Marty

All I'm seeing is an empty rectangle about 3mm wide and 5mm high on my laptop screen. Am suspecting you used some emoticon that your smartphone has, that my laptop doesn't recognise....

I'm having to make something quick for dinner as, in about 70 minutes time, I am one of the volunteers on a helpline I'm connected with. Fortunately, with the modern technology, I can do that without leaving the house. So I've one of my cartons of beef curry defrosting in the microwave. Curry and rice: quick, tasty, nutritious, and filling! (where's the 'Yum!" emoticon?)

Hi, Gary!

I'd say it's Albert who will be panting when he reads that comment, Gary...

So much for social distancing...

Good thanks. Hope yours was, too.

Hello there, young Albert! And, with that, I'm away to bed. 00:46 am here. Only up so late as I forgot I had to bake bread. I keep forgetting how much later it suddenly is when it gets dark, now the clocks have changed. Night, gang!

Ignore them all, Gary, and just be careful with it. Actually, I'm kind of jealous. Wouldn't mind a christmas present like that myself.

Hi, Gary. It's 8 degrees C here, but cloudy. Forecast is for showery weather tomorrow, until Friday afternoon. Suggestion that the dry spell we've had for the past week or so may be coming to an end, but that rainfall amounts will be low. Enjoy your walk. Under current restrictions, due to me being over 70, I'm not supposed to leave my house or garden. I need to pick up a prescription from a chemist (drugstore) 20 miles away in the next few days. One of the problems of living in a rural area. I may not be allowed to, so it's either a case of getting someone else to do it for me, or ringing the chemist and seeing if they will either post, or home deliver. I'd probably need to ring them, anyway, if I were to make arrangements for someone collecting it...

Good afternoon, Albert Just on a break from garden work.

Sweet dreams, Albert.

Going to get an early night. Goodnight, folks!

I hadn't spotted the 1500 pages, till you mentioned it. Although they haven't announced a relaxation yet here in Ireland, we have been warned that if and when one does take place it may only be temporary. Sleep well, Master Tim.

Almost there, Gary. Almost there! Although once I get finished and everything raked up, I shall go over the main part again using the cord in the strimmer instead of the blade. That should result in a much neater finish. And, yes. I will share some before/after photos eventually.

Oops! My apologies, Page. At least I didn't call you Gary this time. I've gone back and edited the post. I blame it on me currently reading a story by @Dabeagle where one of the main protagonists is called Sage.

Hi, Sage, I mean Page!

Hi, young man Hope all's well in Albertville today.

"The astrophysicist told Guardian Australia he had ruled out further experiments with the magnets and face-touching, and would find other ways to pass the time while at home." Hilarious! Thanks for giving me a good laugh, Mr B.

Are you trying to give young Albert palpitations, Bucket?

Yum, indeed! I'm also partial to liver and bacon (strips of liver wrapped in bacon).

Here in the British Isles pigs in blankets are sausages wrapped in bacon...

Greetings, Page.

And it wasn't until I was in digs in Sheffield when I was at university that I found out that in Yorkshire itself Yorkshire pudding is treated as a starter. For Sunday dinner my landlady would give me a dinner plate with a large Yorkshire pudding on it drenched with hot gravy, before she gave me the main course of meat, potatoes, and two veg. And they don't leave tea to brew in Yorkshire. They leave it to mash. It was years later that, when I started home-brewing beer, that I came to realise the Yorkshire folk were being grammatically correct in this. In beer-making, the first stage is mashing the ingredients (extracting the flavours from the malt and hops in boiling water). The brewing only starts when the yeast is added to the cooled mash to convert the sugars into alcohol.

Here's a recipe for sausage rolls: https://www.seasonsandsuppers.ca/easy-homemade-sausage-rolls/ It's a Canadian website, which makes me think maybe the sausage roll is known there, at least. Sausage rolls can be eaten hot or cold, but to my mind they are best eaten hot. My mum used to serve up hot sausage rolls and cold pork pies (is that another delicacy only found in the British Isles, I wonder?) whenever any of us would visit her on a Saturday afternoon. Another favourite of hers was various types of cheese flan (basically what is now known as "quiche")

It seems like sausage rolls may not have made it to the good old U. S. of A. Here's a hilarious video of LadBaby on holiday in America last year desperately trying to find somewhere that might sell them: He has another YouTube video of him trying to find one in Ibiza as well that I've not actually watched yet, but makes me wonder if the sausage roll is maybe a delicacy that's only found in Britain (and Ireland).