Category: UK/England

Last Saturday, while Cyndi went to London and had liquid nitrogen ice cream, I stayed home and watched the kids.  One o the things we did was go for a walk.  Here are some pictures I took:

… convenience over anything else.  People don’t want to stop more than once and the stations at supermarkets let them do that.  Some of them–Tesco and Sainsbury’s–even give rewards for purchasing fuel at their stations.  I know that is why we do it (just to clarify, the convenience is what I’m referring to here.  One stop is better than 2 or 3.)

I also think it is about regulation.  In the states, there’s much more regulation now on gas stations than there used to be.  That drove most of the mom and pop stores out of business.

How about you?  Do you get your fuel/gas/petrol at WalMart (or the like)?  If so why?

This is in response to this article about supermarkets having almost 1/2 of the filling stations in the UK.

Image from the real yomcat via flickr

Here, it is called The Pirates!  In An Adventure With Scientists.  But I just heard in the US it will be released with the title The Pirates: Band of Misfits.  For more information, see this BBC article.

Image from Ben Sutherland via flickr

Last year, I took some marshmallow fluff to the fcX group at church.  They loved it.  They still talk about it.  The only rub?  You could only buy it here in a specialist candy shop for about $12 (7 pounds or so).  That is much more expensive than the $1 at WalMart.  Well, tonight, I was at Sainsbury’s in Redhill when I saw it.  Sure enough…marshmallow fluff.  And only for 2 pounds!  It looks legit:

About 2 weeks ago, the weather here was like summer.  But then it turned cold and rainy.  For the past week, we’ve had off and on rain showers.  Yesterday–Thursday–on the way home, this was my view.  Of course, it started raining before I got home…..

One day this past week, when I left for work, the moon was out and really bright.  Here’s a picture of it over some houses/flats.

Yesterday was Easter.  Since it was Sunday, we went to church–like always.  Keith, the pastor, made an announcement something like:

Eggs have absolutley nothing to do with the Christian message or the Christian message of Easter.  However, if you are a child, there are some eggs available for you.

Now, other than liking the fact that he pointed out eggs have nothing to do with Easter (that’s why we don’t do the Easter egg thing), I didn’t think much about it.  But,after church, Jonathan came up to Lydia and offered her a Creme Egg.  She was polite and didn’t take one (she’s allergic to milk); however, Jonathan gave her one for me to hold.

Well, turns out he found Isaac to.  So, yesterday, Isaac had his first Creme Egg.  To say he liked it would be an understatement!

Probably about 10 years ago (perhaps 12), I got a turkey deep fryer for Christmas.  At the time, I didn’t have a clue what I would do with it.  But, since that time, I’ve deep fried a zillion turkeys.  When we moved back to England, we put the deep fryer in the crate and brought with it.  At first, I was worried that I would have to get an adapter for the regulator; however, it turns out that POL connectors (the old style connector in the US) are the common connector here.  So, it plugged right in.

Yesterday, we had some friends over and we deep fried a turkey for them.  They liked it!  I thought it was a good first effort in 4 years (or more).  Anyway, here are some pictures I took of the turkey cooking:

I saw this red flag flying at one of the allotment spaces on my way to work today.  Does anyone know what it means?  Does it mean anything?

Oh, if you click the picture, you can see the original size image….if you would like.

For my other stories on the ongoing petrol strike/not strike no-fuel situation:

Filled Up
Strike

When we were in the process of filling up, I saw a police car in the queue to, I assume, get petrol.  At the time, I remember thinking how odd that is.  I assumed emergency services (police, fire, ambulances, etc…) would have their own supply depot somewhere.  I put it out of my mind…until today.

Today, there is a story in the Telegraph that says 999 (the UK version of 911) vehicles are having difficulties filling up their tanks due to shortages, closed stations, and sale limits.  WOW!  I’m really shocked now that the emergency services don’t have their own depot for fueling.

[Update 2012-03-31 08:19:50] Here’s a good summary of the events so far.

[Update 2012-04-19 09:36:06] There was an agreement; however, the union has rejected it.  No strike news yet.

Image from carlos62 via flickr