AS: Cool Britannia (sort of): the British thread 2019

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  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    And as a spin-off I’ve just made 4 chocolate mousses with the whites left over from the flan de naranja.
  • Yes, yes....all right! No need to rub it in!
    :wink:

    Mince n' tatties sounds good, anyway. Lots of GRAVY, I hope?
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Actually I think it may end up being Kashmiri Meatballs as I have quite a bit of natural yoghurt on hand.
  • I recommend SOAP to remove it from your hand......

    .....O, I see.

    I'll get me coat.
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    Wow. Good job L*nt is over!
    :grin:
    To be frank, and reading this thread, one might wonder if anyone has bothered this year! :D
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    edited April 2019
    [...] I'll get me coat.
    Wot, has it gone cold again?

    It will now over here, in Continental WesShire, after many a day of way over 20° C temperatures; finally, some much-needed rain and coolishness for the next few days, max 13° to 15° C daytime. Nice. :)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    13° to 15° sounds lovely, Wesley - it's currently 6° here, although the sun is making valiant attempts at shining.

    Firenze, that sounds like a serious feast! Not that there's anything wrong with mince and tatties - it was my favourite thing when I was a little piglet, and when done nicely, is a dish fit for a king.

    I've been moderately busy today, but in a fairly enjoyable way: I coloured my hair and repainted my nails, relocated a button on a pair of D's pyjamas that were always a bit loose, and had got beyond a joke since he's lost some weight* and then we had the SOUP** I made last night for lunch.

    *I wish I knew his secret ...

    ** Bacon, lentil and tomato, since you ask
  • Definitely a little cooler today, most noticeable yesterday and today were the sporadic storms. Very short, tiny bits of rain, then gone, then back again. Bonkers. I was sat outside in a deckchair with my laptop and an umbrella.

    Leftovers today at Casa Arachnid as Mum and I are both lurgyfied but we did extend to a chocolate mousse egg for pudding as the corner shop was selling Easter stuff half price.
  • Beautiful morning here in lower mountains, but winter is poking its head out. Yesterday was a lovely day. Wind developing here however and strengthening through the day and a cold night ahead, down to around 6. Wind will be bringing up cold air from snow forecast for Rowen’s way. There was snow the other day in WA which I did not know happened. Earliest snow there ever.

    We face several weeks of tradesmen and work. More plumbing today and a roofer will be fixing loose tiles and ridgecapping. Kitchen ceiling is coming down after flood some weeks ago from sub standard repairs before we bought. New ceiling to go up and new lighting installed in kitchen. And more over about a month including doubling of solar panels on roof and refurbishing hot water service. Tradies here do good job and clean up well after themselves. We were fortunate to discover a big boss plumber who does good work and who can recommend other tradies for various jobs. They all do a good job for him.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Good tradesmen are worth their weight in gold, aren't they?
  • Definitely. Am happy to employ locals if they are well recommended as the money then goes into locality.
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    Sounds like our big boss plumber, the first tradesman we used when we moved here. He found creative solutions to problems and recommended other trades too. He was our first friend. The sight of his cheerful smile cheered me up when things were hard. Sadly he died suddenly, at no age,
    What really annoys me is tradesman who don’t turn up when they say they will, or come to look at a job then don’t quote. I just wish they would say if they don’t want the work.
  • BoogieBoogie Shipmate
    Pilates today. I really enjoy it and it makes a change from dog related activities.

    Sunny day - should be gardening really :)
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    I've just come back from my favourite Pilates class, one I can't usually do as Friday mornings are when my writing class meets. However it's not back from the Easter break until next week. Having done Pilates yesterday as well I now feel well and truly stretched. I might even be developing a core. Mind you the whole thing will probably be undone this evening. We're off to try an new Indian restaurant that sounds good.
  • I’ve spent 4 hours marking. I’m now taking a well deserved break before doing some writing and preparing for tomorrow morning’s tutorial.
    Cheese omelette for lunch.
  • A 'small English breakfast' for lunch, at Community Centre café near Our Place, with 50p refunded from the already modest price, on account of them having run out of MUSHROOMS.....so that's one of my 5-a-day scuppered.

    I shall have to eat some CHOCOLATE* instead. :naughty:

    Back at the Episcopal Ark, battening-down of hatches has commenced, prior to the arrival of Storm Hannah. I see that gusts of up to 95mph are expected in the west of Ireland (County Clare), but that's not really News in that part of the world.....

    (*made of Beans, which are Vegetables)
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited April 2019
    Presumably - and unlike the rest of us - you really do have hatches in your abode, though I doubt if they will actually be battened down!
  • Well, one of them (that over the focsle - forecastle - front bit) is duly covered!

    On account of that's the bit that occasionally (under Dire Circumstances) LEAKS.
    :rage:
  • Yesterday was a trip for my daughter to see the allergy department in a renown hospital. The previous 5 appointments have been timed just after she's dosed with one of her 4 x daily antihistamines* so in her semi-functioning window and we have been met a certain amount of not terribly well concealed disbelief. Yesterday the appointment was in the last hour before her midday dose, when she looked and felt crap; magically, suddenly, there was belief and offers for letters to her PhD department, 6 months too late. There is a certain irony in not being able to get a word in edgeways to be able to tell the consultant that the reason we haven't been able to tell him certain things is that we can't get a word in edgeways. And finally blood tests to check on how she's coping with weaning from one of the steroids she's taking, prednisolone - it's supposed to be done regularly as there are all sorts of risks - and none have been taken since June and then September.

    To be honest, there's also a bit of annoyance as if some of this lot hadn't happened we had a good case for a formal complaint and a request to move hospitals. We'd be more positive about this whole experience if
    • the consultant would read and accept the previous consultant's findings,
    • we hadn't seen 5 different people in 6 appointments - mostly the next person on rotation,
    • the consultant is not going to treat the underlying condition until she's fully weaned from prednisolone, and that's going to take until the end of August at the present rate, and
    • it wasn't a 3 hour trip each way on a good day.

    Yesterday's trip home took 4 hours as there was a partial closure and severe delays on our tube line due to a broken down train, and all the advice was to take different routes around. So rather than come into Kings Cross we disembarked at Finsbury Park. Knowing from commuting how the shuttles work to run sections of that line†, I wanted no part of the suggested work around so we took a different route, which was pleasant in that it wasn't overcrowded, and at that time of day the rush hour was starting, but was still slow.

    * each dose is the usual daily dose, so she's on quadruple quantities.
    † there are a limited number of stations with four platforms which are used as one end of a shuttle out to the usual terminals. The suggested route around was two stations further into town from one of those shuttle points and the platform for this line is known to be dangerous when it gets overcrowded, so there was no way I was choosing to wait on that platform with a sick kid, bad enough on my own commuting. If took the Victoria line further out we could get a bus to four stops from home, where the shuttle would be running.
  • That all sounds like a complete nightmare, Curiosity killed. I hope that you get some improvement in their attitude/ treatment.

    I shall have to eat some CHOCOLATE* instead. :naughty:

    (*made of Beans, which are Vegetables)

    You’ve forgetting about the sugar, which is also a vegetable having come from cane (a form of grass) or beet (a root veg).
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited April 2019
    O indeed - you are Quite Right.

    Sugar is yet another proof that God loves us, and that She wants us to be happy.

    But - @Curiosity killed - Deep Sympathies, as I know IME how traumatic important trips to distant hospitals can be.

    The sheer HASSLE of getting to and from is not exactly conducive to well-being, but, alas, it seems it can't be avoided, if Centres of Excellence are to be maintained, and accessed. I'm fortunate, in that all three stations I need with which to get to King's College Hospital, have lifts. A one-stop bus ride at the London end is still needed, but hey - I get that for free, being an Old Disabled Person.....

    {{CK's daughter}}, if I may be so presumptuous.
  • The other irritation is the number of perfectly good hospitals with immunology departments we pass to get to this one.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I was reflecting this morning on the Joy of Public Transport. In the space of a little over two hours we were able to bus about a mile into town, do several errands, have a coffee, bus from the Southside to the New Town, scout half a dozen galleries in Dundas St, bus back up The Mound. Leap off at the National Library and 3 minutes later pick up another bus which took us home.

    And all for free.
  • Yes indeed - providing you are in a Civilised Country (Scotland?) where public transport - at least in the big cities - is still of paramount importance.

    Try going anywhere here by bus after 5 o'clock...... :grimace:
  • Or a car fire at Waterworks Corner, which caused some delays yesterday. The remains were still there when we came past and were adding to the route times.
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited April 2019
    Well, there's always something....the semi-urban village where I live has just one road in-and-out. It is at present being Dug Up for new Gas Mains, so we have temporary lights, single-file traffic etc., but the road is so narrow, anyway, that buses and vans have a job to get through at any time.

    I reckon on it taking me 40 minutes to drive to Our Place for service, rather than the usual 15 minutes.....but at least I know that's the case, at least for a time!
  • I've obviously been very fortunate with hospital appointments - Darllenwr uses our car to get to work, and Lord P isn't always available, so I use the non-emergency patient transport service. This is particularly useful if I have an appointment at the Royal Gwent in Newport, which has really lousy parking.
  • One of our problems is that we're on the edge of our hospital trust area, and to access any of the specialist hospitals have to go into London, past any number of perfectly acceptable hospital trusts that offer the same resources, and then back out again. Driving wouldn't be a lot better as this hospital is in the park and ride area of the city and you have to get to a car park and then bus to the hospital.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    Ouch. That sounds miserable. :anguished:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    That does sound miserable - prayers ascending for you and the Kitten.

    It's been quite a nice day here - and at 10° decently warm. We're still bracing ourselves though - the forecast for tomorrow includes rather a lot of H2O.

    Lunch today was at a Swiss Chalet, where we did the two-dining-for-$15.99 thing. It's not haute cuisine, and you don't have any real choice - it's quarter-chicken or nothing - but it was good value and filled a gap.

    I've got a lamb shank defrosting for Sunday's lunch - it'll go into the slow-cooker tomorrow night.
  • The food served by said establishment, tasty I'm sure, doesn't look - ahem - very Swiss, does it!
  • Lol!
    I once ordered a history book from a secondhand seller who’s inventory had obviously got confused - I got sent a 1980s book on Swedish cookery. It all looked very hearty.
    I’m teaching in an online room all morning, which is very tiring and hard on the voice, so am looking forward to a good walk and a long rest this afternoon.
  • SarasaSarasa Shipmate
    I think we may have found an Indian restaurant round here that equals the ones we used to go to when we lived in another part of London. I'd made a mistake with the bus we caught as it only went near the restaurant during school hours. When we realised that we had a nearly two mile walk to get back to it. I was wearing going out shoes, but we managed to walk briskly and got there in time. Good thing we set off early, and I guess the walk offset the food!
    My husband is away visiting his mother today so I intend to have a very lazy day.
  • The food served by said establishment, tasty I'm sure, doesn't look - ahem - very Swiss, does it!

    I always imagine Swiss food to have holes in it, like the CHEESE.....

    I'll get me Lederhosen and Alpenstock.

  • Lederhosen are more Bavarian and Austrian than Swiss, although I'm sure they are/were worn in German-speaking areas. I often wore them as a boy and rather liked them.
  • Storm Hannah is here, battering her merry way across our bit of the north!
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    Clearly a good time to indulge in a nice hot beverage and some biscuits. If none available, well, here's the latest from Radio 4's always interesting 'Word of Mouth' programme, with Michael Rosen, and very much biscuit-themed it is, too!
  • I’ve moved on from cups of tea and am now partaking of a Hopping Hare whilst watching Mary Beard talk about Caesar on iPlayer.
  • We just had a half-hour power cut!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    After a lazy morning, D. did a fry for lunch, and then we braved the rain to go into town as he had a meeting with a bride and groom for an upcoming wedding. I did a spot of unsuccessful retail therapy in the rather posh shop across from the Cathedral, and then we did some sorting in the choir library. Am about to reward myself with a glass of WINE and some bread and charcuterie - we bought what looks like an interesting selection of four pâtés in Costco yesterday, and I'm looking forward to trying them out.
  • Lovely morning at church, there were 6 adult baptisms over the 2 services ( I go to the second morning service where a 18 year old member of the youth group and 2 twenty somethings were baptised) and we had a really good guest speaker talking about being ambassadors for Christ. A lazy afternoon watching Blackadder the second and we’re about to have a roast beef dinner.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Today I discovered that you can't really bake a swede the way you can a potato. I got a few swedes from Asda, when they were giving them away free on Easter Monday to stop them being wasted - they had crate-loads of them with a sign to help yourself. I usually mash swede or make swede chips, but I thought I'd try baking half of one like a potato. It was ages in the oven and still quite hard. Next time I will try the singing swede in my microwave.
  • I had a day off :grin:

    Drove to see old friends straight after the 8am service: lovely lunch, long walk, and now we're about to see some more people for dinner. I'll drive home tomorrow feeling refreshed.
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    Talking of seeing old friends, in a couple of days I am going on a short trip back to where I used to live and work ten years ago and am finding it really hard to make contact with people I hope to see. Even though we have kept up with Christmas cards, or occasional meet ups, most of them are either not on email or don’t check it regularly( let alone F—b--k.) I have a few phone numbers but find it daunting to ring people out of the blue.
  • fineline wrote: »
    Next time I will try the singing swede in my microwave.

    I'm sure I'm not the only one picturing all sorts of silly images for that one! (Especially since we Yanks call the vegetable type of Swede a rutabaga.) Jenny Lind, perhaps?
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Swede - or neep as they say in Scotland - boil/microwave until soft, mash, turn in the pan with fried onions.

    Improves even more if served with mashed potatoes and haggis.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    Yes, I love a bit of haggis, neeps and tatties. I was just trying something different today, thinking I could bake a swede like a baked potato. Won't be trying that again.
  • Dad used to wrap separately in foil, along with other root vegetables and bake in ashes of his BBQ fire. Cooked a long time, they were delicious.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    It would never have occurred to me to bake a neep the way you would a potato - as Firenze says, mashed with tatties (clapshot) and haggis (or sausages at a pinch) is the best use for neeps.

    * * * * *

    The first of the pâtés in the package was a bit of a disaster (see my post in Today I Consign to Hell): it was labelled "roast garlic and jalapeño" and while it smelled wonderfully garlicky, the little green bits of jalapeño set me on fire. Hopefully the others in the pack will be nicer.

    The lamb shank, on the other hand, wasn't at all disastrous: I did it with tomatoes, chickpeas and Moroccan-inspired spices with D's mashed potatoes to go with it (thank you @Lothlorien for the idea; see recipe thread upstairs) and it was really nice - and there are leftovers! :smiley:

  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited April 2019
    Moroccan lamb shank sounds delicious, as does haggis, neeps and tatties. I’ve got the feeling for something garlicky today, I might do a twist on my childhood basic of Lancashire hot pot, with garlic, herbs and cream (definitely not how my mother made it!).
    I should be working but am relaxing with a cup of tea first. I think I’m slightly demob happy as there’s only a month to go on my modules. Lots of marking this week (families and government policy) and a little teaching too.
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