Daft Christmas presents

[Stravaig]

LOL! It's a point of honour to behave well, especially if someone does you a favour.

The owner of the flat in Whitstable actually said, "Thanks! The flat looks fabulous and I'm loving the Christmas corner!"

[Shallot Man]

I think turkey must be one of the driest meats you can eat.

[Primrose]

Have just won a set of 6 pairs of outrageously gaudy Christmas socks in a raffle ,. Pity I don't have a Christmas sweater to match them , however this seems to imply I must go barefooted on Day 7,

My M-I-L oncegave me a pack of underwear marked MOnday. To Friday and looked somewhat at a loss when I asked her what one was supposed to do on Saturdays and Sundays!!

[oldherbaceous]

I think the trouble with dry Turkey is, there is no need to get up at 4am and put it in the oven, like everyone seemed to do years ago….

[Primrose]

I think our poor village butcher going to be tearing his hair out by the time he closes this afternoon he suspects that because turkeys were rumoured to be in short supply this year some people have ordered more than one from different sources. This means he could be left with some on his hands which he,ll probably have difficulty getting rid of.

Let's face it most people have had enough Turkey by the time Boxing Day is over. The lucky one was probably a neighbour who left hers outside by her kitchen door overnight in a plastic picnic carrier as it was too big to go in her fridge. When she went out early on Christmas morning to get it in she discovered a visiting fox had completely wrecked the bag and destroyed most of the Turkey !

[oldherbaceous]

I was just wondering what you did do Saturday and Sundays then, Primrose….
I could eat Turkey for days on end, so if anyone runs out of ideas of what to do with theirs, you could always invite me over…
I heard too, that farmers were going to be left with fresh turkeys, as people were panic buying frozen turkeys….just shows how people believe everything social media send out.

[Stravaig]

I think the trouble with dry Turkey is, there is no need to get up at 4am and put it in the oven, like everyone seemed to do years ago….

And put the sprouts on to boil in October!

[Primrose]

Actually Stravaig, I think sprouts are best enjoyed raw shredded up in dishes like coleslaw, mixed salads or as an addition to sandwiches. For anybody who doesn't enjoy them cooked, this is often an acceptable way of using them. Finely shredded they make an acceptable substitution for egg & cress sandwiches.

My late m-i-law always used to start cooking her Christmas veg at the same time as she put the roast potatoes on. May she rest in peace but the topic does get resurrected at most Christmas lunches!

[Geoff]

I thought I had a contender for daft Christmas present but I might be changing my mind.

The problem started some time ago. My son's partner decided she needed a way to get him off his computer so she gave him a present of a brewing course. He got hooked and converted half the garage into a brewery. He was periodically supplying me with excellent bottled beer. Then he got fed up with bottling (not surprised, I helped him one day and it is messy hard work) so started supplying me with small kegs for which I had to build a kegerator to keep them cool and dispense the beer. This worked out well and the beer was popular with visitors.

Now they are planning to emigrate to New Zealand (he is a GP and is totally fed up with how they are being treated by the NHS with a massive and increasing workload and approximately 30% pay cut, but that's another story) so without asking my Christmas present that arrived this year without prior discussion was a brewery, or at least all the vessels to build one and the ingredients for the first brew. My first reaction was to leave the items in the supplier's original packaging (they still are) and see what level of refund they would offer if I sent them back. Since Christmas I have spent too much time on YouTube watching instruction videos and am slightly warming to the idea of giving it a go although the jury's still out.

[Westi]

Doesn't sound daft to me if you know the basics? Grow your own hops maybe to really get into the full circle?

[Primrose]

We were heavily into home made wine many years ago Geoff and I can testify that home brewing can end up becoming a very time consuming hobby, not to mention needing a reasonable amount of spare space. However with current prices constantly rising, it could end up being a worthwhile hobby.

Sad that your GP son has decided to emigrate though. That must have been a sad blow to absorb. We also have a GP relative in our family. I don't think the general public realise how much bureauracy has bogged the NHS down in recent years. It's well overdue for a massive reform before the whole system finally burns itself out.

[Westi]

The NHS is all about targets, figures & reports unfortunately. Every quarter I had to fill in a report which was just numbers, themes, wards etc. Was a tad unfair as it was mostly the same elderly wards all the time, which even back them was related to the extra required care of their patients but they had the same staffing numbers as other wards with walking, talking patients. Hmm??

[Primrose]

Westi
I truly think if I was faced with this task I,d be temped to return the form empty with the comment. "3very quarter this form takes xxx minutes to complete. In future we will be using this time to do "xyz" treating patients. Please advise which activity is of more benefit to the NHS !!

If every employee in the NHS went on strike in terms of filling in bureaucratic forms I,m sure a lot of time would be freed up. Who reads this stuff? More bureaucrat NHS managers?

[Westi]

It doesn't take long to fill in the stats as the computer captures them & we just put the numbers in the right boxes on their report sheet which goes way high in the NHS & from every hospital. The issue is nothing seems to happen, no-one in receipt of them reacts unless the figures are vastly increased then you have to add text to explain & I did add things like staffing numbers, sickness or turnover. This can result in a visit from the CQC & your rating downgraded to adequate or poor & with that the freedom to do your own thing. What doesn't happen is no-one asks is how it can be fixed now, as it was pretty identical info coming from all the local hospitals as we meet with their representatives as well within our specialities.

Might not be in the current mess if someone on high reacted earlier maybe? But of course it may have as many staff were burnt out from working through Covid as staff numbers decreased as lots of staff are high risk with medical issues. A pay rise is not going to change that if Covid morphs again now or in the future or another pandemic evolves.