General Chat

Good morning all down under/evening up top:-))

This morning I'm taking my oldest son for his hazards test, its the first part of the drivers license testing (Ps), then on the 24th of this month he goes for his driving test. In the afternoon my daughter goes for her Learner drivers permit, she is having her first lesson on Thursday. Ive told her she must first have a few lessons with an instructor before I will allow her to drive my car.

I think I remember the IXL jam, was it the one that came in tins? If it is my parents always bought the apricot one which we all hated!!! Today I love strawberry jam, I buy the one made in Yackandandah, (its a Vic country town) I have it on toast in the morning for breakfast!!!

I hope everyone has a great day/night:-)))

Carole xx

Good morning, Carole. I hated the learning to drive years:)) Good luck to your young 'uns.....and you.

Mum used to buy the IXL pineapple jam that Tec mentioned. I buy the Yackandandah lemon butter because it's one of the better ones - apart from homemade which I don't do. We bought some beautiful lemon butter at a market in West Yorkshire last year. The very best I've ever had.

Sue xx

Hi Sue
I just went in the supermarket and they still sell IXL, in jars!!!
I love lemon butter too, whats the name of the one that you got from Yorkshire? I will ask my cousin if he will send some over. I will also try that Yackandandah lemon butter, thanks.
My son passed his Hazards test with flying colors!!!
I am hating these learner driver times also, it just makes me so nervous!!!

Talk to you later:-))

Carole xx

This is for when Tec joins us again.

You want to turn me into a PIRATE? Hijacking ships? OOOoooo how exciting! I'll keep a lookout for a good one - big enough to take all of us and a crew. I can operate a ski-boat - will that be enough for me to give you some relief at the wheel? Or will you be in the engine-room? My dad was a marine engineer - does that qualify me to help?

Good afternoon/morning,
If you top o’ the world people thought time zones were confusing, there are four different varieties of football played here. The administrators of the game you call Soccer in this country insist that the game should be called Football. But our national team is still the Socceroos. Unlike the other football codes, in this country the A League “soccer” competition is played in summer.
In Sydney and Brisbane, the top code is Rugby League, which differs subtly from Rugby Union. I think League is played only in NSW, Queensland, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and Yorkshire and Lancashire.
In most of Australia the preferred football code is Australian Rules or The Footie which depending on who you believe started off as a form of Rugby (Union) but is now unrecognisable as such. It is played on a large oval with four vertical posts at each end. I will try to be a gentleman and refrain from jokes about what is our most popular winter sport.
Diane or was it Linda/Lynda? I think you would be welcome to spend your northern winters here. Even today, which in Sydney is rather overcast with rain periods, it is not cold.
Maybe I don’t have much of a sense of humour, but I was really tickled by a map in one of yesterday’s papers. It talked about the multi-ethnic origins of players in our national football league (soccer) competition. There are players born in Australia, England, Scotland and several European countries as well as Ghana. According to the map that went with the article Ghana is in Europe, south and east of Germany.
Back to work, I’m afraid after a slightly extended lunch :-)

Good morning, Carolee, SueMaid and Berona,

Hope you all had a good weekend. I too have the Yakandandah lemon butter in my fridge. It's good enough just to eat out of the jar with a spoon! Bought it at Christmas time to make a dessert similar ti a tiramisu, but it had the sponge sprinkled with some limoncello (an Italian lemon liqueur) and the mascapone cheese and cream with lemon butter mixed in, and blueberries in between the layers of sponge - it was just beautifuland everyone had seconds. Think I will do it again this Xmas.

SueMaid, your Sundays sound just like mine used to be - Sunday lamb roast, me picking the mint for Mum to make the mint sauce, and dinner time we had cheese and tomato jaffles or the tinned tomato soup and toast croutons. And it was a dissapointment if it was Adventureland on that week - that meant cowboys and indians most likely. I think pre-Disneyland was the Mickey Mouse Club on Sundays? Loved Darlene and Annette.

Allan kindly offered to do my ironing - bet he would be surprised if I turned up on his doorstep with the basket/s, coathangers and Fabulon. He is such a nice man...couldn't do that to him! As he will be absent for a couple of days I thought I might post a joke which I had sent to me by my brother. Might do that later today.

Now, there is an old saying: Procrastination is the thief of time.
Have been saying this to myself a lot lately as I seem to be putting off a lot of things and achieving nothing - need a bit of a kick up the ....side! So, with that, it is time I got on with my day.

Hope the sun is shining wherever you are, or in the case of our mates in the north, tucked up in nice warm beds.

Bye for now, Susan.....

Hello, Colin, you crept in before me. OH is a long-time Collingwood fan (AFL) - said he will be at the grand final if they make it, rain, hail or shine.Being in Melbourne, that could very well happen!

Susan....

Hi Susan in WA. In Melbourne, possibly all on the same day.
Much gloom about the office this morning.
Boss 2. Shattered because Carlton lost. Imagine how the players must feel.
Boss 1. Swannies out of it weeks ago. He also supports Canterbury Bulldogs, see below.
Tigers (League) won handsomely, but still didn't make the 8.
Canterbury (League) well beaten by Tigers so finished second.
The only Manly supporter in the office is happy. Not so sure he will be after his team plays The Storm in Melbourne next week.
Can anyone beat the Saints in either code?
None of this makes much sense to anyone outside Oz. Sorry. But have a nice morning anyway.

Hi all and to those that asked

I think we at one time had Kia-ora tomato sauce. We get a lot of Aussie Home Brand now. We are a strange bunch - some like Land of the Long White Cloud, some Aotearoa but majority stick with N Z. Though some South Island bods call themselves mainlanders. They make Mainland Cheese down there. I live in Auckland and because this is the biggest city and has the more expensive housing/life styles we are known in some parts of NZ as Dorklanders or JAFAs (not as in candy) but as in Just another F...... Aucklander.
I was born in a suburb of Auckland - done the OE bit and jaunt over to Australia from time to time and have even climbed Hanging Rock.

There that's my Bio - and today I have left my OM at hospital for an overnight stay to have his big toe straightened - they are going to break the bone and put it back together again. He has been looking at the procedure on the internet - he knows he is no good at looking at gorey - it's me that watches your hospital TV and parademic shows - he looks away when anyone is being cut up. So he will probably be dopey as when I collect him tomorrow.

Cheers
Persephone (who can cook anything she wants for Tea tonight - well she does anyway)
xxx

I can see some of you ladies are still holding with the English tradiion of hot Roast Dinners in the middle of the day! My mother always did that at weekends - why? because HER mother did it - and why did her mother do it? because HER mother did it! - and that one was the Irish immigrant, married to one of our original Redcoats.

In the days before air-conditioning, I can well remember my mother, on Christmas Day, with perspiration pouring off her, cooking a leg of ham and either turkey or chicken and roast vegetables - and Christmas pudding, etc.
We couldn't get near the kitchen for the heat! Not only that - but we felt we had to eat it because she put so much effort into it, so in the afternoon, we just wanted to lie down because we felt so bloated! Then, in the evening, she would put on a 'party' type meal of the same meals, cold, with salads and again, more sweets - such as cold pudding with ice cream, also fruit salad, etc - and extra sweets - and of course, the Christmas cake!

It took us years to make her break with tradition. I have always had the meals reversed, but since we sometimes have Christmas day at one of my children's homes, we now have late breakfast, then one big meal in the mid-afternoon and it's a mixture of everything - hot and cold meat, with roast veg and salads, etc. and all kinds of desserts - including the pudding and cake. ( smorgasbord) lways plenty of leftovers - but nobody wants another meal later. Nibblies everywhere for those who can fit them in!

Roast meals throughout the year can be had on any day of the week, but never in the middle of the day - not for many years. It took us a few generations to realise we are on the wrong side of the world to appreciate them!

Hello, everyone. Too many posts of interest to answer everyone. I really do enjoy reading everyone's posts - we talk about all sorts of topics and the conversation flows as it does sitting with a group of friends at any social outing.

Berona, I rarely do a roast dinner in summer - but it's much enjoyed in winter complete with Yorkshire Pudding. We have a lot of salads in summer and OH will quite often bbq whatever meat we may have. Growing up we would often have apple pie or steamed pudding with custard in the middle of summer and always a cooked meal - my dad never considered salad to be a meal except for lunch.

All Football codes are a great mystery to me:))) Except soccer.

Carole I can't remember the name of the Yorkshire lemon butter I just remember I bought it at a market. I also bought orange curd - it was called "A Very Orangey Curd" and it was also delicious. Congrats. to your son for passing his test.

Very cold and wet today - good for the gardens but miserable for we humans.

Persophone we haven't been to NZ - one day hopefully.

Sue xx

Hello Sue,
I did ramble on, didn't I? I think I was mainly talking about roasts in the middle of the day and Christmas. For normal daily meals, we always had a hot meal in the evening and always meat or fish with plenty of vegetables. Thank goodness my family were not hard to get the vegies into. My Mum did that too, but when Dad was home at weekends, she seemed to think she should have the hot meal in the middle of the day - and my Dad would eat anything anytime without any complaint! Just the way she was reared, I suppose.

We had two occasions this morning when a few sprinkles of rain tried to wet the path, but changed their mind. Then, at 5pm an unexpected clap of thunder brought immediate heavy rain - for about 30 seconds! and nothing since - not even enough to give the birds a drink!

No, Berona. You definately don't ramble on:))) I always remember that there was always a big plate of bread and butter with every meal. I guess it was to fill us up. Mum always seemed to cook a pile of potatoes brussel sprouts and cabbage. The roast was nearly always lamb and the next day it was minced and made into a shepherd's pie. Mum had a table mincer that would clamp onto the edge of the table - very basic but very efficient.

Colin I re-read your post. Ghana in Europe? Someone obviously didn't do their homework before writing the article. You think you don't have a sense of humour but you have such a dry sense of humour and I'm sure you make people laugh without realising you can be very funny.

Sue xx

I know the type of mincer you mean. My Mum had one and I believe I had one too in the early years - until Sunbeam!
Mum would buy a leg of hogget because it was bigger than lamb. With only three adults, (my brother was 12 years younger than I) we would have it roasted with baked veg on Saturday (lunch), then cold with salad in the evening. On Sunday, sometimes cold, sometimes warmed in the oven, with boiled veg for lunch and again, cold with salad in the evening - and there was still enough for Dad to take a copy of Sunday's lunch in a pie dish to warm up at work on Monday - and believe it or not - we had shepherd's pie on Monday evening! There always seemed to be plenty to go around but I've never been able to make food go as far as my mother could make it go. Strangely, we never got tired of it - I suppose because it was presented in different ways.

I do believe, though, that we get hogget now and it's sold to us as lamb. I never seem to see the whole leg displayed by the butchers - some of it is on another tray as 'leg chops'. As for 'half a leg' - about three inches of it! Must have been very short-legged lambs!

Good morning/evening to all:)) Hope you are all well.

A magpie is sitting on the railing of my front verandah and warbling at me to go out and feed him. They are feeding a nest of babies now and getting quite demanding. OH has a lot to answer for:)) He pays though because he has the job of cleaning the verandah when they leave an offering of gratitude:))

Berona - to continue our reminiscing about meal-times. I loved shopping day because for tea we would have fish fingers, mashed potato and tinned peas followed by tinned peaches and ice-cream. This would be the "quick" meal after a busy day shopping. Dad would pull a face at this meal although he didn't complain out loud - to him an evening meal was meat and veggies. Some weekends as a treat we would wait for the "ice-cream man" who would sell blocks of Devondale ice-cream in tins. On school holidays the pie man would come around and we would be treated to a pie or sausage roll. There was also the veggie man in a van. Once a week we would be visited by the "potato man". He was a local farmer who sold potatoes and eggs door to door. That was before all the farmland was sold to the Housing Commission.

Well that's brought back some memories:))

Sue xx

Good Morning/Evening Everyone,

Been a lovely mellow Autumn day today, warm and sunny. No wind. Took the dog for a walk along the beach - he likes to chase seagulls into the sea. I like this time of year, there's a stillness that you don't get in any other season. After lunch it was back to laying carpets. I am getting really bored with it now, but not far to go. My knees are killing me! Getting old!

All this talk of food made me quite hungry. We always have dinner in the evening, about 6pm. Always a roast on Sunday, lamb is preffered, but is so expensive now. Ironically, we are surrounded by sheep here, thousands of them. Think I'll go poach one!

Regards
Tec.

Talking of people that came round selling things, I thought of the street I lived in as a boy. Milk, bread, coal etc, was delivered by horse drawn carts.
The ice man came once a week, you could buy a slab, or bucket of ice pieces. Nobody had a fridge then. The streets were lit by gaslight, so the lamplighter came at dusk with a long pole, to pull the chain on the lamp post to light the gas, and again at dawn to turn the light off again. We also had an elderly man and woman that came around singing for money. The man played a violin, sometimes an accordian.
The shrimp, cockles and winkle man came at Sunday lunchtime. Also the rag and bone man came with a horse and cart collecting old clothes. Quite where the bones came into it, I never understood.

Seems so long ago!

Tec.

Good evening, Tec:)) I love listening to tales of days gone by. We are all of an age where we are only interesting to each other. The younger ones just raise their eyebrows and smile at each other. There's a lot to be said for life experience.

Sue xx

It doesn't seem so long ago for me. From the time I moved to Sydney in 1962, I didn't need to go out for supplies. Milk and bread were delivered daily, (but by van - not horse and cart as my mother had). A butcher delivered three times a week and took orders for next time - but I did have to walk to the corner store for groceries until supermarkets opened up around us. With no phone, my mother's grocer would pick up her list in the morning and return with the order in the afternoon. Imagine that these days!

The big supermarkets here now deliver all food supplies. However, it is all done online and by phone. I have't had good reports about the phone orders, so if you don't have a computer, you're out of luck!

Hi Sue,
You are quite right about the youngsters attitude to things past. If I mention something along those lines to my daughter, she looks at me in disbelief, with a half smile on her face. They haven't lived lol.
I had my first job, aged nine, helpingin a cobblers shop. Armed with a grease gun, and an oil can, climbing underneath the machinery to keep everything running smoothly. Putting huge sheets of leather, rock hard and stiff, into baths of water to softrn them, then after three days taking them out to hang to dry in a shed.
My next job, aged eleven, was delivering greengrocery around the streets on a barrow - my mother needed the money I earned in those days.

Tec.