***** This thread is now closed, please CLICK HERE to go to Volume 2 *****
Flooding: Two escape flooded Porsche
"They got stuck in a Ford"
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20797453
Impressive wipers on the Porche. :-)
The depth marker shows FOUR FEET. Specsavers ??? or Darwin was right
Last edited by: VxFan on Sat 29 Dec 12 at 14:52
|
Well, she was very easy on the eye but I think a little prone to ' bigging it up ' !
She said the water was a foot deep on the car park and then that car went past with water not even up to the wheel rim.
Ted
|
|
Are the people who drive into water the same ones that blindly follow satnav instructions ?
|
>> Are the people who drive into water the same ones that blindly follow satnav instructions
>> ?
>>
Probably, Old Navy.
Or the same muppets we used to haul of beaches every December holiday in the landy - they had some really good 4x4s, but no hi-lift jacks, shovels, sandladders, footpumps etc.
they head for the coast, and hit the beaches - 'hey, we've got a 4x4!' and last until the first dodgy patch, where the inevitable rev the nuts off, and bury themselves axle-deep.
I recall one set of goons who we 'assisted' - ie lent them all the kit, and showed them what to do. While we stood by drinking beer, issuing instructions.
"Aren't you going to help??" asked one miffed chap ... to which the reply was along the lines of 'We ARE helping, by lending you our gear and knowledge."
I must admit, I felt a tad guilty afterwards as they worked up an even bigger sweat pumping their tyres up on the 'hard' road surface we'd escorted them to - especially as we had a mini-compressor on the landy.
But as my mate said 'they have to learn the hard way'
|
|
There's more surface water round here than I have seen for quite a few years. Nearby wetlands largely flooded along with contiguous cattle pastures. Small stream - more of a deep ditch really - that passes below the house has changed from its usual quiet trickle to a potentially nipper-drowning muddy torrent. This is the answer to those who wonder why the ditch is so deep and the footbridges over it so high. It can't get anywhere near the house without becoming a biblical flood, but I have a feeling that there will be some fords at low points on the nearest road. In the past water has even covered bits of the A29 just south of Pulborough, although traffic could still pass with due caution.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 20 Dec 12 at 15:11
|
I have never seen the UK lit up like a Christmas tree before :-
www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/142151.aspx
|
|
The ground and aquifers are soaked, they can take no more, any new rain is straight into where it can drain to in seconds. The roads have more sudden cross washes than I have ever known.
|
|
We had more flooding in the summer - the local rainfall is high but not exceptional. (Cheshire Gap/Staffs Moorlands)
|
There's a deep ditch that runs along parallel with one of the roads near the office for a mile or so. I would estimate that the ditch is approximately four feet deep by about six wide. Water is not normally visible in it.
The past couple of days it has been full of water and spilling over on to the road. Yesterday there was about six inches of standing water over a hundred yards or so. Not seen that in the 18 months I've been driving this road, even through the soggy summer.
|
Have you noticed on that film clip that
a, It looks like a TT mostly submerged and
b, the windscreen wipers are still working!! (about 1.30mins in)
P
|
Water was lapping at the edge of the A29 this afternoon, although it has gone down in other places. The river Arun was very high. There were dangerous pools of standing water, some blocked drains, on the way to London just after dark yesterday, and it was still belting down. On the way back in the small hours it wasn't raining, some of the pools had dispersed and anyway the mimsers and most other people had gone to bed, so one could drive further out than usual. A few small mean fog patches but nothing really scary (sudden dense unexpected fog when going like the clappers on a twisty bit I mean).
Clipped a kerb - no damage Alhamdulillah! - on the way into a roundabout and damn near clipped another on a London urban-freeway roundabout, and did something else stupid as well, can't remember what but something. Tension, distraction, are a driver's worst enemies. I hate making mistakes like that and they worry me.
|
Quite bad on the back road from here to Pineham/A43 yesterday - standing water over the road and difficult to discern in the dark. PAtches on M1/M25 as well.
Northern France is just as soaked. Absolute 'mare last night in driving rain and rush hour traffic, difficult sight lines in RHD car and headlights reduced by beam adapters. Coped with each of those conditions before but not all at once.
Out and about there are lakes in fields and warnings of 'innondation' on the D road from Boulogne to Le Touquet. Though Le Touqet itself was bathed in sunshine this morning.
|
|
I love that place Brompie.
|
It's very sodden here on the edge of CharenteLimousin as well. More standing water and overtopped rivers and streams than I've ever seen. Our village has a multiple lake system all down one side of the Monts de Blond and in the near silence of late last evening, when I was walking our neighbour's dog which is boarding with us, the noise of the water roaring down the spillways in the middle distance was remarkable. Like thundering traffic.
This business of misjudging water depth used to be a problem for the locals in my part of rural West Somerset years ago. They could never figure why they got stuck when the water only ever came halfway up the ducks...
|
>> I love that place Brompie.
We've always found it pleasant and entertaining whatever the season. Cold and fresh yesterday and just a few dogs and their walkers on the beach. But obviously prosperous, cafe's and restaurants openinig up in mid mornnig, setting the luch tables and chalking the plat du jour on pavement blackboards.
Compare and contrast with Boulogne though. Different vistor profile but twenty years ago it was thriving and thronging with visitors. Unfortunately nearly all of them were day trippers off the ferry. Many closed/boarded premises and plenty others shuttered out of season.
The Brasserie Albert, once a busy lively eatery with excellent fish dishes, closed several years ago and lies derelict in spite of the premises being, in past times, a prime location.
We found a nice cafe/tabac in the old town for a mid afternoon presion but ducked the town at night and ate in the Courtepaille near our hotel. Fast food but in a real French style.
|
|
I stayed there in 2010 - they allowed me to park the bike in the garden of the Hotel - a very pleasant promenade walk and across the dunes - I dined in a little fast food restaurant watching the Tour de France on a telly and sipping draught Leffe and a nice chat with the owner. Had one of the memorable rides of my life the next day - mixing it with Le Mans traffic on the Autoroute which is very scenic toward Boulonge. Enjoyed. I have some snaps somewhere on this hard-drive may post them on another thread shortly.
Last edited by: R.P. on Sun 23 Dec 12 at 07:30
|
Err, flooding, bit of flooding in Cornwall, well, quite a bit as it happens :(
Bearing in mind that we only have one neighbour, Betty, who is 73 and lives on here own.
I spoke to her yesterday and she was telling me that she was going to spend Christmas with her daughter for the first time in 17 years.
I heard all the rain in the early hours of this morning as I sleep with the window open so I later went for a mooch to check out what the local area was like as regards to damage.
I looked up Betty's driveway to see all her carpets outside :(
I went in and she was in tears poor soul - 40 years she's lived there and it's the first time that has happened.
I've taken a load of photos so the place can be cleaned up now - her sister and son are with her.
This is a very rural area so no-one can blame the concreting over of the UK, it's all down to the shear amount of rain we've had this year - the ground just can't take any more!
|
Flooding should be banned.
Just trying to fit in. Don't scold me.
:-)
|
Have another Scotch egg, Humph.
:-))
|
I wonder if this could possibly qualify as the today's most blatant thread drift?
But...My favourite meal is two hot oven baked Scotch eggs, a slice of cold Grosvenor pie ( sort of square pork pie with an egg in ) with salad, coleslaw and proper ( not oven ) chips. Beetroot and salad cream naturally. Who really likes mayonnaise anyway? No one I know does. Tasteless French muck. Oh and a bit of grated raw carrot.
I may now have to venture out into the raging storm ( well, rain ) and buy said ingredients.
Sorry Henry !
There is a big puddle in our Sainsburys car park if that helps to drag things back to topic?
:-)
|
>> I wonder if this could possibly qualify as the today's most blatant thread drift?
Who cares, I'll go with it...
>> But...My favourite meal is two hot oven baked Scotch eggs, a slice of cold Grosvenor
>> pie ( sort of square pork pie with an egg in ) with salad, coleslaw
>> and proper ( not oven ) chips. Beetroot and salad cream naturally.
Very good, although I prefer the scotch eggs cold.
Right now though I would sell my soul for an evening of over indulgence with 6X and a kebab to finish.
And a Crabbies Ginger Beer with a triple Vodka in it. (Don't knock it unless you've tried it).
|
I used to have a pair of hollow ski poles with corks in the top, very often they would be filled with Whisky Mac (equal measures of whisky and ginger wine)
Even made skiing in Scotland tolerable.
Rains there a lot too. ( topic rescue attempt )
|
>>I used to have a pair of hollow ski poles with corks in the top
Quite clearly a man to be admired. (And emulated where possible).
I'll counter with the potentially life saving jelly made with vodka for parents at childrens' parties.
|
>> Crabbies Ginger Beer with a triple Vodka in it.
Crabbie's isn't ginger beer FMR, it's ginger wine - even the best ginger beer has less than 1% of alcohol in it. And the proper mix is whisky. The drink is called a whisky mac. Gets you drunk and a bit bilious... when I was still young and susceptible my first FiL, a louche military man, got me plasterado on it in a series of seedy West End private drinking clubs full of gangsters and spooks, jovially urging me the while to beat his daughter if it seemed necessary. Personable character, not a nice man though.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 17:36
|
Like most of what you write, rubbish.
www.crabbiesgingerbeer.co.uk/
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 17:40
|
Hold hard a mo ! Seems there's a bit of beer / wine confusion here. Crabbies do both.
Now shake hands. It's Christmas.
:-)
|
Not really Humph, I know what I drink and don't tell other people what they do or do not drink.
Particularly in a pompous, verbose and pretentious manner. But this has pretty much ruined my resolution to ignore. So I'll now return to that strategy.
|
"Crabbies do both".
Yes they do - the wine of course came first and is the essential component of a whisky mac. unless you prefer its rival Stones I think the beer only appeared 3 o r 4 years ago at most but very pleasant it is.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 17:53
|
>>I think the beer only appeared 3 o r 4 years ago at most but very pleasant it is.
I'm surprised its so recent. I started drinking it when I discovered it at an Oxfordshire pub right about that time. I assumed I'd fallen upon a long existing product, I didn't realise it was new.
|
>> Like most of what you write, rubbish.
Shut up you ignorant little turd, or I will be forced to be rude to you.
That Crabbie's ginger beer is a product that didn't exist at the time I am speaking of. The website doesn't seem to have any details of the product, which may well be ginger beer. But Crabbie's used to be ginger wine, and was mixed with whisky to make a whisky mac. It isn't rubbish, it's perfectly valid information.
Or perhaps you imagine that ginger beer and vodka is more 'relevant' than the almost-as-ghastly whisky mac? I wouldn't put it past you. You are quite badly confused.
|
Oh dear !
My fault I fear !
:-(
|
>>My fault I fear !
Not at all, and fear not, I learned from my previous behaviour a month or two ago.
I still promote Jelly/Vodka though.
|
Adding vodka to other drinks always seemed a bit uncouth - as if you didn't have enough time to get properly steaming and were playing catch-up....
However....
I'd highly recommend a dosage of vodka added to Bundaberg ginger beer - has a wee bit more bite that the Crabbies one :-)
ps. Don't mix vodka with either Merrydown cider or Buckfast 'tonic' wine lest thee die.
|
Stones Green Ginger wine plus Underberg bitters - a.k.a. 'Green Underslug' -very good for warding off colds and flu :-)
|
|
I seem to remember a commercially available drink called Whisky Mac back in the early seventies, or was it Scotch Mac?
|
>>Xmas dinner, Mark?
In my dreams.
However, we're scheduled for a UK Christmas next year, so I'm adding these things to my list of stuff to do.
|
>> My fault I fear !
How can it have been Humph? What nonsense.
Actually it's my fault. The fact that every pub used to have a bottle of Crabbie's ginger wine on its back shelf and that I had never seen the firm's ginger beer doesn't really mean they didn't make the beer then. But it wasn't on general view. Perhaps in the firm's local area.
This had occurred to me believe it or not. But one can't, one simply can't, spell everything out every time in case some squeaking little ignoramus doesn't recognise when he is being addressed civilly and thinks he is being told what to drink, instead of enjoying a new bit of random information as he was meant to.
See what I mean? Tiresome little carphound.
|
I feel faint...
www.handmadescotcheggs.co.uk/WhiskeyMac-scotch-egg
Edit - Whoops "snap" Lygonos !
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 18:07
|
How come I only find out about this stuff when its too late?
To any expats, can I recommend the place that I bought one of the children's Christmas presents this year...
www.britishcornershop.co.uk/
Its not cheap (dear God, its not cheap) but you can get pretty much everything you might want as a treat.
And frankly if they can deliver here they can deliver anywhere.
|
>> How come I only find out about this stuff when its too late?
And how come you can't post anything resembling an apology or retraction or simple acknowledgement of your gratuitous offensiveness to me? It does irritate me a lot, although it doesn't really hurt because it's clear that you don't know the meaning of the words verbose and pompous. Let me give you a clue: verbosity is a matter of the ratio of information to the number of words (setting aside the question of whether the information is desired or 'relevant'). I have no worries about my own text on that score, especially when I compare it to yours. Pomposity is a matter of inflation, using inflated words for commonplace or small things or ideas. I employ it rarely, and only in jest.
Will you undestand this and take it to heart? I doubt it.
|
God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay...
:-)
|
|
Sorry Humph, but I meant to say: I don't like Scotch eggs. Gritty, tasteless and a permanent threat of awful tummy bugs...
|
>>I don't like Scotch eggs...
Yes but you are sort of "English" aren't you?
Never mind, statistically, someone has to be !
:-)
|
>> >> How come I only find out about this stuff when its too late?
>>
>> And how come you can't post anything resembling an apology or retraction or simple acknowledgement
>> of your gratuitous offensiveness to me? It does irritate me a lot, although it doesn't
>> really hurt because it's clear that you don't know the meaning of the words verbose
>> and pompous. Let me give you a clue: verbosity is a matter of the ratio
>> of information to the number of words (setting aside the question of whether the information
>> is desired or 'relevant'). I have no worries about my own text on that score,
>> especially when I compare it to yours. Pomposity is a matter of inflation, using inflated
>> words for commonplace or small things or ideas. I employ it rarely, and only in
>> jest.
>>
>> Will you undestand this and take it to heart? I doubt it.
>>
Verboisty: using more words than needed to convey message.
Pomposity... trying to appear superior.
I am not verbose but often pompous because I am superior :-)
I'll get my coat.
|
>> Verboisty: using more words than needed to convey message.
>> Pomposity... trying to appear superior.
>> I am not verbose but often pompous because I am superior :-)
And wicked hk, tee hee!... even so I'm not entirely happy with either of those definitions, especially the second.
But chapeau all the same.
:o}
|
Pompous? Moi?!
Don't worry, neither need apologise. Humph has taken all the blame.
The boss came home last week with a bottle of Crabbies 'Ginger Mac' pre-mixed with Glen Moray. I'm disappointed to see it's only 17% ABV which, as ginger wine alone is 13.5%, suggests it's only about 15% whisky.
I suppose it can be further fortified.
|
"Pompous? Moi?!"
"I suppose it can be further fortified"
I will be very pompous (and promote further thread drift) by proposing that no-one should be silly enough to waste good whisky on fortifying a "Ginger Mac".
In fact I would be pompous enough to suggest that this household does not even know what a Ginger Mac is. We do, however know what Macallan is, and Jura, and Bowmore Surf (now there's a taste) and an Islay and........
Which is favourite? Better get the whisky glass out, I've about 25 different ones to sample in order to decide! If I post again it may not make much sense! ("No change there", I hear you murmuring.....)
Sorry for being so verbose (according to definitions above)
P
|
I was given a 25 year old bottle of Macallan in 1998 on the occasion of my most recent marriage. I've kept it ( and her ) to date. My son was born in 2000 and I plan to give it to him on his 21st. I know it won't have improved in the bottle but one can at least imagine a sense of occasion.
He'd better give me, at the very minimum, a taste of it !
|
Don't let it fade in the bottle Humph. Bring it round here, do it justice while it's still alive.
I like Macallan too. Nice and syrupy, none o' yer peaty pish...
|
>> I will be very pompous (and promote further thread drift) by proposing that no-one should
>> be silly enough to waste good whisky on fortifying a "Ginger Mac".
Be assured that no further good whisky will be used. If it needs zizzing up, the Tesco Basics cooking whisky will do.
The 'Glen Moray' is just a marketing touch. I like Glen Moray as it happens and certainly wouldn't mix it with ginger wine.
I also have more whisky than I can drink - picked up a 'Finlaggan'* Islay at Wadsworth's in St Ives (Cambs) earlier this year, I might broach that - the last one was very good but the mix varies I think. I finished the Moray that I keep in the kitchen last night!
If my mechanic pal comes round we might finish the last of the Rosebank I've been hoarding - I drink very little whisky unless in company with another afficianado, and he has a very good palate and taste memory - wouldn't surprise me if he identified it.
Thread drift? What's that? I never flood it with more than about half the amount of water as there is whisky in the glass. Though the Glenfarclas 105 might get a bit extra when its turn comes.
*there's a mystery for you if you know the distilleries of Islay.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 19:29
|
Someone gave me a bottle of Laphroag? which I think is an Islay whisky a few years ago. Didn't like it very much as a drink so we have used it for cooking - cake, marmalades and the like.
|
>> Someone gave me a bottle of Laphroag? which I think is an Islay whisky a
>> few years ago. Didn't like it very much as a drink so we have used
>> it for cooking - cake, marmalades and the like.
Oh dear. Could have been worse, it might have been Lagavulin.
You were jesting?
|
"Laphroag?. Didn't like it very much as a drink"
Like many whiskies (sp?), it's an acquired taste. Keep trying it up to about half a bottle and if you still don't like it you can send it to a deserving charity. I can give you the address if you PM me.
|
>>"Laphroag?. Didn't like it very much as a drink"
That's the "smokey" one? I really enjoy that, but I'm certainly no kind of connoisseur.
|
"You were jesting?"
No, have quite a few bottles of whisky mainly given to me as presents over the years. Only really drink about a bottle a year and didn't like that one very much so used it for cooking. The last of it went in the Christmas cake. Have now opened a bottle of Balvenie and that's much more to my taste
|
>>Someone gave me a bottle of Laphroag<<
I acquired a taste for Laphroaig back in the 80's, I like its smoky peatiness and could usually polish orf 1/2 a bottle most evenings.
Jamesons was another fave of mine = very smooth.
|
>>Finlaggan
I thought I knew all the Islay distilleries, but I've never heard of that.
I was given a bottle of Port Charlotte IIRC some years ago. I discovered it's where the bonded warehouse is for all the Islay distilleries. It wasn't that good. I guess it came from one of the distilleries and they weren't too happy with it. Could your Finlaggan be a re-branded product?
Port Ellen's still my favourite, but the last time I saw a bottle it was over a hundred quid!
I stopped for a meal at the white mouse inn, Chale, IOW many years ago. They had a selection of over 300 whiskys. I limited myself to one of every Islay and SWMBO drove me home.
|
>> >>Finlaggan
>>
>> I thought I knew all the Islay distilleries, but I've never heard of that.
I'm so glad you didn't say you'd been there bt!
www.whisky-distilleries.info/Finlaggan_EN.shtml
I bought a bottle 4 or so years ago when I read Jim Murray's comment on it, something like "get this or regret it for the rest of your life". I liked it a lot. I bought a bottle for my daughter's other half and that was good too, but different.
If you ever get to St Ives, have a browse in Wadsworths.
www.wadsworthwines.co.uk/
|
|
I've been to Wadsworths a few times.
|
>but you can get pretty much everything you might want as a treat.
It's quite weird what things you miss when you're living overseas.
My craving in Namibia was for Farley's Rusks (I used to eat them like biscuits), Branston pickle, tomato sausage and Schweppes Tonic. We used to get odd items from Cape Town every few months but they were all well past their best. Mars bars where the chocolate had gone white because of the heat and humidity and a box of Sugar Puffs that turned the milk black when all the weevils floated to the surface.
In the US and other countries it was usually for decent bacon.
How did we survive without t'internet and DHL?
|
>>It's quite weird what things you miss when you're living overseas
HP Sauce
Flavoured Crisps
Real Ale
Instant Coffee
Chinese Crispy Duck
[English] Indian Food
decent Milk
decent Cheddar
Pork Pies (incl. variants)
Sausages & Bacon
Rice pudding
[meat] and Ale Pies.
I think that about covers it...
Don't miss Branston Pickle because the cheese here is so rubbish.
Last edited by: VxFan on Wed 2 Jan 13 at 00:37
|
>> >>It's quite weird what things you miss when you're living overseas
>>
>> [English] Indian Food
There are parts of England you cant get a decent Indian. Anywhere north of the M25 and east of the A1 for example.
Edit, Oh and all of wales.
|
There are parts of England you cant get a decent Indian. Anywhere north of the
>> M25
Oh come now Zero, not even a decent one! Sheesh you need to find someone who knows where they're going in somewhere like Bradford.
|
>> There are parts of England you cant get a decent Indian. Anywhere north of the
>> >> M25
>>
>> Oh come now Zero, not even a decent one! Sheesh you need to find someone
>> who knows where they're going in somewhere like Bradford.
You conveniently missed part of my original comment. North of the M25 and east of the A1
Bradford is WEST of the A1. There is this huge empty gulf of good curries up the east of the country. Lincolnshire is a particular curry desert.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 20:33
|
>> >> There are parts of England you cant get a decent Indian. Anywhere north of
>> the
>> >> >> M25
>> >>
>> >> Oh come now Zero, not even a decent one! Sheesh you need to find
>> someone
>> >> who knows where they're going in somewhere like Bradford.
>>
>> You conveniently missed part of my original comment. North of the M25 and east of
>> the A1 Bradford is WEST of the A1. There is this huge empty gulf of good curries
>> up the east of the country.
A thousand apologies affendi, I read it but err misread it.
Lincolnshire is a particular curry desert.
I know :(
|
"There are parts of England you cant get a decent Indian. Anywhere north of the M25 and east of the A1 for example."
The reverse is true as regards fish 'n' chips.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 21:13
|
>> "There are parts of England you cant get a decent Indian. Anywhere north of the
>> M25 and east of the A1 for example."
>>
>> The reverse is true as regards fish 'n' chips.
Yeah, absolutely.
|
I'd go further than that, it's actually impossible to get real fish and chips anywhere outside the east of Scotland.
Edit - I mean who ever thought of using ruddy cod for a fish supper for goodness sake ? Haddock is the only sensible option.
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 21:17
|
>> "There are parts of England you cant get a decent Indian. Anywhere north of the
>> M25 and east of the A1 for example."
>>
>> The reverse is true as regards fish 'n' chips.
>>
I'd agree as well, as young 'un I remember Scarborough as the best fish and chips.
|
>> I'd agree as well, as young 'un I remember Scarborough as the best fish and
>> chips.
Almost anywhere along the east coast is a guaranteed goodun.
|
>> Edit, Oh and all of wales.
>>
Another ignorant Southerner never been to Manchester... (lucky Manchester :-)
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 24 Dec 12 at 00:46
|
>> decent Milk
That's about the only one I really miss, granted my trips are measured in months rather than years away, but still. Flaming UHT got sick of the stuff, you can't beat proper milk. Occaisionly managed to get hold of the real stuff, worth it's weight in gold. :)
|
>> decent Milk
>>
>>That's about the only one I really miss
I have just found out that I can get real milk here, but its unpasteurised. Are there significant risks from that?
Anybody know?
|
>> I have just found out that I can get real milk here, but its unpasteurised.
>> Are there significant risks from that?
>>
>> Anybody know?
>>
I wouldn't presume to advise, but it must depend on the health of the cows and the general hygiene.
I'm probably not the only one here who was brought up on green top unpasteurised milk, bottled and delivered by the farmer who produced it. Printed on the bottles were the words "Tuberculin Tested" which I never gave a thought to at the time but must have referred to the cows rather than the milk, which as far as I know got nothing but filtering.
It always had a good inch and half of cream on top too. I think I'd find it very cloying now that I'm more or less conditioned to skimmed.
|
>>but it must depend on the health of the cows and the general hygiene.
Well that'd be a don't touch with a barge-pole then, if looks of cows and farms are anything to go by.
Dammit.
Mind you, I used to work on farms on the UK in my youth, and I used to take an aluminium pitcher of milk straight from the vat every morning for my breakfast.
|
They pasteurise it here against bovine tb, so if you're immunised against that you should be OK. But I don't know about Latin America. Wouldn't want to feel responsible for even you coming down with the aftosa or brucellosis.
Pasteurising involves heating the milk to just below boiling point for a certain length of time and then reducing it to freezing point perhaps. Simple to look up the method. A simpler method might be to boil it yourself although that spoils it a bit.
Milk is a problem in tropical countries. One gets used to tinned Carnation and similar.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 23 Dec 12 at 00:57
|
>> That Crabbie's ginger beer is a product that didn't exist at the time I am
>> speaking of. The website doesn't seem to have any details of the product,
>>
Oh yes it does
www.crabbiesgingerwine.co.uk/
Original Scottish Green Ginger Wine. John Crabbie's distinctive elephant trademarks stems from the Scots merchant adventures who pioneered trade with countries from the orient, from which we still buy the herbs, spices, fruit and ginger (a reputed aphrodisiac and cure for 'mal de mer') for Crabbie's Original Scottish Green Ginger. It was during the time of the raj that another Scot, a Colonel Macdonald, first created the famous 'Whisky Macdonald' or 'Whisky Mac' (equal measures of Crabbie's and Scotch whisky), a truly warming experience.
|
Ginger wine is not the same as ginger beer.
This is what he needs:
www.crabbiesgingerbeer.co.uk/
But the distinction has been made clear above anyway.
Last edited by: FocalPoint on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 19:46
|
My Irish uncle used to get every year a small barrel - pipkin or whatever, but a proper small wooden barrel - of some Special Jameson stuff. The custom was inherited from his father.
My uncle was a very big man, kind, convivial and charming, who went perfectly with my little glamourpuss of a Mediterranean aunt. They had six children. He would sometimes give me a brimming tumbler of the special Jameson from the time I was about 18. Naturally at that age I didn't appreciate it at all, but it certainly worked on me.
|
>>Who really likes mayonnaise anyway? No one I know does. Tasteless French muck.
Isn't it Spanish muck? Named after Minorca's capital, Mahon?
|
Except in France and Italy, and at home, I have never been able to get a half-way decent cup of coffee. The US is generous but especially dire.
Africa, which produces a lot of coffee, was appalling when I used to go there. Even posh hotels in Lagos give you Camp Coffee Essence in warm water in a nice silver service.... yucksville. The very best you can hope for is powdered instant. And that's not coffee either.
Not at all surprised to learn that FMR likes the crap though.
|
>> Except in France and Italy, and at home, I have never been able to get
>> a half-way decent cup of coffee. The US is generous but especially dire.
>>
>> Africa, which produces a lot of coffee, was appalling when I used to go there.
>> Even posh hotels in Lagos give you Camp Coffee Essence in warm water in a
>> nice silver service.... yucksville. The very best you can hope for is powdered instant. And
>> that's not coffee either.
I think that'a a bit odd think they would have a decent cup somewhere as they grow so much of the stuff. Mind you I would know the difference, it's one thing I've never got the taste or appeal of, is coffee. Hard core tea drinker me, what's the tea like in Africa AC? Might have a work trip out there next year, similar to the stuff in the Middle East?
|
I'm not a keen tea drinker, but in places like Egypt, Algeria and the desert the tea was what you mention, small glasses, lots of sugar, mint sometimes, strength that can keep you awake all night or not as the case may be - depends who has made it.
I would imagine decent hotels in black Africa could come up with tea or tea bags, perhaps old and faded in out-of-the-way places. But a proper kettle and teapot will be hard to find. I'd take some of your favourite tea bags just in case, and improvise the rest. (I haven't been to Africa for many years now. But it may not have changed much in this way).
|
North or east no doubt, but anyway thanks
'I'd take some of your favourite tea bags just in case, and improvise the rest.'
A few bags of Yorkshire tea it is then :)
|
|
have you seen the yorkshire tea advert? they take a van half way across the world full of yorkshire tea for hard pressed expats ....and then serve the brew in cardboard cups... if i was a yorshireman id be well mithered thy nose
|
>> if i was a yorshireman id be well mithered thy nose
As an expat I'd drink the stuff out of a dirty bucket if it came with a decent teabag and real milk.
|
>> I would imagine decent hotels in black Africa could come up with tea or tea
>> bags, perhaps old and faded in out-of-the-way places. But a proper kettle and teapot will
>> be hard to find. I'd take some of your favourite tea bags just in case,
>> and improvise the rest. (I haven't been to Africa for many years now. But it
>> may not have changed much in this way).
>>
Indeed - depending on the location, there are now quite a few half-decent hotels, many run by the SA Protea group, which cater more for traditional western tastes. Also, quite a few Chinese owned-and run places, and they have some experience with tea, I'm led to believe.
It goes without saying, though, that one should use bottled water in the kettle.
|
|
Surely there must be somewhere in France called Mayonne...
|
Maybe so. Muck anyway !
:-)
|
Anyway I was wrong apparently. Mahon it is...
Do you know, I've been suffering from mayonnaise, both home-made and bought, for years and secretly missing salad cream.
I think I will get some at the next opportunity and just weather the storm of brickbats and allegations that I am a prole. I bet the nippers will be on my side.
YEE-hah!
|
Y'see AC that's the trouble with your roots. Too deeply inamoured with notions of class y'see. Now your average Celt doesn't trifle with such things.
Edit - If in any remaining doubt. Try cold ham thick sliced off the bone, a fried egg, a cold tomato and freshly cooked chips garnished with salad cream. You'll never look back !
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Sat 22 Dec 12 at 20:55
|
"Do you know, I've been suffering from mayonnaise, both home-made and bought, for years and secretly missing salad cream."
Marks and Spencer now do an excellent egg, tomato and SALAD CREAM sandwich!
Must admit I often have a secret craving for salad cream - have to buy it myself and hide at back of fridge! Also like Sandwich Spread! My tastes are often ridiculed by rest of family but who cares!!
Don't get me started on Melton Pork pies or the relative merits of the multiple varieties of "Cornish" pasties
|
...have to buy it myself and hide at back of fridge!
Perhaps you can tell us, then, Phil: does the light really go out when the door closes?
Back when the weather was less cold, if not any less wet, Mrs Beest came home from Waitrose with a small and expensive bottle of 'Intense and Smooth Olive Oil Dressing'. And what do you think it tasted of?
I'm a recent convert to HP Sauce. Perfect complement to a long-time favourite, the Fray Bentos snake and pygmy pie.
|
Well. now then, here's a few to test your willpower versus food snobbery...
Bacon Grill sandwiches.With brown sauce of course. Although you can vary it by using ketchup.
Sardine and tomato spread on crusty white bread.
Fish finger and beetroot sandwiches
Cheddar and raw onion sandwiches with salt on. With salad cream.
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Sun 23 Dec 12 at 09:11
|
I would eat all of those though I'd ditch the salad cream. They are all fundamentally good flavour combinations and made with decent ingredients would be tasty.
Do you have any recommendations for appropriate drinks to accompany these fine dishes?
|
|
Tea of course in all cases but the cheddar and raw onion can also be served with beer.
|
The great oddity about Bacon Grill is that it's far better when fried.
Yes to the others, although the fishfinger and beetroot is a combination that has yet to manifest itself in HM towers.... might give it a whirl over the hols once the turkey loses its novelty, so that'll be Boxing Day then.
|
Trust me Harleyman. You won't regret it. If you're going to use it as a festive recipe you could add a layer of sandwich spread.
:-)
|
Fried bacon with copious amounts of tomato sauce! Even healthier than fried tomatoes.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/101990.stm
|
>> Bacon Grill sandwiches.With brown sauce of course. Although you can vary it by using ketchup.
>>
When left unsupervised I used to be susceptible to a grilled Spam sandwich - is that like Bacon Grill?
I've switched to Spam Lite now I'm a healthy eater ;-)
>> Cheddar and raw onion sandwiches with salt on. With salad cream.
Cheddar is pretty salty anyway - I hope you aren't craving salt, I'm sure that's a symptom of something you don't want.
After bacon or grilled spam, my favourite sandwich is cream cheese, with tinned tuna and raw onion. I might try tweaking it with salad cream.
|
|
Ah yes Manatee, tuna and raw onion sandwiches ! Try mixing a dollop of salad cream and an equal sized splodge of ketchup in with the tuna and onion thus creating a primitive Marie Rose sauce...
|
>> Don't get me started on Melton Pork pies or the relative merits of the multiple
>> varieties of "Cornish" pasties
Wherever you start from, Ginsters is the bottom of the pile.
|
Loved this interview.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20827963
Some folks do not seem to understand that cars and deep water usually finish with a write off ( hopefully just the car ).
|
>>Wherever you start from
Actually, the Ginsters vegetable pasty is quite nice. On the rare occasions I stop on a motorway for refreshment, I'll take one back to the car and wash it down with a can of 7 Up.
And, it's cheaper than a sandwich!
|
|
Steak bakes can be dangerous mind. The pastry cools much quicker than the filling lulling you into a false sense of security. So you get back into car, set off, take a genererous bite of the steak bake only to find that it's inner sanctum remains at nuclear fission like levels of temperature...
|
>> >>Wherever you start from
>>
>> Actually, the Ginsters vegetable pasty is quite nice. On the rare occasions I stop on
>> a motorway for refreshment, I'll take one back to the car and wash it down
>> with a can of 7 Up.
You mean you walk past the cornish pasty company stall, with its lamb and mint pasty, to go into smiths and get a Ginsters?
Get thee away Satan
|
|
Those "genuine" cornish pastys ( pasties?) are astonishingly expensive at motorway service stations. Well, by my mean spirited standards anyway. About a fiver each I want to think.
|
>> Well, by my mean spirited standards anyway. About a fiver each I want to think.
>>
It'll have to be a Ginsters for you, then. Or you could save a few pennies more by popping into your local Greggs before your journey.
|
>> Or you could save a few
>> pennies more by popping into your local Greggs before your journey.
There's something not quite authentic about Greggs. A year or so back I was at a loose end while the boss was in the optician's. I snuck into Greggs for a 'Cornish'. Straight out of the oven. It was clap cold in the middle. They offered me another, but I took the refund instead. No more Greggs for me.
|
|
Greggs pasties are of that style where the filling very fine mush, like baby food, pumped into the middle through a nozzle.
|
Does anyone know what the breakfast dish "Elephants footprints " are ?
Answer later if you are struggling.
|
You can't beat a major fat boost.....Fried white bread ! I like one slice with mushy toms and the other with bacon. Add a mug of tea...greasy spoon food at it's peak !
I only indulge when I'm out and the Obersturmfuhrer isn't with me. Don't want to leave telltale smell evidence in the kitchen...nor do I want to wash the frying pan and the top of the hob.
Got a call out tomorrow so I'm slavering already.
Ted
|
Discovered a super brekky munch
Eggy bread, with maple syrup over and crispy bacon on top.
proper english back bacon mind, none of that disgusting grease strips the yanks call "bacon"
|
>none of that disgusting grease strips the yanks call "bacon"
It's getting better.
The Whole Foods Market grocery chain in the US now have what they call "Irish" bacon which is the real thing.
I even found a good Indian restaurant the last time we were there. It was in Monterey and the owner was an expat Bangladeshi guy from Birmingham. Dad was head chef and delighted to be able to serve up a real english curry to appreciative diners. Probably bought out by a multinational and re-branded as P.F. Singh now. ;-(
|
|
Most bacon sold in the UK is actually pretty terrible. Pumped full of water it exudes a white scum when cooked and refuses to crisp. You need to buy a decent dry cured product. As with most food in the UK the majority prefer cheap to good.
|
|
As with most things in general CG.
|
You're spot on about rancid water-inflated bacon CGN, couldn't agree more. But it isn't always that one prefers cheap to good. Sometimes it's too much hassle to trek to one of the few places that do good. Indeed left to myself I would be a bohemian slob about that as about much else.
Fortunately many of my nearest and dearest are more grown-up than that, middle daughter and favourite, often-seen nephew and his wife all genuine foodies. So we often do all right.
Even so, I still intend to get some salad cream next time I am in a shop selling it. I'm sick of that Hellman's carp.
:o}
|
>I'm sick of that Hellman's carp.
Hellmann's isn't real mayo though AC.
I used to go diving for crayfish with a Mauritian friend and his family.
We'd catch the crayfish and his Italian wife would cook them on the beach while his three young daughters handmade the mayo.
Perfect with an ice cold bottle of dry white if you imagined that the sand flies were crushed black pepper.
|
>> We'd catch the crayfish and his Italian wife would cook them on the beach while his three young daughters handmade the mayo.
Idyllic indeed. Trouble is not everyone can make decent mayonnaise. Sometimes it isn't even emulsified, just swimming in oil and vinegar.
|
>Idyllic indeed.
It would be if it wasn't for the Benguela current. The water is absolutely freezing.
tinyurl.com/cccfxqm
|
|
Greggs wouldn't be open at the times I generally leave. Usually around 05.00 AM if I'm heading for London. Anyway, who in all conscience could leave a pasty on the passenger seat, leering at you for more than ten minutes? I couldn't and that would mean eating it at 05.15 which would be just wrong.Well it would wouldn't it? Mind you, I have had warmed up leftover mince or curry on toast for breakfast before now, drew the line at lime pickle though...
|
|
Cold leftover takeaway curry makes an ace breakfast the next day
|
|
I can admit to having found and eaten a slice of cold pizza sticking to the outside of the back pocket of my jeans while walking home from a party a few decades ago. At some point I must have sat on it. Took the edge off the early morning hunger pangs anyway.
|
|
Lime pickle sandwich (with cheddar) or aubergine pickle if sweet-toothed mood:) Tomorrow I'm making aubergine (baigan achari) in a sort of ratatouille where the main spice is onion seed, with cauliflower and potatoes, dahl and chapattis. We rarely eat in "Indian" restaurants. They tend to formulaic one-sauce Brake Bros equivalent garbage designed for UK drunks....
|
>> There's something not quite authentic about Greggs. A year or so back I was at
>> a loose end while the boss was in the optician's. I snuck into Greggs for
>> a 'Cornish'. Straight out of the oven. It was clap cold in the middle.
Hot AND cold, to get around the pasty tax probably :-P
Last edited by: DP on Sun 23 Dec 12 at 18:36
|
"Ginsters is the bottom of the pile. "
Agree, and yet, I'm sure I remember in the late 1960s, stopping several times at a little place called Hallington (???) on Devon/Cornwall border where the most fantastic pasties were available - think they were Ginsters??
Had a pasty today at Chatsworth House - bloomin' good they are!!
|
>> Had a pasty today at Chatsworth House - bloomin' good they are!!
Were they value for money? They won't have been cheap. Did you visit the farm shop nearby? Lots of nice things there :-)
|
I'm proper strange me - I avoid Christmas and won't be seeing any family members over the Xmas period.
Oh, and I haven't set foot in a supermarket for nigh-on 15 years :)
Now you know, maybe, that I avoid junk non-food, and try to eat a healthy diet, well, this is one of my favourite breakfasts:
2 thick slices of my home-made organic whole-wheat bread, toasted, and spread with organic coconut oil (solid at vroom temperature) then topped with Blueberries, preferably not Argentinian, and definitely not Israeli.
|
|
yeah those zionists are bound to try and bump you off. Damn Mossad.
|
|
Many a true word spoken in jest Mr Z - a joker from the Netherlands threatened to track me down via my ISP and inflict a modicum of pain on me when I was on Combat 18 some years ago.
|
Talking of bacon, whilst on a soiree to Leeds last Sunday taking 'light refreshmen' we enjoyed a pint in www.friendsofham.com.
Close to the station, and very different to the 'Hop' and 'Midnight Bell' in Granary Wharf.
The 'Snorg' website has some very amusing bacon themed tee's.
|
"2 thick slices of my home-made organic whole-wheat bread, toasted, and spread with organic coconut oil (solid at vroom temperature) then topped with Blueberries, preferably not Argentinian, and definitely not Israeli."
Sounds good. The coconut oil I specially like. What made you a fan Dog?
Last edited by: NIL on Sun 23 Dec 12 at 20:47
|
>
>> Sounds good. The coconut oil I specially like. What made you a fan Dog?
Wont get me going anywhere near it. Its health giving properties are vastly over rated, to the level of snake oil, and any fat that needs to be heated up to go fluid is not going into my human system thank you very much.
Its bad stuff.
|
|
Why is coconut oil bad stuff?
|
|
Because of the temperature it coagulates at.
|
|
It solidifies at circa 24deg C. So in the body it doesn't coagulate. But, what has the "coagulation" temperature to do with harmful effects?
|
|
No a bit higher than that, but hey munch away, dont let me stop you. I'll refrain ta.
|
|
Not like you to give up so easily Z. In a corner?
|
|
I didn't know it was even used in food, coconut milk yes. Only place I've seen it used is advertised in suntan spray stuff.
|
It's been a "superfood" for a while, so it's probably about to become bad for us after all.
Very saturated fat, but no cholesterol and allegedly heart-healthy; metabolises quickly unlike dairy fat.
Just read all that. I thought it was sun tan oil too.
|
|
Very widely used. In southern India for example. Not sugesting it should be the only fat! Personally I usually cook with olive oil, but saturated fats dietary intake is beneficial too! I avoid margarine: I don't like the idea of a compulsory dose of nickel from the hydrogenation processes nor the trans fats.
Last edited by: NIL on Sun 23 Dec 12 at 21:47
|
>>Sounds good. The coconut oil I specially like. What made you a fan Dog?<<
I can't honestly say NIL, I like coconut oil/butter on toast anyway, which I started eating for its perceived health benefits:
www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/coconut-oil-benefits_b_821453.html
Ditto the Blueberries, so one morning I thought I'd try a pile of berries on top of the toast.
The trick is to then put some kitchen roll over the lot and press down with the palm of your hand, or they'll roll orf.
:}
|
"Agree, and yet, I'm sure I remember in the late 1960s, stopping several times at a little place called Hallington (???) on Devon/Cornwall border where the most fantastic pasties were available - think they were Ginsters??"
That sounds like Callington, just inside Cornwall, where Ginsters' head office is. Maybe pasties, like Adnams' beers, are only any good if they're eaten near where they're made (Blythburgh, on the Suffolk coast, in the case of Adnams).
The West Cornwall Pasty Co's pasties are not at all bad; it's a chain but they make them within each shop. You need to be able to see the meat and veg as individual ingredients in good pasty, rather than mixed-up mush.
(I'm no expert - I just know what I like.)
PS - our hearts go out to the Cornish, who are getting the worst of the floods. Only 2 months ago we were in Lostwithiel, meeting friends at the Globe Inn. Excellent lunch although there's no car park.
Last edited by: Avant on Sun 23 Dec 12 at 23:19
|
I fell off the back of a boat in the early 80s while hanging upside down repairing an engine. Got wet, cold and filthy; it was early in the year and near Plymouth..
A kindly couple from a yacht took me home for a hot meal and a shower. Turned out he was the then Director of Ginsters - ever since then I've done what I can for his products. Its never been a hardship.
|
With respect to diet we know that saturated fats clog up arteries, eating cholesterol does little to serum cholesterol, and the so-called Mediterranean diet (tomatoes, green stuff and olive oil [largely mono-unsaturated] reduces the risk of heart disease (and seems helpful to some with rheumatoid).
There are no superfoods - eat too much of the wrong crap and risk premature ill-health.
Eating too much of the good crap just makes you fat.
Still gonna die - you just have to decide if you want a good-looking cadaver or a corpulent sack of poo that's 'enjoyed' its final years incapable to doing much.
|
I read somewhere the three basic rules of good nutrition which I try to keep to..
1 Eat.
2 Not too much.
3 Mainly fruit and vegetables.
|
Fruit contains a lot of sugar (fructose) CG, as does veg that grows below ground such as tats, rots, snips etc.
:}
|
Sugar isn't poison Dog . When you eat our slice of toast as you chew it it tastes sweet doesn't it? That's because enzymes in your saliva are converting the carbohydrates in the wheat to sugar.
Carbohydrates are turned into sugars by the digestive system We need sugars to live. Just not huge piles of the stuff
|
|
I don't think Dog can tell. His toast is slathered in coconut oil and squahed blueberries:)
|
|
if you want to live forever live and eat like a diabetic... unfotunately i know have too
|
>>if you want to live forever live and eat like a diabetic... unfotunately i know have too<<
Sorry to hear that beekeeper me ole son.
I do tend to stick to a diabetic diet (I'm not a diabetic BTW) which is why I don't eat too much fruit as it quickly raises blood glucose and ... what goes up, must come down, a tad too quickly with fructose/sucrose, and all the other ose but, I don't need to tell you that.
:}
|
|
I eat small portions part of my stumach was used for a operation.Down from 16 stone to thirteen which isn't bad.Don't worry about it to much Dog As Lygonos mentioned either a bag of poo or a nice looking corps.
|
TBH Dutchie, I wouldn't mind popping orf like my father did - from a massive cerebral hemorrhage.
None of this clogging up the hospital beds, festering and waiting to snuuf it for me thanks.
|
|
Same here Dog make it quick.Anyway be cheerfull its Christmas Dog have a nice Christmas with the missus and look after the Rhodesian hound.Tomorrow busy day for us family all here.Brother rang he is ok,my back is playing up the wet weather I think hopefully ok tomorrow.
|
Thanks Dutchie - I wish Diana and you a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy New year.
Good to hear the bruv is okay, my sister (Multiple Myeloma) is doing well too.
Fot the back, try a heat pad or a hot water bottle placed in the small of your back, and keep reheating it.
|
|
Thanks Dog I will try the hotwater bottle I struggled this morning took a hot bath but have been walking about like a old man which I am.;)Regards to sister Dog none of us wants to be ill.
|
>>none of us wants to be ill<<
Amen to that!
|
Flooding - Ted
