h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't think there's anything wrong with heating water for a cup of in the micro wave oven - not if you're only making one cup. There will be no foam or odd taste if you just heat the water and add the tea afterwards. You'll have to watch out for the... the... dang! Forgot what the phenomenon is called - when the water bursts out of the cup though. There's an entry on it somewhere on h2g2 - I remember it because someone said it was impossible, so I posted to say it had happened to me - good thing my reflexes were working!

Tea bag in the cup or on the side in restaurants? I prefer it on the side, because some restaurants leave the tea bag in the cup or in a pot for far too long before bringing it to the table - and I don't like tea that only tastes of... of... *hurls the worthless dictionary into the wall*

I usually make a small pot of thea (appr. 2½ cups) and for that I use my electric kettle because it *is* faster than a pot on the stove (at least my stove). And I-don't-use-tea-bags! You've been discussing in detail how to boil the water but so many have been mentioning using tea bags!*shudder*

OK, OK, some brands of tea bags are acceptable but what most people forget to do is to put the tea bags in an air tight container once the package has been opened. If you don't do that, the tea bags will lose flavour pretty fast *and* the tea in the bags will become too dry.

Tap water - my home town ended up on 4th place in a Swedish competition for best tasting tap water. The tap water where I live now is sort of semi-hard and doesn't taste nearly as good...

Never liked green tea but the red (Rooibos) tea is good...

Iced tea - the best I've ever had was on a piazza in Verona (Italy). They had small or big cups and, since it was a very hot day, we ordered big cups, although we thought they were a bit expensive. Turned out we had ordered two big glass goblets of tea - with lots of fresh lemon!

In my school days I used to be a real freak - I even watched the water boil and took the kettle off the stove when the bubbles were 'the size of goldfish eyes' (supposed to be the Chinese way)!

Getting rid of lime scale - I accidentally did that when staying with a family in Brighton (UK) while studying business English many years ago. The lid on their electric kettle was a bit difficult to get off, so normally I'd just lift the kettle to feel the weight to check if there was water in it.

Well, one day I switched on the kettle thinking there was water in it - but there wasn't! The lime had all burnt, and came off when you knocked lightly on it - and the kettle was left unharmed!

Hotdogs hazardous to your health? Pah! I've had hotdogs and various sausages in various European countries, and survived them all without noticing any tummy trouble.

Mind you, I used to have a colleague who's tummy used to become upset every time she went abroad. Then she got this tip that her doctor said wouldn't work, but she decided to try it anyway - a cap of whisky each morning before breakfast. Well, it worked for her, imagination or not...

There - done with the backlog... *collapses on sofa* Sorry about so many postings right after another, but I thought I'd better break up a really long posting into shorter ones...

Narked I won't be at the meet up this weekend but sort of happy that I will get a lie in instead. Have fun there people.
There are a number of very good tea shops in Glasgow for the drinking of loose leaf tea. One of which has the decor of an Oriental Opium Den and I really need to spend more time in. I love the fact all their crockery appears to have been rescued from the Gran's cupboards circa Nineteen Sevety Eight. And yes, loose leaf, freshly made, always nicer, but maybe that is just because someone else made it for me and I have a scone.

Bernard Matthews promoted his Norfolk farm turkeys and turkey products heavily in the 80s/90s. When the sons were small I bought the breaded turkey steaks fairly regularly, then they discovered the heady delights of his chicken kievs at a friend's house. But we have now grown out of that phase.

H and I won't be going to the afternoon meet, but we will be at the Penderal Oak, I just hope the air con is on max, regardless of the outside temperature.

Lil, that is terrible news about the murders and the repercussions will probably go for months. I wonder what was the cause, probably not much more than your average family argument.

I am performing some of my poetry again next weekend, and have been learning it today before working on it with Sally who coaches me in exchange for a website. ( http://www.voiceset.co.uk - hint hint)

What I find fascinating is how much actual revision I do during the rehearsals. I am coming to the conclusion that a poem isn't finished until it has been rehersed and peformed.



I used to clean my electric kettle out by boiling it dry and holding the switch down. The element glowed a deep red, the limescale turned grey and flaked off to satisfying popping noises. Then I'd wash it out, pour in cider vinegar and boil that, preferably leaving it over night.

Don't try this at home kiddies.

It's a good thing I don't have B4's job, really.

B

PS - why does anyone buy guacamole, when it is so easy to make?

Sorry about your news Lil, he must have been really disturbed by something, so sad he felt there wasn't any other course of action

I briefly heard something on the news this morning about an incident in Texas where a boy with Autism died while church officials were trying to Exorcise (sp?) him just off to look for more info, has anybody state side heard more of this?

>> an incident in Texas where a boy with Autism died while church officials were trying to Exorcise (sp?) him

http://www.bethcargill.co.uk/deathandrenewal.shtml#labelsandlibels seems apropos.

Today I am beset by category errors... Xanatic is insisting on referring to the Welsh as English on the grounds that he cannot tell the difference.

B

[k]

Ticket booked for London and the meet.

I have just had some news which makes it very unlikely that the complicated and difficult thing I was hoping to pull off, and that I asked for good luck for, will ever actually happen, so I am feeling very .

I guess it still could... but it has gone down from 50/50 to 90/10 against, and I could .

B

Sorry to hear that Ben

*redoubles good luck wishes because a 10% chance is better than none at all*

[GDZ]

[d'E]
[]

It's the last time I'm ever cooking anything at the library. Too much of a hassle. We had to put tarps under the tables to simulate a hard floor because the grass is dirty. Then we had to set up a hand washing area and have the kids wash their hands. How many places have an outdoor sink? So I used our big coffee urn with a spiggot and put a bucket under it. We couldn't use bar soap. I had to go buy liquid antibacterial soap in a pump bottle. Then they wouldn't let us enpty the soapy water from the bucket on the grass - we had to carry it inside and put it down the toilet.

The hot dogs were a pain. The person cooking the dogs couldn't wear gloves because it was 'dangerous' for him to handle the tongs with gloves. So we had to have a second person serve as the bun handler - wearing gloves of course. We couldn't make them up ahead of time. We had to wait until a kid - with newly clean hands - was standing in front of the grill before we placed the hot dog on the bun. The kids were allowed to put on their own ketchup and ustard because they were in squeeze bottles. But they weren't allowed to put on the relish themselves because it was in a jar and they might contaminate it for the next person. So we had to have a relish handler. We didn't use the chili and cheese I had bought because we would have needed to keep the chili in a crock pot with a thermometer in it and have a chili handler, and the cheese would have needed to be kept on ice 'during' the assembly process and would have required yet another person to spoon on the cheese. That would have meant we needed 5 people to assemble one chili cheese dog.

Did I mention that we had to test the internal temperature of the hot dogs? Lengthwise! Because they could look burned on the outside but still not be 160º inside. I AM NEVER COOKING HOT DOGS FOR THE KIDS AGAIN. The busy body who turned us in - we've had a cookout for the kids for the past 7 years - will be told that she has successfully eliminated one of the kids favorite programs every year.

We also have been warned not to serve home-baked goodies or popcorn or nachos. Everything has to be prepackaged and preferrably individually wrapped. Because I'm a closet poisioner of course and am just waiting for my chance to kill a bunch of kids with my toll house cookies.

She sounds like a wicked from the Roald Dahl stories, doing everything she can to spoil things for the children.

How come she has so much power?

B

Hi

heck I just jumped right on in here and made my first post! Be gentle with me. Hello blue eyed Bi pedal -guess I made it here eventually -hello everyone

Hi dottyfix.

B

Hello, dottyfix!

Hypatia, is the food police someone other than the smellfungus? A protege, perhaps?

Hi Dottyfix.

I think the obsession with cleanliness is similar over here, I remember hearing the WI were not allowed to sell home made food

I liked the poem Ben, very thought provoking.

I found the court case: http://courttv.com/trials/exorcist/070704_ctv.html

although I have not heard of Court TV Trials, is this for real?

What horrific reading. I am strongly reminded of "The Crucible". It only goes to confirm my opinion that the most harm in this world is done by people believing that they are doing good...

B