Early Risers.

[Grizz]

Wotcha All…

 

well they’ve bleedin well done it again….Weightrose have gone and filled up their cake / pastry/ snacky goodies cabinets with scrummy lovely snacky goodies…..DELIBERATELY…….THEY HAVE DONE THIS ON PURPOSE! On PURPOSE I SAY! 
 

Just because they know that occasionally on a Saturday morning I have to come into Gotham to drop off cub 2 and I am then vulnerable for 30 minutes. Totally at their mercy.
 

But I have not caved into their wicked evil machinations. No…no more. No never no more.
 

I have been strong and I have blatantly ignored their tempting, sometimes custardy treats. 
 

Evidence of my tormentors evil ways. 
 

 

[iL Dottore]

It’s really interesting to note how many on ER are “picky eaters”. It would seem that these aversions can be traced back to childhood and seem to arise from some combination of a number of the following:

• Mother was a bad cook*
• Mother was a bad cook and forced the child to eat things (instead of letting the child adjust to new foods).
• Mother, Grandmother and Aunt(s) were ALL bad cooks 
• Mother was a GOOD cook but forced the child to eat things (instead of letting the child adjust at their own pace to new foods).
• Bad meals at school.
• Bad meals at school which the child was forced to eat on pain of (psychologically damaging to the child) punishment.
• Peer pressure (cos if you want to fit in you “select the soggy chips fried in lard instead of that piece of fruit”).

* Mrs iD’s mother was a seriously bad cook, creating in Mrs iD a lifelong aversion to certain foods that my mother (an excellent cook) made incredibly tasty and more-ish

Then  in later years you have:

• overindulgence leading to aversion (“after 90 helpings of X, I’ll never eat another X again”).
• faddism.
• phobia of the unknown or of the foreign  (“I’m not eating that foreign muck”).
• inverse snobbery.
• misplaced sentimentality (????)

Not being a parent, it’s easy enough for me to say, but I think that - in the long term - catering for a child’s dietary whims and cooking individual meals for the kids for them to eat when they want does neither child, family or (ultimately) society any favours. 
 

One of the concerns of modern sociologists (and others) is the breakdown of the nuclear family and the lack of shared experience - such as everyone sitting down to eat the same meal at the same time - is a major factor.

[PhilJ W]

One for the star gazers.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/everest-comet-how-to-see

[Winslow Boy]

25 minutes ago, Grizz said:

Wotcha All…

 

well they’ve bleedin well done it again….Weightrose have gone and filled up their cake / pastry/ snacky goodies cabinets with scrummy lovely snacky goodies…..DELIBERATELY…….THEY HAVE DONE THIS ON PURPOSE! On PURPOSE I SAY! 
 

Just because they know that occasionally on a Saturday morning I have to come into Gotham to drop off cub 2 and I am then vulnerable for 30 minutes. Totally at their mercy.
 

But I have not caved into their wicked evil machinations. No…no more. No never no more.
 

I have been strong and I have blatantly ignored their tempting, sometimes custardy treats. 
 

Evidence of my tormentors evil ways. 
 

 

Wot no Portuguese tarts. Oh that is cruel. I hope you complained.

[iL Dottore]

I’ve been lucky that my mother, great Aunt were excellent cooks (my Grandmother not so much) and I’ve spent a lot of time in countries where food (and not alcohol) is the social lubricant.

 

I don’t consider myself a “picky eater” although I do have my dislikes (e.g. brains and tripe) which can alter if I’m exposed to the “good stuff” (as a child, I disliked mayonnaise and mustard, now I consider a sandwich incomplete without either one of those)

 

Now, before @polybear, weighs in and says “yes iD IS picky”  because I don’t eat industrial quality tinned baked beans or frozen fries, I should clarify and emphasise, I am not being picky about the food, but about the fact that such things are ultra processed and full of things I certainly don’t want to ingest (things that are not normally found outside of a food scientist’s laboratory).

 

Cheap supermarket tinned beans on Chorleywood process white sliced bread? No Thank You!
 

Home-made Boston baked beans on a slice of toasted home-made sourdough bread?, Yes Please! (especially if I can have a fried egg with a runny yolk with it).

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

I awoke this morn to a positively unearthly light streaming through the gaps in the curtains.  I dragged them aside to be confronted by a positively cerulean firmament, with a great glowing yellow ORB shedding its effulgent rays all about!

 

What does this mean?

 

Are we all DOOMED???

 

Tell me about it- Blue skies- Blue skies that's wot we've got. It's unheard of. Where's it going to end. I tell you something bad going to happen.

 

Blue skies did I say that already.

 

Going to fetch the suntan cream and a big floppy hat of Manutopea.

[Grizz]

8 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Wot no Portuguese tarts. Oh that is cruel. I hope you complained.

Oh yes…yes they did! And they had quite a few…and they know…they know the custardy goodness is my kryptonite! ….mmmmmmm custardy goodness. 
 

I didn’t in fact complain….. I stayed strong. So strong in fact that I strolled by with my gaze fixed in opposite direction. In fact I strolled so far that I ended up in the beer and ale section. It was then that my strength failed me. 
 

So I left with a dozen bottles of ale……..
 

The evidence. 
 

[Grizz]

Uho….
 

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjR2pjox_iEAxVSU0EAHe23DL0QvOMEKAB6BAgJEAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fbusiness%2F2024%2F03%2F15%2Flatam-dreamliner-dive-boeing-switch%2F&usg=AOvVaw3ve9_WoughNNbHL1S7KqM0&opi=89978449

[Tony_S]

7 minutes ago, Grizz said:

Uho….
 

 

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjR2pjox_iEAxVSU0EAHe23DL0QvOMEKAB6BAgJEAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fbusiness%2F2024%2F03%2F15%2Flatam-dreamliner-dive-boeing-switch%2F&usg=AOvVaw3ve9_WoughNNbHL1S7KqM0&opi=89978449

That can happen in cars with memory seats too, especially if one accidentally touches the memory position for a very short driver. 

[Hroth]

22 minutes ago, Grizz said:

Oh yes…yes they did! And they had quite a few…and they know…they know the custardy goodness is my kryptonite! ….mmmmmmm custardy goodness. 
 

I didn’t in fact complain….. I stayed strong. So strong in fact that I strolled by with my gaze fixed in opposite direction. In fact I strolled so far that I ended up in the beer and ale section. It was then that my strength failed me. 
 

So I left with a dozen bottles of ale……..
 

The evidence. 
 

 

I'll have a dozen custard tarts please!

 

Ok, which b@stard swiped two???

S'pose I'll have to make do with the ten remaining...

 

[Grizz]

Did I mention the….Custardy Goodness? 

[jjb1970]

Somebody should introduce the Hokkaido baked cheese tart to Britain, they're delicious. 

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Tastes in food are sometimes strange, I for instance don't like mayonnaise and cold boiled potatoes but combined in a potato salad I could eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At one time there was a canteen where I worked which employed some excellent cooks and as I lived more than an hours commute away I made good use of it. The food was excellent, well cooked with vegetables etc. in season and fresh with a choice of dishes but above all healthy. Then the management decided to do away with it despite it officially being none profit making*. There was such a protest from staff that they backed off. Instead they made the cooks redundant and replaced the fresh foods with tinned or frozen and also reducing the choice available. All that with an increase in prices inevitably meant that patronage dropped off giving management the excuse they needed to close it. *In fact it made a small profit according to someone I knew in the accounts department.

[southern42]

12 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Watched a bit of telly this evening, NOT red nose day but something about canals on Channel 5, very interesting. Now to catch up on Farcebook.

 

We watched Father Brown and a couple of utoob videos via the TV from recent Things that run on parallel bits of metal Shows (Preston and Liverpool - which we consider "our locals" and have both exhibited at and visited in the past).

 

Nuts. Love 'em. Big thing in my early years - a handful of Brazils, walnuts, almonds and hazel nuts at the bottom of the annual festive stocking.

Not all nuts by any means, my main ones being walnut halves and flaked almonds scattered on <<the squeamish may like to look away, now>> marmite on toast and eaten as a sarnie. I'll do oven roast chestnuts in December - also nice chopped up in bubble n squeak.  I also get palm oil free crunchy peanut butter which I spread on toast and eat as a sarnie.

 

12 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Having crossed the Pontywhatsit Aqueduck many times, I can confirm that it's "worrying" to look over the side all the way down.  Especially from the stern deck of a traditional narrowboat...

 

 

Done that, too! Just watch yer fingers don't get trapped down between the walls and the boat! Not much room... Fantastic trip, mind, especially with a fabulous scone based afternoon tea onboard thrown in. <<Words carefully chosen!>>

 

[Gwiwer]

Good morning all from the Distant (Signal) Wet.  It used to be West but the rain hasn't ceased now for a couple of days and that is on top of six months-worth of almost continuous rainfall.  The run-off is causing most roads to be water-courses with added mud and stones for hazards.  Already we are hearing of crop failures expected through Spring and Summer due to the absence of dry and sunny weather.  The top-dressed and re-seeded lawn is a quack-mire.  So called because it is now only fit for ducks.  

 

And in all of this I was required to attend the pharmacy just now in order to replenish our various prescribed supplies.  I took the opportunity of dropping into the cafe to book lunch for two on Wetness-day as a friend is coming over.  

 

And Dr. SWMBO has pedalled off to her lentil Lenten study group for the penultimate time.  Last week she assured me that she wasn't going again but has decided that having been to four she can manage the last two.  Her problem is that of being a non-believing scientist and "dealing with the stuff about Jeebers".  To use her words.  It was her choice to go in the first place; she went as a means of meeting new people which has only had limited success but what ever.  

 

The book has to be ready for proof-reading by Moan-day.  I must get back to it.  Muggercoffy and all.  Portugueses tarts would also be nice but I'll settle for hevva cake.  

[Gwiwer]

8 minutes ago, southern42 said:

Hroth said:

 

Having crossed the Pontywhatsit Aqueduck many times, I can confirm that it's "worrying" to look over the side all the way down.  Especially from the stern deck of a traditional narrowboat...

Punty-guz-uth-tee.  

 

I have crossed it a few times.  The towpath walk is, shall we say, quite interesting in itself and not for either the faint-hearted nor a breezy day.  I have also done it aboard a narrow-boat and as Hroth says the view down from the tiller astern is both awesome and alarming.  There is NOTHING to stop you dropping to the valley floor below should you slip or trip.  There is nothing more than six inches of iron trough above the water-line on the non-towpath side.  And it's a loooooooonnnnnnng way down.  

[Sidecar Racer]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

 Then lunch with Jayne and whatever that leads us to later, likely the S word, as two of the female species are involved!

 

 

 Well that could be TMI .   😎

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

Somebody should introduce the Hokkaido baked cheese tart to Britain, they're delicious. 

 

 

Or Emperors Puffs, which you buy from a hole in the wall in Chinatown and eat hot, they are sheer awesomeness and cheap as!

 

https://www.sirandmladydineout.com/blog/emperors-puffs-chinatown-sydney

 

 

 

My turn to cook tonight,  yee-hah!

 

Edited March 16 by monkeysarefun

[Gwiwer]

25 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

My turn to cook tonight,  yee-hah!

Not overdone though thanks!  

 

Medium rare is enough.  On a fire that big maybe a minute either side?  I was taught by a chef friend how check how far cooked a steak is.  

 

Place your thumb-tip against the lower knuckle of the index finger and press the soft tissue around its base to gauge the texture - that's rare; the middle finger - that's medium rare; the ring finger - that's medium and the little finger is overdone! 

[monkeysarefun]

9 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Not overdone though thanks!  

 

Medium rare is enough.  On a fire that big maybe a minute either side?  I was taught by a chef friend how check how far cooked a steak is.  

 

Place your thumb-tip against the lower knuckle of the index finger and press the soft tissue around its base to gauge the texture - that's rare; the middle finger - that's medium rare; the ring finger - that's medium and the little finger is overdone! 

 

 

Its a Webber Q  and  cooks consistently - 2.30  minutes each side for medium rare and came out exactly as expected!

 

Edited March 16 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. A couple of items arrived in the post this morning, one unmentionable and a magazine. Now time for lunch and some retail therapy this afternoon. 

[Flanged Wheel]

Tonight’s tropical taste…

 

 

Dragon fruit!

[BSW01]

Good dafternoon everyone 

 

Very late on parade today due to having a bit of a lie in, we must have needed the kip! Anyway, once up, and breakfasted, I was off downstairs to the cellar to start taking the clamps off the skirting boards and apply some caulking where needed. Then I had a tidy up and took a couple of photos of the cellar. Apart from painting the woodwork, it's all done. I'll make a start on that tomorrow. 

 

Back later 

 

Brian 

[Ohmisterporter]

Latest blood pressure test on Kath was 175/145 which is a worry seeing that the tablets were increased from five tablets three times a day to seven. There is talk about raising this to eight three times a day. I looked online at the price of phenoxybenzamine 10mg and they varied from £65.75 to £129.21 per box. If these are prices to the NHS I cannot see what justifies one supplier being double the price of the other. Off to have baked potato with tuna for a late lunch.

Stay safe all.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Ohmisterporter said:

from £65.75 to £129.21 per box.

I think the lower cost is the price the NHS will reimburse pharmacists. Medications sometimes cost more due to international supply and demand. One of my medications last year quadrupled in price as a major manufacturer shut their production line for summer maintenance.  Also once a major pharmaceutical company ceases production of something, a smaller generic company has a lot more ways to raise prices. Looking online for medication will often include the fee of an online doctor and pharmacist .

A few years ago our dog needed some medication that wasn’t licensed for dogs but the  vet could prescribe it. The cost was very similar (not cheaper though) to the cost that the NHS would have paid. 

Edited March 16 by Tony_S