It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

scottishminnie

grandma247 wrote: »

I had a quick look for towel toppers and there are loads, here are just a few. one, two, three, four.

Thanks for that - I didn't know that's what they were called. Looks like mine has been made with an offcut of quilted fabric. It's a handy little thing - I'm sure I bought it with a carrier bag holder which was made from the same material.

I buy my eggs from a local farm so they are as fresh as they can be, certainly miles fresher than the supermarket and at £1 for 6 miles cheaper too. The lady in question doesn't advertise the fact she sells and only really does to a small group of locals as she is worried about what the relevant authorities would demand of her. I'd much rather hand my cash over to her where I can see her well kept hens running around than to the supermarkets.

Mardatha - hope things improve soon.

NualaBuala

Thanks a mill everyone - am delighted I wasn't forgotten! :j

Mar (and you still have the sig that makes me smile) - take good care of yourself and hope you'll feel a bit more with it soon. Did you get your chickens - I think you were in the planning stages when I was last here.

Wish I had come back sooner cos I've developed a love of poached eggs but was never much good at making them. I agree that they are just not fresh when you buy them from the supermarket. I wish someone around here kept hens and would sell me the eggs. The vinegar and whirlpool kind of works for me or would do if they were fresh. But I can only manage one egg at a time that way and I like to eat 2 at a time as I am a greedy guts! The clingfilm method was ok but I don't really like the idea of plasticky eggs - not sure if it was my imagination. So I ordered some poach pods from €bay a couple of days ago, wouldn't have bothered if I'd read this first! After reading all this my poached egg craving is stronger than ever ... guess what's on the menu for brekkie!

Night night everyone, tis lovely to be back!

littlecal

Hi Nuala,Good to see you back,I was in Dublin a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't believe how expensive everything seemed !!!!!

ceridwen

Hiya Nuala:wave:

from me as well. I was only wondering in t'night how you are now and whether you're feeling any better ...and wake up and there you are...:D

Take care and dont overdo it lass.

....and do keep us informed re how things are in Ireland these days..

Mrs_Chip

Poached eggs - here is a video of how to do it, but I admit I am in the 'shallow pan' gang.

Red_Doe

HariboJunkie, your pm box is full so nobody can pm you!
I have a metal egg poacher thingy, that poaches three eggs a time, got it ages ago on Ebay and it is good but mostly I just do the frying pan method, swirl the water/vinegar and slide the egg in, I don't mind raggedy egg edges.
It's right about the freshness of the eggs I reckon...I use my own (well, my hens really, not actually mine, y'know....) so they're two days old at most and they hold together very well.
We've had a lot of thunder up here lately and my hens refuse to lay when it thunders, tsk! Mind you hens are flighty creatures. I once watched one of my poor old cockerels die of a sudden heart attack right in front of me because of an especially close and loud thunderclap! It scared the heck out of me too so I'm not entirely surprised.
Now though we mostly get the Air Force using the glens and hills for low flying 'target' practice, which is worse than the thunder I think. There you are, pegging out the washing, and a sonic boom makes ye drop everything in the sheep sh*t! I'm sure some of those pilots have watched me mouthing obscenities at them as they fly past. They're certainly low enough to wave to!

[Deleted User]

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HariboJunkie

Red_Doe wrote: »

HariboJunkie, your pm box is full so nobody can pm you!
!

Sorry. I've made some room for you.

So lovely to see you Nuala and good to hear you have seen an improvement in your health.

Take it easy Mardatha. xxx

GreyQueen

Good morning campers and hello again Nualabuala, of course you're not forgotten. Hope the wrists are bearing up.

I used to have a passing acquaintance with a lady with a severe version of same and she used voice-activated software at her job. Trouble was, it had a foible about capitalizing the f-word and as she was a civilian worker for the Police and typed a lot of statements, that word was not at all uncommon.......:rotfl:She also had to tell colleagues not to stand nattering near her desk or it'd be picked up and incorporated into the text! It was never like that in science fiction.......

HJ hope you soon feel a bit more energetic. I flake out about 2 pm, just hit the wall, so I know what it's like.

Well, was back from the lottie by 7 am this morning and wish that was a typo but I needed to drop off the rotables and pick some beans and there won't be time later today. I'm in full holiday countdown mode as everything will have to be done and dusted (except the furniture, I suspect ) by Friday night. Have just called the car hire place (colour me paranoid) to check that they still have my Peugeot reserved for Saturday and it's all set to go.

Please expect severe weather in a zone south of the Borders, west of the Pennines, east of Wales for the week commencing Saturday; if I'm on holiday it'll probably snow.......Hopefully Wilts will be spared and Redlady will be warm enough.

Have a good day, everyone.

NualaBuala

Morning everyone and thanks to everyone who has welcomed me! :wave:
Mrs Chip - that was a really cute video on egg poaching. He seemed to use a lot of vinegar, I'm going to use more next time. I forgot I wanted poached eggs for brekkie (comes with being on autopilot till about 11am) so maybe I will have a go at lunchtime.

littlecal wrote: »

Hi Nuala,Good to see you back,I was in Dublin a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't believe how expensive everything seemed !!!!!

Hi littlecal, thank you! Hope you had a good time despite the costs! :eek: The sad thing is I am so used to the high prices that I don't even notice it any more as something unusual. Although I don't eat or drink out much these days and when I do I use coupons and special offers! But everything else seems to be steadily climbing too. The one thing that worries me is gas and electricity as they are set to increase and last winter I used a lot!

ceridwen wrote: »

Hiya Nuala:wave:

from me as well. I was only wondering in t'night how you are now and whether you're feeling any better ...and wake up and there you are...:D

Take care and dont overdo it lass.

....and do keep us informed re how things are in Ireland these days..

Maybe you drew me back with your psychic powers!:D I've been meaning to pop on for ages but kept forgetting (i.e. getting distracted). How are you doing? As littlecal rightly said, things are expensive over here but apart from that it's the same old same old. Quite a bit of uncertainty about what the next lot of cuts will bring and what extra costs are down the line - water charges are coming in (and rightly so IMHO but I might get shot for saying that) and we will have to pay a new property tax starting from next year. But it is still a lot less than UK council tax so perhaps we should be grateful for that! I'm not sure if it's just me but I have a sense that we're getting used to the difficulties we're all facing and so less stressed about it. That's how it is for me anyway (but I am lucky in that I don't have a mortgage and in about a month and a half will be completely debt free:j).

Will sign off for now as I have some pottering scheduled and then I want to go to Lidl to check out a cosy-looking bedspread/quilt thingummy ... it's been getting very chilly here!

Have a great day everyone!