Thread 18 - TalkLair: "That's no moon. It's a space station!"

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 17)

We've had our heatwave - is this it for the summer? All is lush and green in our LairGarden, flowers are blooming, berries are ripening...

In the TalkLair, all the windows are open, the Pimms is chilled, the MN massive salad is ready to serve. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, 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…

Tell them, or they might blame you!

Hah, we're safe from being blamed because we don't have a car, so unless they think DH is the Incredible Hulk they'll know it wasn't us

These lorries all have cameras in them by law, don't they? The company will likely know about the damage. And they will probably be continously tracking their vehicles. Maybe if they rang round local companies, it might bear a bit of fruit?

That depends on Kuc remembering the company name.

If it was an actual scaffolding supply company, as opposed to just a general builder, there surely wouldn't be that many in the area? You could Google Image the lorries of Smith Scaffolding, Brown Scaffolding, and Jones Scaffolding, and they might be recognisable, by colour maybe. If you wanted to go all Secret Squirrel!

Your faith in my powers of observation is oddly touching @moto748e

My recollection is: It was a scaffolding lorry, overall colouration of the whole thing was 'scaffolding grey', may have said XX Scaffolding on the side but might have imagined that bit

I’d tell them, as it could save them time in looking for “evidence”.

Is the wall in danger of collapsing? If so I'd definitely tell them.

I'm not sure whether the wall could collapse. It's very definitely cracked and a section of bricks out of place. But it's only a small wall (about a foot wide) so doesn't have a big load.

Anyway I managed to chat to the neighbour yesterday evening while we were wheeling our bins out and let him know what I saw (or strictly speaking, inferred). He said they'll probably not bother trying to pursue it.

Those neighbours sound disappointingly sane, @RasaSayangEh.

Indeed! I was hoping for a spreadsheet of local scaffolding companies, a hoovering up of neighbours Ring cameras...

@moto748e ... indeed. Such people are a disgrace to the community.

(While I have your attention, a sad result for Wigan on Saturday. Commiserations and better luck next year.)

Cheers, @Gonners. A good day from the social side of things (secret parking place utilised, decent seats, clear run home (back in the pub in Wigan by just after 9pm), but very disappointing on the pitch. But when you butcher two try-scoring opportunities at 0-0, and then have a player yellow-carded for stupid indiscipline, maybe it was never going to be your day! At least the women's team won their GF!

Just done an allergen check to see if I can take a tiny step on the milk ladder. The minutest possible sliver of hard cheese - a goat one, because I used to be OK with goat milk as a child when I couldn't have cow.

It will take a while for the allergen verdict, but the taste verdict is a resounding no. Vile stuff, tasting primarily of butyric acid and wrongness. I was supposed to have a larger taste in a few days if this one went OK, but it's gone in the bin. Not doing that again.

Some goat's cheeses are incredibly 'goaty'. You'd probably have to hunt for the mildest, least flavoursome one in the cheese shop. Would sheep cheese work like a manchego?

If you do go wild and start experimenting with goat milk, the least goaty one is St Helen's Farm according to my mam. I can just about drink it for a couple of cups of tea, but somehow the goat builds up!

The trouble.is, for the allergen reduction I need to go for the 'most altered' version. Which means a strong cheese.

Sheep will be the next attempt. Or a buffalo mozzarella if this goes well enough that I feel I can risk a softer one.

Are dairy allergies becoming more common these days? If so, why?

My husband never had hayfever or problems with dairy at all.. then sometime about 10 years ago he started getting hayfever, and then after a bout of COVID, dairy became a problem for him. I wonder if the dairy problems are a general gut biome thing thing - it's not like cows milk is universally digestible, and maybe the stomach problems that came with COVID killed off the helpful things.

I've had problems with dairy all my life, but it fluctuates in how serious it is. I had a good few decades of being OK with cheese and limited amounts of cooked milk and yoghurt. The current flare up might be perimenopause related (common allergy trigger) or it might be just from overdoing it a few years ago. Or both.

My mam's dairy intolerance probably really kicked off post menopause. She can go as far as yoghurt on the ladder, but uncooked cows milk is not her friend.

That was about my peak tolerance level. I'd like to get back to being able to manage at least occassional cheese, and milk powder is used as an ingredient in so many things that having to avoid that is a significant hassle.

She takes a pro-biotic supplement and thinks it does her some good. Dr. Emanuel Paleco 300 Billion Symbiotics · Probiotics & Prebiotics for Gut Repair

When my DD had an issue with milk when she was very young, the advice I was given was to try small amounts of dairy that was very high fat and low protein, on the grounds that it's often the protein that causes problems - i.e. butter and double cream. She did actually grow out of it, but was off dairy altogether for a couple of years and we very gradually introduced it that way.

I am lactose intolerant which I discovered following an extended investigation into my guts. Within two days of stopping milk my hayfever and asthma dramatically improved.

Traditionally children were fed cows' milk until they were about five. In the last 40 years we have changed our breakfast habits away from protein-rich meals like eggs and cooked breakfast to cereal and milk. It's not surprising that many people are now finding milk is an irritant.

The only problem I have now is visitors who ask for milk with tea or coffee as we never have milk in the house.

I can't see that Myrtle, milk has always been a big part of breakfast surely, in the UK anyway. I don't really understand why these intolerances seem (?) to getting more common.