zarniwhoop

Having come up to my PC to post on ERs, I will now go back downstairs, watch the Ceilidh I recorded from BBC Alba, and raise a glass of Jura[1]. Happy New Year to all on TNM, may your hopes and dreams be satisfied, or failing that - good luck with some modelling!

1. Did I read correctly that as a result of the B* freedoms, whisky now has to be sipped from a pint glass ?

Belated Happy New Year to all.

I was watching BBC Scotland, first 'Queens of the Year' or something like that - well worth watching if you have iplayer, then Hogmanay.  I heard, and saw, some fireworks somewhere in front of my house, then I heard some more from about 00:25 - came upstairs to post this and away from the TV I could hear a lot more bangs until a minute or two ago.

Now to go back, top up my alcohol stream, and watch the ceilidh I've recorded from BBC Alba.

hic! 🤣

Just heard another bang - dunno where they are, can't see any colours in the sky, but as a pet-free person I say - "let them enjoy the noise on this of all nights!"

At the risk of being political - Truss gets to give honours ? Must be a joke.

2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Mull wine ? I thought they distilled the wine (from barley) in those parts ?

Seasonal Felicitations to all - I assume I will not be in a fit state to post in a few hours time 🤣

I've heard a story, which may or may not be true, about somebody playing silly beggars in front of a landrover. In the end, the landrover driver shunted the car off the road. Later, the police turned up at the landrover driver's house on suspicion of failing to stop after an accident, but there was not a mark on the landrover, so nothing to prove the allegation.

8 minutes ago, zarniwhoop said:

Yeah, as a Type 1 it has been like that for years (well, for over 50s). As you say, bolleaux.

Forgot to add that I tried them, experienced my bad leg starting to fold up while in the supermarket - fortunately I was able to steady myself on a shelf. After discussion with my GP I reduced the amount, then stopped them and raised an adverse reaction report with the nhs. Ther were was another side effect which I have forgotten about, maybe the statins were what started by ongoing sleep problems, not sure. I will not be taking any again. That would be 17 or 18 years ago. But my diabetes consultant again mentioned them when I saw him earlier this year.

5 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 but not taking statins for the sake of it - which is what they tell me they 'recommend' now, for all diabetics to take them as a matter of course - really?  The term bolleaux come to mind.

Yeah, as a Type 1 it has been like that for years (well, for over 50s). As you say, bolleaux.

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Decades from now many of the limitations of EVs will have been eliminated by technical evolutions - just like they were for internal combustion engines - like automatic starter motors for example.

Great news for those who will be alive decades from now (assuming, of course, that anyone is).

Me, I'm still in the "if I wanted to go there, I wouldn't start from here" camp. Nothing against combatting global warming, but severely p155ed off by the musk fan bois (he was described re his destruction of another company as Xitler, with X pronounced as 'sh') and those who think that one size fits all, or who want to limit everyone's mobility.

For myself, when I had a passport I could drive (in summer) from home, via the motorways, to the chunnel, and then either to Luxembourg or to Burgundy before I needed to fill up my diesel. But I have to stop every 2 hours to check my blood sugar (a condition of having a licence while being an insulin user). If I tried to combine that with electric chargers, probably every 200 miles, I would never go anywhere distant. The links to various Grauniad articles a few hours ago included one to a letter in Saturday's paper - from somebody who has a leccy car but suffers range anxiety because for a lot of chargers he has to pre-register with the company and by the sound of it make an initial payment and have other data recorded.

And don't get me started on the needs for new HV cabling, or for charging points. In the californian gold rush the main winners were those who supplied the picks and shovels. For EVs, those who can provide the HV cables will probably be the ones who make money out of it.

20 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

In theory, the outback is the perfect location for EV charging stations, using the over-abundance of solar that is available.  I assume there would be nothing else at these locations though, (apart from maybe a toilet and a bbq?)  no shop and so on to while away however many hours it takes to charge your car up. I picture a line of EV drivers waiting their turn while they gradually collapse one by one  from the heat due to being too scared  to use their air-conditioners.

Any chance we could persuade our own EV fans to sample the delights of all that available solar power ? 

2 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

I received this from one of my feeds this morning

https://bigthink.com/health/james-hamblin-doctor-didnt-shower-five-years/?utm_campaign=weeklynewsletter&utm_source=rejoiner&utm_medium=email&utm_content=11%2F30%2F23+Smarter+Faster+(A)&rjnrid=kyq43eA

The Doctor is from New York but the interview came from Australia's Nine Network.

Could it be that we've been wrong about a certain proportion of exhibition visitors all these years?

Interesting, but needs a warning for arachnophobes!

I looked out Wednesday night about 9pm, clear sky. Went out just before midnight (a bit early, I know), total cloud cover. This evening it's been cloudy. Still, I did get to see the perseids a few years ago, I expect they still look much the same.

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

Hmmmmmm....

 

I've had a run of strange dreams recently.  Are they catching? Are there a lot of them about?

 

Anyone else?

 

Only since I started reading this thread 🤣

Yes, I get a *lot* of strange dreams. The worst are when I'm half-asleep (typically on days I need to get up, and am reluctant to fall into deep sleep in case I sleep through the alarm) - I think I'm awake, then get thoughts out of nowhere, but the thoughts progress in nonsensical ways - I think of something and suddenly I'm thinking a non-sequitur, or else I cannot remember what the previous thought was.

On nights like that I would happily swear that I'd only slept momentarily, if it were not for occasional brief memories of dreams.

But I've never had a dream that I can remember in any detail after I've woken, although I seem to have recurring dreams from time to time, often months apart, e.g. walking through what I know is the town I used to work in (Worthing), except the physical layout is completely different. And now I cast my mind back I can recall that I in the dreams I sometimes walked a different route back to work - a road I knew well in real life, but in the dreams it passed a factory or warehouse with a narrow-gauge railway that eventually (in only a few miles) ended at one of the Porthmadog termini.

Hmm, bits of it are coming back to me - driving a car to shunt tracks or wagons at the factory or warehouse - I think it was some sort of Peugeot, but in the days when I could walk into Worthing from work I did drive a Peugeot.

The unconscious mind is a strange thing.

3 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Drove over to Salisbury; very foggy but quite a few drivers don't seem put their lights on at all, never mind the rear fog lamp.

Ah, I can remember years ago (perhaps nearly 30 years) when I first had a rear fog light (I guess probably only one at that time) - it was easy to turn on, with a nicely visible light as a reminder. Possibly it wasn't linked to sidelights at that time, not sure. But over the years the interlinking has got worse - on my current (2011) car fog lights require you to be using sidelights, no chance to put just the rear on when in heavy spray that needs wipers on full and where sidelights are useless.

Went for a (short) drive earlier, just to go somewhere different - turned off the London road towards Hurstpierpoint, but then left at the junction towards Shaves Thatch and then on towards Henfield - was going to take the cutoff to Small Dole instead of going to the edge of Henfield, but it was signed 'flood' so thought better of it (no signs for flood at what I think was the other end of that road as I got to Small Dole). I used to cycle those roads regularly, but I think I've only been along that part from the London road (A23) two or three times in the last 20 years now that I only drive.

Then some food shopping, and got some Monsooned Malabar coffee beans - I used to get some every few months for 'best' espresso (rather than for 'wake me up' espresso) but until today I hadn't seen the beans since covid, although I've seen ground (for filters, etc) once or twice. So my coffee grinder is back in use - nowadays I mostly just drink Lavazza rosso. rahter than faff about grinding.

But I'm puzzled by prices for fizz in Waitrose (lots of offers on fizz and wines at the moment). How come fairly ordinary English fizz (not necessarily the classic grape varieties) is dearer than champagne from recognizable names ?

Just catching up, so belated birthday wishes to GDB.

Gwiwer's comments about a wood burner reminded me that if there had been problems with it, they could have sat around a candle. If it then got really cold, they could light the candle.

Some say the old ones are the best, but others tell the truth.

Anyone else using natwest and having repeated problems logging in via computer ?

This is now the third time it's happened to me - enter the customer number, key requested digits of the pin and requested letters or numbers from the password, get told something was incorrect and I'll lose access if I keep entering wrong items. Try again (sometimes I've had 2 repeated attempts), then give up. On each previous attempt it has worked when I tried again a day or two later.

11 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

The Waitrose ones I started out with (and which have since been dropped from their range) were thin but I wouldn't say extremely thin. Yes, depending on taste (and with a reduction in cooking time) you could easily halve the pastry thickness - though rolling pastry too thin does risk creating holes in the tarte. 

 

I haven't tried it but do wonder how filo pastry would work. It might be an easy way to get a very thin layer but wonder how the unleavened aspect would affect the taste. Any ideas anyone? 

On the one occasion I had flammekueche in Alsace the base was described as bread dough. I do not recall much about the base, but it certainly wasnit ultra-thin pastry. As a veggie I asked for the onion variety without lardons, and only had a few pieces to pick off.

13 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Sheesh, you go out of your way to be nice to @polybear and that's the way he repays you.....

 

Still, revenge is a dish best served cold...

 

So as the Bear forgets that both iD and Captain Cynical have friends in very high places...

 

If @iL Dottore has friends there, they would not be able to organise the proverbial in a brewery, so @polybear would have no worries. Dream on, with whatever work supplies you have been testing. 😄

Talking of phones - anyone got any recommendations for phones which work plugged into virgin media superhubs ?

4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. I'm trying to find an olive oil sprayer for cooking. I Googled 'olive oil sprayer' and it came up with a list of options. The first three I tried before I could place an order wanted you to sign up and give personal details. All I want to do is buy a kitchen utensil so why is it necessary to give my *hat size? In the end I see that Sainsbury's sell them so I'll pop down there sometime this week. *OK I'm exaggerating, they didn't want my hat size but some of the information they ask is just as irrelevant. They didn't get any information and neither will they get my custom.

Couldn't you use an airbrush ? 🙂

But seriously, for spraying cooking oils I use those shake-and-spray things from the supermarkets - 'fry light' and similar (and yes, I know the oil is emulsified with water, so not always a great idea). For other stove-top uses I just pour a little oil - if it was for the top of something, I guess tipping the oil into a spoon first would work.

Then I thought "why not?" Tried gurgling, got an offer at £1.79 with free shipping. Needed email, phone, and address which doesn't seem an excess of data. Of course it isn't very big, if you need to spray a lot it might be inadequate. But for the black friday price I'll give it a try.

33 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

There's also the pursin' of the lips and the tappin' of the feet....

 

Oh Waily Waily!

I knew the seasons were getting a bit variable or out of kilter, but when I was in Saint's buries this afternoon they had (individual) blood oranges. Not idea of the variety, nor the country of origin (the label only said blood oranges). I only bought 3 because they looked to be on the point of turning and just about at the stage apparently beloved of the hooligans at Basel karnival for throwing at people. So, not so much Christmas comes early as February/March comes early. Weird.

Google thinks they might be at the beginning of the season in the USA at the moment, but usually I have to wait until January.

46 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I know what you mean but WD40 as a brand sell a number of proper lubricants in aerosol cans too. 

As long as they don't sell deodorants.

https://youtu.be/iS2N1mBsEdM?si=ls3Dki7nVSi-EeX5

1 hour ago, SM42 said:

 

The morher looks like she came about that way too 

 

Maybe AI wax using the bottle brush tree method of filling the space with cheap, poor quality child representations and putting the good stuff at  the front, but either ran out of good specimens or just didn't get thd concept off 100%

 

Andy

Sounds like descriptions of places occupied by the lords and ladies in Sir Pterry's Tiffany Aching books.