sime42

He was only trying to splash a few squid on some cod wood, and instead he's found himself in an aquarium surrounded by clown fish.

Yes to the single, double or clotted cream. That's all that's needed and cuts through the sweetness of the mince pies perfectly.

This might be controversial but we always have a couple of large chickens rather than turkey, (the thighs are ok, but the rest of the vast amount of turkey meat is invariably a bit dry).

Never really thought much about mince pies, but I can vouch for Aldi's Stollen. An essential element of our Christmas fare, along with a gammon joint for boxing day.

Seems like common sense to me; if an ingredient doesn't sound like food then you probably shouldn't be eating it. It's probably been put in to make or save the food producer money. Fair enough if people want to be veggie/vegan, each to their own, but they'd be far better to eat all natural food, and avoid anything ultra processed, (like whatever Heather Mills' was trying to flog). And accept that it's not going to taste like meat. Because it isn't meat! There's hundreds of different beans and pulses and other protein rich plant stuff to choose from. Heaven forbid it might require some extra time and culinary skills to prepare a meal.

Always stunning to watch them do that. It's all about keeping track of the seven neighbours around you in the flock apparently. Never thought to look it up before. The Secrets and Science Behind Starling Murmurations | HowStuffWorks ANIMALS.HOWSTUFFWORKS.COM Starlings are short and thick, with dark feathers and long, pointy bills. Collectively, however, they transform into something...

Cheers. I saw that about the DVLA occasionally losing entitlements as well. Did some digging online after I posted on here, the consensus seems to be that you don't need to send back the old one as you get the new sent anyway. So I'll not bother.

Anyone done this recently? Just done mine and at the end of the process there was a statement to say that I've to send the old one back to them straight away, after cutting in two. I'm reluctant to do this as I don't fancy being without one for however long it takes the DVLA to get their arse into gear and send me a new one. Do I need to bother to comply or not?

Very good for you too apparently, cold water immersion.

Maybe it's your opportunity to try those foods that you were always curious about but too scared to try. Here's some for starters;- Surströmming Stinking Bishop Durian Century Eggs Casu Marzu

You never know, free (healthy) school meals for all may actually save money in future. In terms of the burden on the NHS of obesity and other diet related health issues. It'd be a pretty innefficient way to achieve that outcome though, arguably much better for the government just to regulate the food industry from a health perspective, rather than just maximum profit to producers. Why not tax the hell out of junk food? Young families have the most unhealthy diet of any household in Britain with low-quality food making up almost half their shopping basket, study suggests | Daily Mail Online WWW.DAILYMAIL.CO.UK Young families have the most unhealthy diet of any household group in Britain, research suggests.

Yes, I was sad to see that. Really nice guy and a great wordsmith. A down-to-earth poet, and accessible even by the likes of me, not at all a fan of poetry normally.

Everyone loves a good tracker. 👍 At least they've been having fun with the names.

She sure does. There's an episode on religion; Faith/Off, in which she says something like "the crusades sound very violent, why can't the the religions all learn to live together in peace?" With the kicker - "like they do in Ireland")

Another attempt to revive this smokin' hot thread. So I was watching this last night. Very funny and even a little educational to boot. Another Charlie Brooker triumph. She's very good too, Diane Morgan. Seen a couple of the Earth series so far but I'll go back and watch the first series on Britain as well. BBC Two - Cunk on... WWW.BBC.CO.UK Philomena Cunk traces the history of Britain and the world, from the Big Bang to Brexit.

I think this is one such place. Freetown Christiania - Wikipedia EN.M.WIKIPEDIA.ORG It seemed to be mainly about weed and graffiti when I visited once quite a while ago. It's been there for years so can't be a complete failure, though I suspect most of the income is from tourism these days.

Regardless of how people want to define it, the nordic model seems to work. Those countries consistently appear in the top ranks of the various surveys that are done every year; happiness/well-being/quality of life/health/blah blah blah. Equality is key, they also tend to be very equal societies, I'd suggest that is what leads all the aforementioned positive metrics. We on the other hand in the UK are one of the most unequal countries in the world, second only to the US, in the so called developed world. With the gap between obscenely rich and poor growing ever wider, especially rapidly over the last 13 years or so. Go figure. Coming back to housing - I wonder how the house building industry and housing market is set up in the Nordic countries. I don't know, but I'm guessing they don't have a monopoly of just three big, bloated private companies like we have here. Pretty sure new developments will be more people/community/planet friendly as well in terms of green space, flood mitigation measures, not car centric, (cycle and pedestrian infrastructure), easily accessible community amenities, shops and all that good stuff.

Fair enough. That all looks fun, but I'd rather enjoy the slopes during the day and sleep at night! Seeing those pics is getting me in the mood for a skiing trip in a couple of months.

That sounds good. Apart from the antisocial hours. There is a lot of water used in snow making. Even in the Alpine resorts they normally have a sizable reservoir tucked away somewhere to supply the snow canon, that always surprises me.

What does the ski slope snow production entail? Guessing you won't have one of those Piste Bully machines to play with if it's a communal ski slope.

They look like a good company. Hopefully they are still forged here, it wasn't stated on the website. Shame they're trade only. Think I'd still go for a vintage billhook though, just for the quality.

This explains the situation pretty well, the problem with the govt. cosying up with big development companies. How big UK housebuilders have remained profitable without meeting housing supply targets THECONVERSATION.COM A handful of large companies dominate the UK housing market, which may affect new-build supply.

That's because the developers are not building houses for people, or community. They're building for profit and cars. (And sanitary ware companies!) Mark Twain used to joke that "golf is a good walk spoiled." Apparently.