Archers thread #157: How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless clan! Discuss The Grundys here. Bicker about The Archers as well if you like.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that, or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to @OverArmour for the idea of making it clear in the title many of us are inveterate bickerers!

Now over to you, as we are about to eat and I won't hear tonight's offering till later ....

Abusive men are always, to the last, about maintaining power and control. He was seeking to retain power over his own life.

My mum is French and looked at me like I was a complete idiot when I said I couldn’t eat some cheeses. So I decided to ignore that advice, but as I’ve never liked blue cheese it wasn’t so bad!

@WitcheryDivine one of my friends has already said she'll send me a charcuterie and fromagerie selection rather than a baby gro

Well she sounds like an absolute keeper! Such a good idea.

This is what my sister in law did for me.

I love cheese with salad. But it has to be done properly.

One of my favourites is camembert salad:

Salad leaves incl. rocket
A few small "scattered" dollops of caramelised onion
Walnuts
Dried cranberries
Drizzle of olive oil and really good balsamic vinegar
1/2 a baked camembert scooped and plonked on top of the salad (or alternatively, whole mini camembert if you can find them)
Crusty bread on the side

Decadent and delicious.

@WitcheryDivine you can have baked camembert!

(I'm also pregnant and feel your pain... I miss pate, too)

Those are the friends you hang on to for dear life!

Oh congrats @Poppins2016 - and think you’re right about the baked Camembert… Thanks 😊

Anyway sorry for short cheese diversion. Even if I weren’t pregnant I’d still be avoiding Helen’s toxic BB. With all the gossip it must hear from
Susan and all the angst from Helen I just think it has Bad Vibes.

otoh, she has always seemed the perfect person for a job that requires the curdling of milk.

I agree that some foods elevate cheese, but they are foods that also already taste good by themselves, like baguette. In the case of cheese and lettuce, it's the cheese doing all the heavy lifting.

In other news, BOOP for the phrase 'Sausage King' appearing on air.

missed the start but seems an odd guest list and party for an 80th. Have they invited the whole village to Brian’s small house? And then having freddie dj?

freddie is a meat head now 🙄 - is that realistic that he would be lecturing people about it?

so who is natalya? Didn’t sound like a girlfriend

And she managed to be out again tonight. I wonder who had the kids this time. Presumably Pat and Tony were both at the party too.

Joy?

I see they managed to weave in the answer to the wife/fiancee question That sounded to me like a later emergency patch.

(old school round lettuce, such as you hardly ever see in the shops these days, more's the pity) When I was a kid, we often used to have lettuce sandwiches. Lettuces tasted in those days.

Cheese salad rolls were what kept me going through 8 months of pregnancy sickness and helped me increase my body weight by 50%.

Maybe Natasha had all the kids. Although it is a school night

I had a mini baked Camembert for supper last night with toasted olive bread. It was fab! The cheese talk has set me off on a fridge raid now.
It is unlikely Natalya is a home help or cleaner as she is nearly 80. Fellow grieving widow? She seems a bit too cheerful for that. Maybe a past mistress he is still fond of? Or a new resident of Beechwood who has caught his eye? Or a Hungarian shareholder in Debbie’s business? I hope they reveal it soon. Brian will want company before too long. He’s very sociable.

In my fridge I have some of what has been dubbed "the anti-cheese" by DH: brunost.

I doubt Helen would be able to make that.

Speaking of food, I make a pudding for Sunday afternoon every week, I had a couple of weeks' worth lined up already but this week I finally got around to my Joy-inspired Sachertorte. I refuse to believe she's knocking out a couple of those in a week. The blooming thing took me the best part of two days (including resting time). It was delicious though. The family thought it was one of my best efforts.

Can anyone explain why the Aldridges felt the need to have two family parties on weeknights within ?10 days of each other?
Bizarre.

Genuinely quite confused for some time that I stumbled upon the wrong thread here.

FWIW a good robust blue cheese in a salad with bitter leaves with a cubed pear, and some chopped medjool dates FTW

Yes quite. Especially as the cast list sounds to have been quite similar. Unless Ruairi had loads of uni friends, why not combine?

Maybe so, but it was believable. I could imagine saying similar. My Mum’s fiancé died suddenly before they got married and I sometimes call him my “stepfather” as shorthand to convey the seriousness of the relationship.

I wasnt saying that cheese and lettuce was bad I was using it just to say apart from herself all Helen talks about is Borchester blue. I like cheese and ham salad myself.
Enjoyed last nights episode it was a bit of light relief after all the drama, and it was good to hear more of the cast.
Why did Brians friend have to have an exotic name, why could'nt she just be Mary or Jane or Wendy something that an 80 year old women might be called.