food for thought OR whats right whats wrong

my mate giant68 (another blogger) recently touched on a subject close to my heart, food or the love of it,  i like to think i can cook a bit, Indian  Chinese  English a little Italian and the odd paella, the food  people tell me is very nice, but how do i know, ive eaten in restaurants ,not very expensive or well known ones i admit, the price reflects on my ability to enjoy the food,
i follow recipes as do countless millions around the globe, i change them to my taste, leave out ingredients i don't like and add some i do. sometimes i find things work when they shouldn't like strawberry jam on steak (thanks to cousin David for that one) still cranberry sauce with turkey is Ok but i don't like it, Jamie tells me to cook it one way Delia another, Gordon yet a different f%&*ng way but my ways better to me (I think right or wrong).
some time ago i started taking pics of the food i eat (not cook) the better half thinks that's weird, but i found 2 other members of the family do the same, whats a little disturbing is we all drive lorries,

as you can see nothing special but its just as nice as anything else,    something else i have in common with 68 (im  allowed to call him that) is the ability to eat food at weird times, shift work will do that to you and yes ive also had a beer at half six on a Saturday morning, ( does wonders for getting rid of double glazing salesmen )

which brings me to wine, white for fish, chicken, rabbit ect red for dark meats, wines for main course, wine for dessert ect, personally i prefer red with every course and a beer on the side, whats right whats wrong.

i would take 68 to task on one point that he has got totally wrong, big mac, now that defies all the rules of good food taste, burger king bacon double cheeseburger, yummy yummy in my tummy.

only gone and done it

the holiday got off to a predictable start, me the wrong side of few scotches, as i mentioned on a previous post flying and i don't get on, well had a couple of hours sleep before leaving for the airport at 1:15 am,(oh yes i was the worse for wear) and although my daughters driving is fine her sense of direction is as good as her mothers, but i have to admit i did program the sat nav for her opppps, we arrived very early for the flight( note to self pre book seat places) coffee on the departure side did little for the nerves but i was resigned to my fate at that point, by the time of boarding i was feeling quite pleased with myself,apart from the long walk to the gate, rose (the wife) was chatting away Merrily and all i could hear in the back of my mind was...... dead man walking.
   seated and belted looking at the card of death (sorry i mean emergency procedure card ) a small problem was manifesting its self before my eyes, several fellow passengers were arguing about seats, i was slowly going nuts until the stewardess sorted the minor problem to anyone else, to me nearly the end of my holiday, i said to rose that's it i cant do this, well i saw a side of her i think i last saw nearly 20 years ago (but that's another story) i think she said" you will be fine", no no i remember now, she said" Bl***Y sit down and shut up "(her teeth are in good order)
4 double scotches later the world was whole new place no problems here even took the obligatory photo
out the window

the feeling of euphoria was wearing off a little by the end of the 16 hour fight (only 1:50 apparently ) but i was there i had done it (look at me ma I'm on top of the world)
 
the transfer to the hotel was 2 minutes   (yes i slept the entire hour and a bit ) checked in and had lunch the food was wonderful for whole holiday, people moaned but people will, well worthy of its 4 star rating

i have 3 real fears in life flying heights and snakes, fortunately no snakes on this holiday, but heights were, i had forgotten this part, we had asked for a low floor but it could not be guaranteed , the sun shined and the gods smiled down, room on the first floor although this was in fact the forth floor as we had -2 -1 B which was ground E C then 1 to 19 we had a small roof area in front of us which suited me fine.

going back to the food for a minute on the last day chef outdid the week a cold buffet to die for,

 staying on food you don't see this in many supermarkets in England, mind you the price is for whole hams,

food is a bit of a  Passion so its no surprise i went window shopping as we were all inclusive, you can get  anything from English breakfast for 2 euros to Spanish tapas from 1 euro with wine, we were a bit disappointed with the food at benidorm palace as the hotel food was excellent.

the highlight of the holiday for the both of us was the trip to peacock island 12.50 euros for boat ride along the bay out to the island and ride around the island in a sub boat 

the downside to the holiday was the rain on Friday , stair rods , cats and dogs, buckets, just doesn't describe the way the water came down, the photo shows water which in the centre of the path is around 6 inch's deep this was around 10 minutes into the deluge, by the time we decided to walk back to the hotel we were wading past our knees, still not as bad as a village outside of town where I'm sorry to say two people died as a result of of the flood.

we did have a daily cabaret show that was not the agenda, three guys repairing the hotel in front and if you look closely you will see they have done plenty

it wasn't until Friday afternoon that i realised i hadn't spent the entire week worrying about the flight home, as i had done 38 years ago, however i still had the 4 doubles on the way back, ......just in case

First ever holiday

First ever holiday

Well that's not exactly correct as you will see,many months ago I was sitting one Saturday or should I say sabado as we are going to Spain, anyway one saturday afternoon at the computer monitor (well actually it's a 42" wide screen but I digress

And brag) when my wife of 38 years and counting pipes up, "are you going to get those passports any year soon" yes of course I am I reply ( when he'll freezes over my mind replys oh so quietly) ( because she is a witch and can hear every thought as if it were sent to her as an SMS ) ,

You see I'm sooooooo afraid of flying, it's an erational fear as I have managed it 3 times when I was young well 20 , twice I was drunk and once drugged or was it the other way round I'm not sure, I kow it's erational as a few people do it every day ( reliable as ever google tells me 625000 at any one time are in the air) everyone tells me I am going to be fine I know that   More chance of getting hit by a car. I know that   Planes are safer than they ever were I know that as. Well   What I don't know is did my plane get a good service at halfords when it last went in , did it get hit by a car when it was parked up last night, is the fuel ok ( no red diesel I hope)

It is the wife's first holiday outside the uk ( we did go to jersey a couple of times but that's not abroad ) and I am doing my best to enjoy the moment but it is sooooooo hard to get in the mood, I'm trying to learn a few words of the local lingo, I was under the impression if you knew all the verses of viva espania that would do, but apparently not, I'm now told learn a few words you will get treated better, does the fact I'm paying for a  4 star holiday not mean I've already earnt enough brownie points to be treated like take that on tour ( on second thoughts no ) as the food is buffet (yes even at 4 star level) I'm not going to get a proper cooked egg, you know runny and wet as opposed to brown edged and a yolk you could put windows in with, I'm digressing again

I'm not alone in the fear, there is whole host of famous people including David Bowie, Doris day, whoopi Goldberg , Rtchie valens, although in ritchies case it was justified he died in the crash with buddy Holly and the big bopper , statistics will tell you deaths in 1972 was 3214 in 2010 that figure had dropped to 130, I still don't feel any better.

However the fear of flying doesn't get close to the fear of my misses when she gets something in her head, so I'm going to do it, it will be safer than staying at home ( I HOPE) 

time flys

Tempus fugit

I've been meaning to write this for sometime based on something that gets said oh so often, ( the years seem to fly past so quickly these days) Well here is my theory for what it's worth, when your ten years old, one year equates to one tenth of your life, by the time you reach sixty that is down to one sixtieth or a tenth of your life is six years, nothing shocking there just facts.

Just recently I lost a brother in law to a blood clot and it's shook me up I can tell you,well it got me thinking, the years are flying past,Ive just had my hgv medical it don't seem five years since the last one, many holidays have come and gone, Christmas come and went five times,birthdays clocked up, John would have been sixty in December, I'll be sixty in a couple of years if I'm spared as Sarah Kennedy used to say all to often, so I'm trying to slow down the years by loosing weight and giving up smoking, into the third week now, but I'm not being that brave as I am on the patches , that's the only good news as the weight part isn't going so well never mind, I don't know if i will live any longer but I know it will seem like it, 

cables

More years ago than I care to remember I started a collection that was going to take over part my life, it wasn't intentional, and looking back I had no idea that it would be possible to achieve , as the title implys it's cables , as I have a small USA audience I will explain at this point I don't mean telegrams , I mean the ones that come with every piece of electrical equipment we buy, from phones to the latest rechargeable drills, saws and screwdrivers, my first real entry into the spaghetti pile that is threatening to take over the garage was the cables from a commodore Vic 20 , I threw out the unit and even the hi tech datasette but not the cables, they wouldn't fit anything else I'm sure of that, so why I hear you ask keep them, Im not sure, could a cable angel be responsible  or the patron saint of computers st Isidore of Seville ( if the internet is to be believed ) (I looked that up ) , but that was the start, now I have them all, long ones , short ones, curly, straight and layered, black ones, yellow ones , and thanks to the iPad white ones, television, telephone, and tele porters ( I made the last one up) I have enough kettle leads to boil water for England ( why call it a kettle lead when we plug it into a printer) satellite cable, ariel cable, fridge cable,( I threw the fridge out why did I cut off the cable) well it ends today because when the all the cable companies read this they will get together and standardise the whole world to one cable NOT.

Gotta get in front of that lorry

The average weight of a family car is 1500 to 1800 kgs has 4 wheels and takes 240 ft to stop at 60 mph, my lorry has 14 Wheels, is 44000 kgs and takes 280 ft to stop at 55 mph , now it don't take a maths graduate to work out I would be sitting in the boot of the car if it had to brake in an emergency, so why is it an everyday occurrence that a car will fill the Gap I leave for safety, slipways off motorways are the worst but by no means the exception, approaching traffic lights,roundabouts,end of duel carriageways, anywhere they get the chance to use the phrase (gotta get in front of that lorry)
Some years ago ( almost pre puberty ) (the ma in law used to say i never grew up) I was a lorry drivers mate ( heavy plant) and I slept almost all day whilst traveling, I'm pleased to say the driver stayed awake, which I'm sorry to say is not always the case, I've had noddy dog syndrome a couple of times and then pulled into a lay bye for 40 winks then another 40 sometimes, only time i woke up was the braking to avoid the odd boy racer (those mark 1 cortina,s were fast) the problem of getting in front wasn't so bad then as the opportunity to overtake wasn't so good, cars were a lot slower then, I'm sure life was easier for a driver then ( cars and lorries alike)
Life was certainly a lot slower back in the 60s.
How I wish these cars wouldn't rush headlong into situations where they could end up
In hospital or worse,  and if  you think the lorry behind is to close it's probably because the driver is fed up with leaving the safety zone for someone who should have got up 10 minutes earlier

health and safety

I'm not going to push the argument that H&S has gone mad, but i am beginning to think that they are not all singing from the same Hymn sheet, on my travels from one kind of industry to another the rules change, that i can understand, what i find most annoying is different rules between sites sometimes within the same company.
from farm to mill something happens to the grain that makes it dangerous to my health, all of a sudden i have to wear a hi viz vest, or in some places a long sleeved coat with a hi viz vest, or a long sleeved hi viz coat, not just any hi-viz but  EN471:2003, in some quarry's we have to wear hi-viz trousers that to doesn't bother me, but in some places yellow is not a valid colour they must be orange ?   my feet have to be closed in metal and leather, not just any metal and leather, but conforming to various British standards, my steel toe cap trainer boots are no longer acceptable, nor in some places are dealer boots ? must be above the ankle lace up boots,also some places do not allow jewellery or watches ( perhaps no watches is to stop us finding out how long we are being kept there), some places insist on safety glasses some don't,some insist on dust masks some don't (don't like masks they put my fags out)some insist on hard hats some don't 
please H&S executives get together talk to each other, ill abide by the rules because it may well keep me alive,but don't forget the hymn sheet 


story i was recently told, a group of men were walking across a factory floor one wasn't wearing his hi-viz vest and was pulled up by the foreman,where is your vest he said,well said the worker out of all the men here im the only one you noticed nuff said

Go on have a go

I wonder how many blogs start this way, not knowing where to start, what to write, or even what the hell am i doing this for, well I'm another one.
What to write, i heard once that if you are going to write, write about what you know, well i know lots of useless things about many subjects, did you know for instance All porcupines float in water ( well now your impressed arnt you ) I however know, very little about quantum physic's ( probably not even spelt correctly) so i shall not be commenting on that subject, other than i heard if you put the word quantum in a sentence it takes it up the intelligence scale about twenty percent.

As for what the hell am i doing this for, well My mate giant68 suggested i have a go so he can laugh at me for a change, his musings over the last few months have given me a laugh or two along the way as well as food for thought on some things.
As for the title, my dear ole mum (GRHS) used to say i was a five minute wonder, she was  right of course, i was taken to primary school at nine in the morning, first break time i went home saying that was OK but i didn't want to do it again, and I'm afraid that was repeated more than a few times throughout my school years,
the truant officer and my parents were on first name terms before the end of my first year at secondary school (see no posh comprehensive for me and yes i'm that old) by the way he had tea no sugar.
I called the blog five minute wander because i thought that was probably long enough to bore people, so combined the two (clever or what , yea i know what)
Its been forty two years since i left school and in that time ive had around fifty jobs in a multitude of industries, ( i get bored ) as i said mum was right, i currently drive a bulk tipper so i think that might find its way into the blogs at times along with the past lives( who knows )
well i think that will do for now so 10-10 till we do it again good buddies
yes i have spell checked but if the grammar is not up to snuff sorry but i had fishing rod in my hand a lot more than the pen