sime42

First cucumber and chillies of the season. Surprisingly early, especially given the brutal cold nights we're still getting. With oodles more on the way. We've been having lettuce for a couple of months. What's everyone else picking now?

I dunno, if it's anything like Squid then the preparation is a doddle. Much easier than doing a fish. You just pull the central cartilage out, the guts come with it, then peel off the skin. I'm sure I've eaten Cuttlefish years ago but someone else must have cooked it. I'd like to have it again, but you so rarely see it for sale here. Might have to try some of our UK cuttlefish when we go to Majorca in a couple months!

Bonkers isn't it?! Such is the absurdity of global trade sometimes. To be fair though, a lot of that is due to the very narrow tastes of the UK when it comes to seafood. If it ain't Cod or Salmon then people generally won't touch it. All the more interesting stuff gets exported to Europe and beyond where they love it. Like the Cuttlefish . Meanwhile we're so desperate for boring old whitefish that we import farmed Basa and the like all the way from Vietnam.

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Nothing. I was speculating that your man Trump was spouting bollocks; as usual. Ramaphosa on the other hand showed the comportment and restraint that befits a true statesman. Unless, can you offer up another interpretation for the term "re-truthing"? Fact-checking Donald Trump's Oval Office confrontation with Cyril Ramaphosa WWW.BBC.CO.UK President Trump made a series of claims about the killing of white farmers in South Africa, some of which are demonstrably...

I heard a nice little programme about Rover a few weeks back. Archive on 4 - A Child of Rover - BBC Sounds WWW.BBC.CO.UK Nathalie Olah revisits the story of Britain's leading volume car producer.

Fair enough, I stand corrected. Thanks. Newlyn looks and feels bigger, but I had no ideas of the values involved. Is it Brixham where they also land a large volume of Brown Crab? Which then gets stuck on a lorry up to Heathrow, and flown straight over to China to be sold for a fortune. Or maybe that was Salcombe. Crazy stat about Harrods.

Well that's a new one for me Wordle 1,433 6/6 ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Spot the frustration in the middle couple of lines there.

Lots to go at there. Again, some I agree with, some not. Indians - good food, Italians - good food, Americans - bad food. American multinational companies - shit "food". I'm bemused by the Cadbury gumph. Suffice to say that the EU did not force them to relocate to Europe. The owners of the company were ultimately responsible, be they British or American at the time. They would indeed have been far better to build a new factory in south Bham. The area was desperate for new employment after Rover collapsed at Longbridge, it still suffers now. There is absolutely a link between poverty, fast food, obesity and type 2 diabetes. Everything in moderation yes, but that doesn't happen in a lot of cases. No-one can subsist healthily on a diet of exclusively fast and ultra processed food. Regardless of how much they exercise. There certainly are far too many skewed priorities and dire lifestyle choices. Sky TV, Netflix or the latest phone are not necessities. Walked or ran 14 miles per day, on top of a day of manual labour? Fair play to you.

Call that a fishing harbour Norway?! And Brixham is tiny in comparison to Newlyn. Cadbury moving to Europe is due to the company being taken over by Kraft and then Mondelez. Both big American/international food and drink companies. They and others like them are responsible for the disastrous food landscape in this country. Nothing to do with EU, or immigrants. Their food is generally far healthier, (and tastier) than ours. I say ours, but what is British food these days? It's KFC, pizza, Subway or any of the other crap pushed out by the likes of Uber or Just Eat. We've lost our traditional fayre, but not due to immigrants. Aspartame, yeah it's the devil's nectar. Ban it henceforth

Yep, agree with a lot of that. The UK is pretty ****************ed right now, whichever way you look at it. I don't believe much of that is the fault of the EU though, it's far more to do with our very own home grown attitudes. Be that of our politicians or swathes of their electors. Not forgetting of course the unelected ultra rich individuals, (the traditional media, social media and big tech types), who have a large amount of influence behind the scenes. If we were to be part of a bigger block, the EU for instance, we would at least have more power to resist their insidious efforts to hold sway over an ever increasing portion of all our lives. Make people earn their benefits - absolutely. Far too many Great British multi-generational families of benefit bums. Except that many are now too ill to actually work. For that we can blame successive governments for failing to stand up to the huge multinational food and drink corporations forcing crap down people's throats. Fix that and we'd go a long way to fixing the NHS as well. It's all connected. I forgot junkies. Taking that to be drug abusers. Drug abuse is generally accepted as being a symptom of inequality and lack of aspiration in society. I've not checked but I expect that we in the UK have one of the highest rates of drug abuse in Europe, so that's not going to get any worse if we rejoin the EU either. It's all common sense when you sit down and think about it.

@Tree monkey 1682 You'll need to draw up a Venn Diagram for that list of people who wouldn't like you! They won't all fit neatly in one circle, it'd be messy. There's very much anti-Labour anti-vaxers, very much unwoke work capable Daily Mail reading benefit bums (of the indigenous variety), and very much unpride asylum seekers, etc etc. Messy.

The act of establishing "alternative facts" probably. AKA lies. Just another new word for that old favourite of Tango's. A bit like what he was trying, but failing to do yesterday. It's amazing what passes for statesmanship these days. He has all the gravitas of, err, I don't know .......... A can of Tango! Ramaphosa keeps cool during Trump's choreographed onslaught WWW.BBC.CO.UK The BBC's Gary O'Donoghue analyses how the South African president reacted in an extraordinary Oval Office meeting.

D'oh! Do we have to? I was only in it for the flippancy this time.

Olives, wine, Parma ham. Baked beans, pasties.

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Might want to change your username if you're looking for work. 😜 Good luck anyway.

Very ****************ing late, but hopefully not too ****************ing late.

A brief derail into Faces in Figs.

I wonder if this'll work? Starmer and his crew finally seem to be growing a pair. So maybe. Seems like Israel is getting increasingly isolated now, with more countries breaking cover to issue pretty stark condemnations. Hell, even best mate Trump swerved them last week, you know it's getting serious. UK steps up action against Israel over Gaza offensive WWW.BBC.CO.UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy summons the Israeli ambassador and suspends talks on a trade deal.

No worries, I'll be Doug's wingman this evening. Wordle 1,431 X/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟨⬜

Chorizo and pepper pizza. Garnished with rocket and basil out the garden.