jonny777

You may have tried these people (if so - ignore this post), but I get a lot of my spices and non-wheat flour from them. They do seem to be quite good value compared with inflated prices charged for tiny amounts by supermarkets. https://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/GroundSpices-p1.html

Just you wait until Brenda dies. You have seen nothing yet. Anyway the BBC will stop fawning when the bosses consider they have done enough for their knighthoods. But back to less cynical subjects, it is a grey but dry morning in North Somerset. I can see some blue sky in the distance, but it doesn't appear to be coming this way. I was quite shocked and saddened this morning to read of the medical problems Tracy Emin has had to endure. She had a large internal cancerous tumour on her bladder, which has now been removed; but the surgeons also took out her uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, lymph nodes and part of her . She now has a urostomy bag, which must be a nightmare - and she is only 57. At least her latest 3-monthly test has come back as 'clear', which is good. I give thanks that so far I have managed to survive with all my bits intact.

Repeated treasonable behaviour? Now that is something I never expected. Here is the official Buckingham Palace announcement from earlier today - "It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss." Someone is incorrect, and it will be 'off with the head' of the person found to be in error.

What is? I think your presence is required in the Tower Of London.

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.

Dry with sunny spells in North Somerset. Washing now out on the line. I inherited my father's distaste for vinegar so most pickles, chutneys are a no-no for me. When I worked near Birmingham, I occasionally frequented the Sutton Coldfield Waitrose. This was where (it was said) all the local footballers' wives or au-pairs used to shop. Certainly the car park was full of very expensive looking motors with personalised numberplate; so much so that I parked my 10 year old Mondeo in the farthest corner, so as to not take any chances with specks of rust drifting across from my transport. It was very expensive inside as well. There were whole Parma Hams for sale for a price I could not even dream of spending on anything, and a very large selection of champagnes.

Very late on parade. Cold and grey here in North Somerset. Not my coldest April day in the last 15 years; that was 4.9C maximum in 2013 - but it feels like it to me. I'm going to light the fire and curl up on the rug like a cat. At least I have a pizza lined up for dinner.

That is a very short train with an 87 at the front. Would it be a Glasgow portion of a service which mostly went to Inverness? Sorry if the answer is obvious, but my Scottish rail knowledge is not good.

Best wishes for Dave H's Dad. I know they don't like giving general anaesthetic to older people, as my Dad had a local one for his last major op. On the subject of solicitors, I have had two problems recently. One when M-i-l passed away and I was executor, I had to go to her local solicitors who were storing the house deeds. They were all sweetness and light when I arrived, but before they went to find the deeds they asked if I would be inviting them to do the financial sorting of the will. When I replied in the negative, as I intended to do it all myself, there was a stoney silence which persisted until I left with the deeds. Very poor PR I thought. The second was when SWMBO was keen on making a will. She had approached a local solicitors who told her that it was a legal requirement to have solicitors (i.e. them) as one of the executors; which is nonsense. Needless to say, they did not get to draw up her will either.

I find the thread title somewhat over-optimistic, with the implication that there will be a "post-covid" time. I don't think the virus will ever go away. It is far too easily transmissible for that. I suspect it will recede into the background at times, only to re-ignite rapidly when mutations provide it with a way around the various vaccination programmes, coupled with people becoming more likely to ignore simple precautions. I would have thought that shortening trains, and thereby forcing people to sit closer together, is the opposite of what railway operators ought to be thinking about. The idea of 50% empty seats on trains may cause the accountants to have panic attacks, but from a social distancing point of view this is exactly how services should be run.

Dry and sunny again in North Somerset, but a cold wind, and a frost overnight. Most inhabitants of the greenhouse were covered in bubble wrap and the sub-zero temperatures outside were accompanied by no wind, so maybe things will survive. In my experience, it is the combination of a slight breeze and temperatures below freezing which tender plants cannot cope with. Presumably that causes the plant cells to freeze rapidly thus destroying their structure?

Which completely misses the point. I would have expected a highly intelligent being, who issued these religious control orders, to at least have a basic understanding of the working of our solar system. Obviously I was mistaken.

Dry but cloudy in North Somerset. Temperature not too bad for this time of year (7C) but the real cold air has not reached here yet. I see it is currently -2C at Fylingdales (N York Moors) with a 30mph Northerly wind heading our way. I had a very nice dark chocolate Easter egg from Green & Blacks, which also included a couple of bars of their products, one of which is ginger. I have yet to sample that one; but it sounds an interesting flavour combination. Roasted chicken was excellent yesterday, and leftovers are in fridge waiting to be consumed. As my Ocado delivery ought to bring fresh beansprouts tomorrow, I will leave the chicken chow mein until then, and concoct my version of a vesta chicken supreme for tonight - although it may include a tin of chicken soup to bulk up the stock-based sauce.

If I was ever going to worship a deity of unbelievably high intelligence, I would avoid one of so limited knowledge that they devised a sunrise to sunset fasting period which was only really workable in the tropics. Those living above the Arctic Circle and on Antarctica would need to go without food for 2-3 months if Ramadan fell in their summertime.

Going completely O/T for a second, it would seem that the Middle East is not the only area to target women with some very dubious tactics..... https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/03/womens-anger-at-abuse-of-power-during-bristol-police-raids

Talking to my wife, she suggests that in those days many girls would have had hairstyles which needed setting after washing, and therefore would be quite a lengthy operation either involving mother/aunty/best friend.

I once had a strange promotion interview with three senior staff members sitting at a large table when I entered the room. To me, they were all strangers; but as soon as I walked in one of them said "Hello Jon. Long time no see. How are you these days?" If that was intended to relax the candidate, it had the opposite effect on me, because I went into panic mode wondering who this was and where we had met or maybe even worked in the same office. I couldn't reply on first name terms because I had no idea who he was.

Are the shops open on Easter Sunday? I thought only small corner shops were allowed to open.

Dry and sunny in North Somerset, but cold. Temperature fell to 0C earlier, and I don't want to think about how that might have affected to blossom on my plum tree.

I think that the one major feature which lockdown seems to have restricted a large number of people; is their ability to show off.

In the 1960s there were few pairs of 20s on excursions; in fact I think I only saw one in over 10 years. When my parents first moved there, the mainstay of the holiday trains were B1s and K3s, with the occasional Flying Pig, and all Boston's K2s had been withdrawn. The K3s also vanished in 1963, and a few diesels began to appear - mainly type 2s, but the B1s soldiered on for another couple of years. A weekly SO service from the West Midlands started to bring Met-Camm units in 8-car lash-ups as a change from our normal diet of Derby and Cravens DMUs. I remember the Met-Camms particularly as it was impossible to get more than a couple of numbers as they raced past at 60mph, and it was so depressing to think I had missed all these rare unit numbers for my ABC. We could often try again on their return working, but invariably ended up with the many of the same numbers having been noted again. Later in the decade, a few EE type 3s began to appear, but they were never very common during that decade. Larger locos were rare, and I never saw a Peak on that line until sometime in the 1970s. Pairs of 25s were the mainstay, but 31s were rarely seen in pairs.

Dull and grey here in North Somerset. True British Easter weather; temperature of 5C, strong NE'ly wind, overcast skies. Time for everyone to don their t-shirts and get out the sun loungers/barbecue and just force themselves to enjoy it outside because it is a 'holiday'. I used to live by the line to Skegness in the 1960s, and we often had weather like this. We used to watch the poor souls from Leicester/Nottingham/Derby pass by in the mostly empty carriages and pity them and their day at Skegness or Mablethorpe. I think I will forgo the idea of a stroll along the promenade at Weston, just this once.

A dry and bright morning here in North Somerset, with intermittent sun and a cold wind. On the subject of vacuum cleaners, I have a cordless G-Tech. I like it, as it does not finish my back off for a week lugging the thing around. It does downstairs carpets on one charge, which is fine by me - as I prefer little and often; and having the battery charging before hoovering the upstairs carpets is a nice break. I was so pleased, that I waited for the occasional G-Tech 40% sale and bought a cordless hedge trimmer, which will do my privet on one charge. Now I also have a G-Tech cordless lawnmower, which is excellent for small-ish areas of grass and saves getting out extension leads, and/or mowing the cable by mistake. It even has a 5-setting blade height adjuster which is great at varying times of year. And no, I am not a relative of Nick Grey.

I couldn't find a photo of the chow mein in the early packaging, but lots in a later style which appears to be the only one people recognise. However, I did find a prawn curry image in the box that I remember. I had a work colleague who would not eat any other variety but beef risotto, for some reason. I tended to gravitate to the chow mein and chicken curry or supreme; but basically any box I could find that said "serves two" would do, because I was usually very hungry at that age. The beef curry was not bad, but the strange dry fibrous cubes posing as the 'beef' tended to dampen my enthusiasm. However, they provided emergency cupboard meals in the early 1970s; especially when I forgot the day and realised it was half-day closing, when it was almost impossible to get anything anywhere in some towns and villages. More of this can be found at - https://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk/?service=asset&action=show_zoom_window_popup&language=en&asset=53138&location=grid&asset_list=53138,53132,19157,19156,19151,18149

Dry but cloudy and breezy here in North Somerset. I am becoming concerned over my mental state. It would seem that the majority can't wait to get moving around the country again, once restrictions are eased. So why am I feeling increasingly nervous? The virus has not vanished. It is still here, and people are still dying from it. Infection rates in France are up 100% over the last month, and are now around 40,000 new cases a day. Maybe I have just become used to staying at home and beautifying the garden? I don't feel any great urge to mix with large crowds, even at safe distances outdoors. In fact I feel an increasing reluctance to do that kind of thing. Am I normal? Covid paranoia?