Ivor Nidea

First time back here for a few months. Thought I would add a humorous way of dealing with bureaucracy, but maybe you have seen it before. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wtbQUaC9mE Having spent the last 12 years in France it was with a certain amount of reluctance that two months ago I decided to move back to the UK. So far I am enjoying picking up from where I left off, now living in a place where I grew up and spent my teenage years. Most of you will not be aware that 8 years ago my life was turned upside down when I lost my dear wife, which was when I joined the forum in an attempt at grasping at straws to keep going. In doing so I was able to take part in some lively exchanges, during which I count myself lucky at having made friends with some of you, albeit a few of which have never (sadly) been face to face meetings. Having now made my life back again in the UK I doubt very much whether I will continue to look at the forum as I have now got out of the habit, but I would like to thank you all for making the forum an interesting place to visit, often for me late at night. If at times I got under anybody's skin for being so blooming annoying with some of my postings it was all done in a friendly manner. Kind regards to all, Ivor (who was weedon until I forgot my password) but really Peter.   

[quote user="Quillan"] Not wishing to point the finger at any one particular individual but rather just a general observation but it seems there is a little bit of self righteousness in the thread from those who never eat pre packed meals frozen, tinned etc meals. I am glad that some have the time to cook meals from scratch using only the best ingredients but as I said before not all of us have that time. [/quote] No need to worry about pointy fingers, I am used to it as I have always been a know-all, so over many years it's water off a ducks back. Think of me as the bloke in the corner of the bar who chips in on every subject as if he has the definitive answer. I have lost count of the number of posts on forums that have come to a shuddering halt whenever I make a post. Now back to the wider issue on what I am coming to think of as another of my "Zulu Principles." The Horse meat/Obesity scandal. For Rabbie.  Look up how Jim Slater came to call his book of the same name. The dobbin issue is the culmination from many years of the proliferation of eating places in the high street.  Nowadays it's impossible to walk many yards without falling into somewhere selling drinks or food and it appears to be almost obligatory to snack or have a meal whenever anybody goes shopping,  a lot of which is consumed without bothering to even sit down to eat or drink.  So is it any wonder that more and more people are obese, or that more children appear to suffer from allergies and have behavioural issues. As more and more eating and drinking establishments flood our town centres and out of town shopping malls so the relentless drive to be cheaper and tastier than the next place. It's not a question of having the time to cook meals from scratch, or using the best ingredients, it's about what we think of as being important to our own well being.  If you want to eat a slice of "meat" carved from something that looks like an elephants leg, or give your children cans of fizzy drink dreamed up by a chemist in a laboratory then I would suggest they are just a couple of tiny examples from the tip of the huge obesity problem tied in with what goes into ready meals and processed food. I accept that I maybe have fixed views  about food, which is probably because it has been gained over a very short period in an otherwise longer life as cooking for myself is a relatively new experience. But to my mind food doesn't need to be complicated and simple meals that are healthy enough can be easily made from raw ingredients in less than 30 minutes, which is probably quicker than it takes to get another tattoo or to wait for the take-away to be delivered, probably cheaper as well. If more and more people decided to be self-righteous it might be a start to a healthier life-style with no need to be concerned about processed food .    

[quote user="Rabbie"] [quote user="Ivor Nidea"]So the flat-pack furniture warehouse has withdrawn its meat-balls and something called a Wiener sausage (must be a spelling error there?). I am pretty sure that it was an oversight on the part of the PR department not to mention that customers to their furniture store can continue to be reassured that sausages and meat-balls will contain only the finest cuts of Swedish meat abbatoirs can re-cycle. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to know that in every flat pack of balls there is a list of ingredients in fifteen different languages.[/quote]Ivor, Once again you keep an old pedant like me happy by posting without knowing your facts[:)] Wiener is not mispelled - it is the Swedish name for what in the UK we call a Frankfurter. It means coming from Wien(Vienna).  In fact you will find that dachshunds are nicknamed Wiener dogs in America. I have also checked on a packet of ikea meatballs  The ingredients are listed in 16 languages so you were close but no cigar[:D] So remember check yiour facts before posting[:)]   [/quote] Oh Rabbie, bless you [:D] Just as you bumped into the dogs dingly dangles previously, you also missed the wiener one, if you ask Wooly he will explain. In future I shall try to make them a little more obvious.  Perhaps a little more tuning is required on my part. Actually for years in our family the chipolata has been know as LBW's and the Frankfurter/Wiener as BBW's. Thanks for the geography lesson, who would have guessed about Wien being Vienna [Www] Next you'll be telling me you chose your forum name after a sputnik-like vegetable!

So the flat-pack furniture warehouse has withdrawn its meat-balls and something called a Wiener sausage (must be a spelling error there?). I am pretty sure that it was an oversight on the part of the PR department not to mention that customers to their furniture store can continue to be reassured that sausages and meat-balls will contain only the finest cuts of Swedish meat abbatoirs can re-cycle. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to know that in every flat pack of balls there is a list of ingredients in fifteen different languages.

[quote user="Rabbie"][quote user="Ivor Nidea"] Well I reckon you have more courage than me as Ikea would not be any sort of place that I would ever dream of going too for food. The one and only time I have ever been in one I only saw furniture. The more that developes over the meat scandal just confirms that we get what we deserve. If I ever had to serve up a meal for somebody I like to think I could do better than a ball made from sludge blasted by high pressure from animal bones with a side dish of powdered smash. [/quote]Ivor, all the IKEA shops in the uK have a separate Swedish Food shop which we patronise because there are no other outlets near us. Where else do you think we can buy swedish crispbread, cheese etc. BTW Meatballs are not served with mashed potatoes but with boiled ones unmashed so no sign of smash there[:)] However I do enjoy your posts even when obviously ill-informed so keep on posting [/quote] That's because I live in a very old time warp where nothing of the modern world apears very relevant. When I was a kid the only exotic food we had was liver sausage or Shippams fish paste in very small jars, for all I know they both might well have been whale blubber. But at least a carrot will always be a carrot whether it grew up in Sweden or somebody's allotment.  

Well I reckon you have more courage than me as Ikea would not be any sort of place that I would ever dream of going too for food. The one and only time I have ever been in one I only saw furniture. The more that developes over the meat scandal just confirms that we get what we deserve. If I ever had to serve up a meal for somebody I like to think I could do better than a ball made from sludge blasted by high pressure from animal bones with a side dish of powdered smash.

[quote user="LBV Charente"]I don't think it's fair to blame the newsreader individually as Mo Farah isn't a huge name in the USA . Plus, it should have been down to the programme researchers to find out who he was - just a simple google search would have made the interview far more interesting...[/quote] First of all the woman was devoid of any sincerity. Orville the duck would have sounded better. She didn't even get the event correctly, marathon? It was a half-marathon. "Haven't you run before?" What did she imagine, that he had been on holiday and just decided to strip off to run with others he saw running along and happened to beat them.  Mo was so good about it he failed to mention the small point that he just happened to be the best runner in the world over two distances.

Just listen to this stupid women speaking to Mo Farah. http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/feb/26/mo-farah-new-orleans-interview She's probably never heard of the O L Y M P I C S.

Just as I had wondered who it was that bought so many ready-made meals I am even more baffled as to who buys meat balls from Ikea? I went into Ikea once, it was in Mallorca. I went in there to please a family member who said I would like it, I didn't realise they knew their father so well that they have since amused their friends by telling them how annoyed it made me as I tried to find my way out. And people go in there to buy bags of meat balls...blimey!! I am just waiting for somebody now to tell me that they buy them..and they are the dogs *******s.

If you are happy with the veg that is delivered in your farm box there is nothing wrong with that at all, and if it helps the grower to keep doing what he does then so much the better for all concerned. Probably by the time the soup is ready for the bowl a spoonful of that would not be a lot different in taste from somebody elses bought from veg at Carrefour imho. Rating fruit and veg is rather like celebrity ratings, courgette's being on the C list, down there alongside most of what passes for a celebrity these days. I seem to remember that when I once grew tomato's the little cherry ones were really nice eaten straight off the plant, whether that was because they were from my garden or because of the variety I will never know, now that I only buy them from the supermarket they taste much nicer when they have been left for a few days. I read somewhere that toms were one of the very few veg that were better for you once they were cooked, so I do cook them quite often. Whether I live longer for doing that, who knows?

I wonder how many people could actually tell the difference in taste from "farm fresh" produce to "Joe Soap" stuff. When I first came to France I went in for growing my own veg and couldn't believe how much work was involved so I gave up after a couple of back breaking years and now just buy what's in the supermarket. I am a sucker for buying the top price eggs because it says the chickens live in a holiday camp but I imagine one yolk is the same as the next. In my cynical opinion Bio is just an excuse for upping the price. Funnily enough, the news about horse meat being mixed up with donkey reminded me that in our family, for years we have referred to Bovril and Marmite as "Donkey Jam". Years ago when I had a business and went through some periods of shortages I remember hearing about somebody had put a sign in their window that said "Panic buyers welcome here".

My concerns are over. Spoke to a helpful young man this morning who advised that my bill coming out shortly is just a few euros underpaid, so he agreed that as EDF has a little more wonga than me we could leave the monthly payments as they were.

The ones who never made the Olympics! http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=5007694

Just had notice from EDF that they propose increasing my monthly payments from €63 to €93 a month! Seems a bit of a hike to me? I have a wood burner that heats the whole house and is still warm enough in the mornings for me to shamble about in my scants and the only electric heating I use is in the kitchen when it's really icy cold....for the dog. So a 50% rise seems a bit excessive doesn't it? Wood round here varies between €50 and €65 a stere, depending I reckon on how well I am able to order in French, and whether I fail to recognise that the delivery of oak was similar to the horse for beef switch.

Perhaps it is an extension of the dumbing down in programmes nowadays. I have to confess to being the archetypal pleb and never choose to watch anything close to being "arty", so if the programme is chaired by Melvyn Bragg types then it is one to avoid as far as I am concerned, so the references made to art by MD went <woosh> over my head. I did think though that when he was dressed by the costume department in his straw hat, baggy pants and jacket, and the braces borrowed from Bobby Ball, what came to mind was Dirk Bogarde in "The Spanish Gardener". On the whole I thought the series of programmes failed to impart in me a need to visit any of the gardens, even the ones nearer to where I live. Please don't blame me for my lack of any appreciation of art or to my lack of ability in the French language as I went to a bog standard secondary modern school where to be thought of as a swot or in any way having an art "bent" invited a wedgie, dead leg or being hung by the back of your collar to a peg in the cloakroom at break time[:D].