Thread 3 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucingsparkles]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads 1 and 2.

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

I did work for my cheating dinner - had to drive through the warren of tiny Victorian streets that form East Belfast, in the pouring rain.

I came home from shopping on Thursday to a bag on the doorstep containing after eights and a bottle of red wine (and a card, I do know who it was from) and yesterday opened to the door to someone carrying sloe gin and honey from her own bees to find another bag containing a box of chocs and a jigsaw.

All very very nice.

The coat-training over beyond is a bit pathetic.

trailing, not training, though who knows what they'll think of next, they have vivid imaginations and little grip on reality.

I feel ungracious for not thanking JtT for the excellent work he has done over the years, but I just can't.

Talk of the other place reminds me - is there a King William's College quiz thread around here?

Happy Christmas, refugees! Sibblet and I had a nice quiet day by ourselves. Sibblet is having a little lie down to recover before thrashing me at a board game or two. Cats exhausted from the excitement of different smells and bits of string to chase.

I've had an after eight. I thought they seemed a bit sticky and odd. They're over two years out of date. I shall mock Snoop Mcscrooge for this mercilessly.

We have had a great Christmas. Long walk, pub, then salmon with salsa verde, roast potatoes and various garlic and chilli laced veg, then home made chocolate mousse.

Happy Christmas to exiles one and all.

Happy Christmas all! We've had a lovely day, just watched the Ghosts Christmas special (SO good) and I've left Mum watching Call the Midwife. About 3/4 of the Clementine and Almond Syrup cake left, just wondering if any will make it to Wednesday evening when we have friends over for a D&D session.

Definitely rest Crows! I'm finally pretty much over the horrible sore throat /cough thing, but it's taken over a week.

I bought Quality Street and ate all the strawberry and orange creams, also a box of cherry liqueur chocs and ate almost all of them...

Mavis, you and I should team up for a Quality Street binge, as you like all the ones I hate!

Someone very kindly gave us a tin of individually-wrapped "vegan" truffles. We're not vegan, but I'm sure she chose it for the demonic cat-themed tin, which is just gorgeous and will be kept, loved and used. The truffles, on the other hand ... I tried one and ended up spitting it out. The taste was fine, but it was sort of gritty, with tiny hard bits that made me fear for my teeth. MrGon tried one and declared it "edible, the flavour is good, but the texture - nope, I don't want another ... ever". Then we looked at the back of the individual wrappings and discovered that they contain soya and "may contain" traces of barley, egg, milk, nuts, sesame and wheat. The highlighting is mine. The grit isn't mentioned. But FFS, how can they market that as vegan?

"may contain traces of" is a term used when vegan food is manufactured in the same place non vegan food is made.

Yes, thanks Pike, that makes sense. But shouldn't it all have been displayed (nuts and all - not just the eggs and milk) as allergy advice, on a tag on the outside of the tin, rather than in the small print on the individual sachets?

I know exactly the truffles you mean @Gonners - I bought the same tin for the same reason, and thought the same thing about them! Their choccy scoffy truffles are amazing though, and no gritty bits.

Delighted to read about everyone's Christmasses! Do take it easy @IReallyLikeCrows, glad you're on the mend albeit slowly.

We had FiL over for festive lunch. Cheated a bit, because our meats were bought pre-prepped: a beef wellington and a honey-mustard spatchcock chicken. Stacks of roast potatoes, carrots. parsnips. Braised red cabbage. Sprouts done with pancetta, chestnuts, peas and spring onions.

We had the best crackers ever. Instead of flimsy disposable plastic toys, they contained kazoos and lists of songs for the table to play Guess the Song - to much hilarity. We ended with the Birdy Song in four parts, scored for kazoo.

Nobody could face the two Christmas puddings or the Christmas cake; instead we guzzled almost the whole Yule log (yes, DH got his way - he made the Swiss roll and chestnut puree/whipped cream filling and I did the decorating).

Just finished a bit of TV marathon, while groaning on the sofa and yet still picking at leftovers. Finished the last few episodes of His Dark Materials, adored the Ghosts Christmas special.

Are you talking about those Monty Bojangles vegan nights @Gonners? I love those!! The gritty bits are cocoa nibs. I have some choccie scoffy in the cupboard.

@Kucingsparkles that Yule log looks fantastic.

Mr Monkey has gone to bed. I am watching a Tina Turner doc on BBC 2 cos I fucking love Tina Turner. Completely and unashamedly love her.

She is complete middle aged lady goals.

We watched the Johnny English film, and that is perfect for darning to. So I have done all that I had in my mending pile, while all of us laughed a lot at the silliness. MrPSB and I then went out for a walk in the rain, including through the graveyard (our old lockdown route).

There was one child's grave with a tiny Christmas tree on it, all covered with lots of lights. It was the grave of a child who died aged 3 months in 1952... I imagine it's the sibling doing it now.
.

The place was totally deserted- saw almost no cars on the roads, not even the A road that goes through our town.

We went out for Christmas lunch and had a large Italianish meal spread over about three hours, so I am now very full and glad not to have to contemplate feeding us or anybody else for a while. May break out the chocolates later though.

Re Indian food - I am a fan of Madhur Jaffrey's recipes. There's a black-eyed bean and mushroom recipe that's well and truly spattered with food debris showing how often I've made it.

I have a very splattered MJ book too, I've probably had more good meals out of that than any other book I have.

I can't start a thread. General incompetence. So if someone could start this in a high traffic area it would be great:

www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2022/dec/25/the-king-williams-college-quiz-2022

I'll put one in chat.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4705225-king-williams-college-christmas-quiz

I'm smiling because I just read back properly and you were drinking Bailey's while watching the Baileys @Britinme . Easily pleased.

I'm not sure if this is a whinge or a worry.

I've been vegetarian forever, and known MrBint's mum almost as long. She has always been somewhat baffled by what I do and don't eat but until our most recent visit has managed to provide something suitable every time. (I do always offer to bring something.)

Last year my mild dairy allergy - not previously enough to mention to people wanting to feed me - got a lot worse and I now can't have any at all. When we visited this summer for the first time since the allergy flare, she made a meal that I could eat.

This month we did another visit, and everything she'd planned had milk, or cream, or cheese, or all of the above, in. When I had a hot drink she asked if I wanted it made with milk. And one of my Xmas presents was also milk based.

She has recently had an operation and is relying on her (never cooks At All) husband to do all the cooking (and most other things). So she's stressed and has her mind on other things, which is entirely understandable.

And having dealt with an assortment of types of cognitive decline in my family I'm probably hyper alert to potential symptoms.

But it's concerning.

Or if it isn't concerning, it's irritating.

Definitely one of the two.

That sounds like National Starvation Day in Kazakhstan, Bint

Or "International Women's Day" as it's known, elsewhere.