this to remove mould and guard against making Stilton by mistake.  

 

Andy

Edited July 24, 2022 by SM42

[SM42]

10 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Ship the oranges to Poland, make the Marmalade then ship it to the states.  Could that be why the world has global warming?  We're living in a mad world.

 

The oranges are grown on the southern slopes of the Wielkopolskie mountains where they benefit from many hours if warm sun all year round and the fresh mountain streams that flow down into the Warta😀

 

Andy