Don't Kill Snails with Salt ... Creme Eggs & Toasted Teacakes ... Biscuits & Bench Stories, Life, the Universe, & Everything! Showing 1,451-1,500 of 9,227

[Martin]

Great! Start spreading the hot toast and butter!

[suzysunshine7]

MARTIN?!! - how could you?!! ;oO

Isabella, I'll sit on him while you hit him!!! ;o>

[suzysunshine7]

I love the sound of the word ... shubunkin ... ;o>

[[deleted user]]

Despite having driven round this little island of ours for 25 years now, I still find myself passing by, or driving through places I haven't come across previously - this morning I got within a mile of Hedgehog Bridge before driving through New York :)

[suzysunshine7]

But could you still just about see all the local Hedgehogs lined up on the Bridge and waving at you as you went past? ;o>

I shall have to Google New York - to see if it is only so good that they named it once?!

[Lez]

Just up the road from me is California.

[suzysunshine7]

I once stayed in a lovely Holiday Cottage near California Cross in Devon ;o>

[Craig White]

moscow is about a half mile outside of killie!

[suzysunshine7]

I used to know someone who lived in Hollywood ... in Birmingham!

It's a small world that seemingly keeps on getting smaller every day ;o>

Oooh? - well, you learn something new everyday?! ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

[[deleted user]]

Tech wrote: "moscow is about a half mile outside of killie!"

Oh yes, so it is but, what's that I see in the other direction?

Bogend! :)

[suzysunshine7]

... and beyond that is there a ... Bogoff? ... Hee, Hee, Hee!!! ;o>

[suzysunshine7]

More happy news ... I took a chance on ordering something for my parents' Emerald Wedding Anniversary in September ... and it has just arrived substantially and beautifully boxed up - and I absolutely love it!!! ;o>

I actually found it online over several months ago now - and although I originally found it on Amazon, and then looked it up on eBay as well, I bought it off the Metal Foundry's own Website because it was a lot clearer and easier to specify my choice of colours and the words that I wanted on it - plus it also saved me money too.

I have been dithering ever since I first saw it as to what I wanted to go on it - until a few days ago - when I re-looked at it yet again and it suddenly came to me as I made up my Mind there and then.

It is a small, but heavy, and extremely well-made personalised Sundial for the Back Garden - I obviously went with the Emerald Anniversary option of it having a dark bright Green colour and then I chose Gold as the colour of the detail on it ...



M&D have had more than their fair share of hard knocks and great difficulties over the last 55 years and often seem to thrive at times on doing their very best at driving each other completely crackers! - but there has never ever been anyone else for either of them - and there always has been, and hopefully always will be, love between them.

I wanted to reflect on, and to commemorate and celebrate all of that in the words chosen - for it to be particularly personal to them without any trace of illusion/delusion about their marriage, or any twee-ness or short cheesy one-liners. For it to be just right for them and to say it all ... and that's a pretty tall order in the maximum use of just 35 letters around the top ... and 35 more at the bottom including all the spaces!

I spent hours looking online for inspiration and even drawing out words to see how they would look but still nothing came of it - and so I tried not thinking about it instead and that's exactly when it finally suddenly just came to me! ...

"Margaret & Anthony"

"Hand in Hand in Love we Trust"

"Emerald Wedding Anniversary"

;o>

[Martin]

Congratulations Suzy, a wonderful gift and thoughtful words to go with it.
I recently purchased a mechanical pendulum wall clock with full Westminster chimes through Amazon, no special occasion, just something I have always fancied getting. A bit expensive but worth every penny.

[suzysunshine7]

I'm just SO pleased at the perfect finish on it ;o>

It can be really hard being a bit of a perfectionist by nature. If it had any unfortunate flaws in the individual hand-making of it then it would have spoilt it somewhat as a gift for me to give them. It looks just like the picture though and I know that my M&D will surely be as thrilled with it as I am ;o>

It is worth every penny as not many folk are as fortunate in getting to celebrate their Emerald Wedding Anniversary and M&D are sadly not getting any younger. I just hope now they get to enjoy it for a good few years to come in the pride and joy that is their Back Garden ;o>

I thought that I'd also flag it up on here too - just in case anyone else was looking out for a beautiful, unusual, and top quality gift idea ...

https://www.themetalfoundry.uk/

https://www.themetalfoundry.uk/collec...

[Isabella]

Martin wrote: "Great! Start spreading the hot toast and butter!"
As our baby fish are only 2cm long, I think you'd need a lot more than our dozen or so to make a decent snack, Martin! Maybe a water biscuit's worth? (That's if you can catch them, they're pretty fast for their size, so I don't think they'll need our protection, Suzy, but I'll keep the offer in mind, thanks ...).

[suzysunshine7]

I'll keep Martin in a Headlock then, just in case you change your Mind! - LOL!!! ;o>

[suzysunshine7]

Well, another bad night ... but for different reasons this time! ...

I was just half-lying down on my Bed, propped up on Pillows, with my Laptop on my Knee and the TV on low volume at about quarter past 2 this morning when ... and I honestly kid you not! ... the biggest bloomin' Spider, that I have EVER seen in my entire life so far, slowly appeared on the edge of the side of my Bed one long huge hairy Leg at a time until it was fully up and on top of my Bed and only just a couple of mere inches away from my left Leg!!! ... !!! ... ARRRGGGHHH!!! ... !!! ;oO ... ;oO ... ;oO

I think that I handled the horrible situation quite well under the circumstances?!! ... I very slowly and very carefully put my Laptop down on my Bedside Table and then got up as quickly as I could possibly manage and stood there in complete shock and horror saying ... "Ohhh NO!!! - I am most definitely NOT sharing MY Bed with YOU!!!"

It was starting to slowly walk it's way across the Bed to go down over the other side ... where it would then surely race to get safely under the Bed before I could stop it - meaning I could never ever sleep in my own Bed again due to knowing that it was somewhere underneath it! ... so I grabbed the only nearest thing to hand that I could find which turned out to be my favourite (empty) Mug and, as it walked it's way down the side of the Mattress, I covered it just in time before it caught on and made a bolt for freedom, eased a slim booklet (of Fruit Cake Recipes ;o>) underneath the Mug to seal it in and took it downstairs.

I opened the Back Door, unpadlocked the Garage Door one-handed and put the Mug on the Floor and, standing well clear, lifted it ... the MASSIVE Spider sprung out, glared right at me (no really! - I swear it did!) and then it scampered off somewhere behind my Dad's Work Bench!

I then locked up again, went upstairs, and sat back on my Bed, rigid and shaking and nervously anticipating all of the rest of his extensive family suddenly turning up en masse in my Bedroom and demanding to know where he was and what I had done with him?!! And there was absolutely NO possibility of me lying down properly and getting any sleep at all after that! - what a night!!! ;oO

He was bigger than the palm of my Hand! - and looked far more like a small wannabe Tarantula than just an ordinary Giant House Spider?!!

[suzysunshine7]

My Dad went out to the Garage first thing this Morning and started working at his Work Bench on fixing a Neighbour's Broken Lampshade.

I did ever-so-briefly consider telling him who he was now sharing his Work Bench with? ... but I decided that what he didn't know about wouldn't bother him!!!

If I do hear any sudden screams? ... then I will obviously act my Heart out at seeming completely shocked and surprised by his jibberingly incoherent attempts explaining what he has just seen!!! ... Hee, Hee, Hee!!! ;o>

[Craig White]

daddy, what big eyes you have, all one hundred of them!

[Helen The Melon]

I get lots of zebra jumping spiders coming into my house. They're not v big but when I go to catch them they jump off out of my hands. Tricky little buggers. They have big googly eyes.

[suzysunshine7]

I've had a few really tiny ones of those in the House recently, Helen.

They are a right pain to rescue out of the Bath as they resist all attempts to try to carry them on a Tissue or a Towel to safety due to their sudden springs into the air!

I'm getting so much better at keeping calm when dealing with Spiders these days - but, whenever they start jumping, then so do I ! ;oO

[suzysunshine7]

Tech wrote: "daddy, what big eyes you have, all one hundred of them!"

It has gone very quiet in the Garage over the last hour? ... ! ... ! ;oO

[Helen The Melon]

😀
I'm ok with spiders, they don't bother me at all. Which is fortunate really 'cos I've been catching between 1 & 8 per day these past few weeks due to having so many windows open.

[Lez]

I've never heard of jumping spiders, let alone seen any. I'll look forward to meeting some!
It's dead wasp in my bedroom time of year again, 3 so far and one on the landing. Still haven't found their point of ingress or cause of death.

[suzysunshine7]

They just suddenly spring upwards, Lez Lee - and can jump really high!

We haven't done so badly for Wasps so far this year - but I have noticed a sudden increase in them being around over the last fortnight ;o<

[Isabella]

We occasionally get jumpers - they're black and white striped and only about 1 cm, max but, like fleas, they can jump a lot higher than you'd imagine for their size.

[suzysunshine7]

Late Tea ... Fish & Chips for M&D and Chicken & Chips & Curry Sauce for me ;o>

[Gordon]

You know... chip shop curry sauce is something I've never, ever tried. Tried most other "traditional" chippy fare, including the joy of picked eggs, the boak of cod roe and the gastroenteritis of saveloys.

[suzysunshine7]

There are two kinds on offer around here.

There is a very mild and over-sweet typical Chip Shop Curry Sauce made mainly of pureed Onions and it sometimes also has the odd Raisin in as well - and I absolutely can't stand this one.

And there is also a hot, slighty spicy, unsweet and smooth-textured 'Chinese' Curry Sauce that is mainly to be found in just about every Chinese Takeaway - and that is the really delicious one that I always get ;o>

I like to break off pieces of my Chicken and dip it in the Curry Sauce ... along with the odd Chip as well ;o>

[Lez]

Gordon wrote: "You know... chip shop curry sauce is something I've never, ever tried. Tried most other "traditional" chippy fare, including the joy of picked eggs, the boak of cod roe and the gastroenteritis of s..."

What, no spam fritters or (potato) scollops? Our local (L’Pool) chippy near the library was run by an Armenian family and didn’t do curry at all. It was all English food and Mr Kyriackou’s fish and chips were magnificent.
He also ran a local café where Mrs K. did all the cooking. The set lunch was 1/9d (9p ?) comprising soup, a choice of stew or chops etc. with veg, followed by yummy puds such as apple crumble. Bread and butter and a pot of tea as well. Fantastic!
Chinese curry sauce differs widely from place to place, luckily my local’s pretty good for my twice yearly treat. I’ve never tried cod roe or saveloys. The high prevalence of batter up here is not an urban myth. As the wonderful Linda Smith once said, she handed over a fiver in Glasgow and even her change was battered.

[Gordon]

I love potato scollops, Lez, but I can never work out what you're supposed to have them with. Are they to have with chips (fried potatoes & fried potatoes) or instead of chips. I've had home-made spam-fritters but I'm not sure I've been to a chippy that sold them. Where I grew up the local chippy's (an alcoholic from St Helen's who'd washed up in the suburbs of Birmingham) speciality was faggots, or "savoury ducks" as the Brummies called them.

[Gordon]

When I first went to London as a student there was a restaurant in Chelsea (yes, in Chelsea!) where you could get chicken à la king or steak & mushroom casserole with chips, rice & peas and a cup of tea for 90p. (I think that's also what a Big Mac cost at the time, without chips or a drink.) And then apple crumble & ice-cream for some similarly modest price. It wasn't just cheap, though: it was good.

[Lez]

I think most people had scollops instead of chips. I loved faggots, we called them savoury ducks too, but when I said that in Sheffield they looked at me ‘gone out’.
Did you have pickled eggs on pub counters in Birmingham? We always did in L’Pool and Sheffield and they do here but I don’t know how far south they go. Also up here they have free (yes, free) lemonade on pub counters to add to whisky, such sacrilege.

[P]

Lez:
Jars of pickled eggs are to be found in chippies, but can't say I recollect jars of 'em in pubs around Brum and Black Country. Now, bags of pork scratchings are another matter.

Refreshing to see the innocent and multi-meaning word 'faggots' being allowed on GR. Back on Amazon it was a no-no and earned a barring of your post. I tried to explain how as a child, my Irish mother taught me how to make what she called 'faggots' as firelighters for our coal fire. This consisted of getting a flat sheet of newsprint and concertina-folding it into a long, narrow strip. This was then folded in half and plaited, with the final ends tucked in. Folded thus, they would burn slowly and were excellent for helping to get a fire started. Not allowed on the other place, however.

Nice anniversary gift, Suzy!

[Lez]

P wrote: "Lez:
Jars of pickled eggs are to be found in chippies, but can't say I recollect jars of 'em in pubs around Brum and Black Country. Now, bags of pork scratchings are another matter.

Refreshing to ..."

We used to use bundles of faggots - thin pieces of wood about 6” long secured by a piece of wire, bought from the hardware/ironmonger’s (called a chandler’s in Liverpool). Just threw one bundle on the fire each morning. Yes it’s great not having to think about such words on here, in spite of GR being ‘zon.

[[deleted user]]

Never mind pickled eggs, what about pickled walnuts?
Not had pickled walnuts for years - gonna have to go and buy some now :)

Don't know if I'm coming or going at the moment, clocked up nearly 50 hours at work in just four days, and not evenly either - one shift was just over 14 hours. I didn't even realise I was off today until I never received my daily start time email yesterday - that's when I actually checked my roster and found out I'm a week further on than I thought. Thinking I was off Tuesday and Wednesday, the same as Mrs Grizzly, we had made plans to go out somewhere (get in the car and pick a direction, see where we end up!), but we won't now have the same time off until a week on Saturday, when we will be dropping in to see our Granddaughter and drop off her presents for her 5th birthday :)

[suzysunshine7]

I can't get myself a Scallop for love or money around here ;o<

[suzysunshine7]

What a busy Grizzly you are?! AND in this persistent heat too! I hope you get plenty of time to be able to enjoy being part of all the exciting Birthday celebrations.

Are there still 5 year olds who have Parties just like I remember so fondly and so well from my childhood? ... Musical Chairs, Pass The Parcel, Pin The Tail On The Donkey, with Crisps and Fairy Cakes and Jelly & Icecream, then racing all around and hanging upside off Furniture or Garden Swings until at least one of us was sick?!! ... Ohhh, such blissfully innocent and happy days! ;o>

[Gordon]

I'm surprised at that, Suzy. Is Stockport too up-market for scollops?

Lez, I have a vague recollection of jars of pickled eggs on bars but it's so long ago that I could be confusing different memories.

I am probably going to have to travel to Sunderland for work some time soon. I keep getting flashbacks to childhood visits to the seaside along that coast between Seaburn & South Shields (my grandparents lived nearby) and the indescribably delicious smell from the chippies. Fish & chips fried in beef dripping is a truly beautiful smell, and a Proustian trigger for lots of memories. Of course, the same fat that produced the beautiful smell also had a tendency to deaden the taste. Perhaps I should just go there and sniff, without being tempted to taste. I don't imagine anyone uses dripping (or lard) to fry chips any more, though.

[suzysunshine7]

I've asked but just got blank looks, Gordon, and I guess no-one else ever asks about them?

I have seen them listed on a local Chip Shop Menu and I got very excited about this - but they never actually seem to make any because I've never known for them to have them ;o<

Stockport's a big borough so maybe other less local Chip Shops still have them on offer?

[Lez]

Gordon, I’ve not bought fish and chips here for about 4 years but my local was still using beef dripping then. The proprietor’s daughter was Scottish Young Fish-Fryer of the Year for 2 years but nature took its course and there isn’t a Slightly Older award.
We do have a franchise called Four In One - Italian, Indian, Turkish and American with their famous Braveheart (attack) pizza: Onions, cheese, sausage and haggis with chili. I’m sure they’ll add batter if you ask.

[suzysunshine7]

I know of a few Chip Shops around here that still use Dripping ;o>

[Martin]

Back in days of yore when I still lived at home our local chinese had Chicken Maryland on its English Menu. Chicken breast in a lightly spiced batter,chipolata, rasher of bacon, tinned processed peas, chips, pineapple fritter, banana fritter. This sumptuous banquet was about £1.50 then, sadly as the years passed the meal shrunk as one by one some of the ingredients were removed and the price increased but at the time was a weekly staple.
I haven't had a really good curry sauce, either Chinese or Indian for several years now despite trying various takeaways,chip shops and supermarkets which is a big disappointment. Our local chippy does do really nice chips and scollops (we used to call them fritters), their fish is excellent also, they have won several local awards over the past few years.

[Craig White]

thankyou, martin, i was wondering about scollops being some kind of english delicacy, but it's fritturs! twa frittur rolls please! wee bit o' sa't, mibbe broon sauce! the berries!

[Martin]

No problemo Tech, I was a bit confused myself as I assumed they meant the shellfish kind. I dislike shellfish of any description.

[suzysunshine7]

Ohhh? - you should have said ... we call them 'Scallops' here ;o> ...





They are battered Potato Slices ;o>

[Craig White]

they are indeed! :)

[suzysunshine7]

This all reminds me of one of the most funniest comments that I overheard a few years ago now. I was waiting to be served in our local Chippy when an extremely drunk guy suddenly staggered in and stood there swaying while trying his best to focus on reading off the Wall Menu ...

"Battered Fish? ... Battered Fish?! ... I'll gie yer a Battered Fish! ... an' I'll no just batter it? - Ohhh no, you gie me the Fish an' I'll bloody hammer it, pal!!!"

(Does anyone on here recognise the accent?!! ;o> ... ;o> ... ;o>)

[Craig White]

nothing i've ever heard before!

reminds me of a few years ago sitting waiting for my carry out chinese, when i became aware of the proprieter gently telling a customer that he didn't think it wise to fulfill his order as he'd been stabbed! and sure enough, the blood was running out of a huge wound in his back! tough lot, us, take more than a knifing to put us off wur nosh!

[suzysunshine7]

! ... ! ... ! ;oO

Actually, I've known of quite a few people who have come into A&E after being found with a Stab Injury - and yet they apparently had got no idea at all that it had even happened until it was pointed out to them?!