Early Risers.

[Dave Hunt]

G'night everyone.

 

Dave

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

I am pleased that my mention of Pan Yan pickle has evoked some [I hope!] happy memories.  It was most kind of pH to post the recipe.  The name of its contributor, French Tart, is one with which to conjure!   I am sorely tempted to try making it and have printed out the recipe before I forget where to find it.  Some mincing is required: no sniggering, please.  I am sure that others are right and that Pan Yan was more tangy than Branston.  I can’t describe it as tangier, for that is a place in Morocco which I have signed up to visit in November.

 

Giving the customary half an ear to the news as I compose this, I learn with dismay that those who rule us now plan to make us pay through the nose for expensive Covid tests on the way home from overseas holidays in the event of such things ever being permitted again.  This comes in almost the same breath as the announcement of free tests of a different type twice a week!  The word “backlash” has already been used but, as with many other things, nothing is as yet definitive.  It would not be the first time that policy has been made on the hoof. Why did I think that all would be well once I had been vaccinated?

 

Ready hard boiled eggs indeed!  Bear’s discovery makes me even more convinced that some people will buy anything.  It is bad enough having ready washed lettuce leaves and ready sliced apples, about which I have been cussing for years.  No doubt those who take our money with such glee are working on pre-digested food or something equally revolting.  Do those who buy this stuff not realise that they are paying through the nose for it?  It seems paradoxical that the more convenience food is available, and I use the term with good reason, the more time on TV is taken up with cookery programmes of one sort or another.  I can only imagine the reaction of those responsible for “Live Well for Less” should they be confronted with ready hard boiled eggs.  Somehow I doubt that it would be fit for broadcasting. 

 

Continuing warm thoughts to those on the sick list and best wishes to all

 

Chris

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from over here.  2 more eggs yesterday, the girls are doing well.  We had a busy day in the garden. In the morning Inreduced all thectree debris to eith logs or tip fodder. The Prefet, in Urban La Rochelle has banned bonfires for some reason.  Now all garden waste has to be taken to the tip. A right PITA.  Anyway to the tip I headed in the afternoon, firstvload general waste, then back and load up with the aforementioned  debris. When I got back it was sitbon the bench in the sun time before going for fish and chips.

 

Today is more of the G word. Ivy to remove from the shed wall.  Other tasks will no doubt be discussed.

 

I had a phone call from my brothervin York, yesterday morning. A rare but pleasant event. We natterred forva good while about all sorts of topics.  

 

Notva lot else to report today so I will away and get my breakfast.

 

Jamie

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

I hope you are all fairing reasonably well.

 

There are signs that Spring is on the way - although we have had a cold snap over the past couple of days.  It even snowed for a while - although it didn't lay down here in the valley.

 

There isn't a lot else to report - so have a good day everyone...

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Glad to hear you are OK @Robert. Yes spring has sprung and , despite the freezing temperatures, our grass is growing like mad. Another lawn mowing session looms. Pah!

 

Can we all spare a thought for the founding father of ERs please? @gordon s had a big operation yestersay. Hopefully he is now on his way to recovery. Hope it goes well Gordon!

 

Her indoors is off for day 2 off volunteeeing. They had to throw a lot of donations away as they had been left in bags next to the shop.. the bags had got wet...

 

I tried to talk to the planning officer yesterday..no way..come back in a month...

 

Stay safe!  The light is getting closer every day.. why even our local numbers are reducing.. until the kids go back to school next week.)

Baz

Edited April 9, 2021 by Barry O

[Andrew P]

Yes Baz, Spring has sprung,

the grass has riz

I wonder where the Birdies is.

 

And yes another beautiful day.

 

I've already been for my walk as I needed to draw some cash out for a Roofer that is coming any time now as we have signs of water ingress around the Chimney Stack. He says the spray on loft insulation has lifted the lead and so is renewing the whole area. 

More expense..

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and well, 

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

It looks quite pleasant outside. No idea about temperature, not frosty though. 
Have a good day. 
Tony

[AndrewC]

Moaning all from a slightly sunnier boring borough. More of the mundane. On bin was missed yesterday, online form completed. Doubt it will now get collected for 2 weeks. <sigh>

Passed my certification exam. Supposedly it can add another £5k to my market value while job hunting. (yea, right) Still waiting for the formal offer from the potential new employer. Just have the verbal so far but people have been away the past week or so. 

SWMBO gets next week off to frolic in the garden. I get to work. 

Here's one she did earlier: 

 

 

Good to see @Robert popping by. 

Thoughts too with @gordon s and his op. 

 

Enjoy the day and have a great weekend all. 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, from a sunny Fraggle Rock, but a little chilly at 6c.  Tank already at it, he's a grafter.

 

Thinking of Gordon this morning, he's certainly been through it over the years.

 

Off to the bright Lights of Royal Ramsey soon for the latest bag of pills, thankfully we have an annual pre-payment scheme that saves a fortune on prescription costs, which are a lot lower than the UK anyway.

 

Not sure what the day will bring, I was going to work on the &^%$£" bike engine but I think Tank will be doing the path in front of the garage door today, and I need to wheel the other bikes out to make space to work.  So maybe a day of not a lot.  I have a lcoo kit to start but again that needs the bike engine off the bench and back into its home to make space - it's like one of those letter games with only one space.

[TheQ]

 Mooring awl, Inner Temple Hare,

4 hours sleep  Long Awake, then 2 hours interrupted by wake up and turn overs  Unable to get comfortable

 

Ben the Brave Collie went out this morning, and ventured right to the far end of the garden, first time he's done that in a long time..

 

After suffering a lot of Forepaw pain yesterday, I started the day as I left the house with a coat of Ibuprophen gel on the paws. Darn cold it was at the time.. But for the moment it seems to be working, I do wonder what the effect of repeated sanitizing gel will have on that, or has on the paws anyway...

 

In Norfolk and Waveney, medical trust area, 77 areas of the 110 have had no cases of Corvid for a week or more (about 3 weeks in my area).  Grockles are expected to start officially reappearing from next week, so that could rapidly change.  The majority of the cases are in North west Norwich.

2/3 of adults in our area, have had their first jab, but having our high average age that's not unexpected. Our local Vaccination centre, which had been closed for a couple of weeks, is now back in action mostly doing second doses.

 

I notice a house en-route to work which was previously used as a holiday home , has now got the same car outside it for several days a week.. I think a Maserati.. No house sale boards went up, so I think someone from London has started working from home..

 

Lots of Diesel fuel on the road for several miles, I'm glad I wasn't on the motorscooter.. One pheasant, a wandering on the road, just managed to avoid him by braking.. 

 

The biggest Broads Boat hire company is reporting the top end of their range, in April it is s £1632 a week ,  it  is booked solid in June, July, August £3164 per week high season!!!, out of season from October it's down to  £1355 a week.  The bottom end of their range at £274 per week, out of season is booked solid from April to October.

It was noticeable passing the boat yards this morning, that they are packed with boats ready to go from Monday.

 

During the typing I've been measuring a Current shunt, about 5 More to do of this set.

 

From next Tuesday SWMBO's weaving group starts with open air meetings, only allowed in the building for the facilities.. I hope the weather gets a bit warmer..

The MRC is talking about the May relaxation, for the first meeting..

 

This weekends work depends on the weather, shelves and trailer of course, it looks OK for Lifting the boat on Saturday..

 

Time to.. measure the next Shunt.

 

Oh noticed on the approach road to work , a very green motor Caravan, with each back door emblazoned by large 3 legs of Man symbols..

Edited April 9, 2021 by TheQ

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, chrisf said:

Ready hard boiled eggs indeed!  Bear’s discovery makes me even more convinced that some people will buy anything.  It is bad enough having ready washed lettuce leaves and ready sliced apples..

The restaurant trade uses a lot of this sort of thing. For a small restaurant on a limited staff budget they can either pay the staff to cook or to prep, so buying ready prepped items allows small restaurants to use their staff for cooking food (instead of preparing it) and thus be able to make a small profit (something even more difficult nowadays).

 

Having said that, I think there is a big difference between buying a kilo of ready sliced onions and buying a ready made potato gratin that is heated up and served to the customer. Buying a kilo of ready sliced onions really does save a lot of time (peeling and slicing a kilo of onions really is time-consuming) and whilst I can see the advantage to a restaurant of buying ready-mades to heat (or deep fry) and serve, I think it’s cheating. but doing so does help the bottom line.

 

Case in point : in a restaurant a plate of three mini samosas plus a little salad will cost about CHF 7.50 (£6), bought ready-made in bulk from the trade supermarket I have access to, each mini Samosa costs about CHF O.46 (36p), so even after factoring in the extra costs (i.e. the expense of cooking, serving, clearing up and washing the plates), a customer buying a plate of samosas will certainly be very profitable for the restaurant.

 

The huge variety and breadth of ready-made food available to the restaurant trade makes me very very sceptical about the food you get in those restaurants where they have the same printed menu every day. Especially if they have items that are out of season. Such menus suggest that the restaurant makes heavy recourse to the deep freeze and the deep fat fryer/microwave.

 

To be blunt, if I had my way restaurants would either be prohibited from using microwave ovens or would be required to have their menus clearly indicate those dishes which are “microwaved for your comfort and convenience“

 

And on that grumpy note, I am now off to the trade supermarket for my fortnightly shop (and yes whisky is on the shopping list!

[laurenceb]

Thoughts with Gordon

[jonny777]

A bright morning in North Somerset, but a few showers in the vicinity judging by the black clouds to the west. 

 

I am going to the local NT estate after lunch, to meet up with the grandchildren and see how far I can manage walking before my knees and ankles shout "enough". A shower free afternoon would be nice. 

 

An interesting detail has cropped up via my spotting log website for 1960. I now have two records of shed visits which are seven days apart and also about 100 miles apart. 

 

On April 17th of that year the following March allocated Sulzer Type 2s were at Stratford. D5036/8/46/7/8/53/4/7/62/3/5/95, but on the 24th April most of those were now back at March together with a few more. It does seem a roundabout method of delivering locos from Crewe/Derby to Cambridgeshire. I wonder if 30A were making some adjustments to the locos, but after reading the Derbysulzers website I am none the wiser. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Something went wrong with Farcebook last night, it wouldn't even open at first then a lot wasn't accessible. When it did go back to normal a lot of users must have given up because there was far less traffic and I finished at the usual time. I noticed this morning that the yeast growth in the kitchen caddy is back despite a deep clean, at least its confined by the compostable liner. Tea has brewed so its be back later.

[Andrew P]

Yes indeed, as others have said, thoughts for Gordon, @gordon s.

[PhilJ W]

Yes, wish Gordon well. 

[Robert]

All best wishes to Gordon.

 

Get well soon!

[Sir TophamHatt]

Morning all.

 

Been a quick one so far.

 

Only one out of three jobs completed the past few days.

But the second is simple and the third I need more advice on anyway.

 

More concerning is I am very nearly caught up with podcasts, which have been my main listening pleasures to and from work.  I find many are American, which I find tiring - not only the accent but the whole... well...  Americanism way about them.

Need to see what Northern (yes, they have a Podcast) have to say.

[Andrew P]

Just been announced that Prince Phillip has died, such a great ambassador to the Queen and the UK.

Very sad.

[BSW01]

Good afternoon everyone 

 

I'm very late on parade today, getting up late didn't help. So I had a quick catch up as I ate breakfast then it was off to the butchers, enough meat has been purchased for the week and I even managed to get a pastie for dinner, so all is good there. 

 

Then it was off to the Trafford Centre for a few more provisions. It was very busy, the car park was full and I ended up parking quite some distance away. Still the walk in the sunshine was nice. 

 

I hope Gordon's op goes well. 

 

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

 

Brian 

[Pacific231G]

I hope all went well for Gordon yesterday.

Just been for the morning consitutional. Amusing to see the golfers on the local public course who haven't played a round since December finding every ditch on the course (Others carried on playing in groups despite lockdown and the course being closed but we won't go there just now) 

Pleasant this morning but cloud now building.

Have a good weekend all and stay safe

 

P.S. Just saw Andrew's message about Prince Phillip - very sad and a shame he didn't quite make his century. RIP

 

 

Edited April 9, 2021 by Pacific231G

[Gwiwer]

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award badge hasn’t seen the light of day in many a year. 
 

It will be worn this afternoon as I make my way to and from a hospital appointment. 
 

RIP Sir. 

[polybear]

5 hours ago, Barry O said:

Her indoors is off for day 2 off volunteeeing. They had to throw a lot of donations away as they had been left in bags next to the shop.. the bags had got wet...

 

......Despite the fact that practically every charity shop Bear has seen has a sign which says something along the lines of  "Please don't leave donations outside when the shop is shut, cos' they get wet or nicked"