Clarkkent

Long haul must be a pretty boring experience. I'm not surprised they fall asleep. In the future, there will just be one man and a dog on the flight deck. The man will be there to give passengers the reassurance that there is a real human in the driving seat, and the dog will be there to bite him if he touches anything.

[quote user="You can call me Betty"] And, in case you may consider it relevant to the answer, you might like to know that I only drink green tea, or rooibos. [/quote] Are you sure? I thought that this is South African red bush tea. The green tea I had in Japan was made with warm - not boiling - water and was greenish in colour with a very delicate flavour.

[quote user="woolybanana"]No, he had a jury of four personalities, one of whom was a lady from liverpool who had the charming accent. Whatever became of her, I wonder.[/quote] Wooly is not alone in confusing "Juke Box Jury" with "Count Your Lucky Stars" . Most people I know who recall the programmes make the same mistake. He can check the Wikipedia entries if he is still unsure. I also recall "Journey Into Space" where David Jacobs was both announcer and bit-part player. There were some stuffed shirts who objected to him chairing "Any Questions" - they thought that, being a DJ, he lowered te tone of the programme. I thought he was fine and was sorry when he stepped down.

[quote user="Mr Ceour de Lion II"] Bush was the right man at the time for what happened in 9/11. [/quote] I couldn't agree less. His actions exacerbated the problems associated with and following 9/11. They may have played well within the Union but they made the rest of  the world a more hazardous place.

Am I alone in being concerned that the victory of opposition forces in Syria may not be a particularly good thing? Like everyone else I am shocked, appalled, horrified, sickened by the actions of the Assad regime. What I'm not so certain about, though, are the agenda and objectives of the anti-government forces. My fear is that they may be pan-Islamists and that their victory would strengthen Iran. The actions of the previous American president, by removing Saddam, reduced the strength of the buffer against Iran. The removal of the Assad regime may only make a nuclear war between Iran and Israel more likely. Unlike his predecessor, Obama is not an idiot, but he also has to act inside a national culture that often, to an outsider, appears to be politically naïve and simplistic. To appear credible to his electorate he has to be bellicose and USA-centric. He may not now need to seek re-election, but he has to deal with members of the legislature who do.

I have to agree with Betty. Do these people think that their illegal driving practices should be excused because they are ferrying people for hospital treatment? Do you think that sick and vulnerable people should be transported by people who drive carelessly - even dangerously? Have you thought about the real consequences of their behaviour? Perhaps the drivers believe that they should be considered to be ambulance drivers. Ambulance drivers undergo training to be able to drive under blue lights, and this training emphasises the need not to endanger other road users. Have these volunteer drivers been subjected to any driving assessment? If so, how did they drive during the assessment? If not, why not?  

Sounds a good idea. Does your UK phone have caller identification?   I have toyed with the ideas of saying: "You couldn't have rung at a worse time. We are just about to sacrifice a virgin - you know how hard they are to get, these days ..." or, holding the phone a little way away, calling: "Sarge, its another of those calls again, do want me to get a trace on it?"

[quote user="Rabbie"][quote user="Clarkkent"] [quote user="NormanH"]I actually meant 'cru' which I take to mean non pasteurized. Is there an issue with that nowadays? Thanks for all your replies [/quote] I think that the issue is that bottles containing pasteurised milk are labelled "frais". [/quote]I checked on my milk in the UK.  It was labelled "Fresh Pasteurised Milk" [/quote] Hi Rabbie I'm looking at a bottle of Candia Grandlait Frais. You have to search the label for any statement that the milk is pasteurised. It is there but on the back close to the nutrition information. A casual observer may interpret "frais" as meaning untreated. On another tack: I am intrigued by the preference for semi-skimmed milk shown by so many people. In the UK, full-fat milk has a fat content of 4% amounting to about 2.5 grams in a pint. By buying semi-skimmed they are reducing their fat intake by about 1.5 grams. The same people will eat a "healthy" salad containing a 25 gram lump of cheddar. The contribution of fat in milk to the overall daily fat intake is quite small. It strikes me that the reason for skimmed milk on supermarket shelves is because the dairy companies have found a market for the milk left over from cheese, butter and cream manufacture. The dairy companies promote the "healthy" properties of an otherwise surplus product which is sold for the same price as the unadulterated product. A nice little earner (like water in bottles). Or am I just being cynical?

[quote user="NormanH"]I actually meant 'cru' which I take to mean non pasteurized. Is there an issue with that nowadays? Thanks for all your replies [/quote] I think that the issue is that bottles containing pasteurised milk are labelled "frais".

[quote user="Catalpa"] However, thinking further... I suppose that obviously different backgrounds - white family with Indian or Chinese child ... [/quote] I heard a story about a couple who adopted a Chinese child. They were asked constantly how they would ensure she was going to be kept in touch with "her culture". Their reply was that they were going to bind her feet.

By fresh, I assume you mean pasteurised milk. It always intrigues me that the French don't buy the product that their greatest medical scientist developed. Or do you mean straight from the animal, untreated? I buy pasteurised milk and put the bottles straight into the freezer and have never had any mishap. The frozen milk is yellow but returns to its normal colour on thawing. With freezers being almost universal, I find it hard to understand why anyone would want to buy UHT milk. The problem is that being fresh it goes off quickly and even more so in the recent thundery conditions, and it is supplied in 1 litre bottles which is more than I get through in a day. Not in my experience. An advantage of pasteurised milk is that once opened, and kept in the fridge, it stays useable for twice as long as UHT milk.

[quote user="idun"] BCBG   ................... bon chic bon genre, although there is a ruder version.[Www] [/quote] If you want an appropriate English equivalent .... perhaps .... Sloan Ranger

[quote user="idun"]OK, I've got to say it. I was rather disturbed the first time a french friend tried to say the english word, 'happiness', to me with their french accent. I didn't think that they were saying 'happiness'. That is not what I heard. As I have said before, I have a bad ear for languages[:-))] [/quote] There is a story about de Gaulle during the War. He and his wife were interviewed, in English (which he actually spoke well), on the BBC. At the end of the interview Mme de Gaulle was asked if there was anything that she would like to bring about. Her reply was "I would like everybody to have a penis." Her husband said "My dear, you mean happiness."   I read the original post and concluded that the comments appeared to be rather pompous and that the writer would probably be trying to get back to Britain in about five years time. I have met several people in France who have espoused similar sentiments, only to return to Britain a couple of years later. I bought my French house intending to move to France on retirement. This plan was scuppered by my wife becoming seriously ill and eventually dying a few years later. After she died, I was making plans to move to France but was prevailed upon delay my decision. I have no idea how my life would have developed had I moved, but I now have a life in England which is rich in friendship and which is rich and varied in culture, too. I have opportunities for experiences which would be impossible (or at least difficult) in France. I still have my French house and I try to spend much of summer and periods at other times of the year in it. But twenty years of French house ownership have proved to me that, whatever my original thoughts, permanent residence may not have given me the satisfactions that my current arrangements provide.  

A couple of points: First, it was not Prince Philip who publicly used the term "Bongo Bongo Land" but Alan Clark in about 1985. Mr Clark (the son of Lord Clark of "Civilisation" fame) was a junior minister at the time. It did not seem to harm his political career. Mr Bloom appears to delight in being ... err ... controversial. Among his utterances have been that since the country cannot afford to keep them, all disabled children should be aborted; that women fail to clean behind fridges, and of a student visiting him in Brussels, something like "Delightfully bimbette, absolutely thick but great tits." (I suspect the forum software will censor me here - but think of small birds with "blue" or "coal" in their names.) UKIP has nothing to offer the British electorate but fond (possible inaccurate) dreams of times past. I hope that the party goes out and recruits a whole regiment of Godfrey Blooms because then the electorate might begin to see how empty UKIP's political philosophy really is.  

Well, I am here in France having crossed using the Shuttle. I travelled from Folkestone to Calais in the early afternoon on a Monday in July and shall return in late morning on a Monday in September. My travel costs were £140 return reduced by £90 by using £30 worth of Tesco Clubcard vouchers.

[quote user="woolybanana"] There has been some polemic over the choice of leading ladies to appear on UK banknotes, culminating, I gather in the choice of that fine exponent of Mills and Boon, Jane Austin. What a stoopid choice. Anyway, who would you like to see depicted - and, no, Norman, you can't have Miss September 1996 as she was in fact not English but Hungarian, even if she did make a lot of British gentlemen happy? [/quote]   Rosalind Franklin.

I, too, am a member of The Wine Society, I bought a share for £10 about 40 years ago, when I was naïve enough to believe that wine appreciation was the front door to social respectability and that a van, bearing the Society's logo, delivering a box to my home would impress my neighbours. As the years passed I realised that neither of my beliefs was justified and that, although I do not dislike wine, it is no great importance to me and something which I do not miss if I do not consume it. I have long realised that The International Exhibition Co-operative Wine Society (to give it its full name) is just another mail order retailer.

How can a postage stamp be environmentally friendly? A second-class delivery system uses just as much energy as a first-class system, it just uses it more slowly. In fact, storing mail for an extra 24 hours may itself be more wasteful!

Wine is wine is wine to me. It is not an important element in my life nor in my relationship with France. I tend to use Vieux Ceps in cooking, though.

[quote user="Quillan"] Having now seen the actual survey I think the way the answers are presented in the newspaper is a little cantankerous to be honest. See what you think. http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/ipsos-mori-rss-kings-perils-of-perception-topline.pdf [/quote] I note that the analyst(s) who prepared the survey summary, like many of the contributors to this forum, cannot spell "licence" correctly. [6]

Betty is right, it all is getting rather silly. But then, that's the world we live in. It seems that success in sport is used - almost universally - as a yardstick against which a nation's self-worth is judged. Only a year ago, the UK was crowing about its medal totals in the Olympic Games. Some commentators have suggested that Australia is ridden with self doubt simply because its sporting achievements are rather less than it thinks they should be. In the case of tennis, well, lawn tennis was a game invented in England (am I right in thinking Birmingham?) and yet England continually finds it difficult to produce any players capable of standing up to the best in the world, whereas "insignificant" countries like the Czech Republic or Croatia or Serbia seem to produce top players at the drop of a hat. My own opinion is that as long as tennis is perceived as a safe middle class activity, in the same social category as vicarage tea parties, it will be difficult to find large numbers of top players. It will only be when working class boys perceive tennis as an alternative to football as a route to wealth and fame that these will emerge. It is instructive to compare the provision of public courts in England and France. My French commune has a population of about 250, but it has three tennis courts, and many of the neighbouring villages also have tennis courts. In my English midlands town, population 25,000, there are no public courts. The only ones available are attached to schools or private clubs. Mr Murray now appears to have become an honorary Englishman and there are loud mutterings in high places about a knighthood. But it's only a game.

[quote user="Rabbie"][quote user="Clarkkent"] Congratulations to Andy Murray. And who was the last British citizen to have been a Wimbledon men's champion? [/quote] I believe that Fred Perry did not take out USA citizenship until after he won Wimbledon. Your point is??? [/quote] The question doesn't ask who was the last British citizen to win the title. The last such person was Jaroslav Drobny, in 1954, who was also the oldest man to win the men's title. He had settled in England and had an English wife. However, he was not granted British citizenship until five years later. At the time of his victory he held an Egyptian passport. He also played ice hockey and won an Olympic silver medal as a member of the Czech team at the London games in 1948.

Congratulations to Andy Murray. And who was the last British citizen to have been a Wimbledon men's champion?

[quote user="Catalpa"][quote user="Zero Cool"]What the heck does cultivating yourself mean?[/quote] Sitting in the dark under a blanket of nice warm manure  ....  [/quote]   Like I said, bovine effluent.    

[quote user="Russethouse"]What I admire is that two new members have apparently joined just so they can comment on this book......[Www][/quote]   So are you suggesting that it is part of a Cunning Plan by the publishers to market the book to a complacent audience?