jonab

Thanks for the update, Cliff Ton.

Not heard from nonnab on here since the 6 November. Hope she's OK. Anyone have any info?

France doesn't have this great orgy of consumerism that is so common in the RU - but is it slowly getting here. The German style outdoor Christmas markets are now encroaching on to the French mediterranean cities and even le BsL, where I live, has acquired several of these pine wood sheds selling all manner of knick knacks and foods - which, I must say, are mostly very nice. Christmas gifts tend to be given only to members of the family and to very close friends and they are in the form of small tokens of appreciation and thanks, not huge competitive equivalents of the value of the crown

Oh!! Different things in different countries. I quite like corned beef but, like katyjay, I can't abide those American hot dog sausages. A real German Frankfurter sausage, though, is quite acceptable.

benjamin - thanks for that. I'd heard the expression but never knew what it was.

What is a corn dog (as mentioned in RR's post, above)?

You can almost guarantee that you will not be the first person to have the camera shoved anywhere.

Interesting slip in your reply there, Ozt. Could it be warehouse you meant or were you thinking at the time of whorehouse?

I don't usually have problems with online shopping but when it goes wrong, it goes very wrong. The problem with that order was that there was (is) wrong information on the website which has still not been corrected, despite my complaints.

Similar inefficiency in France. I ordered an item 15 November on Amazon Prime for delivery next day. The only thing I received the next day was an email from a Chinese (in Chinglish) company saying my parcel would be received on the 9 December. I tried to cancel on the second day but was told it was too late as the item had already been despatched. That same day I went into Cannes and bought a similar item (it isn't of any particular value, it's a diamond knife hone/sharpener of value about €6) from a kitchen supply shop. Why didn't I go to the shop in the first place? Note: I've s

A potassium permanganate & sugar mix is fairly stable if kept dry. All that is needed to set it going is a few drops of water. You can get a spectacular effect if you have a mix of permanganate, sugar and magnesium powder. Stand well away, though. Talking of potassium permanganate, I have in the back of my mind that Boots manufactured it at a plant on Station Street somewhere near or at the back of their printing works. Can anyone confirm this? I don't seem to be able to find any details.

I recall playing Newmarket at my grannies in Rempstone over Christmas. I think I've mentioned previously on here that I have total amnesia as to how to play card games and I think this game may have been the start of that. I've just consulted Mr Google on how to play the game and I was astonished how complicated it appears to be. Expecting a five or six year old to comprehend it strikes me as impossible but, somehow, I managed it. Edit: I think that may have been the start of my aversion to gambling as well.

Dessert grapes are treated differently to those use in winemaking. Even so, I am cautious about eating grapes as I was told many years ago that the 'bloom' on grapes was that copper containing antifungal treatment - which it isn't BTW. Copper fungicide (Bordeaux mixture) is still quite widely used not only on grapes but many other commercial fruit crops and in domestic gardens. Toxic it may be but it's far less toxic than many more recent products such as those from Monsanto. It may be different in the USA where the power of Monsanto seems to exceed the power of ALL others.

The vast fields in Spain where lots of veg intended for the RU market is grown do not have convenient toilet facilities, therefore the pickers just "go" where they can and the story is that they do not choose areas of bare ground.

Too right, Jill. Most people nowadays are just too clean. They are never exposed to the real outside world in infancy and childhood but are constantly wrapped in (figurative) cotton wool and everything is sterilised, disinfected or otherwise treated to avoid exposure to reality.

- - - rods, roods, poles, perches, grains, drams, scruples, minims, gills, pecks, bushels, acres, ells. I pretty sure there are plenty more!

Far from being my first flight, I was on a 737 aircraft from the same order and delivery from Boeing as the one that crashed at Castle Donington in January 1989. The crew were very proud in tell us passengers that it was a brand new plane and that it was on only its third commercial flight. I was disturbed to find during the flight that the dropdown tray in front of my seat was too weak to hold almost anything and one of its hinges snapped off. There were several other little incidents but not anything that I thought worth remembering at the time. This was in December

Mandy

"All in the best possible taste" Cupid Stunt

^^^^That may well have been the place I attended the wedding - before it was very well known.^^^^

mercurydancer's mention of the 'jubbly' brought them back into my memory. There was a sweetie shop at the bottom of Duke Street in Hucknall (next door to The Byron cinema) that sold frozen Jubblys. They did a roaring trade from the pupils of Beardall Street school (I was one of them). They also sold Phul Nana cachous, Parma Violets from fancy tubular jars and Cherry Lips. Sorry, this is going off topic. More to thw point of the thread, when I was working at Gerard's one the the lab assistants invited me to his wedding. He was a really nice man, always immaculately dressed and alwa

It's good to read that Kai is getting back to normal. Dogs certainly do suffer from loss both of canine companions and humans.

I volunteered working the door (in exchange for a few beers) at the Old General cabaret nights a few times in the early/mid seventies - mainly for jazz nights but occasional for drag. The acts on in those days were all from London and were absolutely dire. I don't know about the 80s and later - I had left the RU by then.

I remember Laval and Stebbings at the Health Centre on Gregory Boulevard (Mary Potter? - although I don't think it was generally called that at the time). Stebbings lived on First Avenue, Sherwood Rise at the time I was living at Second Avenue. Nasty tempered old cuss out of his surgery, pleasant as anything in there - especially to private patients, which I was a couple of times when I went for a medical prior to changing jobs.

Happy birthday, Jill. I stopped having them a number of years ago.