The Untied Kingdom? - the British thread 2021

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  • Piglet wrote: »
    I love venison too; I really must hunt* some out.
    So do we, and always have it for Christmas dinner. When we lived in Suffolk farm shops sold "game pie mix" - diced venison/rabbit/pigeon/whatever. My wife made some lovely rich stews.

  • Piglet wrote: »
    I love venison too; I really must hunt* some out.

    When Ian Harvey of the Kimbilio home for street children in DRC came to our Hampshire parish, I was just coming out of the church with him when a rather large deer galloped (do deer gallop?) through the vicarage garden and disappeared into the churchyard.

    We gasped and he said 'In Lubumbashi someone would have shot and eaten that!'

  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited February 18
    Our veg delivery firm does game, no game pie mix currently but lots of venison on special offer. Muntjac saddle is the most beautiful meat on earth.

    More writing for me to do today.
  • Not just in Lubumbashi. Mmmh.

    Oops, sorry. It's Lent.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    I have some game mix in the freezer. (I also have some rabbit, but he won't eat rabbit - I do hanker for my mum's rabbit stew).
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited February 18
    My wife and I lived in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa in the 1980s. Food was hard to come by.

    One hot day I was driving along a road on my motorbike. Suddenly a man (a hunter) appeared out of the long grass, brandishing the carcass of a small Muntjac deer, already skinned. I stopped, we agreed a price, and I bought it. We hung the deer from the handlebars with raffia and continued my journey (about half-an-hour).

    When my wife saw me driving in, she was overjoyed. We butchered the animal and placed the pieces in the freezer. The meat - cured by the hot sun - was excellent.

    We were not so enamoured of the porcupine meat I once bought: the taste was OK but it was a bit fatty.

    More recently, as a primary teacher in Suffolk, my wife had a boy who went out hunting at night with his dad, mainly shooting rabbit which was then sold to a butcher. The boy was given his own shotgun for his 10th birthday (perfectly legal, and they were very safety-conscious). The lad wanted to be a gamekeeper when he grew up, but we don't know if that's what happened.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Plenty of dismal rain here.

    To cheer me up I’ve downloaded the app ‘What The Forecast’. It’s an irreverent take on the weather forecast.

    Today’s is ‘Just plain crappy and soggy’ 😂
  • HelixHelix Shipmate
    Yes today started sunny and has gone grizzly but is meant to be brightening up.

    To cheer myself up - I have signed up for the London Marathon. I won't be running it - you have 24hrs to walk / run your 26.2 miles. I can walk that!
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Not only gloomy outside, but a gloomy progression with my duvet. There may be a sermon in it. I had, as I said, taken it to the dry cleaner, who had cleaned it before with no problems, despite the command on the label about not dry cleaning it - I think he used a wet process that time. This time it returned with a notice on the bag about not being able to remove the stains - which it had not had when it went. But it came back looking as if it had been used in a dog's basket.
    I have used many methods since then - first a proprietary squirter which looked as if it had worked, and to which I gave a glowing review. But they came back, with those fringes you get when a stain spreads out.
    I tried hanging it up and spraying with water to move those fringes down and off under the influence of gravity. But they just kept moving about. I tried wiping them with a eucalyptus detergent, which faded them but still had fringes.
    Sine Monday, it has soaked in the bath with the eucalyptus stuff, soaked in the bath with plain water and hung over the bath on a clothes horse to drain.
    Still wet, but no longer dripping, I have now hung it over a different clothes horse, a strong wooden one, but with a plain coloured blanket under so it doesn't pick up a new stain from the wood. And I have found that the original stains, which had vanished, are back, and some fringing is still visible, quite dark (that may be because I couldn't get it completely under the water - it kept floating).
    I am stuck with a stained duvet. OK, in use, I won't see that, and I now have a protector so no new stains will be added, but a nice thing has been spoiled. And I still don't know how.
    I will try sunlight as soon as that becomes available.
    But if I buy any new stuff, I will check very carefully how it is to be cleaned, and if it doesn't have a good way to do it, I won't buy it. And with existing stuff, if it says don't do something, I won't. Even if someone with an identical product says it can be done (the bath washing method).
    I think people use the metaphor of stains without thinking too much. It must have been an appalling process back in the day, getting rid of them. (See Lindsey Davis' Falco books for Roman laundry, and a process I am definitely not going to try.)
  • This may be a Very Silly Question - but are you certain they've returned the correct duvet?
    :confused:
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    We've just been for a five mile walk, having had a rather lazy day yesterday. It was rather wetter than envisaged and I was wearing my 'walk fast' trainers which are great, but unfortunately not waterproof. The walk was interesting, taking us to a bit of the local area we haven't been to before. We also passed a bakery with rather wonderful looking bread in the window. Next time we'll stop and buy some.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Yup, though I haven't thought about it until now - their label OK, chances of two identical duvets from a company saying "don't do it" in there at the same time vanishingly low.
    Also there is another dry cleaners just round the corner, so irritating a customer not a good move.
    I've been reading up online - very variable advice from different places. I wouldn't recommend a silk filled duvet now. And there was one person with a teenage son who insisted on sleeping with one without a cover! Ludicrous. (Perhaps I should check the location of that person.) It's lovely to sleep under, but I think the retailers' claim that they don't need more cleaning than putting out in non-direct sunlight is somewhat imaginative.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Shipmate
    edited February 18
    I used to have a silk filled one, dry cleaners wouldn't touch it and eventually when I gave in and washed it, it basically turned into a stiffish blanket. (Non-direct sunlight is all very well, but if you have an ill cat that defecates on it in the middle of the night - not enough ...)

    Now I have wool ones which will wash - I have found them a good alternative to wool blankets. (Likewise, you can wash wool filled pillows very effectively and re-fluff them.)
  • HelixHelix Shipmate
    I've so nearly exchanged on my flat purchase. Just 4 months after the offer. Please please let us exchange fully tomorrow. It's been too long in coming and the sooner I am out of this flat - which has been good to me but I don't love it - the better.

    My duvet is a wonderful feather filled one and washes beautifully. It is one of those three in one things and i love it in the winter when I have the two duvets buttoned together and all that lovely weight on me at night.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    edited February 18
    That would be completely wasted on me; I really don't feel the cold very much, and the very lightest of downies is quite enough. At the moment, I have what in Canada is called a "comforter" - it would probably not even be as heavy as the "summer" bit of yours, Helix - with a flat top sheet under it.

    What actually keeps me warm is a "teddy" fleece underthingie* that goes between the mattress and the fitted lower sheet - they really are the most amazing invention. Even the other week, when the temperature plummeted into minus numbers, I was as warm as toast.

    * and an actual teddy, obviously ... :)
    Supper is risi e bisi, made with the last of the frozen New Year ham; I'll need to get another gammon joint just so I can make it again.
  • I have a silk duvet in summer and a wool one in winter. I must buy an underthingie, I had one as a child and I agree that they are really good.

    Tea is chicken with fennel (bulb not herb), black garlic and creme fraiche, served with rice. I must admit that fennel does nothing for me but it needs using up and other half loves it.

    Tonight we are going to waitrose for our 3 weekly trip out - I'm very excited!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    It's getting pretty bad when a trip to the supermarket is something to get excited about (I totally get where you're coming from).

    The sooner this plague is over, the better.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    edited February 18
    A shopping channel had "easycare" on theirs, and not even the wash in the bath, but use the washing machine for a cold wash! No reviews on the subject. No sign yet of stiffness. I have a simulated fleece for underthingie in the summer, but an electric warmer-upper currently. And a down duvet at the moment. He does a decent job with down duvets.
    And specialises in wedding and evening dresses, which I would have thought would have involved silk.
  • I can’t do down because of my asthma, I find wool a good substitute - when I win the lottery I want one of these https://www.kiwisheepskins.com/sheepskin-underlay-rectangle-skuBE110
  • We have a 1 tog hollowfibre as our usual duvet. All these fancy silk and wool numbers are a bit bewildering to me.
  • HelixHelix Shipmate
    What I love is the colossal weight as that makes me feel super cosy but I also need the ability to throw the duvet off in the night when the hot flush comes - I feel that at night I do the hokey cokey a bit!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    There was one evening last week when it was forecast to be really cold overnight, so I put a blanket over the top of the quilt, but I regretted it at 4 in the morning when I woke up roasting. The nice thing about those fleecy underblankets is they're supposed to keep you cool in the summer too. I haven't had the chance to test this one on that yet, as I've only had it since October; I think for the summer I'll replace my man-made-fibre sheets with cotton ones, which should be cooler.

    I can't understand why anyone would want a load of heavy weight on them at night - I'd find that really uncomfortable.
  • HelixHelix Shipmate
    Isn't it interesting how people have different preferences. For me, the weight makes me feel safe, protected and that everything is ok. Don't ask why - that's just what it does.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    I like a heavy duvet and miss it in the summer. 🙂

    I’ve just done a Zoom talk for a cub pack about Guide Dogs.

    It was really good fun! 20 Cubs plus leaders. They asked LOTS of questions - really rewarding.

    :happyfeet:
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    In the summer I occasionally had the throw the silk duvet off.
  • Helix wrote: »
    Isn't it interesting how people have different preferences. For me, the weight makes me feel safe, protected and that everything is ok. Don't ask why - that's just what it does.

    It's very common among autistic folk. We recently bought a weighted blanket for this purpose. You get the weight without so much heat.
  • On our bed at the moment, we have sheets, a summer weight duvet and a vintage wool blanket, found in its original wrapping when we cleared my grandfather’s house almost 30 years ago, so it’s probably at least 50 years old. We have two cellular blankets from the same source.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I only ever encounter duvets in hotels and I've never encountered one that's comfortable. I spend such nights alternately throwing in off and scrambling it back on.

    Current winter bedding is cotton sheets, two cellular blankets, one I crocheted from chunky-weight yarns, and a linen coverlet backed with fleece. When it warms up, I'll take off the crochet one. In high summer I fold down the coverlet and, if need be, one of the blankets.
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host
    I have been using a wool fleece mattress pad for years. I need it because I sweat at night, and if the moisture stays on my skin, I get muscle spasms.
  • In the winter I have cotton sheets, thick cotton blanket and a 4 tog duvet (asthma so no down/feathers). In the summer linen sheets and cotton blanket.
  • Firenze wrote: »
    I only ever encounter duvets in hotels and I've never encountered one that's comfortable. I spend such nights alternately throwing in off and scrambling it back on.

    We almost always take the duvet out and just use the cover and find we're still too hot. Windows with blocks to prevent them being opened, or opened more than a crack, and aircon that's either broken or won't let you cool the room below 18°C. :rage:
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Helix wrote: »
    Isn't it interesting how people have different preferences. For me, the weight makes me feel safe, protected and that everything is ok. Don't ask why - that's just what it does.

    This is very common in the autistic world. You can buy weighted blankets that are heavy without being too warm.
  • Having seen how silk is “harvested” I can’t bring myself to knowingly use silk in any form. I’m allergic to feathers (discovered just after I bought a luxury down duvet - doh!) so I sleep under a patchwork quilt with a cotton wadding, that I pieced and quilted by hand, over a sheet. Despite its lightness it is lovely and warm in the winter and surprisingly cool in the summer, especially as I stick my feet out from under it if I get too hot - works a treat. I have another which I made and I’ve been using that in the caravan, and will use it on the spare bed after I’ve completed a new one that I’m making by machine and will get professionally machine quilted.
  • This household must own the world record for Types of Duvets , acquired in a quest for The perfect one.

    We have finally settled on a sustainably sourced alpaca duvet. Broke the bank but Mr Alba is in duvet heaven, so I am happy too.

    These have a weighty feel to them, but not too hot.
    Strange really
  • We stayed in a friend's flat in Iceland, and were a bit surprised to find a quite heavy-looking real eiderdown on the bed at midsummer. However, it was actually very pleasant to sleep under, not too warm at all.

    Mind you, sourcing enough duck nests to supply somewhere more populous might be interesting.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    They are not kind to the ducks when getting their down. 😢
  • @Ethne Alba I suspect the alpacas feel the same!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I feel very virtuous that everything on our bed either came off a sheep or grew in a field.
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    I saw a film about an Icelandic farmer who harvests eiderdown - from the nests, not the birds. And also harvests eggs which his family incubate and then teach the ducklings how to be adult birds, who will return to his lands to nest. I can't guarantee that what he does applies across the board.
  • @Thomasina , Mr Alba’s reasoning also...
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    edited February 19
    At the risk of derailing the duvet discussion, we are online wine drinking shortly and have a Gavi from Sainsbury's to have with our curry later. (The person who hosts the online wine gathering is something of a wine buff and is a fan of Gavi; we had one a couple of weeks ago from Tesco's and it was very nice.) The curry recipe is one I've done before, involving grated ginger and wilted spinach, also very nice, zero Syns as far as Slimming World is concerned, and pretty easy to cook. Mr Nen and I usually make Friday evenings a time when we watch something nice on TV. We're working our way through The Crown. I'm feeling pleasantly end-of-weekish. :smile:
  • I managed to get to my yoga class this morning for the first time this month. This afternoon was spent marking powerpoint presentations on the policy-practice gap in end of life care, which made a nice change from marking essays.
    Husband is tonight making roast chicken (with peri peri sauce) with spicy wedges and corn on the cob. Beer may be consumed with it.
  • Guinness being consumed here!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Pizza Notte. With a bottle of red. Minimal cooking, unless you count adding extra toppings.

    But tomorrow I will make an effort, and do roast beef in onion and red wine.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    We are on GIN and will be moving along to red WINE shortly.

    :mrgreen:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I decided on reaching my end of the High Street that I couldn't be bothered queuing at the chippy, so I've been grazing for supper (and using up things that needed to be used): falafels bought as part of a 3 for £7, with soured cream and chive dip, breadsticks with hummus, smoked salmon pâté with crackers and a glass of WINE.
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Oh, yum, Piglet, sounds like my ideal supper. :smile:

    According to our wine buff friend, Gavi does not do best when accompanying curry. It goes better with pasta dishes. Accordingly we may need to break the time-honoured Friday-night-is-curry-night chez Nen next Friday and have spaghetti bolognese. :hushed:
  • I’m having a Hazy Jane beer, and we’ve just booked an apartment in Brighton for a week in August, overlooking the marina. I don’t know the south coast at all and I’m looking forward to walking on the Downs.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    We are back in Paris. The journey was long, but we've done worse. Captain Pyjamas fell asleep for about an hour and a half, which makes it less wearisome for everyone.

    Hopefully he'll sleep late tomorrow, and consequently so will we.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I hope you had a nice wee break, La Vie.

    Heavenlyannie, I hope you get your nice wee break, and travel is happening again by then.
    In other news, there was an envelope in the post this evening with a rather nice cheque in it from the New Brunswick taxman; apparently I (or David and I collectively) paid too much HST* in 2019. How they worked it out I have no idea, but it's going in the bank before they change their mind. :mrgreen:

    * Harmonised Sales Tax - I think it's a bit like VAT - you pay it on goods you buy.
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