The Sturdy Soapbox

BBQ up the Welder's

I went over to see my brother on Saturday seeing how it was his 64th birthday on Sunday.

Took him a big bag of Bob the Butcher sausages as he loves them and I made him a load of CDs for the multi changer in his car.

We also had an invite to go visit the welder and Pat for a barbecue.  Don't they show off down Penn ?  Table all laid out so everyone could sit and eat rather than balance plates on knees etc.  Show off food like goat's cheese, salami, olive bread (we don't get that in the Birchills)  and caper sauce.

Wally's huge barbecue with Pat's home made burgers, marinated pork, steak and good quality sausages.

Plenty to drink too.  His brother Keith came along with Cath and Roger the English Bull Terrier was there too (well he does live there)...

 

Restricted, Baby Bio ?

There are certain items over here, that if you wave them in front of a barcode scanner in a supermarket, it will flash up "restricted item".  This includes booze, knives (because of the teenage obsession for using them on each other) and cigarettes, to name but three.  You have to be over 16 to buy them.

This morning, I spotted Baby Bio plant food (made from seaweed) on offer at a pound a bottle.  I was most surprised when I waved it at the laser scanner at the self checkout in Tesco, when it flashed up restricted item. 

The lady who verified my purchase had no idea why this item is in a same group as those already listed, but there it was.

I did a bit of research on the interwebs, but all I found was a story about a councillor aged 38 who'd had similar problems.  The story had no explanation as to why.

I mentioned here the other day, the scandalous price hikes on Nescafe Alta Rica coffee.  I dropped a line to Nestle who so far, have not responded.  The news of that day carried a piece on the fact that inflation on food prices is running at 4.7%.  £ 3.35 to £ 3.98 in the space of a couple of months is a lot more than 4.7%

I decided to give a brand a try that's been much hyped of late.  Made the mistake of believeing the hype, Kenco Millicano is supposedly a premium instant "full flavoured" coffee made from a mix of freeze dried and fine ground.

Comes in an aluminium can, sealed tight, so the first test is to rip the seal and give it a sniff.  It had the aroma of dried fish !

Made a cup.  It didn't taste of dried fish fortunately, but I certainly wouldn't describe it as full flavoured and it isn't worth £ 3.00 for a hundred gram can.  Sorry Kenco "everything we know about coffee in an instant"...

For the past couple of months since I put the big puter back together, I have been getting blue screen of death crashes up to five times a day.

I've spent in small bites a lot of time making sure drivers are the latest version etc and it has continued to happen.  So, I ingratiated myself to the geeks at one of the advice forums.  I use that term, because I always introduce myself and my level of expertise properly, but they always without fail will issue advice which is in some sort of code and expect you to be able to decypher it.

It took about 6 exchanges to establish it was a wireless LAN driver which was puzzling, but the name reported back to me "Atheros", I couldn't find either in the depths of the machine or a driver online.

I therefore arsed about for an hour on the Bekin website where I ignored the advice to scrap the device I have and buy a new one (cheeky bastards) and some burrowing later, found a newer driver.

To date (about 7 hours), no dreaded BSOD !  Hope those aren't famous last words...

A very bad start to the day, very bad !

The whole pack of espresso ground coffee I bought yesterday and decanted into a metal canister, all over the kitchen floor.

I was tempted seeing how my floor is so clean these days, to scoop it back into the can, but I'm having a visitor tomorrow and I don't want her wondering why her cappuccino has a gritty flavour tinged with Flash with Ferbreeze freshness !

There is enough coffee left in the can for a couple of cappuccions, meaning I will have to go buy more tomorrow or give H instant when she comes.

Yesterday it was the USB ports on the laptop now this.  Time for a sulk back in bed I think !

Moll's progress vs mine

Moll in Baltimore sent me a picture of her orange explosion Habaneros which are now fruiting and will soon ripen into their full descriptive orange explosion colour.

I sent her a reply saying I feel like the inadequate guy in the locker room, here's mine below

Admittedly mine weren't planted til early May because it was still a bit cold here and we aren't having that brilliant a summer, the latter part of this week is to be cool and showery for instance.

I doubt these will fruit this year and I know I have to thin them out from what is shown here.  I only just got some more large pots.

The carnies aren't complaining, flytraps are feeding I noticed the other day, pitchers not so well.

Dill's coming along

So is the Oregano.

I saw that Average Jane harvested a Zucchini of mass destruction the other day too.  Bloody Americans!

This food price malarkey, someone's tekkin the piss

I do remember the time when I had a job, when I really didn't pay attention to prices in the supermarket, I would buy what I wanted.  These days, I tend to buy the same things most weeks and therefore notice how the prices are getting a bit silly.

I mentioned maybe three weeks ago, how my favourite instant coffee, a Nescafe premium called Alta Rica.  Beginning of the year, this was £ 3.35 a jar, then about a month ago, it went up to £ 3.69 and now it is £ 3.97.

The case of the Warburtons Danish sliced 400 gram loaf.  Went up from 70p to 93p, then down to 85p and now 70p in less than three weeks.

As for the coffee, fortunately I bought a jar last week, but I think I will have to look for another brand.  Carte Noir isn't bad but when it comes to quality, Nescafe have the edge.  Kenco have launched a new premium instant which I've not tried yet.  Will have to see if they have that on promo to establish the brand and give that a try.

I bought some Tesco espresso ground this morning which is what I have settled on as my absolute favourite for my morning cappuccinos.  My old work colleague Helen is coming on Thursday so I made sure I have enough decent coffee in.

Well pissed off this morning, the fallout of something that happened yesterday...  The cable for the external USB hard drive got caught round the leg of the little table and as I moved the laptop, snatched it out of the USB port.

I thought no more of it til I plugged it back in this morning it didn't work and then I noticed the port is damaged, both of them !

As I used the external drive all the time as it's only a 60 gig internal drive, I an buggered !  My only possible saving grace may be to plug in a PCMI card with USB ports on, seven quid from E Bay which I can't afford, but I have to have if I am to use the laptop. 

Still feeling under the weather, but unlike yesterday, I forced myself to go out on a walk this morning, a mile and a half, but at least I went.  My neck problem as well as causing back pain, is affecting my vision and causing dizziness.  I am booked for some physiotherapy later this month which Dr. K reckons will help a lot.

Ho hum, time for a cappuccino !

For you American Soapboxers

Steven Moffatt take note

Steven Moffatt and his current crew should take not that there are some people out there who understand the timeline of the Daleks and how much people actually love them.

This animation is actually produced by an amateur.  With the Daleks having been retired by Moffatt (possibly out of embarrassment), this is pretty refreshing.

 

OBC tells a whopper

Just spoke to OBC who was sitting on his sun deck in Padstow with Val, enjoying the sunshine and having some brekky.

He went to RIck's again on Friday, that's three times in as many weeks.  Told me thay've given him a loyalty card...  Then I heard him make a comment to Val  "wassup", to which I overheard the response "I was looking up for a flying pig"...  He'd been telling porkies again, it's unlikely Rick Stein does loyalty cards. http://www.rickstein.com/The-Seafood-Restaurant.html

 

 

Young, moi ?

Just been up to the local shop for pop.  Close by, there's a happy clappy church and a Jamaican lady was outside enjoying the sunshine and said "Morning young man" as I passed by.

She was wearing glasses... 

Sunday treat 595 cals inc the milk in the cappuccino

There's a small sausage and a piece of grilled rindless back bacon under that wholemeal toast.  Most unusual for me to have a breakfast on a plate these days, I usually have a bit of toast or a piece of bacon on a slice of bread.

Felt a bit crap when I got up, but I pushed myself and went out for a 1.5 mile walk, mainly because it was nice and sunny out.  Was hungrier than usual when I got back, so I decided for some brekky.  I'm allowed a silly 2500 calories on a Sunday which I never get anywhere near.  In fact, I will be just on 2000 by the time I've had my lunch today and something light late afternoon.

A nice brekky and a cappuccino (well, two actually) really does lift the spirit.  A bit humid today I noticed after yesterday's freshness, but it is set to be warmer and I've had the ball-coney door open since 7:30, watered the plants, sprayed the parlour palm, made some sugar free jelly and as I said, been out for a walk.

Not much in the way of chores today, I have to finish "de-porning" someone's laptop. Noticed he's running with only 512 Mb of RAM whereas for less than thirty pounds, he could put 2 Gig in it and that would really make a difference.

I do have some ironing to do, but I'm not in the mood for that.