Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

I did catch up on that Alexa Beeb programme and the first thought that struck me was Besos has the same glazed meglomaniac look as Zuckerberg....and being a tad suspicious of power mad meglomaniacs I would allow neither of them into my home in any shape or form. Nuff sed on that.

Black holes, similar and knowalls....when you read or are told that something.... can be, could be, should be, possibly be, maybe, perhaps be...you know deep down that they don't actually know anymore than just theories and those are very expensive theories these days.

Non of this looking through a telescope in wonderment these days..they have to spend millions trying to find a black hole so we can hopefully poke it to make sure it's 1) a Hole and 2) its Black.

Someone up there is surely having a good laugh at us mere mortals.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Yep, tis strange, the lifestyle of those young guys north of the border, when you see in the TV ads, the young, cape clad ladies who are Scottish Widows.

Now the theory has been Poo pooed, someone knock on the wall, and tell them to turn the Tevs down, can't hear yourself think.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Ha ha! the black hole, greed again, serves him right.


Definition of EXPERT
“One with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject”

The key word there is “Mastery”

In my opinion the whole ‘expert’ system needs to be revised urgently, the expert market is overrun with Mickey Mouse experts and chancers, now more than ever with the internet.
I was looking at a young chap on TV described as an expert in technology explaining the way a smart TV works to a potential customer, he knew about how to stick in the connections, switch it on and off and how to tune it in, but so does almost everyone else, there is nothing expert or masterly about that.
Big electrical shops will ask you to consult “one of our experts” in the shop, well in one particular well known electrical shop I use, the experts must be on perpetual holidays because all I get are ordinary counter hands with minimal knowledge of the products they sell, and I don’t blame them, I blame their employers for not training them properly and then expecting too much from them while paying them buttons.
Expert is a very big word to my way of thinking, the top of the game, he who knows all in his field, to be the best at what one does, not just to give one the impression that you are the best. I think the danger here lies in the way the general public take the word of these people as gospel and wouldn’t dream of questioning them, “Professor Plum told me all about it and he’s an expert, he knows it all, end of story”


There are people on this forum who are excellent at photography, arts and crafts, painting, knowledge of music, telling funny yarns, writing short stories, poems, offering council etc., yet none would be as brazen as to call themselves experts even though they are far better than most so called experts on the mentioned subjects.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Just read an article on how school meals have changed over the years and boy did that bring memories flooding back.

My Mother was a fabulous Northern dish cook so maybe my taste buds were spoilt from the start and rebelled at anything less than her tasty standards and that caused me problems back then and still does. I really do have to enjoy what I eat simple as that.

Now remember with those school meals you had to eat every thing that was dolloped on your plate and all done with a 'like it or lump it' flourish of the serving ladle. Watery mash, watery cabbage and watery mince is not easy to swallow no matter what you try to wish it was....and telling us that there were starving kids in other countries made it no easier either. Many of us wished we were one of those kids in other countries. Mind you we didn't put weight on then like they do with todays offerings

Never sure why My Mother put me through that apart from the fact I was a tad sickly youngster and needed extra feeding up as they say .

Article https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...egetables.html

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

[QUOTE=spitfire;
Now the theory has been Poo pooed, someone knock on the wall, and tell them to turn the Tevs down, can't hear yourself think.

I enjoyed watching “The Hunchback of Norte Dame” the other day on TV, Anthony Hopkins played Quasimodo, and a fine job he made of it too, great actor that chap.
Did you know Victor Hugo was the first man in space, that was back in the 1800’s, he was a Hugonaut, which is what a French Astronaut is called, Russians call them Cosmonauts, or so a fella from Mullingar was telling me.

We didn’t get school meals as such Solo, but everyday we got a half pint bottle of milk and a sandwich, I remember exactly what we got every day.

Monday. Cheese sandwich.
Tuesday. Brawn in a sandwich.
Wednesday. One currant bun. (my favourite of the week)
Thursday. Brawn again.
Friday. Jam sandwich.

I used to take the brawn out of the sandwich and give it to one of my schoolmates, horrible stuff, I hated brawn.

I remember one year in the mid fifties the farmers had a strike and there was no milk to be had, we were supplied with powdered milk, it was disgusting and I wouldn’t touch it, but there were always plenty willing to have your bottle of the vile stuff.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Ah those little bottles of milk, from crates
delivered to the school playground! They
used to freeze in the winter.

And brawn - and tripe? - wonder if you can
still get it?

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Tripe is still a plenty

A real friend of mine went to Australia circa 1972, didn't take much courage back then, the guy had only 3000 days to contemplate.

Most of which were spent in formation.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

AAAh those little bottles of milk..if the birds didn't get there first to peck all the cream out or the frost to lift the milk out like a candle it was then shoved in front of a radiator to ...warm up. YUK

The only person I knew who worshiped tripe was my Father..and not your common seam tripe but the honeycomb which according to his forever extolling the virtues of tripe was the best.

He would religiously fill every honeycomb orrice with vinegar then lovingly and gently sprinkle salt over the it. Having performed that rite he would invite me to taste a small morsel.... an offer which I once fell for and accepted but never ever repeated for any to attempt to describe that mistake is well beyond my cullinary expertise. Just lets say in the tried an true Northern way it not only looked like holy shite but tasted like holy shite.

You can still buy the stuff biffo...I was up North last year and sure enough laying on gleaming steel platters in the butchers was that wriggling layers of tripe looking no different than it did years ago. Some it seems would go down fighting rather than give up their tripe and onions.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

I can visualise that scene with your Dad eating tripe, you describe it brilliantly Solo. I have me own tripe nightmares after watching me grandfather eating the horrible stuff.


Another local bites the dust.

Some folks couldn’t have friends in a pub even if they knew how to change water into wine.
Nicky Roach is one of them. It’s his own fault really, I mean I can understand folks who don’t want to be friendly, it’s they’re choice, but this fella is the opposite, he wants to talk people to death with his own views and shuts his ears to anyone else’s, so now he suffers the consequences.
A huge man, looks more like an all in wrestler than a retired civil servant, he sits up at the bar in the local, way down the end of it all by himself. His daily routine is to arrive at 12.30pm with the Irish Times newspaper and plonk himself there, he goes through the paper with his gimlet eye trying to find ammunition for argument, trouble is everyone is wise to him and he has no one to argue with, they all call him “Rent-a-row Roach’, he’s left like a primed bomb itching to go off, all that tension couldn’t be good for anyone.
Then he’ll leave at 3.pm, disappointed at not having found a victim and having consumed a bowl of soup, a toasted cheese sandwich, and three gin and tonics, you could set your watch by him.
The barmen on duty try their best to avoid conversation with him because all he will talk about is politics, nothing else mind you, just politics, trying to steer him off politics is like trying to put up an umbrella in a hurricane, you haven’t got a prayer.
According to his ultra right beliefs he could sort out all the problems in the world today, just whip ‘em and hang ‘em all, thank God he doesn’t hold political office, although he tried in his younger days and actually got 11 number one votes in this constituency, mind you he has got a large family.
The gang of old lads I sit with gave up asking him to sit in on our domino games long ago,”All games are a complete waste of time” according to him.
He doesn’t get invited any more to the Summer outing or the Christmas party for the old folks, it’s run by the younger patrons and the management, he is barred because he always starts political arguments on the bus/train or in the hotel, he once threw an ash tray at a barman in the hotel while on a pub outing, all because he wouldn’t put the TV on to show a Dail debate, he demanded the debate was more important and should come first and the singing/dancing later, need I tell you he was very nearly lynched that day.

I scribbled out that post last year and then forgot about it. Well God rest his soul, he’ll be buried in the morning, I will pay me respects to his long suffering wife Alice, she's a walking saint having to put up with him all those years, he was 70, I would never speak ill of the dead but me heart bleeds for St. Peter or whoever gets him.

Re: Leisurely Scribbles (part 5)

Not a clue who the guy is/was, but sounds like he left his mark.