The Untied Kingdom? - the British thread 2021

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  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    It was a glorious day in Embra - it reached 17°, and felt like it. If I didn't have to stand at a chuffing bus stop for the best part of half an hour when it was only 4°, I might have been able to dress more appropriately.

    Having lodged a complaint with the interweb company from whom I ordered a couple of lightweight raincoats because their tracking thingie said they'd been delivered at the weekend (which they hadn't), I had a message today apologising for them being delivered to the wrong address, and giving a new tracking number. It apparently belongs to Hermes, which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence ...

    Sorry - rant over.
    Supper was spaghetti with broccoli, green beans and peas in a creamy sauce with sage and garlic, and I'm now relaxing with a glass of WINE and some M&S Cornish Cruncher biscuits, which are rather wickedly good.

    The Grauniad crossword beckons. :)
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    The overall effect could pass as a sort of ombré ash blonde.
    I'm sure some people would pay a hairdresser a small fortune to put that colour into their hair. :wink:

    Well done for completing your chapter @Heavenlyannie . Thesis-writing is a real slog; not that I've ever done one, but Nenlet2 has.

    We had sausages and Slimming World chips for tea which made a nice change. I usually do bangers'n'mash but we've had mashed potato once this week already and I couldn't face it again.


  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Sorry to double post; it seems a bit quiet on this thread. Perhaps everyone's out enjoying the sunshine - as I will be shortly as I'm going for a walk with friends followed by coffee in someone's garden. Later I have a couple of Zooms and then an experimental dish for tea to go with the Gavi in the fridge. We're told by a wine-and-food-buff friend of ours that pasta is the appropriate accompaniment to Gavi, but it didn't go that well with spaghetti bolognese and my last experiment was, shall we say, not an unqualified success.
  • I've had the usual morning doing admin and preparing for tomorrow morning's tutorial. This afternoon I will be marking essays on the grieving process and the medicalisation of grief.
    Friday evening is takeaway night but I've no idea what is planned.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    Sunday is our wedding anniversary. However, Friday being the day on which the fancy shellfish man is on the market, the festivities are starting early. A lobster is currently sitting in the bottom of our fridge. Alive. :dizzy: Had it been up to me I would have asked the vendor to cook it, but husband en rouge is apparently happy to dispatch the poor beast.

    A very fine Meursault will be put to chill later on.
  • The Sun Shine is pleasant - the East Wind is not. It abated overnight, so that there was a Frost this morning, but the delivery of coal for the Dragon yesterday means that I can keep warm for a while longer.

    COD and Sweet Potato Fries have been etten, cooked to perfection by the said Dragon. I shall miss him when he goes to sleep for the summer (estivates?), and will have to faff about with the microwave, and the gas cooker. The interior of the Ark will, however, be somewhat less dusty.
    :wink:
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    I wasn't that impressed with the one Gavi I've tried @Nenya. I have some Chardonnay in the fridge to go with the risotto I'm cooking tonight. Some truly rather dire Gruener Vertlinger is going in the actual risotto as I didn't enjoy the couple of sips I had of it. I'm sure Keith Floyd would tell me I needed good wine in the food as well as to drink, but I'm sure it will be fine.
    Nice and sunny here, we had lunch in the sun trap of our back yard. We'll miss that when we move, even though the new garden is enormous.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I think the Forth Estuary microclimate may be kicking in. A spell of sunny weather can bring in the sea mist: there's not quite a haar, but definitely cooler and whiter.

    However we had our culturally diverse shop this morning and are now adequately found for Korean noodles, Polish soups and a bottle of Slivovitz. Dinner will be the Friday default of pizza and a red.
  • CathscatsCathscats Shipmate
    That’s what I don’t miss about the East coast. As a child in mid-Fife we a.ways phoned our St. Andrews grandparents before setting out for the beach. Too often it was blazing with us and 15 miles away the haar was cold and damp.
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Sarasa wrote: »
    I wasn't that impressed with the one Gavi I've tried @Nenya.
    I don't think I have a particularly well developed taste in wine. I liked the Gavi the first time we had it, with our usual Friday night curry, but Mr Nen was not so keen and our friend advised us that the problem might not be the wine but the food we were eating with it. As I've been finding the Friday night curry doesn't sit very well with my stomach I'm ok to experiment to find something that suits us both. I am not a huge fan of Chardonnay but maybe I haven't had a good one. Our usual go to is an Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc.

    I went for a walk with a friend and the wind was pretty chilly; then we sat in her garden for coffee and it was sheltered and pretty warm. Tomorrow evening we have friends coming over for drinks on the patio and I think we'll need rugs and jumpers available.
  • Firenze wrote: »
    <snip>

    However we had our culturally diverse shop this morning and are now adequately found for Korean noodles, Polish soups and a bottle of Slivovitz. Dinner will be the Friday default of pizza and a red.

    I must pay a visit to our local Polski Sklep, and search out some of the lovely soups of which you speak.

    A couple of years ago (BP - Before Plague) I bought a big jar of soup, which needed to be diluted with water before cooking, IYSWIM. It was very tasty, and contained a lot of pearl barley (?). IIRC, it was from Georgia (the European one) rather than Poland.


  • The nearest Polski Sklep to us is the other side of town. Our food diversity comes via the local Nisa which has, I believe, Turkish owners and appears to be flexible as to the origins of what they stock. Our Sunday lunch often has a range of Turkish salads and Eastern European sausages, random cheese and interesting cake. They have a too tempting selection of Turkish delight and baklava.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Nenya wrote: »
    I am not a huge fan of Chardonnay but maybe I haven't had a good one. Our usual go to is an Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc.

    The Chardonnay is a bit of an experiment not having had one for years. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is our usual white go to, though I do like a good Gruener Vertlinger.

  • The nearest Polski Sklep to us is the other side of town. Our food diversity comes via the local Nisa which has, I believe, Turkish owners and appears to be flexible as to the origins of what they stock. Our Sunday lunch often has a range of Turkish salads and Eastern European sausages, random cheese and interesting cake. They have a too tempting selection of Turkish delight and baklava.

    Yes, I've heard that Nisa is good for Interesting Foreign Foods, but I don't think there's one near here - I'll check it out. Some tasty Eastern European sausages are called for, I think, to go with the soup(s)...

    The Polski Sklep, OTOH, is not far away, and my disabled driver's Blue Badge means I can park right by the door.
  • Nisa is franchised by Co-op (they sell Co-op food too), so if you have a local Co-op there probably isn't a Nisa too near.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    The best white burgundies are Chardonnay, including the very fine Meursault we are opening later. They're pricey though.
  • Nisa is franchised by Co-op (they sell Co-op food too), so if you have a local Co-op there probably isn't a Nisa too near.

    Ah - that probably explains why the Nisa shops are in the next town but one, where Co-Ops are no longer to be found! I have FIVE Co-Ops within a couple of miles, though the two I habitually use are the closest to home.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    ... random cheese and interesting cake ...
    Ooh - sounds like my sort of thing!

    Supper chez Piglet was the usual Friday scampi and chips, but they didn't have any tartare sauce, which was rather a bummer - mayonnaise is fine for the chips, but not quite piquant enough for the scampi.

    Now relaxing with a glass of Barefoot Pinot Grigio*, which is really quite decent plonk.

    * While Tr*mp was in power, I sort of boycotted American wine, but now that he isn't, I don't any more. TBH, the US wouldn't really be my wine-buying country of choice: I sometimes think American wine is a bit more expensive than it needs to be, but this one wasn't.
    I think I might be in for a rather good weekend: my nephew just messaged to say that they (he, his wife and the Adorable Archie) are going to a country park tomorrow morning and have asked me to go too, so they're picking me up. I'm quite excited, as I don't think I've seen them since I moved to Linlithgow, which is, now I think about it, six months ago today.

    My brother and sister-in-law are coming out on Sunday to go for a walk either round the loch or the Palace, which will be nice too.
  • PendragonPendragon Shipmate
    Well made Turkish delight is wonderful. Being in a multicultural area does make my shopping options quite diverse.

    I have been doing some gardening and attempting to start on sorting the garage out.

    This evening we had veggie burgers. As we had to get the burger buns on the way home from school, I also got some icecreams as a treat. Dragonlet 3 isn't ready for ice-cream yet, but is starting on solids at six months old!
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Piglet wrote: »
    Now relaxing with a glass of Barefoot Pinot Grigio*, which is really quite decent plonk.
    Oh really? *makes note to add to online Sainz Breeze order*

    In other news, the pasta experiment went down well with me but Mr Nen was non-commital so I think we might give up on the Gavi.

    Have a lovely family weekend, @Piglet . :heart:

    Mr Nen is watching the rugby (yawn) so I'm heading to bed with my book. A reread of Dodie Smith's I Capture The Castle for a real life book group in a couple of weeks' time, since you ask. :smile:
  • Cathscats wrote: »
    That’s what I don’t miss about the East coast. As a child in mid-Fife we a.ways phoned our St. Andrews grandparents before setting out for the beach. Too often it was blazing with us and 15 miles away the haar was cold and damp.
    True in East Anglia too. I once took a service in Halesworth on a blazing hot summer's day, we decided to go to Southwold (about 5 miles away) for ice cream but ran into chilly folk. We diverted to Aldeburgh but it wasn't much better although we did have ice-cream!

  • Pendragon wrote: »
    starting on solids at six months old!
    Baby Grandson was started on solids a few weeks ago, a bit short of the six months mark - but he was being very grumpy in the time between his afternoon nap and his evening feed/bedtime.

    This is teatime for his big brother and also Daddy, who is working from home and Mummy who is on maternity leave. It eventually dawned on his parents that the sight of the rest of the family stuffing their faces while his tummy was empty was possibly the cause of his grumps. An experimental spoonful (of yoghurt I think) went down a treat, so it was decided that it was time for him to join the family for tea.

    This is a baby who was over 11pounds at birth, and is wearing 9-12month clothing, so I expect his appetite is also big for his age!
  • I’m about to go for a walk then I’ll potter until my morning online tutorial (preparation for end of year assessment/study skills). This afternoon I will be potting up 3 hanging baskets with fuchsia and geranium plugs, two hanging bags of Tumbling Toms and plant up my grows bags with tomatoes. I’ll need to do some weeding to prepare part of the veg patch. Other half will probably finish putting the new picket fence up.
    Lunch in the garden I think
  • Current project, not sure if I've mentioned it on here, is my Mothering Day present from my daughter, a Knit Along (KAL) blanket made up of sampler squares. I've got the cream, mustard and charcoal acrylic version, because the turquoise colours were sold out when she bought it. So far we're on week 7 and by Tuesday, when the next square is released, participants should have knitted 37 squares. Me, I've knitted 23, and have spent the last week or so knitting at every spare moment to catch up as far as I have, reading the Ship, but occupying my hands. More entertaining has been taking it along to youthwork sessions, because currently it's just adults making sure we're there for anyone who wants to come along, not that anyone has. I empathise, why would the youngsters come along to sit outside when they can do that anywhere? However, one of the adult is now angling to commission another in turquoises, but not the option on offer. The problem is that if I did knit another it wouldn't be at this pace. I'm just hanging on to two more weeks and then finish it off.

    We have been walking, yesterday out to see if the bluebells are out in one of the local woods - the answer is nearly, but not quite. And were amused to notice a newly sited geocache in that direction we picked up. It's called a recycled geocache as the container has been move from where I found it last year.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    I'm doing the Debbie Abrahams mystery blanket 2021. A few squares are released each month and I'm on the final one for April, though I still have the finishing off to do on the others.
    We're still in eek mode about our move. We're trying to work out options for moving as probate appears to still be a long way off on the place we're buying I've booked our son to be on standby for next weekend to help move stuff from the loft if needed.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    What lovely projects @Curiosity killed and @Sarasa !

    We are still doing the Zoom art and doodle session on Mondays. There are usually six of us. Some draw and paint, some doodle and some do colourings. It’s really relaxing and a good start to the week. We are going through the alphabet and this Monday’s letter is ‘Q’ so I’m having a look what to draw. It may have to be the/a Queen. 🙂
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Southwold (about 5 miles away)
    Ooo, lucky you. Southwold is lovely. We have friends in Norfolk and Suffolk and every couple of years or so have done the rounds there. I've got very happy memories of a full English breakfast one morning on the Southwold seafront.

    My pasta experiment last night wasn't a spectacular success. I enjoyed it but Mr Nen was cagey ("It doesn't taste quite how I was expecting" :lol: ) so I think I'm going to give up on the Gavi and go back to curry and Sauvignon Blanc next Friday.

    I hope it all works out @Sarasa . Moving is stressful at the best of times.

    We've had coffee on the patio this morning in the sunshine, have a long Zoom session this afternoon and then friends over this evening for drinks in the garden.

    I'll have to hunt through my colouring books for "something beginning with Q." :wink:
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited April 24
    Queen
    Quaggar
    Quagga Mussel
    Quoin
    Quoit
    Quagmire
    Quarry
    Quicklime
    Quangle-Wangle
    ...
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Great fun could be had drawing the Quangle-Wangle’s hat!
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    It might have to be a creative interpretation of "Quagmire"... Thank you!
  • My pleasure.
    :wink:

    Quicklime might be rendered as simply a blank white space, or a heap of white powder, I suppose, if you want to be really minimalist...
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    I enjoyed doing art and doodle class, but other things keep on happening on Mondays. I'll try and pop in this week - Quakers, hats or porridge oats?
    We're waiting for various phone calls to do with the moving and have decided that tomorrow will be a shed and backyard clear out day so at least we'll have less to do if we do have to move at short notice.
    This morning we walked over the hill to Waitrose only to discover a long queue to get in. We headed into town instead and went to Marks and Spencer where there was no queue instead. Queue another Q to draw.
  • That's two more Qs - Quaker, and Queue - to add to my off-the-cuff list!
    :grin:

    The famous Hat of the Quangle-Wangle Quee has been portrayed in art @Boogie - there are loads of images on Go Ogle's site.
  • Quern, Quill, Quetzalcoatl ?
  • :lol:

    We'd better be careful, or we'll be sent to the Naughty Step, or even the Circus!
    :open_mouth:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Not at all - I'm going to join in! How about baking a Quiche and taking a photograph (or doing a still-life) of it? With a couple of Quinces on the side?
    I had a lovely morning with my nephew, his wife and Archie, who was being as adorable as ever. :heart:

    We went to a place called Beecraigs Country Park, just a few miles outside Linlithgow, where there was an excellent playing area with swings, slides, mini-zip-line thingies and other things to gladden the heart of a curious two-year-old.

    Then, after a brief stop at the bakery along the road to get in some sandwiches, back to mine for a cup of tea and watching Archie pretend to bake us a cake (and make friends with my teddies). Further :heart:

    It was well worth getting up earlier than I usually would on a Saturday - although I did have a bit of a snoozette after they left, to restore my kip quotient. :sleeping:
  • Ah! - Quotient!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    :mrgreen:
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    The Hat has been drawn ready for colouring on Monday. I have annotated it - have I missed anything?

    It is based on the shape of one of the Queen’s hats. :mrgreen:

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/skRYLmRKWovrZM6u9
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    I can't draw so am limited by what pictures I have in my colouring books. :smile:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    That looks most excellent, Boogie!

    It being a beautiful day, and the fridge and larder wanting replenishment, I had a pleasant little amble to Tessie's (via Boots on the way back, as my electric toothbrush had snuffed it). The Met Office website says it was only 12°, but I think their thermometer needs some attention - it felt a lot warmer than that.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    This is a great way to start. He’s a lovely bloke and has step-by step tutorials from very simple indeed to quite advanced.

    https://youtu.be/KB_RQACWFbg

  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Downtown for my second AZ jab (I agree it was sunny, but breezy and not that warm). I’d intended to treat myself to a taxi home, but there was not one to be seen in a part of Edinburgh used to be hooching with them.
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited April 24
    A very successful day here. A good walk followed by a tutorial then an afternoon in the sunshine, potting up plants, weeding beds and generally achieving things. Husband finished the 100 foot long picket fence and it looks great.
    I unexpectedly had to do some weeding in the meadow area. There was a clump of long grass a few feet from the bird feeders and we discovered next door’s cat was using it as a hideout!
    Now having some Sancerre while waiting to have family online games.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    I got carried away and finished it. I’ll have to choose another Q for Monday. :lol:

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/KaPVK7FGRtHT4qjM8
  • HelixHelix Shipmate
    Boogie wrote: »
    I got carried away and finished it. I’ll have to choose another Q for Monday. :lol:

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/KaPVK7FGRtHT4qjM8

    Wow Boogie that is amazing - you are clearly a very talented draw-er. I love it - it's feels really happy!

    And thank you for the YouTube link to the drawing teacher - I am going to give those a try as I would love to be able to draw.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    My new project is a patchwork quilt. I figure if I start it now, I might stand a chance of getting it finished by Christmas :mrgreen:

    A very pleasant, sunny day here. This afternoon we went for a walk past the Eiffel Tower and bought ICE CREAM.

    Supper was lobster bisque, following yesterday's fine dining.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    That's a cracker, Boogie!
    Steak, green veggies, mushrooms and mashed tatties have been consumed along with a glass or two of WINE, and it looks like I'm going to have some more visitors tomorrow. :)

    This may not be quite the way I'd planned my life, but I definitely did the right thing by moving here when things went pear-shaped - it's so nice to be near the family and see the wee ones growing up! :heart:
    In other news, there are no words to describe my relief when I re-read some stuff I got today from the Canadian Inland Revenue to do with David's estate; at first I thought I was going to have to pay them several thousand dollars (although I couldn't understand quite why), and then realised that what they actually wanted was just a few hundred.

    "Phew" doesn't begin to cover it ... :flushed:
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Saturday default is steak'n'chips: tonight was one of the more successful iterations. I flash fried the steaks, then deglazed the pan with whisky. The accompanying red was a Tempranillo from Yalumba, which is not a varietal you expect, but very good.
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    Glad the Inland Revenue demand is not too taxing!
    Tonight we had a chicken parcel ie stuffed chicken breast tied up and coated in a glaze, cooked on a bed of onions, leeks and carrots in the slow cooker, served with sauté potatoes, sprouting broccoli and green beans with asparagus tips.
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