Tony_S

Spaghetti (Heinz) on toast was something I was served as a child as an occasional alternative at teatime instead of jam sandwiches.

I believe there is a special marmite spoon to extract and spread it. I probably read about it on RMWeb.

I have never heard a serpent before, though I was aware of what they looked like. I had lost touch with a university friend after we got jobs as teachers. He had always been musical but his main instrument was a double bass. Eventually I traced him through the internet but unfortunately it was his obituary. He become rather keen on playing the serpent.

I am glad you said “traditional” as we don’t really do that anymore! My gran used to start cabbage the day before and chuck sodium bicarbonate in as well. The Savoy cabbage we had with our pie today was superb.

We were on holiday in France and went on the boat from Yvoire to Nyon in Switzerland. There was a woman waiting there clearly looking for people and I think specifically British people to talk to. She was British and lived in Nyon but her husband was some sort of British representative at one of the UN institutions in Geneva.The poor woman had expected great things from her life in Switzerland but she was very disappointed by what she described as wanton disobedience from the locals. This was in connection with local laws about what you couldn’t do on Sundays or at certain times . She said that it was so bad “it was just like being in France”. We managed to escape but she was still there complaining to arrivals on the next boat in that we got on to return to France.

Chicken and leek pie. Savoy cabbage, pea shoots and mashed potato with gravy to accompany it.

We are back home. I think today was the first time we have ever been to The Hyde Hall gardens when it has rained. We walked up to the restaurant via the Australian and New Zealand gardens and the had a quick look at the dry garden before it rained. It rained quite heavily during lunch but we didn’t sit outside. After lunch we went and looked at spring flowers and escaped through the garden centre/gift shop purchasing only one plant today. We didn’t stop for afternoon tea, we can have that at home now. Tony

No snakes, just pies

We are here today. Just about to have lunch. Pie of the day and mash.

There are loads of videos of just about every nation complaining about what they can’t get in the UK. Australian colleagues used to moan about lack,of pumpkins outside of Halloween!

I think these people set out to be annoying as they probably get more views (and money) that way. Like the American woman who makes videos,of how to make British Tea .

Our shopping has been delivered. There were quite a lot of items we hadn’t ordered or been charged for. Aditi noticed before the driver had departed so,was able to return them. The rain hasn’t appeared so,we are going for a walk. Hopefully we will have the energy to get up the hill at Hyde Hall otherwise we will be admiring the winter gardens and the geese. There should be loads of spring flowers at the top. There may be lunch or at least afternoon tea too. Tony

I suspect they do. I bought some ankle strapping last year and the supplied instructions were very useful on how to apply and use them, and for how long etc. Also washing instructions.

Prototype for everything…

Thanks. Although I think I am very right handed using tools I used to bat left handed in cricket. I think the finger exercises may help, though I still can’t do a Vulcan salute. If six strings are too many there is also a bass guitar upstairs. My son was left handed but played his bass right handed. I think the music teacher at my secondary school must have been dreadful. I couldn’t understand anything about music theory, and was considered stupid. I bought a Dummies guide some years ago and in a few pages could understand. Didn’t make me a musician but I at least didn’t feel so stupid.

I don’t think my “what it was” was ever very much. I noticed I didn’t seem to be able to lift as much as other people. After the heart attack I seemed to,lose even more upper body strength but,it is probably back to normal , for me at least, now. I couldn’t move the 25 kg bags of water softener salt at all . I recently , for something to do, cleaned and serviced a guitar I bought a very long time ago. I never really made a progress so gave up. I now realise my problem was that my left hand has quite weak little and ring fingers and I struggle to move them independently. So I bought a finger exerciser, No problem with right hand , but I could hardly budge the buttons for the weak fingers,on my left hand. Aditi had a go and demonstrated she had no problems at all. This is probably why she used to tear knobs off washing machines or pull Volvo choke cables out of their location. I will now attempt to get my hand working properly before starting the famous Bert Weedon teach yourself book.

I have a couple of CR2032s in the glove box too , just in case. My car has the hidden key in the fob too. The lock has to be exposed by levering a bit of door handle off. Tony

My first used LandRover only had one key fob but as it was purchased from a main dealer they just sorted one out for me. I think being an “approved used vehicle” meant it had to be supplied with two keys.

I am very lazy. I type the car model, year of manufacture and the topic or problem into Google and choose from the list of YouTube videos. Though on my car I searched after wondering how to set the clock and it isn’t owner adjustable.

Similarly to last year January and February are not the most productive month for our solar panels but the few sunny even if cold,days are a nice bonus. My wife really seems to enjoy managing the battery storage in conjunction with weather forecasts but she concluded that we could do with an extra battery for our non winter use. We did contact the people who installed our system but they said they no longer worked in Essex. I really didn’t pursue it much further but they contacted me this week and having analysed our usage they thought we wouid benefit from an extra battery, as did we. Also VAT was now zero rated for the battery. They also are working in Essex again. So,I have ordered one.

I had to buy a baseball cap on holiday last year. I lost my nice Tilley hat in Italy. The only item on board the ship that I could get before the next shore excursion was a beige baseball cap. There were other hats but with designer brand names that were ridiculous prices. I got a replacement hat when I got home, in a sale too.

I have noticed that the machines provided in hotels or on ships belong to the beat the clothes to death variety. On ships we select the most gentle program and use our own soap as ,the supplied stuff is awful. When we went to New York by ship there was a special offer 2 days before arriving of 20 items for $20 from the ships laundry. They use some chemical free process that is like dry cleaning but with water. I don’t understand it but the white shirts (probabl6 soup stained):I sent came back perfect. We are both convinced that all the stuff that Miele advertise about their washing machine drums is true, and clothing does last longer. I am sure other manufacturers now have similar technology but we won’t know,as we are keeping what we have.

How old? Aditi has a 12 year old Mac Air and it seems to behave just like new. It has had its OS upgraded to whatever it can support. It gets used for Zoom calls and MS Office stuff, mainly PowerPoint nowadays, as she uses her even older PC laptop for word processing and spreadsheets as the screen is a bit bigger.

How appropriate.

I had to lie down on on my front recently to have a mole on my back removed. I asked the nurses what they wanted me to do with my arms and they said to put them either side of the pillow and grip the pillow. I did so and the pillow burst. Fortunately only the disposable hygiene cover but for a moment I was a bit concerned.