Weedon

Why do you need sugar anyway? Is it for the sweetness or is it to preserve? If it is to preserve then I think that the vinegar will do that as the acid kills off any bacteria. If it is for sweetness then the sugars in the fruit will do that...won't it?  Always assuming you are making a fruit based chutney. It depends Wooly what basic foodstuffs you are making the chutney out of. I only make chutney from the plums in my garden, of which I have 2 types, a couple of trees with Victoria type big ones, and an abundance of the little Mirabelle plums. I also make chutney using my peaches, which are very sweet. Since making the first batch about 4 years ago I have gradually cut down on the amount of sugar I use because I have found the finished product is much too sweet for my taste and I always end up using something like a lime or lemon pickle or chilli blended in to counteract the sweetness. Friends and family who get the surplus chutney have to put up with what I have made and so far have said they like it. That may be of course because they are being polite My next effort is to be chutney using the loads of peaches that are just about ready, and this I intend to make without using any sugar. It remains to be seen whether it will be sweet enough without any sugar. I always follow the same Delia Smith's chutney recipe substituting my fruit for the one in her recipe. The gloopyness referred to in an earlier posting is simply obtained from simmering it for long enough isn't it? Probably costs more in electricity than the cost of sugar! I would be interested to know from proper cooks if my methods and theories are correct.

Turned to stone....ELO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMmRyyU0SOo

What about when you come back again in a different life then?? Up to this morning I wanted to come back as a phychologist, on the assumption that nobody can say you are not able to do your job properly and you get loads of wonga whilst listening to some strange stories. If a client fails to respond then it is down to their own inability to come to terms to what is troubling them rather than a lack of skill by the phychologist. That all changed this morning. I am now coming back as a dentist. I arrived for my appointment at 11.15. I was shown to the dentists treatment couch at 11.25 by the receptionist and then spent 10 minutes listening to the dentist working on another patient in his other treatment room. He breezes in at 11.35, asks me if I have any problems (whilst checking my teeth) then he starts drilling away at a front tooth because he says it was showing slight damage. I'll say it was slight damage, the only slight thing about it was the time it took, as I was out of there by 11.45. No bib to stop me being hosed down by the water spray, no glasses on me or him, no mask on him but at least he did put on a new pair of gloves. Nothing slight about the bill though and I suppose at 75 euros he can afford to use a new pair of gloves for every patient. I feel justified in posting that here on the grounds that I just had lay that to rest. I will save my rant about the dividers on the supermarket check-out conveyors for another day and another thread.[kiss] Edited:- Maybe I mean phychotherapist not phychologist, but when I come back I would make sure I knew the difference.

Would you be kind enough to tell me what to look for as whipping cream?

I didn't often use the local one...he was Scottish. I could never fully understand what he said. But I did notice that his accent became less pronounced over the years...now that's progress[:D]

Oooh Don't! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbbV6fDLmIk Bet you join in with the Whoah whoah whoah [:)]

[quote user="woolybanana"] In what way?[/quote] I don't wish to be specific because it is my own business, but I was referring to this:- The essentials to remember are: You can't be cremated unless you have expressly asked to be You should name a person responsible who has 24 hours from the time of death to declare that cremation is the chosen option. Your Ashes are 'protected' and can't be kept at home for example: and the person who has the Urn has to declare what has been done with the Ashes to the Registrar of the place of Birth

That may well be what the regulations say Norman but I can tell you that the reality can be quite different.

Depends what you mean by "progress" and "integration". I have no immediate neighbours, the nearest ones are 200 metres up the lane where there are about 4 or 5 houses. I have been for meals at 2 of the houses during the 9 years I have lived here, and am on nodding terms to the others, but I reckon they still refer to me as the English chap and not as *****. I don't really want to integrate with them nor do I particularly want them to integrate with me if that means popping in and out of their houses and having to have long conversations about a lot of trivia that is of no interest to me. Funnily enough I held the same views when I lived in a village in Sussex for 30 years.

[quote user="TWINKLE"][quote user="Weedon"] As I am probably a lot nearer the age of falling off my perch than a fair number of you, I have given a bit of thought to what music I would like played as my (hopefully) very expensive coffin goes gliding away through the curtains. And this is it. Wish I could be there to see the reaction. [/quote] Lovely choice of song! I can't stop changing mine! "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead" used to be one of them! Another one I love for those of you who speak French is this one by Serge Rianni 'Le Temps Qui Reste' NormanH will know it if he hasn't foutu le camp de ce fil! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOSLf_-4fG0 [/quote] If you can't speak/understand  French would it be OK to post on a forum to ask if anybody knows of an English speaking singer to sing that one?[:)]

As I am probably a lot nearer the age of falling off my perch than a fair number of you, I have given a bit of thought to what music I would like played as my (hopefully) very expensive coffin goes gliding away through the curtains. And this is it. Wish I could be there to see the reaction.

Mickey Bubbles latest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r81svtCr_8

[quote user="idun"]We are always guests unless we go the whole hog and get citizenship. [/quote] I don't consider myself to be a guest here. To my re-collection I decided to come here without being invited, so maybe I gate-crashed.  So far nobody has objected.

Lurking mostly Reg, as there's not much activity on the music room lately is there? Not much fun on the rest of the forum either I thought. What is needed is either a good old row or a dose of "furry knickers".[:D] How's the jam jar? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjMrxqo43RI&ob=av2e Not much fun to be had  on the artificial sperm sites either as all my posts are returned to sender.

[quote user="tonyd"]Fortunately there is another website that runs a forum, who has members who are only too happy to pass on their experience’s and advice. Where no matter what the question, they always answer sensibly, Not with Garbage about whitely bay, Not sure why anyone in France would be the slightest bit interested in anything North of Watford anyway. Still we have now found one.[/quote] Tony...would you be good enough to tell everybody where you found an English speaking hairdresser, I bet all the other posters are dying to know but don't like to ask. I thought hairdressing salons here only stocked various strengths of an orange colour, from a light rusty drain pipe colour to something that resembles a vivid goldfish, so any other colour would have to be shipped in no matter whether they spoke English or French. Not being an expert on hair styles now, although in my younger days I spent quite a time in trying to achieve the Tony Curtis look, I reckon take a chance on your local teazy weazy but take a beeny hat just in case.

Stan and Ollie doing what passed for break-dancing in the old days [:)] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgwuHYSoiAg

I can only see trouble if that goes ahead, particularly on change over Mondays with the bitching about the state of the living quarters and the empty beer cans lying about. Then it will be the smell of garlic and onions the next Monday, the re-tuning of the telly from Canal to Sky and the arguements about pillows and bolsters. The practicalities have not been thought through. On the upside, it will be obvious who is in charge as the flashing indicator will be going all the way across the Atlantic...I'm assuming aircraft carriers have flashing indicators!

Sounds a bit like Dusty I think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvYUfwMBCrU

Thing is the older I get the more I find words that make my blood boil...words like crimbo-leccy-this arvo-pete tong-pants-peanut smuggling-give me a bell-L8r-M8-thnx-B4-awesome-full on-minging. That is apart from the strange way of talking by some tv presenters. It's no wonder I have high blood pressure. I do my best to eat a healthy balanced diet in order to keep my system working at its peak (ahem) but it feels like there is a conspiracy by the rest of the world to force me into endless ranting and it's not good for me. Now see what you have done gardian [:)] PS If I have missed some blood boiling words please feel free to list them as, after my rant, I feel a sort of Sunday morning mellowing coming over me.

A book I found interesting is Home Run by John Nichol and Tony Rennell ISBN 978 0 141 02419 6. It contains a collection of stories about soldiers and shot-down airmen who evaded capture to try to get back from Nazi occupied Europe to Britain. Some made it...some didn't. At the back of the book is a list of published sources which is good information for locating other books.

I had a 10 minute look at 1am in clear skies and saw 2 really good ones and 2 smaller ones. All 4 were almost directly overhead looking north.

This topic was posted over on the Artificial Insemination website frequented by those lacking in a sense of humour. I rather liked the 2 postings which went like this........ 1st posting :-    Where should I look and at what time? Reply :- Up and After dark Needless to say, the reply was quickly removed.

I'll say goodbye now as it seems I only have 14 years left. Bit of a bug**r in that is just about the amount of guarantee left on my double glazed windows.

One for Sweet and Geronimo.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oDkdiMkRWs  

This one sung by half of Status Quo....not sure if he is Quo or Status. His cousin Valentino is playing rythm guitar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT_YXLl_JCo&feature=related