Going Off Alarming

In response to:Reality Check - Something Special

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 08:10:53 +0200

hope she's feeling a bit better...the pox thing is grim. My tow were nothing more than talking pustules for days on end it seemed. Anyway, warm salty bath really soothes them when the calamine gets boring. take care! :wave:

In response to:Reality Check - Something Special

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:56:26 +0100

OOhhhh poor little thing...I have been there. Done that with both of mine...Eurax is brill too.

In response to:Grrrrrr!!!! Look - It's Quite Simple

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:03:23 +0100

When I was a student, I lived with a girl who left her teabag on the draining board. This drove me so mad, one night I put her tea bag in her bed, under the duvet!
She never left it on the draining board again!!

In response to:Grrrrrr!!!! Look - It's Quite Simple

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:23:53 +0100

Yep - totally agree. I used to want to kill a flatmate who made tea as an all in one experience, bag milk and sugar all at once. Vile vile vile.

In response to:Grrrrrr!!!! Look - It's Quite Simple

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:25:37 +0100

Oh there is. :yes:

I do not mind, pots or direct to mug. But if the milk has gone in the wrong order it is just WRONG. And it tastes so....well...wrong too.

In response to:Grrrrrr!!!! Look - It's Quite Simple

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:06:48 +0100

I completely agree.

I have a friend who makes tea in mugs and insists on putting the milk in first. This perplexes me greatly.

I have a M.I.L who insists that tea is made in pots. This pisses me off greatly.

Now having agreed with you and stated that what my friend does perplexes me greatly and that my M.I.L pisses me off because she insists on tea being made in pots. I can't actually tell the difference whichever way its made and I'm not convinced that there even is a difference!

In response to:Grrrrrr!!!! Look - It's Quite Simple

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:25:23 +0100

I do hope you mean milk in //cup// first, not milk in //pot// first...

:>>

In response to:The Neighbours New Car

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:35:02 +0100

I am extremely jealous. Whilst learning to drive, my first car was a a lovely little fiesta, not really big enough for our growing family as my son had to sit with his knees by his chin when the car seat was in the back, but it cost £250 and the insurance was cheap.

I passed my driving test just after christmas only to discover that my dear father had reversed my car into a truck and it now had a rather squashed posterior.

I now drive around in my partners car, a vectra ... my little legs only just reach the pedals and with an ever expanding bump I hardly fit behind the wheel. It's far too long and I cant see over the bonnet. And you cant open the electric windows because they have fallen off the runners and slide into the doors.

I look forward to the day when I feel "a little better" about my own car. :D

In response to:The Neighbours New Car

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:33:27 +0100

aww this is so sweet! Contrast my neighbours and their 4 vehicles which they clog the road up with - I could cheerfully torch all of them - especially the 28 yr old capri that Daddy brought home as a 'project' and dumped opposite my house. What a lovely view it is. Yes...I am trying to get it towed away but currently it is taxed. The second that it isnt....:)

In response to:Smart Casual - Help!

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:22:46 +0100

Very nice variety of casual dresses I found at Chadwick's store...

In response to:A Very Bad Day....but deliciously bloggable!

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:57:54 +0100

oops.
wasn't logged on.

In response to:A Very Bad Day....but deliciously bloggable!

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:56:15 +0100

hmmm, i can imagine.

:P

In response to:A Very Bad Day....but deliciously bloggable!

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:52:47 +0100

the way my day was going, it would not have surprised me if it was dead or out of range.

I ahve had better days

In response to:A Very Bad Day....but deliciously bloggable!

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:40:36 +0100

sounds like a lovely day.....
not. honestly, somethimes you wonder if it only happens to you.

the mobile phone working was definetly a plus. but for that kind of day, you deserved it.

In response to:A Very Bad Day....but deliciously bloggable!

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 01:04:50 +0100

Oh...so true re spin cycle....
they just crash and sleep and spin..it's amazing.....
and in the morning..it's so fresh and bright for them...and they wonder why mummy is so tired!!!

In response to:A Very Bad Day....but deliciously bloggable!

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:53:48 +0100

Nope, then pen is now safely in my bag. Another logo'd pen for the collection. My last chance to nab one of theirs too.

As for your two sneaking in, we don't have that issue yet. But I fear it won't be long and then we will have to get a lock as it could all get a bit..err..well..y'know. ;) :oops:

In response to:A Very Bad Day....but deliciously bloggable!

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:19:03 +0100

You didn't think to give the pen back then?!

Thanks for pointing out that junction 30/31 is the Lakeside exit i know excatly where you mean now ;)

Oh and I have decided to take the step of putting a lock on our bedroom door. That should stop the little critters from climbing into our bed at unearthly hours of the night!

:))

In response to:A Very Bad Day....but deliciously bloggable!

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:35:07 +0100

Well that was worth blogging - good job all days aren't like that. Now you really deserve that break in America! :yes:

In response to:Saturday night is NOT Alright

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:03:37 +0100

You've nothing to feel guilty about - the children will appreciate you more when you've had a little break from them.

Spend some "you" time with your wife.

In response to:Saturday night is NOT Alright

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:47:17 +0100

Thanks M, That's exactly what the GLW's mum will say too. But I just can't shake the guilt.

Friends of ours go off for two weeks to the other side of the world without their kids and do not have a care in the world. Their kids seem to stil love them...

Dan

In response to:Saturday night is NOT Alright

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:27:22 +0100

Speaking as a Mum and Grandma - If you were my Son I'd say "go and have a great time - you deserve a break so make the best of it!" The little ones will be just fine.

Marian x

In response to:Dirty Dancing

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:27:43 +0100

Odd you should say that as a box actually works out cheaper if you fill it. I think it has 10 seats and they want £400 for it.

But the problem is, being on the sides means you miss the edge of the stage that you are at.

I had a box once at the royal albert hall and as great as it was, i did feel like I was not "involved"

But anyway - back of a cow? Talk about write your own punch line!

In response to:Dirty Dancing

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:44:40 +0100

having spent 4 nights as the back end of a panto cow (don't ask) bent double and so hot I lost a stone -I would agree with you and say that it was still more comfortable than my last trip to the theatre so you're spot on about the investment needed. The only way is to get a private viewing - but that might set you back more than 60 quid I guess...

In response to:Dirty Dancing

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:52:08 +0100

well good for you going out and doing that....:) glad it was good in spite of everything......nothing like a show that picks you up and carries you the whole way....real escapism and mmmmm.....wonderful.

In response to:The 9 Rules Of Christmas - Important

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:06:23 +0100

Hear bloody hear!!! This is precisely why I push off to the highlands where there are no tellys or rellies!!!
Have a fab one x

In response to:The 9 Rules Of Christmas - Important

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:49:40 +0100

We work it so that one year, we're at my parents' for xmas day and the next year we're at the other half's parents'. We swap for boxing day. My brother and sisters all do the same with their in-laws, so one year my mom has a really busy Christmas day and a quiet boxing day, and the next year she has a quiet Christmas day and busy boxing day. Works well. We always stay at my in-laws house anyway, so we see them first thing on Christmas morning even if we're at my parents' house the rest of the day, and we nip over to my parents' house to open presents on the in-laws year. Everybody's happy.

Love your rules!

In response to:Am I right...or just tight?

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:47:37 +0100

i agree with peter kay hobnobs are the best!!!! haha when i read that the whole scene played out in my head and youve just had me laughing out loud here for 10minutes!!!! hahaha

and again i agree with the fact that is in dibolical that places charge soo much for tea and coffee...i am proud to say that i have never set foot in a starbucks (well ive been in boarders and they have one on the 2nd floor, but i promise i didnt stand on the laminated flooring section of the caffee ;)

why pay that much money when you can make them at home...fine it wouldnt have a shot of hazlenut in but who cares...normal nescafe all the way for me please!

In response to:Am I right...or just tight?

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 20:37:38 +0100

Rich Tea? Digestives? Get dipping with Ginger Nuts, ya big Jessie.

In response to:Am I right...or just tight?

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:52:44 +0100

Science and the Art of Biscuit Dunking!

Biscuits (or what the Americans call "cookies") have been around for about 2,300 years, but only very recently have we started applying science to biscuits . I'm not talking about how to best make biscuits, but the serious business of how to dunk biscuits.

Thanks to physics, we have discovered which biscuits are best for dunking, and we've even discovered that tea and coffee are not the best liquids for dunking your biscuits in.

Biscuits started off in Rome around the 3rd Century BC. The word biscuit comes from the Latin "bis coctum" which means "twice-baked". Back then, a biscuit was a thin unleavened wafer, quite hard, and with a very low water content - hence the name "twice-baked".

The advantage of the low water content was that the biscuit would have a long shelf-life, because it wouldn't get mouldy. Way back then, it was a few thousand years before tea and coffee would made it to Europe, so the ancient Romans would soften their hard biscuits by dunking them in wine.

But nowadays the preferred liquids are hot tea or coffee. But there are a lot of different factors to consider when you want to dunk a biscuit. After all, you don't want your biscuit disintegrating, leaving you with an unattractive sludge on the bottom of your hot cuppa.

Some new-fangled modern biscuits have a central creamy section which is prone to melting leaving behind two tasteless wafers, while other biscuits will simply collapse into a sloppy mess. Some biscuits are too stiff and rigid to enjoy easily before dunking, but pleasantly edible after dunking.

But structural integrity is only part of the story - there's taste as well. For example some biscuits are boring and tasteless before you dunk them, but delicious after you dunk them.

So in 1998, Dr. Len Fisher (working out of the University of Bristol in the UK) decided to look at the Physics of Biscuit Dunking.

Now a biscuit is basically dried-up grains of starch, which are glued together with sugar. The hot liquid will swell and soften the grains of starch - which is good. But the hot liquid will also dissolve the sugar, so that eventually the wetted biscuit loses so much structural integrity that it will collapse under its own weight.

The reason that it gets wet is because a biscuit is porous. It is riddled with interconnecting hollow channels. Once the tea or coffee gets access to these channels, capillary action sucks the liquid deeper into the channels. Len Fisher used an old equation from 1921 to predict how long it would take for the liquid to rise in your favourite biscuit.

But he did more than just scribble equations - he did experiments, involving gold, a belt-sander, a microscope, an X-ray machine, and sensitive weighing scales. He found that the best dunking time for a gingernut biscuit was 3 seconds, but 8 seconds for a digestive biscuit.

Overall, his personal recommendation was to use a wide-brimmed cup filled almost to the top, to do horizontal dunking (so that only the bottom side got wet), and then to quickly turn your dunked biscuit upside down so the stronger dry side gives structural integrity to the wet side.

But in 1999, Len Fisher decided to come back and look more deeply at flavour. He wanted to work out which liquid is the best for dunking. To his surprise he found that the best dunking liquid is not hot tea or coffee - but a milk drink.

Now there are two factors to flavour - taste (where the flavour chemicals excite the taste buds on your tongue) and smell (where the flavour chemicals excite the olfactory epithelium in your nose).

To analyse the smells, his team inserted a tube into one nostril of the eager volunteers. The different flavour chemicals from each sample of air were separated and then analysed.

And sure enough, dunking your biscuit into a milky drink gives you up to 11 times more flavour release than from eating the dry biscuit alone.

Why? Well, the answer lies in the fat in milk. Milk is basically little tiny droplets of fat which are suspended in water. These droplets of fat do two things. First, they absorb the flavour molecules really well. Second, these little fat droplets also hang around in your mouth, so that the flavour and aroma chemicals can sit on your tongue AND be released up to your nose.

But hot non-milky drinks tend to carry the flavour molecules straight down your gob and into your gut before the taste sensors on your tongue and the olfactory epithelium in your nose have had a chance to fully appreciate them.

His team also found that the worst drink to have with your biscuit is a soft drink such as lemonade. The flavour does not stay the same, it actually goes down by a factor of 10.

But these remarkable research results don't come easy - you've got to be prepared to work right through your morning tea break.

In response to:The Doctors Surgery

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:07:08 +0100

haha you men are such wuss'..why are you so scared of needles?! yes they hurt but literally for a second, and then its gone away!really it amuses me, when working in teh nhs and having to take blood tests it was always the men that would go green! hehe fond memories!