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

Hiya,

Are you the Gosh (JM) that's helped to keep me company during the strange weather over here?

Shirps
x

Oh yes indeedy . Just finished a six day stint at work, 5 days of which included South by Southwest - our busiest period of the whole year, even more than Christmas. Christmas is longer, but SXSW is like all of it condensed into 5 days, on 4 of which we have bands playing on the little platform (can't really call it a stage) at the back of the store. Phew. At least the weather's good for my two days off.... you really don't want to know just how good - didn't you have snow in Britain earlier this week? What I could really do with right now is a nice big G+T, but I ain't got any T, and me and Steph are halfway through getting back to a normal diet after a week long detox, so no for another week or two
I have to start looking through some cookery books now so that we can go out and get some groceries when Steph gets in at about 7, so talk to you again soon.
Jim x

Hiya

If you look at Walter's page "Hi from an old friend", you'll see I made a bit of a boo-boo!!

In addition to that:

No, I DON'T want to know what the weather is like out there - Grrrrrrrr!

Yep, It snowed last Saturday & then again yesterday - although both times it melted pretty fast (where I live it did, but elsewhere it's pretty hard going).

Unfortunately, because of all this 'orrible damp weather my back & neck seem to have "gone", tomorrow I'll have a day under the electric blanket & sort of dry it out

Detox: hmmmm. Being a diabetic that would be very difficult for me to do, although I would really like to, say, twice a year. Any suggestions?

I reckon you two look absolutely glowing with health - another Grrrrrrr!

Well all for now too - 7.30pm Thursday

Suppose ought to sign off now as: Shirps

Shirps
x

Glowing with health? That'll be the day. We both blew the detox wide open on Tuesday evening with a trip to the diner down the road [link removed by moderator] I was very good though, I had the grilled tuna sandwich, but followed it up with peach and raspbery cobbler and ice cream. Well, it's been nearly 3 weeks, and we knew that eventually we'd work our way back to something like the diet we were eating before. Neither of us really want to live 100% of the time on rabbit food, but we both neede a clear out, and some better eating habits. One thing that's been hindering us is a serious lack of decent cookware, but we'll hopefully be remedying that tomorrow. One of the local department stores is having a three day sale, and they're knocking $100 off the price of a nine piece Farberware set, and throwing in a Farberware colander for good measure ("A $50 value" they say... 50 bucks for a colander?!!!! Hell, at that price I want it to be gold bloody plated!). And speaking of measures, that's another thing we need. Why oh why oh why did I sell off my kitcen balance and weights before I came here? I could quite easily have shipped it with all my other stuff. Same thing goes for those two metal spatulas that were so springy you could bend them double and they'd still return to straight. Steph's got her heart set on a blender too. We don't need a blender I keep telling her, let's just get a Kenwood Chef, cos we need a mixer too. With a KC, we can get all kinds of attachments, including a blender. I wish KC's had a bit thought put into their appearnce though - a KitchenAid looks so much nicer [link removed by moderator]. As for the blender, well, an Osterizer would be nice. There's too much stuff and not enough money. I suppose that bloke who won $85,000,000 ($35,000,000 after tax and suchlike) on the Texas lottery a few weeks ago could easily part with some of it....

Have you got the game "Who wants to be a millionnaire" over there? Chris Tarrant runs it over here - pretty good viewing, but as usual on too much! We're always finding we know most of the answers, but usually too late!!
Ah, Kenwood! I inherited a Kenwood Chef Excel from my late uncle. The blender works fine - you need enough headroom as it fits on top of the machine. The juicer though - you can't put acidic fruits in it (reaction with the metal or something)- therefore "great" for fresh orange juice - not! There's a sausage-maker (untried), slicer/shredder (apparently, my uncle said it didn't shred carrots finely enough for saurkraut (he had a German girlfriend!),mincer (ooooh!). So if you get one, check out the juicer before you buy it!
The basic machine is great, no time at all for cake mixtures, etc. Sometimes though, I wish I still had my basic food mixer.
Money trees would be a good thing to grow instead of cacti methinks!!
As my daughter always says: "you gets what you pay for". So, maybe it's best to save for good things & buy cheapos when absolutely needed? Then again maybe not - I don't know .....

Do you remember the tableware that used to be sold everywhere called Arcoroc & arcopal - I can't find it in England any more except for catering distributors who can sell me boxes of minimum 48 plates!! I've mailed the main co. in France to find out if they have outlets anywhere here - I don't even know how much the stuff costs yet! I had some about 20 years & it was cheap, but has lasted until now. It's toughened hard-wearing glass & ceramics - very good. Apparently sold over your way - shucks!!

Good luck hunting for your stuff - let me know what you managed to get.

Oh boy, did we blow some wedge yesterday! A set of Calphalon pans, a set of Corningware casseroles and baking dishes, and an Oster blender (I won't put the websites in because it looks like you can't do that any more. Did you get the ones I posted before they removed?). Plus some herbs which we planted in a long tub, kind of like what The Naked Chef has on his windowsill Yeah, we get Jamie over here, and Two Fat Ladies, and even The Galloping Gourmet - I mean the old ones, not the new Galloping Gourmet Lite, but they show them at something like 4am, and I always forget to tape them. They used to be on at 10.30am, which was perfect when me and Steph were working 4pm - half past midnight. We'd watch it whilst having brekkers. And I'm having brekkers now (7.15am). Which means I've got 30 minutes to do all my surfing and get ready for work, so I'll speak to you again soon.
Jim x

Hi Gosh

Look up Walter's "Hi from an old friend" - no he's not back, but there is a visitor from NZ!

Yep, I got the 3 cacti websites (I did say before!!)

Hey, I expect some real gourmet dinners down the line from you two - you must entertain with all this new equipment!!!

Nowadays, I find if I watch them, it doesn't fill me with "I must go & try to cook that" , but "I must go & eat that" - which is not a very good result!!!

I intend to change & start cooking again though, once a certain person has sorted a new kitchen for me - ahem, ahem - coughs as a heavy hint to the other half!!!! Next year, when we've decided whether to move or stay in this house, that'll be kitchen time

All for now, I've got to get off-line as my mum is phoning with her shopping list - big sigh!

Cheerio
Shirps

Hello Shirps
Yeah, I've already left a message there . The first thing we did when we got the stuff home was to cook the best tomato sauce I've ever had bar none. I can't give you the website address here so I'll mail it to you. You have to try this, and the best thing is that it will freeze real well so you can make a huge amount of it at one time.

I've got the place to myself until Friday night - Steph's gone to Shreveport, Louisiana with her mother and grandma, so - PARTY AT MY PLACE Actually, I've got quite a bit of studying to do for work so that I can get that 50c an hour rise WOOHOO! But it's one more step towards $10 an hour - about 1/2 of what I was earning 10 years ago in London But money goes a lot further here

Which reminds me, I got a letter marked OHMS today. It might say "What about that 44 quid you still owe us, cough up or else"' or it might say "The 120 quid refund your accountant has wangled for you has been deposited in your account".... *goes away to open the envelope*... HOORAY!!! I've overpaid by 81.35 . Oh, that'll be 81.35 towards the 300 quid I owe my accountant then Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Cya, Gosh.

Oh why oh why did you send me that website - it also had a site for chocolate recipes - mouth watering, diving into the cupboard for a bit of choccy ........ 70% cocoa solids, mmmmmmm, great!

Read the tom. recipe to other half (name here will be Rrrrr) & he seems quite keen to try it, so when we gather all the ingredients - if we can get them here!!

Thank you, thank you. I'll pass the site on to my daughter!

It's like that with money: you takes with one hand & gives with the other! You'll be straight one day.

My daughter, Liz, is earning while doing her Phd what I was earning in London 12 years ago & she is not being taxed as it is sponsorship money. Her boyfriend will be earning in 2 years what Rrrr was earning after 27 years in adult education!

Aint life strange.

Now without Steph there someone has to keep an eye on you - so, get down to some studying - now!!!!!

Chuckles ....
Shirps

I've been studying for the past 3 hours I'll have you know I don't think there's anything in the recipe that you can't get in Britain, but you might have to buy a set of cup/spoon measures. How I wish I hadn't got rid of my kitchen balance. Personally, I'd leave out the pepper flakes - they give it an uneccessary kick, and I'm not real fond of capers either. When we watched this particular programme a few weeks ago, the presenter said that you should scrape the seeds out of the tomatoes because they make the sauce bitter, which is why you should use whole tomatoes instead of diced - they're easier to get the seeds out of, but we didn't bother, and it tasted pretty darn good to us. "Good Eats" is a programme we watch all the time because it's full of real good, basic, simple information about the science behind cooking, and because Alton Brown is so funny.
Have you heard of a show called Iron Chef? It's like Ready Steady Cook on steroids

I'll remember that about the seeds - they tend to get stuck between your teeth too!!!

Now, why DID you forget those scales!!

We seem to have loads of cooking progs here now, at least they're an improvement on Jilly Goolden going on about wine!!!

The sun came out today - practically all day! It was still cold in the shade though

The suddenly became very playful & cheeky - I think she likes the sun too! She prob. thinks the spring has arrived.

Rrrr began sanding 3 doors upstairs, but only managed to get through about 2 layers of paint (all the old Victorian stuff is still there) !!! So we are taking them to be stripped back to the old pine on Monday. As you prob. guessed, he's begun decorating the hallway - once the doors are off then it's a case of taking the paper off the ceiling - pse cross your fingers the ceiling doesn't fall in!!

Have a good weekend - speak soon. I've found the pictures page at last: just going to try an experiment - it prob won't work as it's not listed, but here goes:

Gosh

Do you realise we've been using Walter's space to carry on our converses? I guess it doesn't really matter though!

Cheerio
Shirps

Yeah, I know . I wish all the others would come back. We'll just have to keep things going in the meantime.

D'you think the Beeb has frightened them away?

P'raps we should start an "intellectual" subject ...?

Brain quickly dying - tooooooooo much work to do for the wretched art soc now - Hmmph

Hiya

Are you both OK? Hope you enjoy the forward - apologies to Steph (she works on a helpline of sorts doesn't she? - I'm SURE she doesn't look like one of these helpers!!)

What exactly are you studying - apologies if you've told me before.

I presume you still "celebrate" easter over there - if so, "HAPPY EASTER" - beware Friday, it may be GOOD, but it is the 13th of the month!!

We had our "committee mtg" last night - I talked, took minutes, asked for agreement (got it! they daren't do anything else!!), asked for ideas - very few forthcoming. Just read through my notes - can't make head 'nor tail, so will look at them again tomorrow!!! I've just seen 2 posters around town for art exhibitions supported by the council that has just effectively dumped us - both before our one in June - ha! I wonder if everyone will have bought their paintings. Oh, well - I shouldn't think we will do very well this year - the town carnival has been scrapped so visitors will be well down on previous years. I'll just have to really advertise well. Maybe I could put it on here somewhere?

Rrr is ... years old in June - a milestone, so I've persuaded him to hold a "gathering" - we sorted it today, so all we hve to do is the invitations.

It's still raining here, we still have the awful outbreak of foot & mouth disease, which is ruining so many people's businesses, etc., & there's a larger number of people going abroad for Easter than usual - I wonder why?

All for now & speak soon
Shirps

Hi Shirps

Dang, it is Easter this weekend isn't it! I never used to notice holidays when I was self employed in London, and the same thing goes here because I work in a store which is open 366 days a year. They have a weird thing here whereby businesses can decide which holidays they are going to recognise and which they are not, which means that I only get time and a half 5 times a year instead of 10 or 11 Happily, Easter is one of them (I think the others are Christmas day, July 4th, Thanksgiving Day, and Labo(u)r Day - 1st Monday in September), and I'm working on Sunday. What I was studying was my PFK - Profit For Knowledge. I don't know if I've talked about this before. We all have to do this thing called PFK which is a series of steps designed to progress us along the path to management, and then to opening our own store within the group. We have to read some books and watch some videos, then answer some easy questions, and get 50c an hour pay raise (oh be still my beating heart). Each step is themed, so the one I just did (no. 3) is an introduction to management practices. The previous one was all about customer service techniques. Anyways, I'm done with it for another 3 months.

I've seen you mention the Art Soc a few times, but I don't recall you talking about it, tell me more. Oh, and I loved the fwd btw (and so did Steph). What sort of a milestone is R at? I did my 40 a few years ago, and someone pointed out to me a few daus ago that I'll be 45 this year. These things never really phased me before, but I think the closer you get to 50, the more you really can't help thinking about them. 20 and 30 are really not that bad, and life's supposed to start at 40, but 50? Man, it's all downhill from there I guess. Hey, that's only 15 years away from retirement.... woohoo

Love and kisses
Jim + Steph

Hi there
Sorry not been around - loads of work to do (for the Art Soc. - we've got an exhibition coming up so there's lots of typing) and hands are not too happy
R's milestone is .... 60!! So far, he's managed to keep his age pretty quiet, but now (9th June) the cat will well & truly be out of the bag! He does not look his age - younger version of Roger Moore!!! He's already retired from adult education (sort of shove, rather than choice!) so does all the cooking at home - let Steph know she'll be able to look forward to that too when you reach the magical age - ha! Don't fret, I've just turned the age you're about to (when?), it's not THAT bad. I've felt 190 for quite a few years already

Keep with the younger people and that'll help I keep fighting not to look back but forward. H'ever it's difficult when you see various rock/film stars dying off and realise you were playing their music/watching their films about 25 years ago - that's when it hits.

We're going out soon to buy a couple of 60's CDs for background music, but I'm probably going to buy the Sugababes CD - don't know if the whole CD is any good, but i do enjoy the single - all those off key notes.

I'll tell you about the Art soc next time - not too much typing in one go.

LoL to you both
Shirps

Loved the pics Gosh - will try to print them out! Have you got a digital camera or scanner .... or both!!

Got to print 84 copies of 4 sheets of A4 soon, may leave it until tomorrow. Then stuff 84 envelopes with the above plus 2 more sheets, ticket & booklet! Who says not working for a living is fun - ha!

Think I'll ask R nicely if he wants to do some stuffing!!!! Sorry - couldn't resist it! Well, they get cruder & cruder on TV (BBC moderators take note!) so why shouldn't everyone else?

A camera actually - a real cheap one that Steph got for something like $15! I mean like, REAL cheap - it'll only hold about 10 images, and if you turn it off before you download them, they're wiped, gone, destroyed, no longer extant. There's no focusing, no flash, no f-stop, it's a point and shoot. If it weren't for the software that came with it which you can use to sharpen up/brighten/darken/whatever the image, you wouldn't be able to see a thing

I gotta run, but I'lll reply to that quiz you sent real soon - like, on my day off either Thursday or Friday
Cya