jonab

Phyllis Schofield is almost unknown here but these (hopeful) headline grabbers are commonplace worldwide. Often the sign of a flagging career - make some revolutionary announcement that will rouse the sympathies of the feeble minded - which it seems to have done - in the expectation of new contracts of employment.

He who laughs last is just laughing out of politeness and still hasn't seen the joke.

Brenda, I was going to ask about your lemon tree. I assume it is the same one as last year whose leaves dropped off just after you acquired it.

That is where I live, Beekay. My villa appears on several published pictures of le BsL. I'm not going to locate it precisely as I did that once and was then deluged with visits from all sorts of undesirables - not that I'm saying Nottstalgians are undesirables but this forum is open to public scrutiny. The peel is the most valuable part of the oranges that are grown here. They aren't sweet to eat - they are called Bigarades, very similar to Seville oranges used for marmalade. An explanation of the uses of the oranges is given in this article https://loumessugo.com/orange-festival-o

I think it's a good year generally for citrus fruits at the latitude we live, Brenda. The orange crops here are enormous so it will be a busy Fete de L’Oranger at Easter. Is it global warming, I wonder? https://www.google.com/search?q=easter+festival,+bar+sur+loup&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB867GB867&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=IJSa4OCZuknhpM%3A%2C3IOBNuKKPVCDbM%2C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kSXQ6vhzZQGzBFz-u1AHKOFVW405g&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjmkKqhh7_nAhUGTxUIHc-TDXgQ9QEwAXoECAkQBw#imgrc=IJSa4OCZuknhpM:

Brew, on a somewhat larger scale there is a similar situation here - it's called Marseilles.

The Radford Road area was pretty disgusting when I was around Hyson Green (living on Sherwood Rise, working at Gerard's, Wilkinson St. 1974 - 78). It seems not to have improved.

There was Kent & Cooper pianos as well as Clements - I always got the two mixed up but, I think Kent & Cooper was the shop on Market St.

I remember my grannies bolster pillows - the went the whole width of the bed and seemed to be filled with crumpled wire - impossible to sleep on without a soft pillow on top. I found out years later that what I thought was wire was actually horsehair.

JPS (John Player Special) in elegant black plastic drums with gold foil lettering. - matched the JPS racing car(s). They were sold here for a time but they seem to have disappeared completely now. I used to give them as small Christmas presents - the cigarettes, that is, not the cars!.

French bread has the reputation of remaining fresh for about five minutes after coming out of the oven. Something you can do to revive the freshness is to very quickly run the loaf/stick/roll under the tap and place in a hot oven for a few minutes. The bread will come out crisp crusted and nice and soft inside.

From https://www.cs.columbia.edu/sip/sipit/funeral.txt

I remember Scan in Viccy Centre. It was taken over by Tesco, I think. Scan was the first supermarket in my expeerience to have a full in-store bakery and it was almost worthwhile going there to sniff the bread being baked.

What about chitterlings or testicles?

The US immigration authorities might do well to read the writings at the base of the Statue of Liberty:

Ozt's notes about that tennis tournament puts me in mind of that execrable film festival that takes place near here in the middle of May followed immediately by a stupid car race a few kilometres along the coast.

Did you get it in Lasky's sale? My MZ80 became lost sometime during my move(s) over here.

Slightly off-topic but I bought my first computer, a Sharp MZ80 from Lasky's, in 1979 - 80 and taught myself programming in BASIC and PASCAL. I've forgotten all of the PASCAL now but BASIC is still in my brain somewhere. It was one of the loss leaders in their January sale and I bought it for about £100, reduced from £300. Had to queue in line to get it when the place opened in the afternoon. The price was equivalent to about £430 now. The machine was extremely limited in what it could do in comparison to a modern PC or MAC but it did teach me the fundamental of computing which has

This may be of interest https://nottstalgia.com/forums/topic/12174-laskys-hi-fi-shop-lower-parliament-st/

I remember Heathkit. I think they were associated with Lasky's and had, or shared, a shop on Upper Parliament St. I built an oscilloscope from one of their kits

Living where I do, I am exempt from UK TVA . I do see your point but, the return I made on other metals would have greatly reduced the impact of that even over there.

That use of palladium was what first gave me the idea about the investment. My palladium, though, is in the form of small minted bars as there isn't much of the metal in each catalytic converter. Simlarly with rhodium - which is even rarer but it has more uses. I did buy some gold bars and coins. These haven't increased in value nearly so much but, considerably more so than anything offered by more conventional savings methods.

If you want a long(ish) term investment, why not precious metals? Most people think of gold or silver but there is platinum, palladium and rhodium which are sold for investment purposes. A couple of years ago (on my last UK visit) I bought some small amounts of several precious metals in the hope that they would provide some sort of income better than banks would offer. Palladium was bought at £900/ounce, rhodium about the same (both of these are rounded). Today's price for palladium is £1, 948.44/ounce and rhodium is £6,290.00/ounce - see the website https://www.bairdm

I think Carters Little LIver Pills were similar to Beechams Pills, Beechams had a slot on Radio Luxembourg on Sunday evenings (around when the Ovaltineys and Horace Batchelor's "In for a draw method" was on 208 wavelength). They were laxatives and had the slogan "The Perfect Laxative With a Plus" and a silly song which I have (fortunately) forgotten.

I wouldn't dare but, you implanted the idea yourself