Walsingham

I'm planning on making my own barbecue sauce and thought something along these line: 1 tube tomato paste 2 table spoons molasses (called dark treacle here for some reason) Black pepper cayenne pepper sea salt ground coriander (always good with meat) Th eproblem is that won't taste very barbecue-y. I'm therefore thinking maybe some fresh toasted ground nuts, like hazelnuts? Something which works very VERY well with ribs is to mix up mpeanut butter and pre-chopped chillis with some soy sauce or fish sauce. Takes about 20 seconds to make, and you have instant satay.

A lot of the city ones are ****in' pricks, yes. The racist ones that roam around clubs in groups, picking fights, that hang around pubs and train stations that are pissed and stoned of their ****, that hang around Centrelink, smell like ****, have rotten teeth, are loud, confrontational, rob houses, steal cars and smash windows with bricks and ****.. yeah they're wankers. But on the flip side the mongrel country/suburban Abo's are few and far between, and given my location that's good news for me. These types are usually better educated, more sheltered and more into footy than drugs than their counterpart city cousins are. In fact one of the nicest guys I've ever met is an Aboriginal. Very polite, easy going, well groomed footy player he was. Like in every culture there's ****suckers that give the rest a bad name but there appears to be more rotten apples than good ones in the Abo bunch to me. Surely you're more likely to notice the bad apples, since they're the ones in the street causing a ruckus?

I have found a a French recipe for duck slow cooked in goose fat with thyme and lots of salt. This is cooked for hours, then for serving is fast cooked. I think this should work very well in my mix of gear.

Back on topic, really, I'd never CHOOSE to be in a brawl any more. I've come too close to being stabbed in the past. If it's just me then I'll simply run away. I have no pride whatever when it comes to survival. Which is not to say I don't back up my friends if they are daft enough to get into things. It's just that a high speed sprint for five minutes will typically weed out all but the most determined pursuer. Anyone that determined is then usefully identified as such, and you can do other things. For example, it's only a twenty minute run to the police station from anywhere in town! Anyone still chasing you after twenty minutes probably deserves to catch you.

It's an interesting comparison. I went to Sunday school as a child, and really liked it. In case it's an alien term, Sunday school is a sort of creche for Christian kids to get filled up with feelthy propaganda like helping people, and not hurting them. My boarding school also had religious affiliation, but of a more Muscular Christian type. The kind used by Gordon of Khartoum. Of course it got him killed by Dervishes. Anyway, imagine, if you will, the equivalent bimble-headed but well-meaning stuff you'd get taught in sex-ed. Things like 'just try to be nice' early on. But when you got a bit older, smarter, nd started asking questions like "Why do girls not like nice guys?" Who knows?

'Fraid so. You should have had some veg for vitamins and minerals, and definitely some protein. Yours sounds delicious, but all carbs.

I don't know about muay thai not discriminating against height. The Thais don't, but that's another story. In the boxing itself kicks land anywhere you like, particularly ribs, and to tire out your opponent's arms. But if you're shorter then getting kicks to the neck (believe it or not this is what you are supposed to do) is very hard. I don't know what the orthodoxy is but my teacher was very strict on the fact that muay thai is not a martial art. It is a sport. You don't advance by learning moves. You advance by bashing people. Not how I choose to enjoy my free time any more, but good at the time. LC, I just remembered that if you're looking to build up hand and forearm strength then making chainmail is very efffective, and of course afterwards you have chainmail. I learned how from a friend and we used to do our 'man knitting' in front of the TV.

I haven't had an opportunity to run anything seriously hardcore, but my new 512MB 9600GT handles Company of Heroes on maximum everything in full fight mode. I'm very glad I saved a lot compared with maybe 10% performance with the 8800.

Thanks for the in-depth there, tarna. I'm ashamed to say I was mostly joking about the knives. I bought some Global knives for friends this last Christmas. Great fething big chef's knives. Expensive, but easy to clean, surprisingly easy to hold. However, I was brought up to prize a soft steel knife in the kitchen. Just keep a piece of ceramic plate handy and you'll keep a fine edge. As a further warning about expensive knives my little brother bought the wrong sharpening kit (one of those cheater's wheels) and has almost wrecked his Global knives. The edge on them now is far too obtuse. As for fryers I'd actually quite like one, but I'm too old to be encouraging the eating of fried food on anything like a regular basis. Might get one for my older brother though. He doesn't seem to mind what he eats.

I had a friend who was a climber. He had these dinky hand strengtheners. the important difference between these and those 'squeaky hinge' types was that this one had a separate spring for each finger. Might be too hard though. I do sympathise, because although my pain is very very minor I have problems with the knuckles in my right hand from muay thai. *tries to look tough and fails*

I am curious... why is sex a "personal" thing? I would have thought it a natural thing, to be tought together with biology, anatomy, genealogy etc. in biology class. Sex ed is more about the emotional part of a physical relationship, about how one can react when the body is invaded by endorphines and/or a partners "liquids" no? It's like... I can know a lot about car mechanics without knowing how to drive, where mechanics is to biology what driving is to making love/having sex. I suppose it is logical to have both in the same class but should we have sex ed in bio or bio in sex ed? Anyway my point was that parents don't do enough and rely on schools too much. Some things, like religion and sex/love should be tought within the family first, with school as support. Parents, judging by the divorce rate, don't have a bloody clue. I know I don't know what the hell I'd tell people about not getting pinged. Maybe this is the point we only teach the really serious "You will burst into flames and die" things like STDs and getting pregnant because it would be a lie to do otherwise.

I did about three useful things today, and now I'm off to the pub. I love my life.

Still absolutely loving my new electric griddle. Mixed some minced turkey with rocket pesto from a jar, pressed the bugger flat and fifteen minutes later delicious burgers! How awesome is that? And it cleans in two or three wipes of a sponge. Anyone know any good recipes for a slow cooker?

Despite being insanely drunk/hungover I managed to: 1. Install my RAM and graphics cards without incident! 2. Convince the delivery people for my washing machine that I was a friendly chap and didn't need to pay for delivery (they were mostly amused by my condition). 3. Be overcome with my own incompetence while installing the washing machine, smash a hole in my kitchen units (they're ghastly anyway), put the machine in place four separate times, without power, water, and latterly not outlet connection. My kitchen briefly flooded. 4. Cook more steaks, steamed veg, and also a rather fine salad of tomatoes, oranges, pepper, mozzarella, and sweet balsamic vinegar. 5. I even did some tidying up.

You're a magic pixie. Give me the magic hangover cure, you shiny wee bastard.

Dear sweet mercy. Drinking last night after a fantastic game of football on the telly. Woke this morning to discover I'd gone to sleep in my clothes with teh lights on after putting a steak in to marinade (?). Thirsty. Still drunk. No-one is to pay any attention to anything I say until 1800 hrs at the earliest.

A certain poetic justice there, then. EDIT: In Engalnd we have a poet laureate. Maybe he/she should get a place with the Law Lords.

Oh, come on now. You know how I feel about the bulk of humanity. Yeah, and if you do that then they'll reciprocate.

You mean like when your arm is bitten off?

A squaddie friend of mine refit his Land Rover 'Monty' to run on cooking oil. Would get it free from the local chippy then purify it, and it ran as well as it ever did. And yeah, smelt nicer. Certainly a good idea.

That would be appallingly not sensible. Missile control speeds, and counter-measure control speeds are far too fast to allow for humans to control them via datalinks. As for the other objections, I'm not having a go at anyone. The accepted wisdom is that missiles and torpedoes rule. However, I am arguing that this supremacy is dependent on an era when anti-air, anti-missile, and anti-torpedo weapons were poor to non-existent. The most cursory look at sites like globalsecurity.org will show you that is no-longer the case. If you run with my notion, and accept that missiles can be shot down or confused, then battle becomes fruitless. At which point having something which chucks salvoes of dumb but very tough things around could come in handy.

Every animal has the potential being dangerous, even us humans, no matter if they are in the wild or be supposed "tame" beasts. What they need to do is to teach their kids to treat animals and each other with respect and know that animals largely act on instinct. Well, yes. Like sexually transmitted viruses. And prophylactics are like puttees.

You chaps should think about fuel made from reclaimed cooking fat. It is not only quite cheap, as deisel goes, but it also smells nice.

Pics of Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh getting it on? For the love of common humanity... NO.

I think that qualify as auto-cannibalism, and as a hobby I can't helping feeling it would be shortlived.