All ye oul wans and oul fellas out there! Wakey wakey, rise and shine!

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Aw Rube, sorry you got insulted. Was your cooking not up to scratch then? The results which are presented on my Christmas Day Dinner Table are usually hit-and-miss. As I only cook this stuff once a year I can never get it perfectly right every time. Timing everything is difficult, making sure it all gets onto the plates at the right time, and piping hot, and then it takes some of the family a bit longer to raise themselves from the TV to get to said table. Every January I say I'll get it right next year, but I never do. Don't tell me to get others involved because that would mean several training sessions.....'the knives are in the drawer on the left, and the forks are in the drawer on the right' kinda thing. By the time I give instructions everything has gone cold and that's my Christmas Dinner ruined! Now I'm thinking I'll do it all again in a couple of weeks, just for practice! Will I never learn?

Sympathies hon I have always appreciated the efforts of others in the kitchen as I am a terrible cook ( I can bake cakes and pies though) Sadly despite my advancing years this was my first ever Christmas dinner.

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Top marks for trying anyway Rube! Thinking back, I suppose I did the same thing in my youth, just sat and had Christmas served to me! Brens, I'll take you up on that offer next year, ok? So I've started taking down the deccyrayshuns now. Cards in a pile waiting to be re-read, have to find those ones that said ' we MUST meet up after Christmas', contact them and see if they REALLY meant it! Bet they didn't! Did you do any Christmas visiting this year? We reduced our visiting many years ago, now its only one annual visit to folk we see.......well, once a year actually! Its always the same, 'how have you been keeping?', 'how are all the family?', 'did you ever get a job?' (grrrrrrr!), ' you'll have a cup of tea?', then after tea we sit in silence unable to think of any conversation at all until at last I can say 'its time we were going', then they say 'ah no, will you take a quick cup of tea before you go then', (go on, go on, go on!), and it starts all over again. The wind be howling around my ankles this dark and gloomy night. Time to hobble off to bed and snuggle down under the blankets until this storm blows over. Can't wait for that first crocus or daffydill.

"Blankets???" What's dem tings?

We send very few cards now. Instead, we phone previous card recipients on Christmas morning and put the phone on "speaker" so we can hear the post pressie / pre lunch chat in the background. Somewhere between a card and a visit but it seems to go down well. Many of the recipients know each other so we can pass on greetings and gossip. However, this year we got told that we are old fogies for now doing video calls on facetime or something similar. Maybe next year....when I figure out Mrs. Brensbenz's iPad yoke.

In these here parts, primroses mean Spring is sprung. It's pretty draughty here at the moment - wheelie bins are sailing across the lawn in convoy - so I hope that the primroses, crocussesses and daffydillies are keeping their heads down until it's safe.

PS: Our brown bin has just been collected. Deloyrah and eksoyrah to know that the marzipan is going to a better place.

BrensBenz wrote: »

PS: Our brown bin has just been collected. Deloyrah and eksoyrah to know that the marzipan is going to a better place.

Ah, here now, that's just unkind. (not to mention muck stirring...)

Happy National Marzipan Day..........I kid you not

YoooooHoooo! I'm baaack
Me laptop died on me :mad: and to top it off, he who thinks he's funny bought me a smart phone for Christmas. So basically I've been cut off from the outside world!

We did have a little jaunt to some lovely snow though

Now....I need thoughts, prayers and everything crossed for me for the next few hours....I've an interview at 6pm. If I get the job, I'll be back doing what I love best (nearly)...feeding people!

Fingers crossed for you Chuck. And also for your potential victims

Great to have you back hon xxx

good luck my friend xx

Chucken wrote: »

Anyway, I have another hopeful on the way in the next 2 weeks and I know Id love it there. Already worked there for 9 years back in the day

Sounds like a lucky escape! Here's hoping the next one falls into your lap.

Fierce cowuld here today. I've just been outside, feeding the birdies and the grass was crackling under my tartan slippers with velcro on the sides.

Travelled to Cork last week to meet up with one of my superannuated boyband members. On the way, one of my tyres went all flat at the bottom - the rest of the tyre seemed grand though buh. Later, I got the sharp intake of breath from Mr. Tyre Fixer so, remembering my late dad's advice that tyres are the only reason I'm not in the ditch, I forked out for two new tyres. They squirted the correct amount of wind into all of the tyres and I continued on my merry way.

At home yesterday, I thought it wise to recheck the wind pressures and check the torques (technical term for "tightness") of the wheelnuts. The first wheelnut socket immediately shattered so I resorted to the hardened / impact sockets which were supplied with my super-duper, wind-powered impact wrench. Well, the impact wrench purred, then wheezed, then farted and eventually spat its airhose off, leaving it to flap wildly around the driveway, scaring the woof.

"Lucky thing I checked these BEFORE I got another punksture at the side of the road, in a hurry, in the pouring rain, in the dark".

The wheelnuts stubbornly continued to resist any form of movement - never has so much been shouted at so little by so few for so long - but, eventually, victory was mine. With my trusty torque wrench (a yoke for checking tightness) I conquered the wheelnuts and now they are removable by people smaller than sumo wrestlers. And my back will be better by next week.

See, Mr. Tyre Fitter also has a wind-powered impact wrench which he sets to 11 to remove rusty or stubborn wheelnuts. When refitting the nuts, he SHOULD adjust the force down to the car makers' recommended torque......but he never does! The moral of this tale is to tell Mr. Tyre Fitter to apply the correct torque to the wheelnuts or you will return and apply the broken wheelbrace, with maximum torque, onto his bonce.

Terms and conditions apply.

Agree with you there Brens, I like my drinks to have an element of fluid replacement in them, Espresso is just concentrated abuse!

:eek: You did not speak out!! Pshaw!


(and espresso is overrated...)