The Untied Kingdom? - the British thread 2021

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  • .We had both lived in London until our marriage and never needed to drive anywhere so neither of us had driving licenses. When we had the first child we travelled by train with a pushchair and rucksacks to go on holiday. We didn’t get a car until we were expecting our second child, that’s when my husband took lessons. I still don’t drive and learning would not be compatible with my mental health.
  • I don't have a car, although I have a full driving licence, as mostly it's fine without. I don't do a huge monthly shop the way people do with cars, but shop weekly and make sure I don't buy cans of beans at the same time as replacing litres of oil.

    The one thing that has been a major irritant has been hospitals. The hospitals we are automatically referred to are within 2 hours driving, but 3 hours on public transport, sailing past the other two centres providing immunology for my daughter, for example. I had nightmare problems accessing a burns unit and ended up going to the only accessible hospital serving the London area, not the one that serves my area. But having a car would not have helped then as I wasn't safe to drive and according to the Chelsea and Westminster hospital, I'm not the only person who can't access the east of London burns unit at Broomfield (outside Chelmsford). (Or I suspect the south of London unit at Crawley or the North of London unit at Stoke Mandeville.)
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Mr F can't now drive until he gets the all-clear from the hospital. So we are back to lockdown conditions - doorstep delivery for bulk shops, and me going local for anything else (and yes, a backpack is invaluable).

    Ho hum.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    edited May 23
    My son and family have no car, but bike lanes are amazing in Germany and they have a trailer for Anuka. Three buses use their route so they can get a bus into the city easily, the stop is outside their flats. You never have to wait more than ten minutes and the app shows when it’s coming.

    The car share scheme is great too - the nearest two cars are parked 50 yards from their house. They use it for trips to the supermarket, picking us up from the airport etc.

    Things we are missing a car for -
    • Taking the dogs to our favourite reservoirs.
    • Appointments for physio etc (taxi needed)
    • Visiting friends and family

    We are going to Grayson’s art exhibition in Manchester on Thursday and will have to get a taxi to the station as it’s about 45 minutes walk - enough time to get absolutely soaked!

    Here is the exhibition, I’m really looking forward to it - https://tinyurl.com/3xkcx3v8

    I was an avid watcher of the Channel 4 show and now very much enjoying the spin-off Facebook group where we share our art. 🖼

  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    edited May 23
    Another longish weekend here, in Continental WesShire, due to Pentecost Monday off, but the weather's so far been a mixed bag, like it has in much of the past few weeks, and not unlike many of the places other Shippies hail from. Speaking of which: we had a torrential downpour and hailstorm on Wednesday at around 6pm, with hail stones of perhaps up to half an inch in diametre! Apparently the storm front was on the move for quite a few dozens of miles, so clearly not just a local phenomenon. I am not aware of any big damage, but it was impressive to still see some amassed hailstones two hours after it had happened!

    The current rain helps with the hay fever, and so not all's bad, and the constant storm-induced changes of light and lack of light and downpours make for very interesting and spectacular cloud sceneries! I love it!

    At the lower secondary education place, we are planning our first school outing since early 2020 for the day after Corpus Christi - itself off here too in some areas -, but limited to just 2 classes per group; a hike and then a sausage-sizzling fire might be called for, but we'll only go when the weather's ok.

    I'm spending another weekend tidying and cleaning and ironing, and am doing some marking as well, and Zoom kirk later. It's still rather windy and cool, so outdoor ventures need some planning clotheswise.

    Have a truly inspirational Pentecost Sunday, all! :)
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Remind me to never again make anything with the instruction 'rub the onion and tomato mixture through a sieve'. I wonder, if I hadn't been using a 50 year old cookbook, it wouldn't have done just as well in a liquidiser.
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited May 23
    Boogie wrote: »
    My son and family have no car, but bike lanes are amazing in Germany and they have a trailer for Anuka.
    We’re really lucky as we live next to the Cambridge guided busway which has a separate dedicated wide cycle path between our village and the city which everyone uses. Cycling is very much the norm in Cambridge and there are cycle paths on most main roads. We had a bicycle trailer for our boys when they were toddlers and there are a huge variety of bicycles sold in the city with trailers built into the framework itself. This is probably helped by the large number of European families here as there are a lot of Dutch bikes sold. I have a tricycle as I never learnt to ride a bike as a child and that is considered normal here.
    I’m jealous of you going to the Grayson exhibition, that must be great.

  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    To me, the biggest bummer about being carless is supermarket shopping: like Curiosity, I have to balance what I want to buy against what I can physically carry home. Flour or tins of tomatoes? Apples and potatoes or WINE?

    My lunch with (some of) the family was delightful: Rosie is one of the cutest, smiliest babies I've ever met, and she was on sparkling form. :heart: For those who are interested, I had eggs Benedict (OK but nothing to write home about - where there should have been ham, there was streaky bacon :flushed: ), followed by tiramisu (v. good).

    It did, however, interfere with my plans for the aforementioned grocery shopping - I could have done with an amble to Tessie's to get in a few bits and bobs, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

    I'm now waiting while the bread-machine does its thing, and if I'm hungry by the time it's ready, I might have some bread and CHEESE for supper.
  • MarthaMartha Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    Remind me to never again make anything with the instruction 'rub the onion and tomato mixture through a sieve'. I wonder, if I hadn't been using a 50 year old cookbook, it wouldn't have done just as well in a liquidiser.

    Oh definitely. Never rub anything through a sieve!

    Yesterday we measured our offspring and were astonished to find that the oldest is well over the legal height for traveling without a booster seat, and the youngest only requires a backless booster. Surely it wasn't that long since our biggest one was a tiny blob who was barely big enough to go in a baby car seat?!
  • Martha, we are getting used to our eldest only coming home for odd weeks during the holidays from uni, as he is in a private house not halls. So he won’t be home for the summer this year for the first time (he was home during lockdown 1). It feels like he has really left home.

    Before lockdown, I used to do the weekly shopping for a family of four without a car. I used to shop once a week walking to Waitrose with a shopping trolley and supplement it with a veg box delivery. Occasionally I would do an extra trip for bulky items like loo roll.
    At the moment we are doing a big shop every 3-4 weeks using the car (my health means a weekly shop with a trolley is no longer feasible) alongside a meat and veg delivery. But now it’s getting to the end of term I might start doing a couple of walks to Waitrose again.
  • CathscatsCathscats Shipmate
    My son (the Giraffe) finally yesterday was able to retrieve his belongings from his university room, where he left them at the end of November. At that time he thought he would be back in January. Now, just as I am trying to pack the house for a move in less than a month, there is all this extra stuff needing a home....
  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    Piglet wrote: »
    * I have the patience (just) and skill (sort of) to do small sewing tasks like trouser hems, but the culottes were considerably wider, and as they were quite expensive, I didn't want to risk making a bollocks of it.

    I thought culottes were baggy enough that bollocks didn't show in them?

  • Dinner was cooked by Mr HA and was venison chunks cooked sous vide for 3 hours and then flash fried with garlic pepper. This was accompanied by air fried potato and fried onions and greens.
    (Mr HA is an inventer. He has put a temperature controller on the slow cooker and become addicted to sous vide cooking. I must admit his poached eggs are quite amazing but take 45 minutes to cook which is surreal).
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    That all went well. Guests cleared plates, drank wines, loved cheeseboard, made appreciative noises.

    But Duw I'm tired. Not just the work involved in rustling up sixteen plates of food, but the reaction to the drama on Friday has hit.
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    That all went well. Guests cleared plates, drank wines, loved cheeseboard, made appreciative noises.

    But Duw I'm tired. Not just the work involved in rustling up sixteen plates of food, but the reaction to the drama on Friday has hit.

    That sounds great, dinner with The Sixteen! :)
  • NenyaNenya Shipmate
    Definitely rest today @Firenze .

    *Googles sous vide* - I'd never heard of it before.

    @Martha - before you know it those little ones will be driving the cars themselves. :wink:
  • @Nenya - you obviously don't watch Masterchef in any of its forms!

    Hope you get a restful day to recover @Firenze
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    Sous vide = posh version of boil-in-the-bag.
  • Sous vide = posh version of boil-in-the-bag.

    Definitely! I admit his steaks are delicious and tender but it all seems quite clinical to me.
  • Definitely! I admit his steaks are delicious and tender but it all seems quite clinical to me.
    You mean instead of dashing about swearing in French and scattering a soupçon of this and that over the floor, it looks boring and scientific, and just tastes good? I struggle to see that as a bad thing.
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited May 24
    That article expresses how I feel about it. I really enjoy the experience of cooking and sous vide removes that. Obviously you can still do all the intensive bits to accompany a piece of meat but it still doesn't feel right. My husband loves the perfection of it. I do like the poached eggs, though, they are amazingly fragile looking and translucent.
    (our system isn't expensive - we just put a controller on our slow cooker when we want to convert it and we used ordinary sealable bags not vacuum ones)
  • ThomasinaThomasina Shipmate
    @Heavenlyannie I do like the poached eggs, though, they are amazingly fragile looking and translucent.

    Do you mean the whites are all wobbly and uncooked??? :confused:
  • I have a book somewhere called "cooking for geeks" that talks about the various processes in cooking eggs (amongst other things). It was quite an enjoyable read.
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited May 24
    Thomasina wrote: »
    @Heavenlyannie I do like the poached eggs, though, they are amazingly fragile looking and translucent.
    Do you mean the whites are all wobbly and uncooked??? :confused:
    They are formed like a poached egg but only just cooked, so they are semi-opaque (like a lightly boiled white but softer, rather than translucent) and in a way that is impossible with ordinary cooking. The lightest poached eggs imaginable but not uncooked, in fact the softness is very even throughout. Difficult to explain, lol.
    Like the lighter one in the photo here https://www.savoringthegood.com/sous-vide-eggs/
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited May 24
    Hmm - it's the burnt crinkly bits on things I like. Fried eggs where the bottoms have gone all hard... always want the end pieces on a roast. Juicy can take a hike up against charred.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Glad to hear the dinner party went well, Firenze - you absolutely deserve a rest after a weekend like that!

    I reckon today was probably the busiest I've had since I started my job; I came in expecting to be scrabbling about looking for something to do, but it seemed every time I started to do something, the phone would go like a Christmas tree.

    It wasn't helped by the fact that I'd decided to try my National Health hearing aids (which arrived last week). I used them yesterday when I was out with the family, and they seemed to work well for conversation, but they were a bit rubbish for using the phone. My boss suggested (half jokingly) that I could use a posh one in my phone ear (left) and an NHS one in my right, and I might give that a go, although I'll probably take the posh right one with me, just in case.

    Deciding that I couldn't be bothered to cook, supper was a total cheat. I bought a couple of ready-cooked chicken legs and a couple of salads (one with kale, avocado and some rather virtuous-looking grains, the other with orzo and sun-dried tomatoes) and it was all really rather good. I can't afford to live on that sort of thing the way my sister does, but it did make a nice change - and I'll freeze the other chicken leg for another time.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Do you have to position the handset of your phone behind your ear for the NHS aid to work @Piglet ? I was shown that, but never got on with it. When my hearing was less bad I'd just take my aid out and things were usually OK. Now my hearing is much worse, specially in my left 'phone' ear I just bung my mobile on speaker.
    Today is moving day. The dining table is dismantled so I had to eat my breakfast on my lap. Loads more to do before the van arrives, so I'd better get on. We do have a lovely new (to us) mint green Fiat 500 to take us to our new town, a hotel room for the night and a meal booked in a rather good Keralan restaurant. Our furniture will arrive tomorrow and by then we hope to know how long it'll be till probate is through and we can join it in our new house.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    All the best for the move @Sarasa!

    🕯
  • MMMMMM Shipmate
    Yes, good luck, Sarasa!

    My old man said follow the van......

    MMM



  • good luck Sarasa!
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    We're in a Travel Lodge in our new town and have a few minutes of free wifi time so here I am. The moves going well so far, but not in to new place for a few days yet. The saddest thing is I had to leave my lovely acer that was a fortieth birthday present quite a few years ago now. The flipping thing had firmly rooted itself in the ground even though it was supposed to be in a pot.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Adding my good wishes for your move, Sarasa, and health to drive your new car!

    Re the hearing aid, ISTM that the distortion with the NHS ones is quite different from the distortion in the posh ones, but the problem with phoning was that the sound of the person on the other end was just so quiet I could barely hear it, even with the volume up at 11 (or whatever). It didn't make any difference what angle I held the phone either, so I thought sod it and went back to the posh ones today.

    I think supper is going to be an omelette of some sort, as I have Things That Need Using.
  • Piglet wrote: »
    I reckon today was probably the busiest I've had since I started my job; I came in expecting to be scrabbling about looking for something to do, but it seemed every time I started to do something, the phone would go like a Christmas tree.
    I am trying to visualise your Christmas tree...
  • bassobasso Shipmate
    We didn’t get a car until we were expecting our second child, that’s when my husband took lessons.
    After they moved to California, my mother drove without a license for a long time. A the time, the driving exam included parallel parking, and she wasn't about to embarrass herself with that. But she was a mother with three kids, so drive it was.
    She finally got a ticket. She went to court and fought it. She drew diagrams and everything. She explained exactly why the ticket was unjust, and she won.
    She was about to make her escape when the clerk reminded the judge about the no license charge. The judge looked at her and said, "Get a license, Mrs. M."
    She did. I don't recall hearing about her driving test.
  • kingsfoldkingsfold Shipmate
    edited May 26
    Piglet wrote: »
    I reckon today was probably the busiest I've had since I started my job; I came in expecting to be scrabbling about looking for something to do, but it seemed every time I started to do something, the phone would go like a Christmas tree.
    I am trying to visualise your Christmas tree...

    If @Piglet's work phone is anything like mine, it has a screen at the top with four little translucent lights around it. There are also another four keys elsewhere that can light up.

    Consequently, when the phone rings, you also get a light display....
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Our new car is going to parallel park ITSELF!

    Mr Boogs is skeptical, I can’t wait!

    I shall walk to physio this afternoon but get a taxi back - I doubt I will feel like walking back as it’s about half an hour.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    Just back from moving the furniture into our new house. I hadn't seen it in real life and it was exactly what I hoped it would be Husband, who had, was surprised the rooms were bigger than he thought. I'd kept on telling him that according to the estate agents details they were a really good size.
    We both had a really bad night's sleep last night and our body clocks are totally out of synch. I think I need an early lunch and an afternoon nap, but husband is trying to sort out a keep fit video on the hotel's TV for us to do.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    Captain Pyjamas is once again the snottiest little boy in Snottyland. I didn't take him to the nursery today because I didn't want to inflict his snotty nose on them. That said, I'm fairly sure the nursery is where he caught the cold in the first place.

    I have a slightly scratchy throat but I refuse to succumb. If I can't have a Covid vaccine on Friday I shall be extremely annoyed. It's verging on a miracle that I got an appointment so early. As far as I can tell, you can have the jab if you have a runny nose. You can't have it if you have a fever.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Poor Captain P! Snotty noses do tend to emanate from nurseries and such places - think of it as building up his immunity (and maybe yours as well).
    I had a slightly truncated work day today; the team had a meeting in the afternoon at the South Queensferry office, which was also attended by the two team members who are currently on maternity leave, plus their v. small, v. cute (and in one case v. noisy) offspring (both babies are almost four months old).

    We were finished just after three o'clock, and one of the girls dropped me off at the nearest station, so I was home before five, by which time it had turned into a really nice evening (and according to the Met Office, it's going to get even nicer towards the end of the week - not before time!).

    Supper was a risotto with bacon and green veggies, and was rather good.
  • The weather was near perfect for Little Miss Feet's (5th) birthday, and nothing a large windbreak couldn't cure. We were able to have 8 of her friends in the garden for a party in brilliant sunshine and A Good Time Was Had By All.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    I have my MRI scan results now. The good news is that it’s not cancer. The bad news is that I have severe degeneration of the bones, stenosis of several cervical nerves and several bony spurs in the cervical (neck) spine.

    Now I need to decide whether to ask for a referral to a neurosurgeon or just continue physio to try to manage the symptoms.

    🤔🧐
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Shipmate
    ((Boogie))
  • HelixHelix Shipmate
    That sounds painful Boogie and whilst I am pleased that it is not cancer, I'm sorry for the diagnosis. I truly hope you can find ways to manage the symptoms effectively and easily. And they don't curtail your activities too much.
  • I’m sorry to hear that Boogie, I hope you can get the right treatment for your symptoms soon.

    A quiet day here as my students submit final assignments tomorrow. I had an exam marking meeting but little else to do.
    Tea was udon noodle soup with sticky fish, cabbage and a lightly boiled egg.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Should you wish to cheer up salmon, putting it in a foil parcel with ginger, kecap manis and lime juice works a treat.

    Every sympathy @Boogie . Back and neck pain seems to be one of the joys of later life. In my case it seems to be mainly muscular (I think). I hope you can find a therapy that helps.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Echoing what everyone else said, Boogie!

    Firenze, how's Mr F doing?
  • What Piglet just said!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Thanks for asking. PMs sent.
  • Boogie wrote: »
    I have my MRI scan results now. The good news is that it’s not cancer. The bad news is that I have severe degeneration of the bones, stenosis of several cervical nerves and several bony spurs in the cervical (neck) spine.

    Now I need to decide whether to ask for a referral to a neurosurgeon or just continue physio to try to manage the symptoms.

    🤔🧐
    Sorry to hear this Boogie - that's not brilliant, I've worked with someone with something similar and know how much pain she was in :cry: Does that mean no more puppies?

    @Firenze I would love to have an excuse to cheer up salmon, but the permanent house guest refuses to eat it, and is spectacularly allergic to prawns - she's had to use her Epipen when someone was eating a prawn sandwich in the same tube carriage. I probably ought to test how bad that allergy is now, but it needs to be a prawn sandwich out somewhere, no breaking out the frozen prawns to cook.

    Hope Mr F is doing better.
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