How's your day?

[MRS B 520]

4 hours ago, plantfit said:

Rummaging and Rammel, lovely words Mrs B, 

 

Rog

Rog, the word Rummaging just always reminds me of Emma Thompson as the consultant in Bridget Jones Baby now. Very funny.

[plantfit 7,593]

Thats most of the thin twigs and bits cut off the branches with the hedge trimmer attachment, got to bundle them up now and let them dry somewhere ready to go on the bon fire, next bit will be with the chainsaw attachment to cut through the bigger bits and store them ready for the bon fire, all tools greased, oiled and put away, roads a bit icy at the moment so will have a walk down to the next village to see a friend and have a coffee and a gossip

 

 

Rog

[Beekay 5,143]

It's bloody snowing here ! With big flakes annall. 

What dimwit ordered this? Been out for our Christmas trustees lunch, and very nice too.

[plantfit 7,593]

That another batch of "Eccles" mince pies made, these are for the people who attend the village coffee morning tomorrow morning down at the village hall in the next village to where I live, my turn to serve tea and coffee as well, the kitchen smells lovely, now where did I put that cream

 

 

Rog

[IAN FINN 807]

Get your bleddy shovel out i have been doing for last couple of months come over and get some practice.

[Beekay 5,143]

Hey Rog., those Eccles look delicious. If I got me bike out tomorrow, do you think you might save me one?

Ian, with all due respect mate, I'm afraid my shovelling days are over. And any road, you're younger than me. Take care Snowman.

Respect to you both.  Barrie.

[plantfit 7,593]

4 minutes ago, Beekay said:

Hey Rog., those Eccles look delicious. If I got me bike out tomorrow, do you think you might save me one?

Ian, with all due respect mate, I'm afraid my shovelling days are over. And any road, you're younger than me. Take care Snowman.

Respect to you both.  Barrie.

You make it up here on your bike Barrie and I'll save you a bucket full

 

Rog

[katyjay 5,091]

Rog, do you use rough puff pastry? I assume you cut out a circle, fill it, gather the pastry together and turn it over. Flatten a bit, slit top and brush with egg? I am guessing this as Ive never made Eccles.

 

[Oztalgian 3,285]

Looking at the UK newspapers, two inches of inconvenient snow and the country comes to a grinding halt. What has happened to the UK? Can't people drive to the conditions or have these new cars not got a program to drive in the snow. We used to put winter tread tyres on, is that not the done thing these days?

[oldphil 331]

3 hours ago, Oztalgian said:

We used to put winter tread tyres on, is that not the done thing these days?

In Scandinavia, winter starts on cue and lasts all season. By law, winter tyres go on, and all the new drivers get down to the supermarket car parks to practice setting off in second, and practicing gentle slides to work out how much space to give the other drivers. In the UK, we never know when it's going to hit, and we are saddled with the bloody-minded, "cup of tea and a woodbine for breakfast, and let me get to work" brigade who regularly provide the Evening Post with copy about another few hours delay on the M1. 

[Oztalgian 3,285]

2 minutes ago, oldphil said:

let me get to work" brigade who regularly provide the Evening Post with copy about another few hours delay on the M1.

There does seem an inordinate amount of traffic delays on the MI due to accidents being reported in the local papers, I don't understand why, they should be very safe roads. Is it too fast and too close that causes the accidents or is it plonkers checking twit face on their mobile and not paying attention to the traffic.

[oldphil 331]

4 minutes ago, Oztalgian said:

I don't understand why, they should be very safe roads

My gut feeling is that the problem is location, halfway along the length of the road. Anything coming up from the channel ports is reaching the limit of safe driver awareness. Similarly coming down from the North.

I often used to find myself suffering those "micro bursts" of sleep especially in the dark and cold - the car is warm, and the motorway noise becomes rhythmic. If I was near enough to home, switching the heating off, and opening the window a crack made it col and noisy enough for me to get home. Definitely wouldn't be recommended by the constabulary though, I feel.

[Oztalgian 3,285]

6 minutes ago, oldphil said:

My gut feeling is that the problem is location, halfway along the length of the road

You might be right oldphil. Dover to Nottingham, according to Mr. Google, is about a four hour drive, that puts it right in the middle of the second two hour "doze zone". Many professional drivers can easily drive through the first doze zone it is the second that gets many. Don't know what the current log book rules are about rest breaks

When travelling long distances here it is recommended to stop, get out of the car and have a walk around every two hours. We do not have motorways outside of the cities but the scenery changes very little even over vast distances and there is very little to look at. On some roads towns and other traffic are few and far between. So it is easy to get white line fever and become mesmerised. If you doze off on country roads here you are likely to hit a tree and the tree wins every time.

[plantfit 7,593]

8 hours ago, katyjay said:

Rog, do you use rough puff pastry? I assume you cut out a circle, fill it, gather the pastry together and turn it over. Flatten a bit, slit top and brush with egg? I am guessing this as Ive never made Eccles.

 

Spot on Kath but just ordinary puff pastry, they are a cross between Eccles cakes and Mince pies, Eccles in shape but mincemeat filling, they end up about 2inch diameter and about 1 inch thick from a 3 1/2 inch cutter

 

Rog

[Beekay 5,143]

Do you airbrush them Rog., in South Notts colours or stick NCT decals on them?

[Alpha 176]

Replying to Oz's comment on UK snow conditions, I believe the capability of this nation to deal with seasonal and most other organisational variations is of apathy and and incompetence. The more 'advanced' we become the worse it gets.

We are becoming a nation of snowflakes afraid to offer our opinions on any given situation as we might offend or upset some minority.

In this I include those latent CEO's in the NHS and similar organisations that we as citizens, as a whole, should openly condemn and force the governing bodies hold them publically to account for their failures. 

[Beekay 5,143]

Good start for my day. Whiteout first, but postie managed to deliver my car tax renewal. So I thought, 'Sod it !' may as well do it straight away, then it's done with. How to spend £165.00 in 2 minutes flat.

[plantfit 7,593]

2 hours ago, Beekay said:

Do you airbrush them Rog., in South Notts colours or stick NCT decals on them?

Now there's a thought, personalised cakes in bus company colours of your choice

 

Rog

[nonnaB 4,895]

At the beginning of November we are requested (by law) to fit winter tyres or carry chains. I thought our winter tyres were on but hubby says no, so now it’s a scramble to get them before we either have an accident in the snow or get caught and fined. We are out in the country and no matter which way we go it’s either up or down hill. Snow is due from 10 pm so hope it’s late and and light. Uk has had a heavy downfall I heard. ?? Hope no one got stuck. Fortunately here we are prepared for getting the main roads clear. Our local snow clearer lives opposite.

[Beekay 5,143]

I've often wondered, how does the man who drives the snowplough get to work?

[MRS B 520]

Good point Beekay, he must either sleep overnight at the depot or take the snow plough home with him the night before ?

[Beekay 5,143]

Heyup MrsB, how ya doin'? I was offered a job driving a snow plough for Long Eaton council, after being made redundant from Coal Board, (with other council roadwork at other times) but the job in Sussex came up first so I took that. Often wonder though, if only.

[DJ360 6,728]

Evening...

Not been on much lately mostly because my P.C. is all but dead and a new one is on order. Not crazy about trying to post on a phone too often.

 

Had an interesting time last night.

Was all day feeling rough with vague symptoms of possible ticker trouble.  I ignored that stuff years ago and finished up worse than I needed to be, so I don't ignore it anymore.

Down to the local walk in centre, only to be told they weren't seeing any more patients due to lack of staff and were closing early. They triaged me and sent me to Whiston Hospital.

 

So, even though the A&E at Whiston thinned out to about 10/20% occupancy, I was not seen by a Doc till around 7a.m. Monday....12 hours later. This demonstrated the complete lack of resiliency in the NHS, when a couple of emergencies brought in by ambulance, occupy all Docs on site so that A&E -walking wounded just get left. At one point over four hours passed without anyone getting to see a Doc.

 

I'm not knocking individual workers here..  The problem obviously lies with staff shortages due to poor pay, burnout and a recruitment crisis directly caused by a mix of Brexit and Govt. failure to invest in UK training of NHS staff.  And of course 'bed blocking', due to the Social Care Crisis.

 

In the event, all of my 'numbers', plus blood results etc., checked out OK, so symptoms a bit of a mystery. Thing is the one time I ignored symptoms, I had the original MI which led to the current state of my CVS, so I tend to follow advice and get checked out for every wobble.

Things got interesting at 6:00 a.m when a staff member switched the A&E TV to ITV to reveal  ITV's  Richard Madely and Kate Garraway outside the A&E in the freezing fog doing a Good Morning Britain 'From the front line'.. about 50 yards away from us.  An older lady with whom I'd been conversing for hours spotted them and set out to give them what she described as 'The real facts',  but was prevented from getting near them.  They spent hours, as ever, largely missing the point.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8i4ecvwDHVwNi1Bj7

Naturally, they didn't seek my views....

 

[Oztalgian 3,285]

8 hours ago, Beekay said:

I was offered a job driving a snow plough for Long Eaton council,

My ideal job would be a snow plough driver ..................... in North Queensland

[plantfit 7,593]

No frost this morning so a good chance to pick up the rest of the debris I left behind from the tree pruning job at the weekend, still got quite a lot of the smaller stuff to cut up with the hedge cutting attachment and hand secateurs plus the bigger bits with the chainsaw attachment, anyway been down to the next village and got some sausage meat from the butchers department of the local mini market, going to make some sausage rolls today with the left over puff pastry,after that I might watch a railway dvd after getting some lunch ready for Mrs P, I think jacket spud with tuna salad I'll go for the heathy option of airfry chips with steak pie and gravy,

 

Rog