Is the UK ready.....

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...venturing to the land of backwards toilet flushing...

A fountain?!?

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Originally posted by Bartelby:
For a Lexie invasion????

As I missed tickets to Berlin [limited number and nobody really wanted to part with them on ebay damn timezones]..I now have securely in my hand 2 tickets to see Robbie in Leeds Friday 8th September 2006

The man has since announced that he will be venturing to the land of backwards toilet flushing in December, but hey, wont hurt to see him twice in one year will it?

Pop in for a coffee and/or meal, Lexie - we are 9 miles from Leeds. What airport will you be going to?

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A fountain?!?

Arent they called bidets??


Havent we had this conversation?? Hmm....must not have.

*Apparently* our toilet water flushes in the opposite direction to yours...I have heard it from a reputable source (if you class the Simpsons as reputable )

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Originally posted by Mike from West:
Pop in for a coffee and/or meal, Lexie - we are 9 miles from Leeds. What airport will you be going to?

Havent even thought that far ahead yet Mike, was just super excited when my tickets arrived

Will you feed my some Funky Pommie Authentic meal?

Oh Oh .....please please let it be Jamie Oliver style!!

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Originally posted by Bartelby:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike from West:
Pop in for a coffee and/or meal, Lexie - we are 9 miles from Leeds. What airport will you be going to?

Havent even thought that far ahead yet Mike, was just super excited when my tickets arrived

Will you feed my some Funky Pommie Authentic meal?

Oh Oh .....please please let it be Jamie Oliver style!!

Hi Lexie
Jamie O does a lot of good here trying to prevent our kids eating rubbish.
Despite that, schools make money by having vending machines in schools, loaded with sweets and crisps. The malnourished obesity generation is with us now.

The Europeans cannot understand why our children do not have the same food as the parents!

Pommie grub, eh? The standard 'meat, spuds and two veg' I would not wish on anyone

Someone said that English cook their vegetables for hours until they small like drains. Was it Oscar Wilde? Dunno, but not far wrong.

I suppose the nearest Britgrub thing we cook is Fish 'n' chips, but chips that my wife makes in the oven.
My speciality is making curries and stir-fries.
As Bradford is the UK curry capital of England, ingredients are no problem.

We do make all our own bread, and our own yogurt.

On the Scottish side, haggis are delicious!

quote:

Originally posted by Bartelby:


*Apparently* our toilet water flushes in the opposite direction to yours...I have heard it from a reputable source (if you class the Simpsons as reputable )

Bart was right! It is due the Coriolis effect. It will cost you if you ring me up to ask, though!

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Lexie...the opposite of a hallmark card!

Do Hallmark cards also flush differently in Australia?

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We do make all our own bread, and our own yogurt.

Funny how things change. That use to be considered a lower-income thing - now it's trendy.

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make money by having vending machines in schools, loaded with sweets and crisps.

Difficult to get kids to put their money in fruit/veggie vending machines. At least it keeps the kids on campus and on the inside of the metal detectors. Potato chips are fruit or vegetable?

My fav meal:

Cheese (grilled) on beans (cold) on marmite (lots) on toast!

or

Fishfingers, rice and peas with tomato sauce!

Ok, there are others...

R2 - had to buy 'er indoors the RW album with bonus DVD for her birthday. Why?

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Originally posted by Rick:

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We do make all our own bread, and our own yogurt.

Funny how things change. That use to be considered a lower-income thing - now it's trendy.

We (the royal we!) have been doing it for years, predating the breadmakers that we use now.
Reason is neither penury nor trend - it is just the fact we cannot stand 'plastic' bread that we get in England when not near a proper baker.

Much better in France, when the tiniest village has a boulanger. Sliced bread there is not common.

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Difficult to get kids to put their money in fruit/veggie vending machines. At least it keeps the kids on campus and on the inside of the metal detectors. Potato chips are fruit or vegetable?

Veg, I think, Rick. Unfortunately also loaded with fat and salt.
IMHO, schools should be for education, not revenued cafes!!

The problem with homemade bread is that I eat too much of it. Just the baking, and the anticipation, makes me hungry and the aroma after the bread is done continues to be a reminder of the remaining loaf. Now, give me a slice of Wonder Bread, and end of temptation. I know the wonder in Wonder Bread is how bread can be made without any beneficial contribution to one’s health/diet. A challenge to a growing boy’s health was to pull the crust off and roll three or for slices into a dough-ball and eat it. Of course, a pitcher of Kool-Aid was the ultimate high in healthy eating.



Show me someone with a humble opinion, and I’ll show you someone that doesn’t use exclamation points!! (IMHO)

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Originally posted by region2:
My fav meal:

Cheese (grilled) on beans (cold) on marmite (lots) on toast!

or

Fishfingers, rice and peas with tomato sauce!

Ok, there are others...

R2 - had to buy 'er indoors the RW album with bonus DVD for her birthday. Why?

OMFG!!! You are weird R2!!

Tomato sauce on peas? Ewwww!!

My favorite meal would be pizza.

Either a Original Porchetta with Salami....sauce, sausage, cheese, garlic, chilli and salami.

Or Homemade with Sauce, Beans, Egg and Cheese.

Your missus has great taste R2 Have you watched (endured) the DVD? He's a funny man.

I just watched the Berlin concert on DVD.

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Originally posted by Rick:
Show me someone with a humble opinion, and I’ll show you someone that doesn’t use exclamation points!! (IMHO)

Ooops

The tomato sauce is more for the fishfingers and rice but it works OK with the peas...

Never liked hot baked beans - always have to have 'em cold

Not watched RW DVD yet but saw some of the Berlin concert on TV. He's just won a libel victory in the UK so he's definitely not gay despite some of the lines in his lyrics which might suggest otherwise!

R2

Yes, potatoes are classed as a vegetable. Where are these fat kids I see on the TV ads for obesity? When I take my grand to school, I see healthy children, not obese!

R2 if you are speaking of real baked beans, not the American beans from a can, cold is yum!

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Originally posted by Bartelby:
Ooops

Should that be “Ooops??” or “Ooops!!” - ?!?



(“?!?” = the mark of an indecisive person - maybe; perhaps.)

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Originally posted by Mrs.M.:
Where are these fat kids I see on the TV ads for obesity? When I take my grand to school, I see healthy children, not obese!

They are all in England, Shirl ! Hence Mr Oliver's need to do something about it. Yeah, I know he got the publicity, that can only help his career as a chef, but it did mean that the gubmint actually gave more money to school meals so they actually cook things, rather than just microwaving bought-in rubbish.

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R2 if you are speaking of real baked beans, not the American beans from a can, cold is yum!

Even better and still in a can, Saucisse et Lentilles - any French supermarket, or make your own, and stick some chillies in!

FATTY RANKING

Looks like the gold goes to Scotland, with U.S. getting the silver.


Here

Well, those childen must live somewhere other than here! I am around a lot of children every week, at school and Church. I simply don't see this percentage of overweight children!..Adult, that is another matter!

Good news: Scotland isn’t a nation, so U.S. is still the fat capital.

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Originally posted by Mrs.M.:
Well, those childen must live somewhere other than here! I am around a lot of children every week, at school and Church. I simply don't see this percentage of overweight children!..Adult, that is another matter!

http://www.nchealthyweight.com/:
Still, childhood overweight remains an epidemic in North Carolina affecting:

• More than one in four (27.2%) youth 12 to 18 years of age,
• More than one in five (23.8%) children 5 to 11 years,
• and One in eight (14.9%) preschool children 2 to 4 years of age.

http://www.wral.com/health/2229263/detail.html
Lot more info from Google.

Yes, I have seen these reports, rick, but I DON'T see the overweight children! I DO see a lot of overweight adults, however. In order to get to my grand's classroom, I walk past the rest of the children in her school. I simply see healthy children. Yes, when I go out, I do see, on occasion, an overweight child, but not in epidemic numbers!

Let me ask you...what are these obese kids wearing? I do not go into Walmart or Penny's and see a large section of clothing for them. Since these stores are into marketing, don't you think they would hop on the bandwagon? They carry clothes for obese adults.

In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

Which means what concerning the topic?

I wonder if fat people think that other fat people/children are fat?

Of course, I haven’t personally seen any terrorist, so there must not be any terrorist.

Good old Walmart – anything, and I mean ANYTHING they do MUST represent the buying majority’s desires.



I’m open-minded, I just won’t consider ANYTHING that disagrees with my open-mindedness.

Don't know. I'm not fat, but I assume they can see. I see thin people.

Yes, I understand what you are saying, however I have found many things just aren't so, but someone makes good money talking about it!

"Whatever you do, just don’t confuse them with facts."

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
Hence Mr Oliver's need to do something about it. Yeah, I know he got the publicity, that can only help his career as a chef, but it did mean that the gubmint actually gave more money to school meals so they actually cook things, rather than just microwaving bought-in rubbish.

Must I look up who Oliver is?

Isn't microwave popcorn healthy? No need discussing microwave tea.

Most things are at least ok...depending on how much you eat!

If I could just get wheatgrass juice to taste like Tim Tams.

Uhh OH!

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Originally posted by Rick:
If I could just get wheatgrass juice to taste like Tim Tams.

But, it is easier to turn a into a .

Yep..I suppose so.

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Originally posted by Rick:
FATTY RANKING

Looks like the gold goes to Scotland, with U.S. getting the silver.


Here

How recent are those stats Rick? I was told the other day that Australia had surpassed the US and were climbing the ladder quickly.

Mr Oliver, Mr Jamie Oliver was most famous (originally) as the Naked Chef...which is what I was hinting at with Mike

He has done a very good job of changing tuck shop ways over there and has been to the US to do the same I believe.

I see alot of heavy children here and did comment to MIL whilst over in the US that the children did seem a little more heavy than healthy.

Happy to say that both my boys would much rather be outside destroying something than inside watching TV or playing Xbox....thats bound to change.

Kids these days in general are alot bigger, when I was in high school, I was tall for my age at 5'5...now the average height for girls 5'8. Other body parts seem to have increased in size too.

Boys are fricken HUGE now, I see 15 and 16 year old boys that are 6'3 and they havent stopped growing...whereas when I was at school....6' seemed to be the norm.

Go GMF!!...Not!

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Originally posted by Rick:
Must I look up who Oliver is?

Rick
Lexie has beaten me to it!
'Ere 'e is
Now I shall have to look up wheatgrass juice and Tim Tams - the latter sound like ladies' tampons!

Back to schoolkids being obese in England, that is only one of the problems that later generations will suffer from:

• Couch potatoes - the amount of TV allowed.
  
• No active interests or hobbies.
  
• Useless heroes and role models of today. 'Celebrities', pop stars, foolballers [sic].
  
• The fact that English was not taught for 30 years or so in schools, so kids are inarticulate and cannot communicate.
  
• Smoking and binge-drinking that eventually kills.
  
• Total lack of manners, now second generation. I'm all right, Jack!
  

There are (possibly a majority) whose kids are not like this, thankfully.
We will all watch this space.......

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Originally posted by Bartelby:
How recent are those stats Rick? I was told the other day that Australia had surpassed the US and were climbing the ladder quickly.

Lexie, the article was published December 18, 2005. Here’s the article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1922831,00.html
I could see a U.S. paper forgetting about Australia, but the English are familiar with geography.



OK, now you’ve gotten my nationalistic pride going. Time to prove that America is the Fat Capital (we Americans hate not being in first place). This is a two-parter:

1. In recent times (say, the last 10 years) has any other nation's leader (democratically elected – there’s no accounting for a dictator’s taste) had a mistress that was as “plump” as Monica Lewinsky?
2. In recent times (same 10 year period) has any other mistress of a nation's leader appeared in a diet commercial (Jenny Craig)?

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Originally posted by Bartelby:
He has done a very good job of changing tuck shop ways over there and has been to the US to do the same I believe.

Had to look up “tuck shop”. I thought it was a typo and the U.S. was following Amsterdam’s retail example.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:
Back to schoolkids being obese in England, that is only one of the problems that later generations will suffer from:

Don’t know about there, Mike, but over here, for the first half of the 20th century (or thereabouts), it was considered a sign of success/prosperity to be overweight, at least with males. May have also been that way for wives (probably not applicable to mistresses).

I believe the health problems of being overweight (euphemism) are as significant, or more, than smoking, yet it would be considered poor manners to discuss someone else eating too much, but acceptable to comment about smokers. Of course, I have seen any studies about the dangers of second-hand food crumbs, or perhaps belching would be a better comparison.

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Originally posted by Mike from West Yorkshire:

The fact that English was not taught for 30 years or so in schools, so kids are inarticulate and cannot communicate.

Did England have its own version of China’s Cultural Revolution? If not English, what was being taught?

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Originally posted by Rick:
Did England have its own version of China’s Cultural Revolution? If not English, what was being taught?

Hi Rick
I feel a rant coming on.......
Lip service was paid to English in schools, but without the grammar, punctuation or spelling; nowadays I would call it eBayese.

The average 16-year old has a literacy of about 6 compared, say, to 1955.
A quick browse through ebay.co.uk will support this. Amusing, but sad. It can be useful for searches, though, as if the seller cannot read the name of something they are looking at, there may be less bids.

The theory was that all these things are not important and communication will survive - as we now rely on the written word more and more, it seems they were very wrong.

Employees despair about the input of school leavers!

Occasionally, Mr Bliar [sic] and his cronies wake up from a long sleep and acknowledge that we need to overhaul the curriculum and go back to the 'three Rs' but then they all fall asleep again.

I wish were we half so concerned about children who are abused or children who are starving everywhere!