Nice People 12: Nice in Nice

Doozergirl

Generali wrote: »

I'm a big fan of chilli. I make a jolly nice pasta dish with crab, chilli, olive oil, parsley, veggies and lemon.

I once made my old boss cry from chilli when I made us all pasta arrabiata. That was really funny as he used to go on about how he and his mates had been out for a 'monster curry' on Saturday night. The rest of us thought it was fine.

We have a lot of Vietnamese restaurants over here and they tend to put chopped, raw, bird-eye chillies over your food. You can get a really good Vietnamese meal very cheaply in Aus. You can spend perhaps 50% more than you would on Nandos and get rice rolls, a really good salad and a couple of meat & veg dishes with rice for a bunch of you. For Nandos money you can get a huge plate of veggies, noodles and egg with a piece of meat on it which has been well cooked and is nice and spicy.

I love Vietnamese salad. Specifically the dressing. I'd drink it. Do you know how to make it?

Doozergirl

KFC is the devil's food.

Is English tourism filming the TDF? There's as much footage of ancient buildings as there is men in lycra.

Generali

Doozergirl wrote: »

I love Vietnamese salad. Specifically the dressing. I'd drink it. Do you know how to make it?

Yes I do.......

lostinrates

Vietnamese is meant to be the 'next big thing ' here, isn't it?

I made a Vietnamese thing they showed on Saturday morning kitchen. Fish sauce caramel intrigued. Fir and RP went crazy over it certainly. It was a bit brown looking. Like food from the seventies. Something floyd might have cooked. Greige. That sort of colour never appeals to be, however many spring onion prepped in a way other than just sliced that I cannot remember now that I sprinkle on said Greige food or how good it tastes.

lostinrates

Generali wrote: »

Yes I do.......

So mean

Generali

Sorry Doozergirl, couldn't resist.

It's lime juice, nom pla (fish sauce), rice vinegar, mint leaves (can put those in the salad if you'd rather), chilli and palm sugar.

You can use normal sugar/caster sugar but palm sugar gives it that slight yet distinct umami flavour. I don't know about where you are but I can pick up a few hundred grams for a quid or 2 at the Chinese supermarket.

Just make it and then taste to get the right amounts of each ingredient. You've got sour (lemon juice & vinegar), umami (palm sugar and nom pla), sweet (palm sugar) and hot (chilli). Just keep balancing until you hit on a blend you like.

Generali

Doozergirl wrote: »

Is English tourism filming the TDF? There's as much footage of ancient buildings as there is men in lycra.

It's part of the deal when the TdF come through.

It costs a fortune to host the TdF all told. You do get a very good promotion these days however from the helicopter, especially on the flat stages when you could be pretty much anywhere.

It was funny listening to the commentators being nice about the climbs and going on about how tough they are. Ok, they're steep but it's not the same as climbing for 20kms continuously until you get to 2,700m and start breathing distinctly thin air.

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

£12.57 ... blimey. I'd queue up to work for that rate! Here you'd have to bump somebody off for that.

Once I do look for work, I'll be telling agencies that my rate is that as my minimum ..... and I've done it before and they make strange screeching noises and you never hear from them again

With benefits for people with kids etc there's plenty of people who will work for less as they get top ups. I get no top ups (I think £13,500 is the single person cut off), so competing against people who can/will work for peanuts means it can be difficult to get even a sniff of a job.

Over here the idea is that you pay people a living wage and that's that. There's much less reliance on benefits as you'd think of them in the UK.

LydiaJ

lemonjelly wrote: »

How about something related to MIL?

When my grandad died, it knocked our family. Dad's an only child, mom was very close to him. It was also close to christmas.

I got my parents framed blown up photo's of my grandad, & also nan & grandad on their wedding day. I think they really liked them.
It also meant he was still at the christmas dinner table that year...

Sounds like a good idea to me. This isn't a birthday present, darling, because I know you're not allowed them, it's part of your mourning that I just happen to be giving you on your birthday because I know your first birthday without him will be hard.

Giving a framed pic of the deceased couldn't be a breach of a command to honour him, could it????

lostinrates wrote: »

Old bathroom, back of it is broken. Window left ( cannot do that ) floor left ( do that after nap). Next would be landing, but its full of junk, so have to go on to new bathroom I guess. Also swiped utility to keep on top of it this morning. ( DH is going to help me sort junk in the junk y areas at the weekend, so means it cannot spring clean in trad order, but never mind)

Having nap now for a couple of hours. Rest of week will be down stairs and bedroom I guess.

Well done on the progress, but do please pace yourself.

silvercar wrote: »

They have been this low for a while. No incentive to save. But my mortgage rate is low - base +0.75%, so no incentive to reduce that either. With house prices rising (this area has risen 20% year on year - madmess), increasing value must be the way to go.

Well, yes. But nobody knows how fast rates will rise when they do. So overpaying is safety for the future whatever rates do.

LydiaJ

Doozergirl wrote: »

The chilli sauce makes me buzz. It releases some kind of chemical reaction in the body that makes me feel great. I think some people get it and some don't, because I can't fathom why some grown ups I know, like me, are so passionate about it. I pour just the sauce on a plate at home and dip my fingers in it.

I had no idea it did that to some people. I clearly do not have the gene for that.

Doozergirl wrote: »

I have so much to do, I'm not sure where to start. Failing at anything right now! Don't want to write a list; it will overwhelm me.

Write a very small list with about 3 items on it - very easy ones. Do one and cross it off.

When I'm in that overwhelmed state I say to myself "I can't face it all at once but I can..." and fill in the gap with something very tiny - like "get dressed" or "reply to text from friend" or "eat lunch" or something. When I've done it, I try the sentence again.

It doesn't always work because I can't always summon up the energy to say it, but if I do say it, I do usually manage to do the thing I've mentioned.

If you need encouragement, come back on here and post when you've done a small thing, and another small thing, etc.

PasturesNew wrote: »

What is the easiest way to achieve a "showroom finish" on a glass shower enclosure in a seriously hard water area? I've been doing bicarb and baking soda - these work fine "for me", but for my checkout I want to achieve a superclean showroom finish..... do I just do more of the same, or is there a magic spray?

So much to do.... I didn't know there'd be so many viewings/so soon ... I thought I'd poodle back and forth for nearly two weeks perfecting the finish over time, one job at a time. Now I've a mind to get 99% of it cracked this week.

It's just 2 miles and I have to check the post anyway ... so popping back each day to do a bit wasn't ever an issue..... I thought.

You don't have to have a showroom finish for the viewings, just for the checkout. Once your stuff is out, it's no longer your place, so viewers seeing that you haven't got it perfectly clean yet isn't them intruding on your space, because you don't live there any more.