Autumn Bits and Bobs

A place to chat about anything you like, including non-gardening related subjects. Just keep it clean, please!

Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter, Chief Spud

Stravaig
KG Regular
Posts: 856
Joined: Thu Jul 18, 2019 8:59 am
Location: Kent, UK
Has thanked: 156 times
Been thanked: 102 times

There's no chance of me growing neeps, Westi. My indoor "garden" consists of windowsills so I only grow herbs and salad greens. But I might be able to persuade a farmer or someone with a dacha to grow them. (Dacha = country house, but not in the British idea of country house.)

Many families, even working class ones, have a dacha and maybe the grandparents live there and the children/grandchildren spend time there especially at weekends. They grow all kinds of things from walnuts to salads in season.
User avatar
Shallot Man
KG Regular
Posts: 2653
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 9:51 am
Location: Basildon. Essex
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 30 times

Shallotmans shopping learning curve. Further to an earlier email. Caught again. Partial to strawberry jam. Got home and found I had purchased SEEDLESS strawberry jam. Who had the bright idea of removing seeds from jam. The cynic in me says it is to do with the crap left over at the factory. Now appreciate the Memsahib more. All those years I allowed her to select the goods, never had these problems.
User avatar
Shallot Man
KG Regular
Posts: 2653
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 9:51 am
Location: Basildon. Essex
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 30 times

Shallot Man wrote:Shallotmans shopping learning curve. Further to an earlier email. Caught again. Partial to strawberry jam. Got home and found I had purchased SEEDLESS strawberry jam. Who had the bright idea of removing seeds from jam. The cynic in me says it is to do with the crap left over at the factory. Now appreciate the Memsahib more. All those years I allowed her to select the goods, never had these problems.


Problem ! As I will only be allowed into my supermarket on my own. What do I do with my dementia wife.1/ Do I get a member of the staff to lock her into a toilet cubicle. 2/ leave her at the security desk. 3/Maybe tie her to the trolley rack. :? :?
Monika
KG Regular
Posts: 4546
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2006 8:13 pm
Location: Yorkshire Dales

Shallot Man, surely your wife can go with you into the supermarket? You are her carer and you are in the same family. Good luck and I hope it all goes well for you!
Westi
KG Regular
Posts: 5892
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:46 pm
Location: Christchurch, Dorset
Has thanked: 652 times
Been thanked: 230 times

Shallot man if she is able to come, in so much able to walk around with you then she can come. She may have problems with wearing a mask so chat to the staff & they should have stickers or a lanyard she can wear around her neck to say she is mask exempt. It just stops those awkward moments or the hyper anxious folk challenging. Try to ring the local super market or check their main site as they should have info on there or at least a number to contact.

Another option is to ring your local social services for info about charities like the Red Cross who will offer a sitting service for a very moderate price compared to proper agencies but with all the checks & training. But this might mean having a few short visits first. Might as well make yourself known now to social while there are other options as you will need their support at some point for the welfare of you both.
Westi
robo
KG Regular
Posts: 2805
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:22 pm
Location: st.helens
Has thanked: 9 times
Been thanked: 56 times

Shallot man take her with you on every opportunity the trips out will cheer her up and dare I say stimulate her
User avatar
Shallot Man
KG Regular
Posts: 2653
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2006 9:51 am
Location: Basildon. Essex
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 30 times

Westi. Thank you for that advice.
User avatar
peter
KG Regular
Posts: 5836
Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 1:54 pm
Location: Near Stansted airport
Has thanked: 18 times
Been thanked: 33 times
Contact:

Tuesday morning's surprisingly good photo.
IMG_20201104_080454.jpg
IMG_20201104_080454.jpg (5.09 MiB) Viewed 2428 times
Do not put off thanking people when they have helped you, as they may not be there to thank later.

I support http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/
Stephen
KG Regular
Posts: 1869
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:03 pm
Location: Butts Meadow, Berkhamsted
Been thanked: 2 times

That's rather nice Peter.
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
User avatar
oldherbaceous
KG Regular
Posts: 13798
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 1:52 pm
Location: Beautiful Bedfordshire
Has thanked: 248 times
Been thanked: 286 times

Dear Shallot Man, if it'S of any consilation, i'm useless at shopping...my Mum now ends up with all sorts of interesting items... :)
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.

There's no fool like an old fool.
Stravaig
KG Regular
Posts: 856
Joined: Thu Jul 18, 2019 8:59 am
Location: Kent, UK
Has thanked: 156 times
Been thanked: 102 times

Don't worry, guys. You're not the only ones to be a bit bamboozled about shopping. My husband also often brings home the "wrong" things, which can cause hours of extra work for me (deboning or whatever). Today, I decided to go out as well - a rare experience, and quite an effort. But I really must get out more as my physical and mental health is deteriorating in these times of "staying home" for months at a time.

I carefully explained to the butcher, as best as I could (language barrier), what I wanted. They have big charts on their wall with the different cuts, eg, fore-quarter, shin, and so on.

I pointed to the chart and the numbers. One kilo of number six, please (shin). Oh, they didn't have that. I pointed to bits of my own body. I made them all laugh. And we got the meat.

I'd wanted to make steak pie (with flaky pastry), so I knew I needed a "tough" piece for slow cooking. Just something like braising steak but even French cuts are different from British, goodness knows what Ukrainian cuts are. If you know which bit of the animal you want. It doesn't need to be a problem.

But when we got home my husband managed to translate the shop receipt. Apparently we've bought "veal for roasting". What the heck am I supposed to do with that? OK, roast it. Huh? The butcher maybe thought I looked too well-heeled to buy a cheap cut, which is what I wanted. Those are the cuts that slow-cook better!

Well, it's another day and another challenge. And, given that I quite happily agreed to buy that particular piece of meat, I'll not be so quick to criticise the next time he brings home the wrong thing.

Most likely I'll slice off a little piece and fry it so I can assess what the heck it is I have to deal with.
User avatar
snooky
KG Regular
Posts: 999
Joined: Sun Aug 31, 2008 5:03 pm
Location: Farnborough
Has thanked: 10 times
Been thanked: 34 times

7668d518db28_4360.jpg
7668d518db28_4360.jpg (57.45 KiB) Viewed 2357 times
Regards snooky

---------------------------------
A balanced diet is a beer in both hands!
WARNING.!!... The above post may contain an opinion
Monika
KG Regular
Posts: 4546
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2006 8:13 pm
Location: Yorkshire Dales

Stravaig, a simple remedy: learn Ukrainian (or take a dictionary)!
Stravaig
KG Regular
Posts: 856
Joined: Thu Jul 18, 2019 8:59 am
Location: Kent, UK
Has thanked: 156 times
Been thanked: 102 times

Monika wrote:Stravaig, a simple remedy: learn Ukrainian (or take a dictionary)!


It's not that simple, Monika. Just as most Scots don't know their native language because of many years of oppression from their larger neighbours, most Ukrainians in Kyiv don't speak Ukrainian. They speak Russian.

I've learned some basics but am not very good at languages. I've managed to get by most of the time. Learning the Cyrillic alphabet helps a lot. Many of their words are surprisingly similar to French, German, or English, so once you can read in Cyrillic it's not so hard to figure things out if you have the basics of those languages. Also most Ukrainians under a certain age have good English, and many online shopping sites have versions in different languages, including English. It was just an unfortunate incident which I thought might amuse people here.

It's not easy to learn Ukrainian, and anyway very few Ukrainians speak it.
robo
KG Regular
Posts: 2805
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:22 pm
Location: st.helens
Has thanked: 9 times
Been thanked: 56 times

Do what I do ,I have an app on my phone which interprets in fact I have two the first one interprets say English to Spanish the second Spanish to English or in my case English to Catalan and visa versa makes life easy and me lazy
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic