Early Risers.

[southern42]

Happy May Day

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

My contribution to May themed music will be in my blog today and tomorrow.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, BlackRat said:

 

The ‘modern’ way ( electronic) of dealing with passports is anything but, and it seems a number of people are now employed to show just about everyone how to use the machine!

Matthew was at Stansted  in the passport machine queue. Something went wrong and everyone had to step back from the machines.  The woman in the one next to Matthew looked very anxious and seemed to think it was her passport. Matthew gathered she was Polish and explained (he was pleased to put his conversational Polish lessons to some use) it was a technical fault and someone was coming to sort it and not to worry. Another person waiting decided to harangue them for “not speaking English, in England”. I suspect he didn’t expect the very English response he got.

[southern42]

Sis wished me a Happy Sunny Day...

However, it’s been a Misty Moisty Morning here.

This might get you going, though - one of my all time favourites.

 

[polybear]

Bear here......

Hedge cut.  Tick.  Front lawn cut.  Tick

Enemy strikes on the Bearmobile? Five - plus another on the wheelie bin lid and one on the window ledge (that last one was a left-over from yesterday).  All now cleaned off.  B'sterds.

Right, din dins to ponder.  I do hear the call of a Pizza, but am trying to resist;  I heard from a neighbour that the local village Post Office (who are planning a side-line in takeaway scoff, to include Pizzas) have just had that side of the business delayed - it seems that the fancy Italian Commercial Pizza Oven arrived but was too big to fit - so has been sent back to Italy to be adjusted (or replaced).  That'll take 3 months, apparently.....

Will a certain Bear sample their wares?  Well I suspect such a take-away will see off the best part of a tenner(?) or more, whilst Bear's favourite pizza from the Co-op is three quid (often cheaper when on offer) plus 20 minutes of leccy.  Not a hard decision.....

[Gwiwer]

36 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

My contribution to May themed music will be in my blog today and tomorrow.

Anything by Queen, pretty much 🤣

 

[Pacific231G]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

Bear here......

Hedge cut.  Tick.  Front lawn cut.  Tick

Enemy strikes on the Bearmobile? Five - plus another on the wheelie bin lid and one on the window ledge (that last one was a left-over from yesterday).  All now cleaned off.  B'sterds.

 

Don't be too hard on them. They're dinosaurs after all and part of the same therapod branch of dinos. as T. Rex and velociraptors that would have had a small bear for elevenses. A little guano is nothing! 

[Coombe Barton]

... Nothing from the government. They may be looking at tractor websites. ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2022/05/01/questioning-the-free-fall/

[Darlington_Shed]

On 30/04/2022 at 01:16, monkeysarefun said:

do you not get employer funded superannuation?

UK employees pay a combined tax and national insurance, which - if you make enough payments - qualifies you for the state pension. Employers also contribute a smaller sum to NI. In my case, I'll receive about £700 a month, starting at the end of this month, for the rest of my life. It certainly isn't enough to retire on, which is why most people also have additional pensions, either an employer-employee scheme (a company pension), or another personal pension - in my case I have both: a company pension scheme from the 90s when I was last in full-time employment, and a "personal retirement plan", which is what my mother gently shoved me into. The latter schemes can be taken as a lump sum or an annuity designed to provide additional monthly income, or some combination of the two.

 

It's complicated, messy and a source of much worry and anxiety for a lot of people approaching retirement age. 

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, southern42 said:

Happy May Day

 

 

Back when almost every car was a Holden unless it was a Veedub

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

plus another on the wheelie bin lid 

 When they learn how to open your bin  and 6 arrive and toss the bags on to your lawn and go through them looking for pizza to eat then pick up random rubbish maybe an egg carton say and start a fight because they all want it and so screech like banshees for 5 minutes  then all fly off leaving the place looking like Glastonbury after the crowd has gone home  like they do here only then will you have  earned a little heart emoji

 

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[TheSignalEngineer]

5 hours ago, BlackRat said:

The ‘modern’ way ( electronic) of dealing with passports is anything but, and it seems a number of people are now employed to show just about everyone how to use the machine!

A while ago we were in a big queue at Immigration in the airport. All chaos at the electronic processing so someone was coming along telling people how the system was supposed to be operated. She told me it would work better if I took my glasses off, to which I replied "Then I won't be able to read the instructions on the screen." She marched us straight over to the gate where they were doing manual checks and completely bypassed the big queue. 

Another useful ruse at airports which sadly they are now too big for is a grandchild in a buggy. I found that we normally got ushered through an unmarked VIP Channel and straight up to a scanner in security when travelling a few years ago.

[tigerburnie]

My passport has run out and unless I win a lot of millions so I can go filming Wolves and Rattlesnakes in Yellowstone I doubt I will be going through customs ever again, far too many places in the UK that i wish to visit or re-visit.

[PhilJ W]

Morning/Afternoon from Estuary-Land. I'm not sure whats happening but I have made several posts since RMW came back just past noon and they have all disappeared together with the ratings I gave. In fact its gone back to when it came back.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Well, what a month April was. Not been on the site very much due to various issues, so apologies for anything I have missed, I think I am still about 40 pages behind.

Recovered from Covid but was a bit lethargic for a while. After rushing to catch up in the garden and on the allotment due to time lost to Covid and fixing weather damage at home we went off to Yorkshire. All was going well until I hit a patch of loose gravel on a forest road whilst cycling and went 'Full GDB'. Managed to knock myself out but fortunately came round quickly. Plenty of gravel rash, friction burns and bruises but fortunately nothing broken. No phone signal where we were but a few minutes later when I was working out our escape route a young lady in a forestry van came along and took me down to the village where she arranged for a couple of strong young lads to take a pick-up truck to collect Anne and the bikes from the track we knew she was using to get down.

Most of my internet reading has been by phone for the last month as we had a network problem then being away, so I haven't been posting much.

Hopefully I will be back to full mobility soon. Sleep can still be a bit uncomfortable due to residual injuries and stairs are a bit difficult but getting better by the day.

So here's hoping for a better month of May.

[PhilJ W]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

The removal of the tomatoes (the testicles of the devil) and the substitution of egg and black pudding is a culinary master stroke worthy of the highest accolades. Furthermore, by the wilful omission of baked beans from this breakfast pastry recipe, @PhilJ W  has, in my humble opinion, earnt himself a permanent Michelin star.
Once I have restocked my currently non-existent supplies of black pudding during my next business trip to London, I shall set about recreating @PhilJ W recipe.

Actually that was a tongue in cheek comment. However it could be done but the egg would have to be scrambled and the other components at least half cooked. Also the pastry case ends would have to be folded over to make a parcel to prevent the contents drying out and/or burning while being baked. It could also be eaten hot or cold.

[PhilJ W]

On the subject of full English breakfasts, what do you think of adding mushrooms to it? Mushrooms (and all fungi) are not vegetables and in fact fungi DNA has more in common with animals than vegetables.

[BSW01]

36 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Morning/Afternoon from Estuary-Land. I'm not sure whats happening but I have made several posts since RMW came back just past noon and they have all disappeared together with the ratings I gave. In fact its gone back to when it came back.

Yes, I've had the same problem, all my ratings from earlier and a post as well has disappeared. So I'm not going to re post, mainly as I can't remember exactly what I said. 

 

Ho hum, Brian 

[iL Dottore]

38 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

On the subject of full English breakfasts, what do you think of adding mushrooms to it? Mushrooms (and all fungi) are not vegetables and in fact fungi DNA has more in common with animals than vegetables.

Mushrooms contain a lot of water, but what you can do is roughly chop them, then sweat them in a little butter over a low heat for about 10 - 15 minutes (to get rid of most of their liquid) and then let them cool before adding them to the pastry parcel. And if you really finely chop them, sweat them until they are very dry you’ll get Duxelles - which has many uses.

 

The above (with the addition of some chopped garlic) is the first step in making a very easy mushroom pâté (the next step is to chop some herbs finely - chives and parsley are nice - then stir everything into a quantity of cream cheese [I use plain Philadelphia], mix well & put into a ramekin [large or individual]. Then chill for at least 30 minutes. Adding finely chopped walnuts adds a nice crunch, taste and texture]).

 

Edited May 1, 2022 by iL Dottore
Forgot a step for the Pâté

[iL Dottore]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

Will a certain Bear sample their wares?  Well I suspect such a take-away will see off the best part of a tenner(?) or more, whilst Bear's favourite pizza from the Co-op is three quid (often cheaper when on offer) plus 20 minutes of leccy.  Not a hard decision.....

Indeed, ICI, BASF, DuPont and Dow Chemical desperately need your support

 

Three quid pizzas - a triumph of chemical food engineering (and has anyone wondered if the “meat” in such things is really meat or disguised horse or insect protein? Or has everyone already forgotten the horsemeatt lasagna scandal of a few years back?)

[petethemole]

Beltane Blessings to all.

 

 

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

Should you visit Horning, the deli does a Hornish pasty, very nice too, steak, potato and carrot.

 

Yours truly is knackered, I go back to work for a rest, what do you do when you are retired?

 

Sailing today, After fitting the modified jib club,  the muggacoffee and bacon roll of course.

 

race 1,

very light winds, the new modified club works well, except it's about an inch too long, it kept hitting the mast. The club has been brought home and will be modified tomorrow.

A poor start, meant I didn't do well. Full tide coming in made it very difficult sailing back to the club on the second leg of the race..

 

Race 2

a good start and the improved club meant I kept up for the first leg and a half, then the wind slowly died, I dropped back a bit but eventually the entire fleet decided lunch was more important than finishing the race. We all retired.

 

race three

the wind had reappeared in a slightly different direction,  did well for a lap then as usual lost distance downwind.

 

race 4, err there wasn't one. They all packed up as there was little wind, by the time I'd put Blue Moon away, there was no wind..

 

 

 

[45156]

Evening All

 

Been shifting furniture - one of the wardrobes moved from Bed 1 to bed 3 - all was going well, til we got to the door, and found that the wardrobe was about a centimeter taller than the door - it must have been constructed inside the bedroom, so I had to get inside to take the four screws out that held the roof on - only to find that they were very long - in fact they were sticking out of the top - and also VERY burred cheap cross heads, which had to be slowly removed by a no 2 posidriv hand screwdriver - then it did go out, and had to be rebuilt but using some decent screws - simple job made complicaated - as jobs have a habit of doing.

 

Been off for a few days with unfinished business, including 30747's leaving do, during which I was treated to a meal in the Gallico Lounge which was not too bad - her leaving do was at a local pizza place.  Tried to post from there, but the wifi was a bit on the patchy side.  And got back to find that I have FINALLY got fibre bb - now running at 57 meg.  Seven times faster than I had - TV package should be comng on next week.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

[simontaylor484]

I too have lost at least one post and have struggled with no text box to type into.

 

Had a visit from @jamie92208 this morning nice to put a face to a name.

On the home improvements front we have moved a load of tools out of the spare bedroom back into the garage. Then fitting a new doorstop onto the skirting board I bought a 2 pack from Screwfix the doorstop them selves are ok but the supplied screws are absolute carp, luckily I had some better replacement screws in stock

 

Most of the floor has been swept 

We then packed up early to call for some milk and cooking oil then Lucas has started on his homework besides my knees hurting

[tigerburnie]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

On the subject of full English breakfasts, what do you think of adding mushrooms to it? Mushrooms (and all fungi) are not vegetables and in fact fungi DNA has more in common with animals than vegetables.

That's gonna annoy a few vegans..................................