Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Questions of the Week


Since it's Weds evening and no one has nabbed it, here are 5 areas to ponder and share your hopes and dreams about. I guess that should have been 'about which to.' Forgot not to end a sentence a preposition with.

1. What thing would you most hate to be allergic to?

2. If you were offered a chance to circumnavigate the UK, what would be your chosen mode of transport?

3. What do you have for breakfast most mornings?

4. Where do you think Blimpey went on his little holiday?

5. Sarah Brown refused to eat veal at the G8 summiot and sent it back. What do you do when at a dinner party and are served something you hate or disagree with eating?

76 comments:

tincanman said...

1. allergic?
Nuts. Life without peanut butter is a life I do not wish to contemplate.

2. mode of transport?
Camper van.

3. breakfast?
Some combo of dates, figs, apricots, craisins, apple and banana mixed into bran flakes and topped with a pot of yogurt. Crunchier than milk.

4. Blimpey's holiday?
The leaders of the free world gathered in Italy, and obviosu that would include the leader of the Spill. Call it the G8+1.

5. dinner party ?
Not that I find myself in such situations very often... ok, ever.. but I'd just leave it uneaten and not make a fuss.

Abahachi said...

Up with cute fluffy ducks I will not put...

1. Beer.
2. Bicycle. And pink lycra, natch.
3. Porridge with condensed milk, and lots of tea.
4. Atlantis.
5. Depending on how much I hate it, either attempt to wrestle it down my throat or quietly leave it on the side of the plate if it's a dinner party with friends (though almost everyone I know is very good at asking in advance about dietary preferences), simply leave it on the side of the plate and/or request the vegetarian option at a more formal occasion. Though in fact there's very little that I can't or won't eat.

nilpferd said...

1. Coffee. or Alcohol. Oh, Chocolate. no, wait- meat. Scratch that- wheat. um..
2. Solar powered canoe. Isn't circumnavigation kind of like, sailing around something?
3. At least three of juice, two cappuccinos, fruit, yoghurt, muesli, croissants, ham, jam, porridge. Occasionally crepes.
4. He wasn't on holiday, he was digging a tunnel under 'Spill castle. Don't ask me why.
5. I can't imagine this ever happening, but if it did I would have a quiet word with the host to explain, and plead for some crackers and cheese.

nilpferd said...

Condensed milk! Change my number 5- if I ever get served condensed milk on porridge for breaky at Abahachi's, I'll barf my milk and cookies.

ejaydee said...

1. Water (how do they shower? Drink?) or sun.
2. Car with a great sound system
3. Rarely have breakfast, but if I do, a cereal bar, or the real thing (cereal)
4. Visit the folks
5. Leave those cauliflowers (sorry Jo), courgettes, spinach, broccoli and cooked carrots to the side.

saneshane said...

1. my family (if I'm being soppy)
vinyl or stuff i make my designs with.. on a things level.

2. if it doesn't have to be water based... then I would like to have new knees and skateboard.

3. Tea tea tea tea and marmite on toast if I feel like solids.

4. He went to pick up that extra E that you always give him tinEy...or to find Hope.

5. I try it- if I'm sure I wont vomit that minute... as you might guess I don't get invited 'round for food much.
(EJD our chocolate courgette cake is going down a treat at the moment, wanna try some?)

barbryn said...

1. Don't know how people live without dairy - cheese especially.

2. I'd go on foot, with a sailing boat or a RIB to pick me up sometimes. And a horse.

3. Shreddies (or supermarket own-brand equivalent), Bran Flakes (Kellog's only) or muslei with fruit and sultanas; tea.

4. McFlahlah Land?

5. Veggie already, and nothing else I hate. If I was served meat by, say, African tribal elders in my honour, I guess I'd try to eat it, but haven't done so for nearly 25 years.

Tim (Kalyr) said...

1. Beer and chocolate
2. Train
3. Rice crispies and fruit salad (since I'm allergic to milk)
4. Cambodia
5. I'd probably attempt to eat it anyway. (Since I do suffer from some food allergies I'd warn the host when accepting the invite)

GarethI said...

Have you been reading Fowler's Guide to English Usage or working on something about Churchill, Abahachi?

1. Beer. Coffee. Deodorant.
2. I can't drive, so as long as the driver was safe and the vehicle had some means of playing our music, I'd be happy.
3. Toast. Bacon sandwich on a Saturday morning. On Sundays, when I'm back home, it's bacon, tinned tomatoes and toast. Add pepper and Worcester sauce for the greatest breakfast ever.
4. Blimpy/Speng was off seeing another blog. The tart.
5. There was one time years back, at a friend's house, when his mum served us tuna and pasta bake with mushrooms. Now I CANNOT STAND mushrooms – it's not the taste or the smell but the texture that sends my gag reflex into overdrive. Still, being a polite chap and not wishing to cause offence – I was a guest in someone else's home and there wasn't another option on the menu – I ate my food; I just neglected to chew... In a restaurant or at a sit-down meal, I'll either put it to one side for the waiting staff to collect or try to trade with my neighbour at the table if they've got something better.

ejaydee said...

5. Have you ever went over a friends house to eat
and the food just aint no good
i mean the macaroni's soggy the peas are mushed
and the chicken tastes like wood
so you try to play it off like you think you can
by sayin that youre full
and then your friend says momma he's just being polite
he aint finished uh uh that's bull
so your heart starts pumpin and you think of a lie
and you say that you already ate
and your friend says man there's plenty of food
so you pile some more on your plate
while the stinky foods steamin your mind starts to dreamin
of the moment that it's time to leave
and then you look at your plate and your chickens slowly rottin
into something that looks like cheese
oh so you say that's it i got to leave this place
i dont care what these people think
im just sittin here makin myself nauseous
with this ugly food that stinks
so you bust out the door while its still closed
still sick from the food you ate
and then you run to the store for quick relief
from a bottle of kaopectate
and then you call your friend two weeks later
to see how he has been
and he says i understand about the food
baby bubbah but we're still friends
with a hip hop the hippie to the hippie
the hip hip a hop a you dont stop the rockin
to the bang bang boogie
say up jump the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie the beat

ToffeeBoy said...

1. Allergies - that would really mess with your life.

2. A boat (called Dignity of course).

3. Toast - golden brown - the butter needs to go on immediately - corners first, then spread inwards. There's an art to it.

4. Death Metal In The Park 2009

5. Don;t do dinner parties - unless toast is on the menu ...

TatankaYotanka said...

1. Music
2. Chauffeur driven forklift truck
3. Licorice tea
4. The foot of our stairs.
5. Phone Sarah Brown

tincanman said...

You just want to get in News of the World

TatankaYotanka said...

@ ToffeeBoy ... Cult With No Name do a fab version of Golden Brown ... not with the dairy spread detail of your lyrics, obviously.

TatankaYotanka said...

@ tcm

change my '5' to 'Phone Gordon Brown'.

tincanman said...

Do we not have anti-crossblogging rules around here? I mean, is this a class place or not?

OK, or not. But still, we can have rules.

tincanman said...

RE phone gordon brown
They only hacked into people's voicemail who are of national interest. Alex Ferguson, Jane Goody - people like that. Gordon Brown is so last crisis.

TatankaYotanka said...

Actually I just buy News Of The World to find out what you've been phoning OffBlog to complain about.

tincanman said...

Should we just get a room?

treefrogdemon said...

1 Alcohol. I CAN do without it but I prefer not to.
2 Sailing yacht, and ideally my friend Denny would sail it, because he can, and he'd be teaching me so that by the time we got round I'd be able to do it too.
3 If at home, cup of green tea (orange and lotus flower flavour)in the week, coffee at weekends, and yogurt, either cherry or peach. If in a hotel, however, pot of coffee, crispy bacon, sausage, mushrooms, grilled tomato and scrambled egg. Usually I am disappointed with at least one item on this list.
4 A balloon trip over Scotland.
5 It would depend whose dinner party it was. For instance if it was my late paternal grandmother (not that she would ever have had a dinner party) I'd just have eaten whatever it was and not said anything...On the other hand, as a small child I embarrassed my mother by coming over all Violet Elizabeth when offered 'cream' for my high tea peaches, which turned out to be evaporated milk. This was a class issue for my mother though, as I was only 5, I didn't notice this.

TatankaYotanka said...

Hey, don't play hard to get; if the forklift's outside in 5 I'm yours.

tincanman said...

If it takes a forklift to pick you up, I shall refer you to the RR discussion the other day about differently enabled beauty.

TatankaYotanka said...

Noooo, silly .... the forklift's for the pallet of Walnut Whips. I've got functional legs and an Oyster Card.

TatankaYotanka said...

As you know, I've got eyes in the back of my head ... so who cares what you look like ... don't be a fearty ..

gordonimmel said...

Stop that! Stop that! It's very silly. Anyway, now for something completely different.......

1. The frivolous answer is, ofcourse, 'alcohol'.In reality,the fact that my favourite exercise is swimming but the stuff in the pool can give me acute rhinitis (i.e. sneezing like a ......swine with flu) is a bit of a bummer.

2. In a catamaranc with some old time polynesian sailors who know where they are just by the swell and the winds.......oh, hang on that was my answer to one of nilpferd's questions. Doesn't matter, it still stands. (Not sure what the polynesians will think about tacking round Cape Wrath mind)

3. It varies. I have breakfast with tessimmel who always has cereal. If there's enough milk left after that I'll have cereal aswell (cornflakes - as long as they're not soggy - or muesli). If not enough milk and plenty of bread, I'll have toast (with marmite ofcourse). On saturday's I 'go to Europe' with great chunks of cheese and ham.......and a few crackers.

4. Er, back to the IBM studios to reminisce with Speng? I dunno!

5. Please explain this concept of 'something you hate or disagree with eating'. I'm baffled.

DarceysDad said...

1. I'm with barbryn; if I were allergic to dairy, I'd probably live twice as long, but enjoy it half as much. From paneer to Stinking Bishop via just about every British county, my cheese consumption is only topped (ho-ho!) by my Heinz Salad Cream consumption.

2. "Taxi for a Mr. Yotanka ..."

3. Given the lack of a supply of nilpferd's Java concoction in my cupboards, it's regular coffee, cereal (I'm big on cranberry or blueberry wheats at the moment), crumpets/pikelets, another coffee.

4. Given that when I logged onto The 'Spill the other morning, the sidebar said it had been spent, I was worried it might have been Vegas with our $755.50

5. Sheesh, memories of the first meal DarceysMam ever cooked for me with a romantic glint in her eye: chicken and mushrooms in a cream sauce with broccoli and asparagus. I made myself eat it. In a restaurant I'd have left the same meal completely untouched.
Apart from animal organs and sprouts (won't even have them little green bastards in my house for anyone else to eat), I'll try most stuff. I used to get on my high horse about veal, but quite frankly I'm past complaining; I just quietly leave offending articles untouched.

magicman said...

answers without reading anyone else's :

1. Water !
2. A small wooden boat with sails AND a motor.
3. oats raisins nuts and cold milk. Cuppa tea x 4.
4. No idea. Any clues ? Malta.
5. Leave it on the side of the plate like granma.

TonNL said...

1. Dairy products

2. Water-based: the Queen Mary 2, would invite a couple of RR/'Spill friends to join the party....
Land based; my trusty mountainbike, a very long holiday, and an un-British long spell of good weather....

3. Milk & one or two ham/cheese sandwiches or croissants

4. The mightey Blimp & Holiday, are those words compatible?

5. The chances of brussels sprouts being served at a dinner part are probably near zero, but if someone would have the evil courage to do so.... (Finish the story yourself & colour the pictures)

ejaydee said...

I knew there was one missing, fucking brussel sprouts. Add quenelles to that and it's like "somebody took a crap in your mouth" as Jon Stewart would say.

goneforeign said...

1. Alcohol seems popular, I'll drink to that.

2. If I could bring my own weather I'd do it on a bike and take about a year, otherwise I'd still bring my own weather and do it in a rickshaw, any volunteers?

3. It's not most mornings, it's every morning.
Black coffee at 5.30 am; the porridge ritual at 7.30 am; a small piece of toast and jam with a cup of tea at about 10.30.
The porridge ritual? 1/3rd cup of milled oats, 3/3rd cup of cold water, 1 tsp. sugar, 1/2tsp salt; boil.
Add to a shallow bowl that contains a dozen wallnuts crumbled, a small handful of raisins, a small handful of dried sour cherries and of course use my granny's silver teaspoon that my sister gave me some years ago. I recognised it as the one I used every day as a child, it seems appropriate to use it at each end of a life.

I think he was down in the vaults counting out the money.

I'd think back to what my granny told me about all those starving children in China.

goneforeign said...

The rickshaw option just closed, Bill Bryson just phoned to volunteer.

debbym said...

Hi tinny,
sorry I wasn't around - had to deal with a couple of unexpected deaths (seems I'm a dangerous person to know these past weeks) and a little summer festival, which all kept me so busy I didn't even manage a mini-social with sourpus while he was in town...

1) Kissing
2) Are we allowed to chop and change here? I'd like to traverse the inland waterways on a narrowboat (with someone along for the legwork, please) before sailing round the coast.
3) Cup of tea, cuddle from daughter, grunt from teenage son (if I'm lucky)
4) Balamory
5) The only parties I go to are the jelly & ice-cream variety, no trouble with either of those on occasion. Sign me up for the anti-sprout league any day!

Abahachi said...

Yes, but if the sprouts are: (i) an old-fashioned variety like Bedford Fillbasket, rather than nasty F1 hybrids; (ii) home-grown and freshly picked; (iii) steamed lightly, not boiled; (iv) sauted briefly with garlic and bacon shreds..?

Luke-sensei said...

1. rice - it makes up a fairly considerable part of my diet!

2. A tandem, with Mrs J too, of course!

3. Tea and toast in winter. Cereal and orange juice in summer. If it's one of those rare mornings when I don't have to dash off to work at an ungainly hour, i'll add half a grapefruit too.

4. a short stay in hospilltable????!

5. I was vegetarian for about 8 years, only starting up eating meat again last year and had a couple of uncomfortable moments. Even before being vegetarian, i've always hated fish, but got served this disgusting fish pie thing at the house of a Russian woman in Finland a few years ago, who we were buying some handicrafts from..I slowly ate as much as I could, rapidly following each bite with a hearty glug of tea to hold back the gagging. I got through most of it and had to leave the rest. I've also had a couple of close calls with the same woman in almost being served coffee, that I would have had to have refused!

debbym said...

@ Abahachi
Sadly, not even then!
My Mum used to do sprouts in butter and almonds with Christmas dinner - looked delicious, but couldn't cope with the taste.
Once when I was so ill I couldn't taste anything, I ate some sprouts - and suffered NASTY stomach pains all night long.
Thanks, but no thanks.

treefrogdemon said...

I will eat everyone's sprouts!

[Hmm, that sounds a bit rude.]

nilpferd said...

I will also get my teeth into anyone's left-over brassicas, given half the chance..

gordonimmel said...

@nilpferd & treefrogdemon, you'll have to beat me to the leftover sprouts first!

@debbym, if Blimpy went to Balamory, what colour house did he go to?

nilpferd said...

Sprout stampede!!!
*Hippo elbows our Gord out of the way, but Treefrog springs neatly over them onto the plate and gobbles up everything save the Klee'd patches on the wall left by TonNL and Ejay*

Mnemonic said...

Oh no she doesn't! Coming up on the inside is Mnemonic, possibly with a little parley sauce on them or refried the next day in a sprout version of bubble and squeak..

treefrogdemon said...

At my school we had lunch at tables of 8 and the food was served in those rectangular metal containers (hmm, I feel hungry just thinking of them - not) and you weren't supposed to leave the table till the containers were empty. I was very popular on brassica days as I would happily eat the whole lot - even if, as often appeared, it had been cooking all morning.

nilpferd said...

mmm.. fresh ones, steamed and served with a little salted butter..

how long is it until lunchtime?

Mnemonic said...

Too early in the year - they need to have had at least one frost to give them bite.

Have you SEEN the new heading? Blimpy's back!!!

debbym said...

@ gordon
I believe Ms. Hooley's green hoose is a B&B in real life - but I reckon Blimp would've been jumpin' with Josie

nilpferd said...

Nice header, Mr B!

Now, get back down into that tunnel.. I want to see another 50 cubic meters of excavated material before sundown, or you're not getting any supper..
(puts toothless sprouts onto boil, just in case)

May1366 said...

1. Love, as an equally hideous counterpart to Robert Palmer's diagnosis of being addicted to it. Or cheese, for exactly the same reasons as DarceysDad.

2. If it could be done on a narrow boat, probably that, with hire cars available for excursions.

3. Tends to vary these days but my default setting is toast with marmite.

4. To Good Year for re-fuelling?

5. I love the idea of sitting down to eat at the G8 summit with that particular array of fellow diners and discovering a moral compass about veal. I hate bananas but have eaten them at dinner parties out of consideration that my fussiness doesn't override the hospitality or culinary skills of my hosts, and because I can always drink more to take away the taste. Don't have much of a list of foods to which I have a moral aversion (or "a moral aversion to which I have."). Back in the 80s I'd have probably caused a scene if served South African or Chilean wine, and the Coors beer/KKK urban myth was still circulating in those days. Now anything like that would just offer a subject for discussion and, if necessary, spread some enlightenment or maybe even learn something - as Sarah Brown might have done if her more morally acceptable replacement dinner had been a plate of horse meat, since the more tender horse meat comes the animals that have lived a full life and died a natural death. Mind you, I learnt that when visiting a couple in Cologne - one German, one Italian - who boil donkeys to go in ravioli.

tincanman said...

And now we have our answer of the week, too. Well done May1367.

veal?

Mrs Tin is used to my rants whenever I see the Guardian's donkey rescue charity advert next to one asking us to help people.

snadfrod said...

Psst. Whilst you were all fighting, I nipped in and ate all the sprouts. Mmmm. Me and MiniFrod were delighted. Ta.

So...

1. I sometimes suspect that I am a bit dairy/gluten intolerant, but like everyone else I just ignore it as a life without cheese, bread and butter is incontemplatable. And I made up that word just for the purpose.

2. This may sound a bit sad and boyish and Top Gear, but I have never driven, let alone had, a good, fast exciting car. Classic or modern, I don't care, I'd just love to roam the wilder reaches of the nation with my foot down and the stereo on. Or something.

3. Shreddies. Failing that, as a treat, I go for the Coco Pop/Weetabix mix and lovely it is too.

4. My house. He's my wife now.

5. I don't think I hate or disagree with anything enough not to eat it. If, however, the situation were to arise, I would probably eat it anyway. Polite and all...

Chris said...

1. I'm lucky not to be allergic to anything. Having seen how allergies hobble people's everyday lives, I don't want one of any kind.
2. Chauffer-driven hot air balloon, please. I could drop in to places that look interesting and fly far above the eyesores - they probably look better from on high.
3. Two rounds of wholemeal toast coated with Bonne Maman Apricot Jam, plus the coffee we discussed a few weeks ago. Every day.
4. The Captain suggests 'floatin' down the gutter'.
5. I don't understand why anyone would force themselves to eat someting they find unpalatable, for whatever reason. If I don't want something that's already on my plate, I just leave it to one side. In polite society, no-one will question you but, if they do, I just explain why I left it and take the discussion (if there is one) from there. I don't think I have any political food-intolerances any more, but I won't eat food produced by causing unnecessary suffering (though, as a meat-eater, that's obviously a tough one to define).

I'll have some of those sprouts, too. Only a few as they do have an anti-social after-effect. I hate Marmite, though.

goneforeign said...

May: "the Coors beer/KKK urban myth was still circulating in those days."
Whaderyer mean 'in those days', what about these days? Adolf Coors still finances half the nasty right wing causes in the US.

ejaydee said...

I also remember the Reebok, and Marlboro urban myths.

goneforeign said...

Snad: I can relate to your desire to just once, drive a fast, stable and exciting car, I've always enjoyed it, in fact on Saturday we're driving to LA, about 450 miles, which is something I used to do and enjoy regularly.
A suggestion, give yourself a birthday present, there's racing driving schools at several of the major circuits where you can be taught how to handle a fast car on a racing circuit; they will provide the car which can range all the way up to a fairly hairy racing machine.
I remember that there was the Jim Russell school at Snetterton in Norfolk and I think I've read of others also.

steenbeck said...

1. All the food things people have mentioned, but I think it would be hard to be allergic to pollen, too. I would hate to not be able to go outside after a long winter just when things were starting to grow.

2. Jet pack

3. An apple cut into little pieces with a few spoonfuls of cereal and with milk.

4. I don't know but I wish he'd come back because I got an email saying the blog would be taken down in 20 days as a spam threat if we don't undergo a review, and I don't know whether to respond or not, because maybe the email is spam. Blimpy? are you there?

5. Usually if somebody knows us well enough to invite us over to dinner they know we're vegetarian. If I was served meat I would just say, I'm sorry, I'm a vegetarian. But I can always make do with salads or veg or bread or whatever else is on hand. I would never ever eat meat though, not even to be polite.

Malcolm had to pick a vegetable at the grocery store that he'd never tried before, and he picked brussel sprouts. I braised them. Delicious. There aren't a lot of foods I don't like.

treefrogdemon said...

snadfrod, I have a lease car from work, which means I'm insured to drive any other lease car. A few years ago a colleague had a prang, and she was lent a lease car which hadn't yet been returned to the lease company after the driver had got another job.

She came bouncing into my office and dropped a key on my desk. "Want a go in the Merc?" she said. (It had belonged to the Director of Nursing.)

This was in MK, which is right next to the M1 so I had a bit of a blast. But only as far as Northampton.

TracyK said...

Ink! No more reading? *cries* That or dairy, which is almost as upsetting.

Train would be nice, though I've always wanted to go round the UK in my own leisurely time, so the idea of a camper van is quite alluring. Don't think hubby would do it though.

Cup of tea or coffee. Blee, I feel sick most mornings anyway, so the idea of choking food down is a no-no.

The home for the terminally confused for a little lie-down and some nice meds?

MUSHROOMS! Is someone knows me well enough to invite me to dinner (and believe me, Jon is so anti-social, they won't be coming from his friends), they will have heard my anti-fungi rant before. When I was a veggie (12 frigging years) mushrooms turned up in absobleedinglutely everything. Hence ranting. Shellfish would freak me too, those EYES! Those TENTACLES! Those EXTRA LEGS! Or NONE AT ALL! Bleeeee. Pass me any leftover sprouts though, that bubble and squeak sounds just yumlicious!

May1366 said...

goneforeign: I absolutely agree that Adolph Coors is a deeply unpleasant ultra-conservative ideologue and the stuff he does support is probably a lot more powerful and dangerous than the modern-day KKK (which isn't, as far as I'm aware, one of those causes). By "in those days", I was just referring to the belief that the finances of the brewery itself, as opposed to his personal fortune, were bound up with those of the Klan, which (and I may be wrong) isn't now given such wide credence. Of course, the moral Rizla that divides the concepts of "the brewery" and "his personal fortune" doesn't make the thought of knocking back a Coors over dinner any more palatable but, until the nefarious practices of the bosses of every company producing food or drink gets printed on the packets, I wouldn't make a point of refusing that and tucking into, say, the Domino's pro-life pizza it's served with. Though the cheapskate serving takeaway pizza and insipid American beer at a dinner party - that's who'll I'll be boycotting!

goneforeign said...

May: It shouldn't even be up for discussion, Coors is in about the same league as Millers Lite and Bud Lite and should be boycotted along with them because it's awful!

Tim (Kalyr) said...

Who remembers the rumour that Proctor and Gamble bankrolled Satanism? Apparently started by a bunch of fundamentalist pyramid sellers of a rival soap powder.

Or the one about McDonald's hamburgers being made out of worms? Nobody knows who started that one; if it was a rival hamburger chain it backfired, because every chain saw a dip in sales.

Abahachi said...

I thought the Procter & Gamble thing was based on the moon and stars logo - typical urban legend, rather than deliberate spoiler from a rival. Entirely agree with GF on the US mass-produced beer issue (some of the small artisan breweries seem to be okay, though I've never been bowled over by any of the stuff available over here in the UK) - but the notion that Budweiser is the King of Beers, as opposed to a tasteless rip-off that steals the name of one of the actual great original lagers - well, that is satanic by any reckoning. I'd rather drink Carling, and that's saying something.

snadfrod said...

Steady on abahachi, there are limits to protest drinking...

@GF - that sounds really rather pleasant, I could go for that. As for track days, its something I keep considering so maybe i should mention it loudly to my mum pre. christmas...

@tfd - "But only as far as Northampton". I love it. Recklessness has its limits, and that limit is, as ever, Northampton.

@tracyk - Camper van!! Do it!! He'll love it!!! Get a massive one!!! They rule!!! Trucking forever!!!

Sorry.

gordonimmel said...

I spent two months in USA in 1992. Drank my usual portion of beer and I can honestly say that after that I'll never touch another Bud as long as I live.....well unless, as Abahachi alludes to, it's from Ceske Budjovice. The only decent beers I drank in the US were at a micro brewery in Boston and a bar in San Francisco.

Changing subject and going back to Question 2. Driving around the UK is harder than you might think. Back in 1990 I had a week off so I set off on a 'Round Northern Britain' Tour. I headed east from Leeds to Flamborough Head then tried to stick as close to the coast as possible up the east coast, across the north coast and down the west coast.
It wasn't that simple.
My first night was in Dunbar, then in Aberdeen (Fife was bypassed - sorry Blimpy) then in Helmsdale. The next day it all unravelled. Having gone to John O'Groats and Dunnet Head I gave up the northcoast at Tongue because I realised there was no accommodation so spent that night at Dornoch (back on the East coast!). Next night I was at Fort William after driving up and down a few sea lochs. Finally I got to Clydebank (nr Glasgow) to visit my (extended)family. The final day, after a night out with my cousin Anne, I couldn't be arsed going all the way down to Stranraer and along the Solway Coast so I just headed home down the main roads.

All of it done by driving many hours every day with only a few 'sightseeing' stops at places such as Culloden, Glencoe and Lochalsh.

In other words, even with a good fast car it's going to take a couple of weeks just to do the northern half (which is probably smaller than the southern half) and in some parts you will have to plan ahead with the accomodation.

But just don't, don't think of doing it in anything like a caravan or camper van. Why? BECAUSE EVERYBODY BEHIND YOU ALSO WANTS TO DO THAT JOURNEY BUT THEY JUST DON'T WANT TO DO IT THAT SLOWLY!

(Sorry, Snadfrod)

.... said...

1. Penicillin or some other medication you might well need. Oh God - imagine being allergic to Tamiflu! Meejah problem....
2. Helicopter. Love to see the coastline in a helly!
3. Cup of Yorkshire tea and a biccy.
4. Xanadu -u -u.
5. If it's friends - just say nowt and leave it untouched. I get irritated so much by the rightious and politivally correct and right on that I probably wouldn't want to make food into an issue. I have a real battle with my own conscience and we have at several points said we'll never eat again.. foie gras. Trouble is, we both love the stuff....

Blimpy said...

@steen - i am here, don't worry about the blog being deleted, i followed the links to inform google that we are not robots. Not spam robots anyway.

Blimpy said...

1. Water.

2. Tunnel.

3. Does a cup of tea count?

4. I went to ALL the places mentioned (via tunnel).

5. See if I can sneak it onto my wife's plate.

snadfrod said...

Gordon - not me guv, I gunned Brutus like a bastard.

Blimpy - get back in the kitchen, the cakes are burning.

nilpferd said...

Blimpy Mcflah! You go STRAIGHT into the bathroom and clean the dirt out of those fingernails...
and if you think you're getting any of these sprouts, you've got another think coming, my boy..
*twists blimpy's ear*

barbryn said...

Just to offer my important opinions on some important subjects:

Sprouts: stir-fried with sesame oil and a little garlic.

Porridge: made with full milk, mixed with a variety of dried/fresh fruit (raspberries especially), sprinkled with cinnamon and liberally dowsed in maple syrup. Porridge is my most decadent breakfast.

American beer: having held the usual Bud-induced prejudices against the stuff I was bowled over by the range and quality of the microbrews on my trip to Washington state last year. It was my first trip to the USA, and Washington - all independent fair trade coffee shops and organic food co-ops - confounded most expectations.

Blimpy said...

http://thequietus.com/articles/02089-half-man-half-biscuit-seoing-the-hmhb-back-catalogue

ToffeeBoy said...

Sorry, I've sat here and listened to all this talk about sprouts for too long - I have to get something off my chest. Surely you all know that the only good Sprout is a Prefab one ...

saneshane said...

Blimpy I like:

'4AD3DCD' (This Leaden Pall 1993)

What the esteemed Ivo Watts-Russell ever made of the analogy of foundation course students playing “eerie madrigals on the campus egg slicer” to his cathedral of elegiac noise is unrecorded.

Sample lyric: "Formed a band and had loads of good songs / like ‘Love Froth Tuesday’, ‘Pancake Candy Shoes’ / Got a good guitarist, but he’s got a sad barnet."

SEO Keywords: 4AD Records * Foundation Course * Tony Iommi * David Dundas

(Bonus track: One has to acknowledge the genius of the same album’s ‘Running Order Squabble Fest’ which concludes with the perversion of the popular terrace chant to “You’re going on after Crispy Ambulance”).


I'm also trying to find as many Hope Sandoval tracks to ipod for the drive down to latitude..

Guess what, there's one on the 'SPROUT' ( surf movie) soundtrack.

everything is holistic.

Shoey said...

1. Sound
2. Would prefer to go inland, if possible.
3. Full English, if given half a chance, but mostly an eventual coffee.
4. Attempting to reform & sign Toto?
5. Marmalade & Eccles cakes. As these are not usually served at most dinner parties, am usually safe from any regretable incidents.

AliMunday said...

1. My son.
2. I'd like to do it all on foot. Walking is a great pleasure for me.
3. I'm on a health kick so try to have some protein - but I don't have much time so it's usually a boiled egg with soldiers. Or porridge at the weekend.
4.Over the hills and far away?
5.I've never been invited to a dinner party, nor am I ever likely to be. But if I was in that situation then I just wouldn't eat it (whatever it was).

DarceysDad said...

I pretty much have my EOTWQs ready, so if someone would be so kind as to tell me what my queue ticket number is ...

goneforeign said...

Number Nine, Number Nine...

Carole said...

1. What thing would you most hate to be allergic to?

Alcohol. One of my friends is allergic to alcohol and she hates not being able to join in any more. She used to drink but a few years ago developed this weird allergy to the hard stuff.

2. If you were offered a chance to circumnavigate the UK, what would be your chosen mode of transport?

A square rigged sailing barque. One of those big late 19th century sailing ships like the one Eric Newby sailed to Australia on in The Last Grain Race

3. What do you have for breakfast most mornings?

Boring cereals. I make up for it by having a naughty breakfast at weekends, usually a bacon sandwich or occasionally the Full English, sometimes croissants.

4. Where do you think Blimpey went on his little holiday?

A distant galaxy

5. Sarah Brown refused to eat veal at the G8 summit and sent it back. What do you do when at a dinner party and are served something you hate or disagree with eating?

I'd just leave it or if that got noticed say that it was something that I am allergic to. In all honesty, there isn't much I don't eat. Not a huge fan of things involving entrails (chitterlings, andouilettes, tripe etc) but those things are fairly rare dinner party offerings.

TracyK said...

Carole, I just had to look up 'andouilettes' on Wiki, which led me to red pudding, blood soup and much, much more. Thanks.