The Untied Kingdom? - the British thread 2021

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  • Yesterday afternoon turned brighter. We dithered but eventually decided to go out ... just as we got to the seaside and parked it started to rain so our walk along the Prom was curtailed and we ended up eating chips in the car! Still fun though. Of course the sun was back out when we got home!
  • It's sunny and warm here at present but was pelting down an hour ago.
    I've spent the morning at a work online conference and have managed to sandwich the weekly admin around it. I decided to bow out this afternoon though.
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    I hope the physiotherapist is helpful again @Boogie .

    I headed out with a friend to post a letter and have a walk this afternoon. We made it home in the dry and even saw some sunshine.

    Leftover stir fry for tea this evening; there's some red wine left as well. :smiley:
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    We're just back from a walk. Went out in macs, but it was so warm they got taken off. Then the sky turned black and there was thunder, but we didn't get any rain. I'm assuming that'll turn up later, but at least we are home now.
    This morning was spent doing bits and pieces ahead of the house move. The latest question is how to we get ourselves there. We were going to hire a car one way, but the one big company where we're moving to is closed. Options seem to be the train or buy a car very quickly.
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    Yes, the torrential rain passed over and the sun came making it warm enough to have a cuppa outside!
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    edited May 17
    Nenya wrote: »
    I hope the physiotherapist is helpful again @Boogie .

    I headed out with a friend to post a letter and have a walk this afternoon. We made it home in the dry and even saw some sunshine.

    Leftover stir fry for tea this evening; there's some red wine left as well. :smiley:

    Well done for making it out in the dry @Nenya! A bit of sunshine lifts the spirits for sure.

    The physio was excellent again and I have an appointment for an MRI a week today, then follow up two days after that. He suspects spinal canal stenosis.

    We are on baked potatoes cheese and beans for tea. It’s Mr Boogs shopping night so we have an easy tea but, tbh, it’s one of my favourites!



  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    Hurrah! My borlotti beans turned up in the post and we have been out to plant them during a break in the rain. My bean frame is being much admired by my fellow gardeners and proves the usefulness of the stuff you learn in the Girl Guides. That thing would withstand a hurricane :smiley:

    Actually I've long thought that the Girl Guides provide excellent preparation for the Apocalypse: you learn all kinds of handy skills like camping and setting fire to stuff. Tying knots (a subcategory of camping) doesn't sound like a massively useful skill, but as my bean frame shows, it comes in more than you might think.

    Growing vegetables is also a pretty useful skill for the Apocalypse, although the Guides didn't teach me that. Any road up, if ever we have to head for the hills, I'm reckon I'm set for a place in the survivors' team.
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited May 17
    We have friends whose dinner party patter is planning for the apocalypse. We did well as I am a nurse who can also make foodstuffs including wine, beer, cheese and kimchi/sauerkraut, and my husband is an engineer who invents things.
    I have some runner beans that need planting out but the other half insists he will make the frame.
  • Good news about the borlotti beans @la vie en rouge

    In answer to this:
    Actually I've long thought that the Girl Guides provide excellent preparation for the Apocalypse: you learn all kinds of handy skills like camping and setting fire to stuff. Tying knots (a subcategory of camping) doesn't sound like a massively useful skill, but as my bean frame shows, it comes in more than you might think.

    Growing vegetables is also a pretty useful skill for the Apocalypse, although the Guides didn't teach me that. Any road up, if ever we have to head for the hills, I'm reckon I'm set for a place in the survivors' team.
    There are some growing vegetable activities in the current Guide programme, along with optional camping, different ways of setting fires in varying conditions, tying knots and making camp constructions are also still around as challenges, cooking, budgeting, planning food, lots of life skills ...

    We're currently working through something called Network, which is about self-esteem, working with others in a team, reframing situations and moods, friendship skills, how to deal with bullying and we finished something called Communicate last term that included sign language, the NATO alphabet, emojis, how to prepare yourself for speaking in public, choosing the best form of communication in certain situations. (Those are both Skills Builders.)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    As far as I can remember (it was nearly 50 years ago :flushed: ), the only useful thing I learned in the Guides was how to cook BACON. :mrgreen:
    AFAIK, the threatened thunderstorm didn't happen, and it was lovely as I came home.

    I made a big paella when I got in, and have eaten about a third of it, so plenty of leftovers.

    Now for a cup of tea, a CHOCOLATE biscuit or two and the Grauniad crossword.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Mince Monday. But for tomorrow I've dug out the sachet of nasi goreng spice paste and with the aid of Google translated the instructions from the Dutch.

    Meanwhile outside the lowering sun is just doing that trick of catching the treetops against a dark sky, gold on grey.
  • Several bouts of heavy rain this afternoon, with sunny intervals.
    This evening we went to the village gastropub and I had pork belly with crackling, gravy, mash and broccoli followed by an amazing lemon baked alaska (a lemon curd ice cream roulade underneath the meringue). I also had a mojito and an espresso martini, hic.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Shortly after I typed my last comment my husband came down the stairs to announce he'd just bought a car on-line! It'll make the move a lot more straightforward, and having a car could be useful, much as I've liked being car free these last eight years.
  • MarthaMartha Shipmate
    My time in the Guides taught me to make a washing up stand out of sticks. I'm not sure that will be very helpful in the Apocalypse! Oh, and I also know to rub washing up liquid on the outside of the baked beans billy, so the soot comes off more easily.

    I spent several hours cleaning the kitchen at work in preparation for reopening my church cafe on Wednesday. Now I just need someone to pay me to clean my own house (or should I pay someone else?)
  • RoseofsharonRoseofsharon Shipmate
    Weather for the south east has been, & is forecast to be, Wet.

    However, it misses us a lot of the time as we are just east of that diagonal line the 'fronts' seem to travel along, running from roughly the Isle of Wight to The Wash.
    Sometimes it pours all the way along the coast as far as Brighton, then heads across The Downs and soaks them, but leaves us dry.

    Today was one of those days. Sunny almost all day, with a 30second shower late morning, and something just a bit longer and wetter during the afternoon. Tomorrow could be very similar.
    Unfortunately it is supposed to turn very windy after that, and the wind rarely, if ever, misses us.
    Guess when our long-missed family are visiting!
  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    I have now discovered that my local surgery staff lied to us about the process of registration. Getting ready for going in and making an innocent inquiry*, following the urgency of the news item about getting all the reluctant to get vaccinated, about when my guest can get his jabs, I found the NHS page about getting a GP.
    Which states:
    You do not need proof of address or immigration status, ID or an NHS number.
    ...
    You do not need proof of ID to register with a GP, but it might help of you have one or more of the following:

    passport
    birth certificate
    HC2 certificate
    rough sleepers' identity badge
    hostel or accommodation registration or mail forwarding letter

    If you're homeless, you can give a temporary address, such as a friend's address, a day centre or the GP surgery address.


    So my address would have done without proof he was there - we took in a gas bill for his mother's executors, unnamed, at my address, and his bus pass - for photo, demanded. They were very demanding about the dating of the items, so the invoice from the undertakers, with his actual name, wouldn't have done.

    *The real inquiry is "Why has my friend not had anything back from you about his registration?" Followed by "In that case I will be contacting the NHS England Customer Contact Centre, and Healthwatch, as referred to on the page I have here." Followed by "And possibly the Guardian and the Daily Mail, but we'd rather not do that." "Oh, and the local pages of Next Door, as I see they have a thread about you."**

    **Not in any instance praising them.
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    We’re forecast a couple of hours of thunderstorms this afternoon . Could be interesting!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I'd forgotten the labour in having people round. This morning I vacuumed/dusted the sitting room, bedroom, hall and dining room, plus climbing up a stepladder to clean the track lights in the kitchen. Later on I will scrub the bathroom and kitchen. I may polish the bronze cutlery (and check we have an adequacy of matching wine glasses). Then there is the Big Shop. Plus actually cooking a four course meal. And washing up.

    Frankly, I wonder it's ever caught on.
  • RoseofsharonRoseofsharon Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    I'd forgotten the labour in having people round.
    I have been at it for days!

    It's been a gorgeous sunny morning today - I spent it indoors, in the kitchen cooking, or prepping, dishes for feeding visitors tomorrow. Doing it today so that I have the energy to stay awake while they are here.
    I am looking forward to seeing them, and the grandchildren, especially meeting the 7month old for the first time. However, it is time that I admitted that I can no longer do the work involved in the fancy, multi-course meals I used to love putting on for them. :(

  • Penny SPenny S Shipmate
    Had about ten minutes of thunderstorm hereabouts about a quarter of an hour ago. Quite local strikes according to blitzortnung, but in odd places - the bottom of hills as opposed to the tops. Five really local.
    The map also shows yesterday's, while we were in Sarf Lunnon, quite close to those, too.
    Strangely, some of our local ones have already disappeared.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    We are having my brother round for tea on Thursday - some extra housework has been done, but not much.

    The meal? Takeaway curry. :mrgreen:
  • We went out for lunch today. I'm glad I reserved a table as the restaurant was pretty busy.

    And the weather stayed dry!
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Yes, I was thinking I might need to start doing a bit extra housework now that people can come in.

    Mr Nen and I are booked out for lunch at the local Prezzo tomorrow, indoor seating only but it's quite large and last year when we went they were pretty careful about spacing groups out. I had lunch with girlfriends today and we were able to sit outside which was pleasant. We were talking about how at the moment it's a balance between on the one hand Still Being Careful and on the other Doing Things While We Can. :flushed:

    I don't do fancy meals when people come round; I usually employ the slow cooker for the main course, followed by bought cheesecake or fresh fruit and cream. Sometimes I push the boat out and offer both.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    edited May 18
    Porcine Idiocy, part XXIX

    I set my lunch bag down on the seat beside me on the platform at Linlithgow station this morning, turned away to put my ticket in my bag and trotted off to the other end of the platform to get in at the front of the train, leaving it behind. Of course, I didn't mark its absence until just before we arrived at Waverley.

    I am an idiot.

    However, it's a lovely day, and socks have once again been abandoned.

    Like others here, I like having people over for food - with luck I'll be able to have the family* round in the next wee while.

    * not all at once - they wouldn't all fit. :mrgreen:
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    @Piglet you are not an idiot. You were absent-minded for a moment.

    CAKE is available. It's a yogurt cake with added strawberries and raspberries. The recipe claimed to be very easy and suitable for making by children. Now either I am a very incompetent cook, or they would need to be highly gifted children. It was complicated and generated more washing up than any simple cake recipe has a right to. I shan't use it again.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host
    Piglet wrote: »
    <snip>I set my lunch bag down on the seat beside me on the platform at Linlithgow station this morning, turned away to put my ticket in my bag and trotted off to the other end of the platform to get in at the front of the train, leaving it behind.<snip>
    In a former life I had a colleague who left her overnight bag on Westminster tube station shortly after Airey Neave was killed by a car bomb at the House of Commons. She realised what she had done when she got off at Cannon Street. She immediately got on a westbound train again and got off at Westminster. She went to go down onto the eastbound platform, but was stopped by a police officer. She explained what she had done and he and a colleague accompanied her down to the empty platform (it was rush hour) where her bag stood in solitary splendour. She said they stood as far away as they decently could while she opened the bag. Then they made her take every single item out of it for inspection, and then they thoroughly examined the bag itself. So, @Piglet, it could have been worse.
  • I have a similar story. My church at the time was immediately adjacent to a viaduct carrying both District and Piccadilly tube lines to Heathrow and other points west. One afternoon about 4pm I got a call from the police asking me if there was anyone in the building, and to come down, as there was a suspicious package outside the church. This was just after the terrible nail bomb attack on the gay pub in London, and the 'package' was a very similar holdall.

    The police had stopped all the trains and closed both the street and the adjacent larger one, along which several buses ran. By the time I arrived the police had decided to investigate more closely ... and found that the bag contained nothing more than a schoolboy's sports kit (the school used our building during the day). He's put to down while chatting to a friend, before going for his train.

    There must have been knock-on chaos right across London, I wonder how many people missed their flights?

    (My wife, long before we met, had an alarm clock in her case which went off just as it was being examined at Belfast's Aldergrove Airport, at the height of the Troubles. She says she's never seen so many people move so quickly!)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Thoughts of similar scenarios were going through my head - I was worried that I'd have put the nice station staff to a load of trouble! I even thought of apologising to them on my way back, but there was nobody in the ticket office.

    I was also somewhat pissed off that the bag contained a full carton of hummus, which would have formed the basis of lunch for a few days. :rage:
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    I was a terror for leaving things on the school bus, my Dad used to pick me up at the bus stop and went after the bus on many occasions to pick up my belongings.

    ADHD roools, lol!

    It’s how I live my life ‘tho my coping strategies usually work well these days.

    :mrgreen:

  • In other news, having spent three years not really being treated by Addenbrookes, my daughter, having had two emergency cycles of prednisolone (nasty steroid) in the last month or so to get her symptoms back under enough control for the maximum dose of anti-histamines and double the standard dose of another steroid she normally takes to keep her breathing and swallowing, has been, finally, referred elsewhere. Apparently Addenbrookes have discharged her again, probably because she's not an interesting allergy case, but something more complicated to do with her immune system. When she booked the appointment it wasn't the 12-18 months away we expected, but she got a provisional appointment for July, this year.

    Yes, I know Addenbrookes is the best, but they haven't been the best for her, and we haven't enjoyed the trips up to see the consultant, which was three hours journey each way on public transport, not resulting in any useful outcomes ,even if I love Cambridge. It was as quick to travel to see the consultant in Sheffield she originally saw, who was brilliant. And to add insult to injury, we travelled past the two alternative options she was offered this time to travel to Addenbrookes.
  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    That, I hope, is good news, CK.

    In other news, Brain of Britain has managed to leave, of all things, his laptop at home- so I am working (?) on a borrowed one.
  • Hopefully she can now get the treatment she needs CK.

    I am at the (online) annual staff development day. Nice to chat to fellow tutors; I miss our regional face to face day.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    A second and more successful outing to the Royal Mile. Whiskies were bought (Kilchoman and Wolfburn) and we actually went into a coffee shop. Such excitements.
  • Wet KipperWet Kipper Shipmate
    For a while I've been entering the ballots to be part of the Zoom audience for various BBC Radio and TV recordings (or not applying because the recordings are during the day, when I'm supposed to be w*rking) with no success.

    Joy and Hallelujah, I've just received notice that I can be part of the "Scottish" audience for a recording of I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue next month
  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    Great stuff, Wet Kipper! Do tell us what the lovely Samantha is wearing!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    That sounds like fun, WK. IIRC David's sister and b-i-l used to go to recordings of ISIHAC before the plague (they live within easy distance of London).

    After a nice sunny morning, clouds seem to be amassing over EH4, ready to shed their load while I'm going for the bus ... :(

    Salmon baked with spuds and veggies for supper, I think.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Pain about the lunch yesterday @piglet. I've done things like that too many times to recount.
    We've started packing and have left a box with stuff we aren't going to take by the entrance to our property. We live on a very busy road with lots of pedestrians so stuff has been disappearing rather rapidly. No one seems to want my soup cookbook though. All the books are packed and some of the non essential kitchen stuff. We've just decided we were idiots not to have used the kilner jars that were gathering dust on top of a cupboard for storing lentils etc. We'll do that in the new place.
  • MrsBeakyMrsBeaky Shipmate
    Sarasa wrote: »
    Pain about the lunch yesterday @piglet. I've done things like that too many times to recount.
    We've started packing and have left a box with stuff we aren't going to take by the entrance to our property. We live on a very busy road with lots of pedestrians so stuff has been disappearing rather rapidly. No one seems to want my soup cookbook though. All the books are packed and some of the non essential kitchen stuff. We've just decided we were idiots not to have used the kilner jars that were gathering dust on top of a cupboard for storing lentils etc. We'll do that in the new place.

    I inherited a collection of kilner jars from my mother in law and they have provided very attractive storage for dried goods for the best part of four decades 😊
  • Loads of kilner jars here with varieties of lentils, rice, sugar, flour etc. Great for making flavoured, ie sloe, gin too.
    I've got a student to phone shortly and can't be bothered to cook yet. Late dinner today then.
  • MrsBeaky wrote: »
    Sarasa wrote: »
    Pain about the lunch yesterday @piglet. I've done things like that too many times to recount.
    We've started packing and have left a box with stuff we aren't going to take by the entrance to our property. We live on a very busy road with lots of pedestrians so stuff has been disappearing rather rapidly. No one seems to want my soup cookbook though. All the books are packed and some of the non essential kitchen stuff. We've just decided we were idiots not to have used the kilner jars that were gathering dust on top of a cupboard for storing lentils etc. We'll do that in the new place.

    I inherited a collection of kilner jars from my mother in law and they have provided very attractive storage for dried goods for the best part of four decades 😊

    It always takes me a moment to separate "kilner" from "klein" in my head.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I brought my storage jars over from Canada, but because they were bought over there (mostly from dollar stores), I probably wouldn't be able to get matching ones here to add to the collection.

    It's been another nice day here, and I have to say I'm enjoying the long, light evenings. I'd forgotten how long it stays light in these latitudes, and I'm not even properly "north"!*

    * To an Orcadian, everywhere except Shetland is "sooth". :smiley:
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    The shops and terraces have reopened today. This is fortunate, because our microwave, which has been temperamental for a while, almost exploded at lunchtime :dizzy: So this afternoon Captain Pyjamas and I went to the electricals shop for a new one. Which was an Adventure™.

    Dinner was pakoras and butter cauliflower (like butter chicken but the aforementioned vegetable replaces the meat). Also homemade naan to soak up the gravy.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Although I'm not the cauliflower's number one fan, that actually sounds rather nice.

    There was a lovely little Indian restaurant in St. John's called International Flavours, which didn't have a menu: you were asked if you wanted your lunch "with or without chicken".

    You'd get a plate piled high with all sorts of veggies, almost always including cauliflower*, bound in a deliciously spiced sauce, with dhal, perfectly-cooked rice and really good chapattis.

    * I always got double portions of cauliflower, as David hated it, even when disguised as a curry, and gave me his share.
  • I do like Indian food. Pakoras, naan and butter cauliflower sounds great to me.

    I spent the day at an online conference then had a long phone call with a student this evening. Tea was chicken fajitas with homemade guacamole and sour cream.
  • MarthaMartha Shipmate
    Mmmm. Dhal is on the menu here tomorrow. My favourite curry to make, because you bung the lentils in a pan and leave them to get on with it, while you faff about chopping the other bits. Rather than having to do all the chopping before you get going.

    For those who store things in jars, what do you do when you've got a little bit left in the jar but you've bought a new packet? Or when 3/4 of the packet fits in the jar and you have the last 1/4 left over? That's why I have never quite got into the jar thing.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Four hour ox cheek adequately tender. Recommended if you want a little meat to go a long way as it is very rich.
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    Today my daughter and I met at a restaurant for lunch. Although there were lots of exciting things on the menu we settled for something mundane. There was enough excitement to be had in being in a restaurant face to face across a table and having a real catch up.
    We would have walked the meal off by the river but the rain came down as we went outside.
    I haven’t been able to settle to anything for the rest of the day.
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    #1 son took the day off and we spent the day sorting out the boat: draining, cleaning and refilling water tank, power washed the guano off the deck, checked rigging, etc, etc. At lunchtime we went to a pub 🍺 and raised a glass to his mother, whose anniversary it was today 🕯
  • Firenze wrote: »
    Four hour ox cheek adequately tender. Recommended if you want a little meat to go a long way as it is very rich.
    I do like ox cheek. Family conversation over dinner a couple of evenings ago was about what we would serve in a restaurant and my winter menu included slow cooked ox cheek.

    Today my youngest has some mock exams, slightly nerve wracking for him as he didn’t have gcse exams last year.
    I need to chase up some students whose end of year assessments are due in. I might do some study later.
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    Another fan if ox cheek here; fantastic in a winter casserole.
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