Slowlycatchymonkey

Since Chernobyl Some of Germany’s wild boar is ok now but some of it is still too radioactive for human consumption. They are not the only country to suffer this. You’re likely to be buying farmed wild boar, in which case there’s nothing to be concerned about.

A bird in a bird and a whole turkey which I soak for 3 days before cooking so it’s super juicy (and so there’s adequate left overs) plus a large mustard and muscovado coated gammon, at least a kilo of sausage meat stuffing made with plenty of onion and fresh sage, more pigs in blankets than you can shake a stick at- made with full size chipolatas because cocktail sausages simply don’t taste as good, wrapped with quality but extremely thin smoked streaky bacon. Then you’ve gotta have bountiful really crispy roast potatoes, brussel sprouts with a pancetta and chestnut butter, honey roast parsnips, buttered mashed swede, savoy cabbage (stir fired with a bit of garlic) dauphinoise potatoes (with a layer of fresh roasted beetroot hidden in the middle), bread sauce made solely with double cream, a sharp cranberry n orange sauce, creamed corn and gravy made well in advance. Good gravy can only be achieved with decent meat juices and as you want a juicy turkey it’s better to roast the living daylights out of chicken and veg well in advance before slow cooking it for a minimum of eight hours well before the main event to make good gravy. I feel I have missed something Starters are always made but by lunch time the decision to skip them means they stay in the fridge. Pudding- traditional Christmas pud (which I dislike immensely) or the more popular cheesecake with a choice of clotted cream, icecream or custard. Cheese and biscuits has to be a good ripe Somerset brie, Cropwell bishop Stilton, Blacksticks blue, Godminster cheddar and somehow the much maligned Boursin always sneaks in, had with thin water biscuits, a quince jam and grapes for that 80’s style! None of that gets a look in til Boxing Day as everyone’s horizontal for several hours after wondering if they’ll ever need to eat again and why they don’t have better self control! This year with reduced numbers I think one of the turkeys will go in the freezer. I really love Christmas dinner.

Hope you’ve got your Geiger counter at the ready then

What’s caused the return to the office at this point? I suppose the weekend will seem all the sweeter?

Morning

Dear all and sundry. Since the change to a new format you might not be aware your inbox cannot cope with the messages you have stashed away and will be simply refusing to let anyone message you. So for example IF I was trying to send a message to @rob m and his inbox was full the screen simply says rob m cannot receive messages. Of course if you’ve selected an option to refuse contact then fair enough They delete in batches and this will not be enough to get you back in the game so wait a brief moment and another 20 will appear for you to delete and so on, well that worked for me. There maybe a better way but if there is I’ll leave that to one of the techy types to enlighten us...

Engage stealth mode. We look forward to seeing the stead back in its rightful position. The good folk of Banard Castle have displayed immunity to unwanted organisms so a virus would be no problem for them regardless.

@S-Westerly please tell me that hasn’t been happening?

No one wants to see the last chicken in Sainsburys

Welcome

Prefer the husky. Always fancied a ride on a sewing machine, would go well with my lawnmower.

Most recent slightly convincing one I had was an email from DPD saying they had tried to deliver a parcel but my address was incomplete. Follow the link to arrange redelivery. It looked genuine enough. But I’m naturally suspicious of anyone asking me for any details and the usual click on the email address revealed a gobbledygook address that screamed scam. My favourite was the person who rang up to discuss our charity donation. They had me on the phone for a lot longer than the usual chancer because they very smoothly told me it had been agreed it back in March and they were just doing a follow up to make sure we were happy to continue. It’s entirely feasible one of us would have agreed to make a charity donation and not mentioned it. I chatted about the charity with this conman spouting forth in a convincing and knowledgeable way for a good 3 or 4 minutes, he seemed to have a broad outline of what we did and knew his spiel well. I suddenly had that prickly feeling you get when the uglyness of suspicion waves over you. Feeling a bit sh*tty for being doubting tom of his worthy cause (but needs must) I asked who it was that had authorised the donation. They said oh it came from top, your director and then gave me my name! They obviously mistook us for a much larger business, did their research and were going in for a decent sized kill. I said ok this is a scam isn’t it? No no no no. Yeh it is and you’re very good but its never gonna fly here, if you have some sort of sap list would you be good enough to remove us from it, you’d be saving yourself and other scammers a lot time. Yeh ok. Thanks bye.

Goddam it, it’s work time again

No they’re definitely not and it’s something I felt acutely when my boys were younger. We don’t live in the same world now. The idea of letting my children (when younger) out on a bicycle in the traffic we have here horrified me. No amount of cycling proficiency is going to be sufficient against that traffic, even seasoned adults often fall prey to it. It’s a real shame and not an easy one to find a solution to. I’m grateful I had the freedoms I did. Then again when I look back on some of it and think I’m also lucky to be alive!

The estimates vary wildly depending on the study used but almost half of motorcycle fatalities involve alcohol (cos it effects collision avoidance). Which kind of adds up when you consider most accidents give you less than 2 seconds to react and alcohol slows reaction times. Makes for grim reading but personally I find it heartening cos I never drink and drive so the risk of a fatal accident for me (and other bikers who don’t drink n ride) is already significantly reduced with that one simple risk factor removed. Another plus side is as I’m not adverse to the odd G&T I’ve had a lot of great nights away that involved riding somewhere and having to stay over. oh dear this post almost sounds like a public service announcement

A November autumn sunset Weston-Super-Mare sea front the day before second lockdown on a Hilts Mutt 125. Two almost identical pics cos one seems to have a slightly bluer sea and one has an an orangeyer sun. Yes bluer and orangeyer are in the Oxford dictionary.. maybe.

Another vote for xcp then with acf 50 coming in a reasonable second.

Did you hit the car or leap off like superman before impact?!

Staying in a pub would be ideal but I suspect we’ll end up camping.

Cheers manxie, appreciated. Would likely be 3 people, although two of them happily share a bed.

Have I missed some of the conversation? Sneered at is a bit strong, you been on the cheeky vimto or did the dentist finally give you the good stuff? It really never occurred to me anyone didn’t automatically counter steer. Personally if I think in detail about something that happens physically while I’m actually doing it it tends to fall apart. Perhaps that’s where the attitude your picking up on comes from, it feels like someone explaining something silly, I dunno, like bright lights are bright and the dark is dark. Whatever works for you n makes it less likely to come a cropper is fine with me.

Well that’s all heartbreaking and I truly take my hat off to you and your wife.

Yep apparently everyone books their hotel that way so to get a reasonable hotel you have to already have a room at one the previous year!

Not being inflammatory, just curious, did everyone do enough training for this trip? Also are you 60 summink with a load of young kiddywinks?

Hmm you seemed so normal