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[Very industrial win this evening]

Very industrial win this evening. European experience showed. Owen needs to start producing the goods a bit more. Sunday would be a great day to start.

Eh?

Was just about to post the same thing....

Think he meant industrious

I posted this before, but it is always worth a second read.


Bacon and Cabbage
   
I know this is a cruel thing to do to those of you who are far away from Ireland's kitchens so, if you have a craving for bacon and spuds and cabbage upon you at this moment, then stop reading here and scroll elsewhere. PLEASE GO NOW.....I WILL BE BACK NEXT WEEK.........

Those of you who are still here, accordingly, should be informed that of all the foods and gastronomic delights of all the cultures of the world nothing, in its time and season, compares with the total experience of Irish Spuds and Irish Collar Bacon and Irish Cabbage all combined together for what we call a "good feed". Those who have departed from us, dear remaining readers, have departed because they are in farflung corners of this complex world and know that it would break their hearts to be reminded, in all the detail I am about to give, of the sheer sensual joy of the kind of plates of Bacon and Cabbage that their mothers and grandmothers used place before them as a matter of course.

You can travel the world over at the highest level of luxury. You can devour exotic dishes of all the other cultures. You can have fillet steak and Peking Duck and Italian Pastas and goulashes and curries and stir fries, banquets of Beef Wellington, fifteen course dinners of all the savouries and sweet concoctions of all the nations famed for their cuisine. You can have caviar and birds' nest soup and alligator steaks, Cajun suckling pig and shark's fins and yet, if you have any iota of Irish blood in you at all, nothing will ever quite reach into the deep marrow of your soul's content as a good feed of Bacon and Cabbage.
The mood came upon me yesterday. When that mood descends upon the top of your head, as it did with me quite suddenly, then it links immediately with the pit of the stomach and you instantly know what it feels like to be addicted to cocaine or substances of that nature. You must have your fix. Inside five minutes I was inside the splendid Corofin establishment of Tom Hogan Junior and Senior and it was Tom Junior who was behind the counter.

I need, says I, the Feed. Young Tom is wise beyond his years. I did not need to say anything further. One speedy sortie through Tom's emporium and he laid before me a small sack of Golden Wonder spuds, the very finest spuds in the world, together with a lovely wedge of Munster Collar Bacon lightly smoked, and as fine a head of cabbage as I've ever clapped an eye on. This head of cabbage was green on the outside and white on the inside and as solidly constructed as the poll of an elder of Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian church. The cost was minimal. It was less than the cost of one tiny thigh of a smoked quail I'd paid for in Galway just one week earlier.

I went home. The Dutch Nation, whom I love, does not yet understand the workings of Bacon and Cabbage so I did the cooking my own self, growing ever more feverishly famished by the minute. The big saucepan was produced and the head of cabbage, thoroughly washed, was chopped and put down in clear cold water surrounding the smoked collar of Bacon. The lid was replaced and the heat set for a long slow boiling process that would cook the beautiful Bacon in a way that would spread its smokey slightly saltified juices though the concurrently cooking green and white cabbage beneath an aromaticating froth. This froth, burbling happily away under the lid of the saucepan, slowly but subtly began to spread its olfactorification and glorification right throughout the kitchen and beyond. Soon, standing at the sink washing the Golden Wonders, I became almost giddy with a combination of expectation and sheer animal hunger.

Golden Wonder spuds are the princesses of their species. They are pear-shaped beauties whose skin, paradoxically, feels coarse and gritty to the touch but is quite remarkably delicate at the same time. They are the perfect spuds to travel alongside Bacon and Cabbage because, when properly cooked, they have an outstanding flavour and a finely floury consistency. But they need to be perfectly cooked because, given one minute too long in the boiling water, they will burst open. The Dutch Nation watched me with amused amazement as I fussed over my two saucepans like an old hen, constantly licking my lips. It was a matter of perfect timing you see to ensure that the Golden Wonders were drained and steaming away towards their ultimate perfection just as the Bacon and Cabbage were at the same stage, the Bacon joint removed from the draining Cabbage for the last three or four minutes, its steam forming a perfect halo inside another halo as I sharpened my knife and readied my plates.

I enjoy a glass of wine with every other dinner. But not with Bacon and Cabbage. With Bacon and Cabbage there is no drink to touch a glass of ice cold milk. And you must also have real butter....for the spuds....and you must have fresh English mustard. (The really only good thing about the English is their mustard!)

Two large willow-pattern plates and all the other elements were assembled together and, finally, about two hours after my initial hunger, the Dutch Nation and I sat down at the table, the evening sun garnishing the cottage window, the fire crackling hungrily in the background. And the first mouthful of that Feed was akin to the doorstep of Paradise.

Ahhhhhh!

The Americans have Corned Beef and Cabbage. It is not the same thing. In Europe it is possible to put together some kind of bacon, some kind of potatoes and some kind of cabbage. But it is not the same. The Dutch Nation is now no longer even a token vegetarian. I am sated for a week or so. If you have never been to Ireland and if you like food then it is worth coming just for that reason alone. In its time and season Bacon and Cabbage....and Golden Wonders....puts Killarney into the shade altogether. And that's a fact.

Jaysus, I'm nearly crying here. Sorry now I didnt heed the advice at the start, but curiosity killed the cat!!

Agree with carrots & parsnips mashed together too. Brown scones with a lump of cheddar. Turnips with brown sauce.

Mmmmm cant wait to go home for Xmas

Several people i work with (this involves a bit of inter departmental bitching / rivalry) have a habit of having a pop at our department and on every single occasion they have copied in on email the higher echelons of management etc when the said persons are 20 feet away and could just walk over and ask the individual concerned. And on each occasion they have been shown to be talking out of their asses. Initially we just proved them wrong and replied to them alone, but after several failed attempts at exposing our department we have replied each time copying in all the original recipients. How many times does a person have to be made look stupid before they will cease their little attacks ? Obviously around 20 isn't enough
Does anyone else get this in their work place ?

The recession and imminent further redundancies has created much job envy. If they copped themselves on and pulled in one direction we would have a better chance of survival.

Happens in every company I've worked in. When some people feel the pressure coming on, instead of putting the head down and sorting their stuff out, they try and deflect, and think that if someone else looks bad, it elevates their position. Crazy logic imo.

Was at work here just a few weeks after I started. The guy who sits across the desk from me waits until the team meeting to tell me there was a certain job that was part of my duties that hadnt been carried out for weeks. So I asked him on front of everyone why he waited all week to tell me.

He ended up looking like an idiot, and got a lecture that he should have let me know about this sooner.

Very shocked with that news.
While not my kind of music, these lads did very well for themselves and seemed likeable enough fellas.

From Realfooty.com.au

EXCLUSIVE: Brendan Fevola has become a Lion after the completion of the trade period's blockbuster deal.

In the deal, Carlton will receive young key position player Lachlan Henderson and Brisbane's first-round draft pick, number 12, in exchange for Fevola and Carlton's second-round draft pick, number 27.

You're on the ball there 

From the AFL website:


THE BRISBANE Lions have snared one of the biggest deals of trade week, securing Brendan Fevola and pick No.27 in the NAB AFL Draft in exchange for Lachie Henderson and Pick No.12.

More to follow.

[queuing or queueing]

What is the only english word to contain 5 consecutive vowels (no 'y').

No Googling now.



My favourite word to say is 'Sláinte'. 

'Queueing' has five consecutive vowels.

As someone pointed out earlier, 'facetious' has all 5 vowels in alphabetical order.

'Subcontinental' has all 5 in reverse alphabetical order!!

Hang on a second - queuing is how one spells the art of standing in a queue is it not ?

Think it can be spelt both ways.
Checking the OED online -

queue

  • noun 1 a line of people or vehicles awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed. 2 Computing a list of data items, commands, etc., stored so as to be retrievable in a definite order.

  • verb (queues, queued, queuing or queueing) wait in a queue.

  — ORIGIN originally as a heraldic term denoting an animal's tail, later a long plait: from French, from Latin cauda 'tail'; compare with CUE2.

Full Metal Jacket now on Sky Channel 180, better than any oul shite in the cinema.

Be nice..Someone calls you a cocksucker, be nice.....
So What if someone calls my moma a whore?......Is she?

Roadhouse?

Whats the story with Fevola? Some player but seems to be a troublemaker off the field..looks like Carlton want to get rid of him?

Carlton got rid of him - one alcohol fuelled incident too many.

Apparently Collingwood keen on him, according to Eddie Maguire.

Talk of Brisbane Lions going for him too.... That'd be some forward line up with Brown and Bradshaw!!!

At least 1,100 people have died in the earthquake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, the UN humanitarian chief has said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8284208.stm


Rescue workers on the Samoan islands and Tonga are continuing to search for survivors after a tsunami struck, killing at least 149 people.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8284060.stm

Absolutely devastating in these areas... Is it just me. or does there seem to be more and more natural disasters every year?
Sad, sad stories.....

Terry Pratchett is a very, very funny man.

Agree with some of what's been mentioned, don't agree with some, but Id like to add CJ Sansom, particularly if you enjoyed name of the rose. His Shardlake series is brilliant.

Yep, love all the discworld books. Extremely funny, and each a stand alone book so ya can just pick any one up and read it.

Was a major fan of LOTR, and Pratchett was recommended to me, they're kids books but readable for adults, which I didn't find with Harry Potter - just too childish.

On the other end of the scale, Mario Puzo is a great storyteller, and each of his books catapults you right into Sicily, or that culture, be it in NY, or wherever...

Recently have enjoyed A Curious Story About The Dog In the Nighttime (mentioned above) and The Book Thief. The latter was a very good read, and really original.

Want to read The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (Have put off watching the film until I get round to it) and The Kite Runner.


Has anyone read Twilight series? Know a few girls who are crazy bout it. When I said I had never heard of it, they looked at me as if I had two heads!

Leon Uris - Exodus, Trinity etc.. not always easy to get hold of, but lots of second hand bookstores will have a copy or two lying round
Ludlum
Clancy - the Jack Ryan novels are excellent
Grisham - used to love these books, have read all (i think) except his latest one.

Used to like Patricia Cornwell's Dr Kay Scarpetta novels, but they all get a bit same-ish

little to be worrying about   

What is the only english word to contain 5 consecutive vowels (no 'y').

No Googling now.



My favourite word to say is 'Sláinte'. 

'Queueing' has five consecutive vowels.

As someone pointed out earlier, 'facetious' has all 5 vowels in alphabetical order.

'Subcontinental' has all 5 in reverse alphabetical order!!

[Great to see Giggs taking the piss out of Steven 'I wont play for' Ireland]

Utd deserved the win today as they were the dominant team for much longer periods and were much more attacking. Berb was very unlucky not to score with Given in great form as usual. Foster is not good enough for Utd. Great to see Giggs taking the piss out of Steven 'I wont play for' Ireland. MOTD just timed the whole thing and Owen's goal was scored 1 second after the whistle should have been blown so shitty fans have nothing to complain about there. Play to the whistle lads. Rio does not look fit. Rooney continues to be in the form of his life. Class act!

What did Giggs do?