iL Dottore

What you clearly need is a LMWDIFY (a Little Man Who Does It For You). This will allow you to both avoid injury AND have time for your M**** R******!

Sorry PB, that wouldn't work - no matter who you claim told you to do it, you still have responsibility for your actions. However..... However, if you said to the Judge "a Polybear came to me in a dream and together with the Easter Bunny, Father Christmas and the Local GP* told me that it was the Holy Command of The Great God of Pasta Buitoni [may he always be al dente] that I do it" the Judge will regard you as criminally insane and send you to a nice comfy rubber room instead of a cold cell surrounded by dangerous scrotes... * it perhaps doesn't need repeating that these are entirely mythical beings.,,

I note that a number of posters want the authorities to "get off their **** and do what they are supposed to do" but to no avail. However, it also seems that they are also afeared that should they "DIY" (so to speak) they will "get their collars felt" by the local plod and get banged up in the chokey. My advice? STOP THINKING LIKE A LAW ABIDING CITIZEN AND START THINKING LIKE A CRIMINAL! As a multitude of UK newspaper articles repeatedly report, even brazen criminality (shop lifting, assault, etc) receives scant - if any - police attention nowadays. As long as you don't use the wrong pronouns, say that science is better than ideology or do 21 mph on a 20mph 3-lane motorway (amongst a few other things) then you should remain "under the radar" (so to speak). And, in the very temote possibility you DO get nicked, claim that what you did was "an integral part of your culture" and claim you ate being persecuted "because of your beliefs". At the worst you may end up with 2 hours of community service!

Which is why I avoid flying those airlines - short-haul or long haul. I do make an exception for the Swiss flight ZRH -LCY - principally for the top-not ground handling they afford Business Class passengers, which more than outweighs the less than amazing seating. Back when we had Swissair (remember them?), I had to urgently get from London to Genoa - and the only flights available were in First Class with Swissair via Zürich - that was a luxurious flight indeed. Unfortunately, hubris at the top of Swissair combined with a less than competitive business class service on long haul* and a rather poor choice of airline partners** led to the company's demise. I find Swiss sorta OK, but it's clear that Swiss is the unwanted stepchild of the Lufthansa group with many of the great routings out of Switzerland (e.g. BSL-LCY) being axed or re-routed via Munich or Frankfurt. * when BA (back when it was good) had first equipped its long haul fleet with lie-flat beds and loads of amenities in business class, these were still ONLY for first class passengers on Swissair. ** One of the airlines Swissair was partnered with was SABENA! Say No More!!!

Good Morning All, A rather unusual weekend for me inasmuch as I spent a goodly chunk of it building a 1/50 scale architectural model of the penthouse apartment we hope to buy. Based on the original architect‘s drawing and our visit, I was able to create a good facsimile of the floor pan. As mentioned before, we are selling off Schloss iD and moving to an apartment so we need to assess what of our furniture we can/will take with us. Thus the contents of Schloss iD have been catalogued and measured and everything is being recreated in 1/50 scale (I envisage much “frank and open discussions” with Mrs iD about what gets “recycled” and what goes with us). And if this particular flat doesn’t work out, then I’ll still have our furniture in miniature for the next candidate. There has been a bit of housing bubble ‘round here as of late and one that seems to have burst. But only for parts of the country. In the place where I live there has been (and is) a spate of apartment building as, suddenly, the town has become incredibly desirable, with a concomitant knock-on effect on house and apartment prices. A small (97m2) 2 room new build flat recently was advertised for about SFr 1.1 million (about £974,000). Eye watering no doubt, but still less than the equivalent in the desirable areas of Zürich or Geneva. For me, one of the pleasurable aspects of the move is the need to upgrade the audiovisual technology that we have. Exactly recreating the library/home cinema in any new place will be unlikely, so the existing projector will be retired and replaced by a UST one (UST = Ultra Short Throw). This will provide large screen audiovisuals whilst being very unobtrusive when not in use (especially when paired with a retractable/hideable screen). One of my pet “interior design” peeves is having the TV on display in the living area - dominating the space like a semi-malignant Cyclops. And it seems that I’m not the only one to feel that way - there are more than a few YouTube “how to hide your TV” videos - both of a DIY and “look at this” nature. Of course, the perfect solution is to have a dedicated home theatre - but not everyone has a spare room to turn into a home cinema - so a UST projector and a “hide-away” screen would be a great solution. And as much as I love new, cutting edge, technology I’m still not installing their apps on my smart phone…

I think that the mediarati and “delightful young things” in Islington would say that that kinda proves their point…..🤣🤣🤣

Nah… … Judge Dredd!

I most definitely agree there. The ingredients are superlative, the technical prowess of the chef’s exemplary and the dishes….. meh! Fortunately, albeit later than most of Europe, the Swiss-Germans are rediscovering some of the almost forgotten dishes of their great-grandparents and their great-great grandparents. Definitely rustic (involving easily available local ingredients: pig, potato, cabbage, eggs, milk, cheese, onions) they are frequently hearty stick-to-your-ribs stuff. Forget boring Züri Gschnätzlets mit rösti, Bündner Gerstensuppe from Graubünden or Cholera from the Wallis are much, much better. As for non-European food: forget it

I must unreservedly and unhesitatingly profusely apologise to @Dave Hunt, @Barry O, @jamie92208, @Grizz et al. It seems that I have been willfully, deliberately and egregiously mislead by my sophisticated and urbane acquaintances in Islington, Kensington and Hampstead! They vociferously insisted that, with the exception of parts of Bucks, north of the M25 there is nothing but an intellectual, cultural, social and culinary wasteland until you get to the approved bits of Jockland (basically Edinburgh and the more sanitary parts of the Highlands and the Isles). A part of the country which is a brutal, windswept and desolate area, populated by rude mechanicals and woad-daubed savages, bereft of any cultural and culinary merit. A population for whom "sophisticated" means putting dripping on a croissant - not bread, keeping coal in a scuttle and not in the bath, drinking lager instead of bitter and watching rugby union instead of rugby league. An area where, for the price of a shed in Islington, you can buy six or seven streets worth of back-to-back terrace houses. I now realise, thanks to the kind words of education of @Dave Hunt, @Barry O, @jamie92208, @Grizz et al., that Britain is more than Islington, delightful little 3-Michelin star tapas bars, amusing Gran Crus from "our little man who deals in wine", colourful "Gor-Blimey" Cockney "characters" and authentic Peruvian nose-flute concerts at the Royal Albert Hall.....

I thought that the distinction is that maps plot terrain, whilst charts plot bodies of water…

And I’m damned proud to be ageist. None of the staff in my little company is under 50 years of age - even our guard dogs (Lucy & Schotty) are over 50 in human years. Yoof? You can keep the spotty, self-entitled, whiny little *******

In regards to “eating out” outside of London, I suppose - if you stretch things a bit - you could claim that it’s “fusion” cuisine (UK + XXXX), such as… Baked bean and turkey twizzler lasagna Black pudding fried rice Battered sushimi and chips Treacle gelato Pizza en croute Caviar, crisps and iced vodka Spotted D1ck soufflé The mind boggles

In my case probably not… I can’t see any hiring manager announcing that the next candidate is Dr Scourge of God, Betrayer of Christendom, Satanic Blasphemer of the Occident, Flayer of Innocents, Vile Servant of Beezlebub, Destroyer of the True Faith iD PhD, DPharmMed etc. etc.

And outside of London it’s a desert - with oases few and far between… Certainly, you can get (pale imitations of) “ethnic food” (Asian, Indian [well, mostly Bangladeshi], Italian etc) but it’s nearly always what you could term “Hollywood Movie” food, as in “A Blockbuster Movie based on….” where the only thing that is actually original (authentic) is the name used…

The UK is notorious for being a low wage/salary*, high tax environment, Many years ago I applied for a position - senior to my then current position - at a biotech startup in London. I had thought that it would be a good career move and - in the days pre-dog - I would have had a pied-à-terre in London and then commuted back to Switzerland every other weekend. The necessary experience and qualifications fitted, as did the interpersonal stuff, then they talked about salary: they were offering 80% of my then existing salary for a much more senior role. I asked if they were having a larf (actually I phrased it as "would this be the starting point for salary and bonus discussions?") and they said No, that was the maximum they were prepared to pay. I politely declined to go further (later I learned that the company went nowhere, fast. So I might have dodged a bullet there). I am still occasionally contacted by UK headhunters - often for short term work - and always they offer insultingly low rates**. Usually when I get to "my minimum fee, as paid by my other clients, is CHF XXXXX" they find an excuse to hang up pretty toot sweet. * outside of certain individuals of the media, banking, sport and law. ** I think that the rates that the customer they are working for is willing to pay would be in line with the "standard" fee structures for what I do - but it seems that they want to trouser at least half of those fees...

A lot depends on for what the purpose of the kitchen is: many of the kitchen designs that I have seen (here, in the US, in the UK, and in Germany) are definitely first for impressing friends, relatives, and the neighbours, and second (and sometimes a very distant second) for cooking in. I recall one episode of the Grand Designs TV programme, where the people building this rather hideous looking, designed-to-win-architectural-awards new build home installed a £100,000 kitchen. Yes, you read it right: a £100,000 kitchen. For that sort of money, I could install a state of the art professional kitchen of a standard necessary in a Michelin starred kitchen and still have a big wodge of dosh left over (probably half, if not more). The latest wheeze is to have a video camera inside your “high tech“, all-singing, all-dancing oven which can send pictures of the oven contents to an app on your smart phone. Now, unless you are a witch with a regular habit of sticking small children into the oven (as in Hansel and Gretel), I see no point in such an undoubtably expensive bit of useless frippery. I might have mentioned that Mrs iD has finally persuaded me to move into a flat and we are currently looking at two possibilities: one, a garden apartment in a brand new building that will be built beginning of the summer (and ready for habitation early in 2025) and the other an existing penthouse apartment which is a few years old and needs refurbishment of the kitchen. Unfortunately, in both cases whilst Mrs iD is perfectly happy for me to install professional equipment where possible and feasible, she is dead set against having stainless steel drawers, cupboards and work surfaces. Why we “need“/“must have” veneered, painted or enamelled fronts in the kitchen is beyond me… Must be an XX chromosome thing…

Depends upon who you read: https://www.bathroomcity.co.uk/blog/close-toilet-lid-before-flushing or https://microbiologysociety.org/news/society-news/does-putting-the-lid-down-when-flushing-the-toilet-really-make-a-difference.html. Within a household, it really doesn't make a difference - chances are that you will already have been infected with the same microbes as your partner/other family member(s). Given that every person's immune system is different. all parties within a household can be infected and be fully symptomatic, asymptomatic or someplace in between - all together. Whilst hygiene (and - in the appropriate situations - asepsis) is always important, often vital and sometimes critical, ultimately it comes down to how good your immune system is....

Might've done, might've done.....

That’s always a good one (I recently conducted a series of “mock“ interviews for people completing some degree work at UCL and I used this on every single candidate. All but one barely bumbled their way through an answer to the question). This question teases out more than a few things, such as Have they taken the time to learn a bit about the company and its structure. Do they have a realistic view of their own abilities Do they have a realistic view about career progression. When I worked for The Company With Deep Pockets, I frequently interviewed candidates and mostly did the lunchtime interview (where I interviewed them over lunch in the Director’s Restaurant). As always I was genial, friendly, courteous, polite, attentive and well mannered and yet totally merciless with my questioning. People who I had interviewed and went on to be hired, later told me that my lunchtime interview was probably the most brutal and exhausting interview of the lot. Apparently, it was incredibly unnerving when I put down my knife and fork,, stopped chewing, swallowed and gave them my full attention! Like Terry Pratchett’s Lord Vetinari, I practiced the deadly skill of <aggressive listening>* 🤣😁 * I may have even raised an eyebrow once or twice… 😁

Re. "making friends with the Boss's PA", I was reading a newspaper article about hiring people. The head hunter company expert said the first thing they ask their colleagues about a candidate immediately after the interview is "how did they interact with [treat] the <minor> employees before and after the interview"? A surprising number of otherwise suitable candidates are turned down due to the way they treated the receptionist/secretary/security guard.

Captain Cynical - who is also quite a canny businessman - has been buying up lorry loads of Benson & Hedges and JPS and warehousing them just across the channel in Calais. I wonder why? CC has informed me that this is just a dalliance that will be reasonably profitable, albeit risky - inasmuch as “police interest” may be a significant threat. He added that for solid gold, print-your-own-money, “thank-you-for-looking-the-other-way-constable” profitability, he’s got it all sewn up with his HNWI* “Cuban” Clubs. Located in places like Mayfair, Kensington and opposite the Houses of Parliament, they are refuges where <Gentlemen of Quality> may enjoy a fine Cuban Cigar and a decent vintage brandy, rum or whisky - undisturbed** by the hoi-polloi outside. CC adds that his Cuban Club outside the HoP is his most profitable. I wonder why? *HNWI = High Net Worth Individuals: people with more than £1 million in assets (not including primary residences) ** good afternoon Constable, you’ve come to - as you colourfully put it - “nick you smoking ***** scrotes”? Excellent! May I suggest you start with the Chief Constable in the corner…

NOPE! The chemical residue left over on my paint palette from mixing up colours and thinning them down - the dregs then drying out, is DEFINITELY low fat, low carbohydrate and low salt, but I wouldn’t recommend ingesting it. Whilst the “traffic light” system can be helpful, it’s only one component of a diet. I would suggest that it is healthier to make your pasta sauce with good quality high-animal-welfare meat, eat a little less of it and decrease the amount of fat in other meals consumed that day. Fat has been, I think, unfairly demonised. Whilst I wouldn’t recommend a sandwich of Italian Lardo on bread spread with beef dripping, fat plays an important role in your body (a lot of your brain is fat [myelin]).

I can understand the desire to stop youngsters from taking up smoking, but as with most attempts to prohibit human “vice” the concomitant and peripheral consequences of prohibition are likely to be as bad as, if not worse than, the vice being prohibited. A 16-year-old kid who thinks it is “cool“ to smoke is not going to be deterred by the simple fact that it is no longer legal for he or she to purchase tobacco products; in fact, such prohibition is likely to increase the perceived “cool“ factor by adding the frisson of illegality to the act. And, as a consequence of this, this underage market (and there will be a market for such things) will be served by people who have absolutely no problem in committing illegal acts; i.e. criminals. The best any society can do is to place restrictions, not prohibitions, on “vice“ to protect the majority and to minimise harm to those who indulge in such “vices“. Such restrictions can include limitations on where that behaviour can be indulged in and, a sometimes successful approach, to make restrict use by making that vice incredibly expensive. Ultimately, the only thing that will permanently change how a society practices (or not) a human vice is through the peer pressure of societal acceptance/non-acceptance. And that, I think, it’s best achieved by education, propaganda campaigns and the barest minimum of legislative nudges. But it won’t (and perhaps can’t) be a quick fix

Maybe there was one of these near Bear Towers? But @Hroth is right. They often don't stop - not even for police https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/23915831.appeal-subaru-failed-stop-police-wimborne/?utm_source=ground.news&utm_medium=referral

Sorry Bear, Quorn mince disqualifies you (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/12/quorn-revolution-rise-ultra-processed-fake-meat) Better go without meat completely than eat fake meat. If you like olives, capers and garlic, Spaghetti alla puttanesca (prostitute's or s1ut's spaghetti) might do the trick (an authentic recipe is here: https://www.giallozafferano.com/recipes/Spaghetti-alla-puttanesca.html). As always, the secret is in the quality of the ingredients. The origin of the dish is lost, but many claim that the story is that ladies of the evening in Naples created it because they needed something cheap, easy to make, that used readily available ingredients and was quick to fix between customers.