Thread 15 - TalkLair: “I Can't Lie To You About Your Chances, But... You Have My Sympathies.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 14).

Autumn seems to have gone straight into winter. It's cold, wet and windy. In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them). The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics.

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

Sorry to hear that, Bint. As Dean says, the shortest journeys are probably best.

Condolences to you and the family, Bint, and what @DeanElderberry said

I'm sorry for you, Bint.

I'm so sorry Bint.

(((Bint)))

Sad news @NoBinturongsHereMate - condolences to you all. 💐

I'm sorry, bint, but glad for everyone that it sounds relatively peaceful.

Much love to you, Bint.

My sympathies to your mum and you, Bint.

Today I learned that the top of the washer/dryer while it's running is a really good place for dough to rise.

At the bus stop near FiL's flat, observed this section of the bus timetable and this graffiti.

Quite! I wonder if anyone gets on it?

The point, I believe, is that the bus company can claim that they are running a service (and presumably, if it's a contracted out service, get paid for it) because there is a bus a week, at a stupid time.

Cinema here re-opened fairly recently after being shut for ages, and this afternoon I decided to get a ticket and go tonight. So having gone through all the hoops that you need to to buy anything in these digital times (and to get an account and a log-in there, they require photo ID! That's going too far for me). And now I think, do I want to trail across to the other side of town, to sit through endless ads and trailers to the accompanying perfume of popcorn? or would I prefer to stay in the warmth and comfort of my own home, and watch Wolf Hall? I'm a big believer in sunk cost fallacy. The cinema can wait till a matinee.

The new season of Wolf Hall is about to air here on Masterpiece Theatre and I am really looking forward to it this evening (I think it starts then - if not it's quite soon).

In the meantime this afternoon I am making jam - two lots, one spiced plum and apple and one plum and blueberry. I have enormous numbers of people here over Christmas (not staying here thank goodness but here for Christmas dinner and Christmas day), so there will be around 15 of us on Christmas day. Maybe 16 or 17. I decided to make home-made stuff to give as gifts so I'm starting with those jams. On the agenda on another day are blueberry and apple jam and spiced plum chutney, and I shall also make some jars of dulce de leche, which is very easy to make in the slow cooker. Maybe I'll make some fudge or similar as well, and I do have a recipe for beetroot and apple chutney which we are currently finishing the last jar of and is delicious, so I'll make more of that too. Good job there's plenty of time before Christmas!

I really wanted to like the Wolf Hall series, especially as I like Damien Lewis, but just couldn't get into it.

I started watching 'Until I Kill You' on itv last night. I think Anna Maxwell Martin is fantastic in it.

I was mesmerised by Wolf Hall from the moment Mark Rylance appeared and have been (unusually for me) waiting to watch the final series before reading the book. Because, well, I don't know ... spoilers, perhaps! 😉

Thank you so much for the beer Duc. I've sent you (several) DMs (owing to inability to remember the way DMs work on Mumsnet)

I make many batches of my granny's shortbread recipe as presents. It's always a hit. I have recently added florentines to the mix, too. And various jams (wild plum jam and quince jelly are the most regular ones).

I have more Christmas presents to give than usual and I'm going to think about making some of them if I can.

I hadn't read Wolf Hall before watching it back in 2015 because I am often bored by the Tudors there being so much stuff about them out there. Back in the day the History channel went between the Tudor channel and the Hitler channel. Anyway, watched the first one, was mesmerised by Mark Rylance and here I am again this evening full of delight that it's back for the final telling. Don't worry, no spoilers. What can possibly be the end of this engaging tale! I've also now read Wolf Hall, but not the final book. She was a wonderful writer to make me love Thomas Cromwell when he is pretty much anathema to me.

I have never got round to either reading or watching Wolf Hall. I really should do both.

@VictorianBigot I watched a couple of episodes of that - Until I Kill You - today and she is marvellous in it. At first I thought she was doing an incredibly dodgy accent but then when we got her background it all made sense and made me realise her performance was even better than I thought. Pre the ubiquity of the mobile phone, just before the public birth of the internet, clunky big computers with maybe the most basic of intranet on it. Oh! And the mention of a fax machine which most young people now ideas probably haven't heard of. It felt like we were all so modern as we lived it and I look at it now and it feels longer than about thirty years ago.

Glad you liked it! That must have arrived quite quickly.

I'm on Wolf Hall now. Politics was brutal then, is it any more civilised now? When that check-list was being recited, things you can't say to the King, don't upset him, show him a personal win, etc, you could imagine Trump's courtiers saying much the same.

I suspect that sort of thing is not restricted to the other side of the Atlantic!