Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are ?

[techteach]

@Bigmike911 I’m sorry about the tree, but glad you came through it safely. I hope you have help cleaning up all of the debris!

[techteach]

We took the 3 grandsons to Lake Quinault on the Olympic Peninsula for a few days of hiking, ocean wave jumping, and swimming. It started with a ferry ride. They all loved the wild huckleberries and bridges were an excuse to play Winnie the Pooh sticks. Great memories created.

[Bigmike911]

Friday Morning. We started out post Beryl O.K. Power was widely out, but my back up Generator came on as expected. Until 10:30 Tuesday when it failed. We were with out power until 9:20 Friday Morning. Cold food, cold showers, hot steamy nights, but we made it through it all. Having power is better than not. 

[techteach]

@Bigmike911 Do you have to buy a new generator? How goes the tree removal?

[rakkor]

Had a day off work Thursday to take a patisserie course at Bread Ahead in Borough Market, London Bridge, a fantastic day out, a Christmas present from my Sister in Law, needless to say the diet's not going too well (Fruit tart, Egg Custard and Bakewell tart)

 

 

 

[D&N]

I was preparing for a forecast of 35C early this evening, but in practice the temperature never actually breached 30C, so it's been quite a pleasant evening. AC wasn't needed until we closed all the windows.

That was partly in preparation for the third firework display of the week at our local Hippodrome. On Monday and Wednesday they lasted 7 minutes, but tonight being Bastille Day's Eve it was almost 14 minutes. They're quite pretty but unlike the displays at Cannes and Monaco they aren't choreographed to music. That means they're just noise, which cats don't particularly like.

Coco cuddled into her mum until they stopped and big brave Ursel was a bit concerned as well. But they've been for a feed since the noise stopped.

I imagine it must be quite traumatic for dogs as well, and hope they have all the horses settled well before the fireworks start.

[*Miss G*]

1 hour ago, rakkor said:

Had a day off work Thursday to take a patisserie course at Bread Ahead in Borough Market, London Bridge, a fantastic day out, a Christmas present from my Sister in Law, needless to say the diet's not going too well (Fruit tart, Egg Custard and Bakewell tart)

 

 

 

Wow! Amazing! I have to admit that my first stop, whenever I was visiting my Aunt and Uncle, was to stop by the market and buy a custard tart and Cheshire cheese with fresh crusty bread. Mmmm. Fond memories. Sadly, the market is gone and so are my Aunt and Uncle. ☹️

Edited July 13 by *Miss G*
Thanks, autocorrect 😡

[techteach]

@rakkor What a great Christmas present! I hope everything tasted as good as it looks.

[rakkor]

The croissants were amazing especially when reheated in the air fryer for a couple of minutes, but since they had 250g butter in them it's not surprising. 

[techteach]

11 hours ago, rakkor said:

The croissants were amazing especially when reheated in the air fryer for a couple of minutes, but since they had 250g butter in them it's not surprising. 

Did you have a machine to roll them out, or did you do it with a rolling pin? My DH says learning to make croissants is high on his list of To Do’s during retirement.

[rakkor]

All by hand, this was the method

 

Place the butter in the centre of the dough, then start by pulling the top side of the dough across to totally encase the butter (it is important that this flap seals the butter entirely).
Next pull the bottom flap up (this should reach the top edge). Then bring the two side flaps across (it’s alright if these two don’t quite reach all of the way across to the other side).
Tap the dough gently with the side of the rolling pin to help sealit. With the seam running top to bottom, roll the dough out into a long rectangular shape, roughly half a rolling pin wide and 1 ¼ rolling pins long.
Brush off any flour and fold the dough in thirds (this is called a half fold).

Gently tap the dough with the rolling pin then place back into the fridge to rest for 1 hour.
Again, take the dough from the fridge and place onto a lightly floured surface.
With the seam running top to bottom, roll the dough out into a long rectangular shape, roughly half a rolling pin wide and 1 ¼ rolling pins long.
Brush off any flour and give another half fold.
Gently tap the dough with the rolling pin then place back into the fridge to rest for another hour.

Repeat twice more

[*Miss G*]

23 minutes ago, rakkor said:

All by hand, this was the method

 

Place the butter in the centre of the dough, then start by pulling the top side of the dough across to totally encase the butter (it is important that this flap seals the butter entirely).
Next pull the bottom flap up (this should reach the top edge). Then bring the two side flaps across (it’s alright if these two don’t quite reach all of the way across to the other side).
Tap the dough gently with the side of the rolling pin to help sealit. With the seam running top to bottom, roll the dough out into a long rectangular shape, roughly half a rolling pin wide and 1 ¼ rolling pins long.
Brush off any flour and fold the dough in thirds (this is called a half fold).

Gently tap the dough with the rolling pin then place back into the fridge to rest for 1 hour.
Again, take the dough from the fridge and place onto a lightly floured surface.
With the seam running top to bottom, roll the dough out into a long rectangular shape, roughly half a rolling pin wide and 1 ¼ rolling pins long.
Brush off any flour and give another half fold.
Gently tap the dough with the rolling pin then place back into the fridge to rest for another hour.

Repeat twice more

Tou have encouraged me to give this a try! 

[rakkor]

9 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

Tou have encouraged me to give this a try! 

 

It's a 3 day process, so doesn't lend itself to spontaneity, but according to Lucy our instructor, the dough once shaped can be frozen successfully and given a final proofing once defrosted.

 

If in London though, I can thoroughly recommend Bread Ahead

Edited July 14 by rakkor

[Bigmike911]

On 7/13/2024 at 8:42 AM, techteach said:

@Bigmike911 Do you have to buy a new generator? How goes the tree removal?

Interesting Question. The generator which I thought was dead, might be reparable. I opened it yesterday and the buttons had lights. I pressed manual start and it started. I let it run for about 20 seconds and shut it down, is case running it might make the issue worse. The gen. maintenance company has not yet returned my call to come and take a look at it. I may go ahead and replace it anyway, it is 12 years old and one failure is one to many. 

 

The tree removal activity has made progress. My tree guy finally returned my message and came by yesterday and gave me an estimate $2,750., and I am on his schedule about 1 month away. He did say in case he could get to it sooner he would as I am a good customer.

 

I have started an insurance claim. Everything is moving but at the speed of molasses in January. The power company still has 200K remaining outages. Everyone is outraged with their lack of preparation and response. The CEO appears on television in a hard hat and safety vest and sounds like a fool, one excuse follows the prior one. 

[D&N]

Visit to Juan-les-Pins for lunch today. First try of the restaurant. Nice location on sea front with views around bay and of Île Sainte-Marguerite. Forgot to take pics of the Egg Parfait and Asparagus starters, but they were very nice. Don't think I'd bother with the egg again, I prefer them fried, scrambled, hard boiled or in an omelette.

 

[techteach]

@Bigmike911 I hope you don’t have to replace the generator $$$. Is that a reasonable amount for removing a downed tree? I bet there is a huge demand. Over 200K without power still? That’s a lot of people, but unless utilities are underground the high wind is going to take out the poles, not to mention trees falling on lines. People are critical of the City of Seattle for hacking away at street trees, but we seldom loose power due to falling branches/trees. Cities outside of Seattle have lots more power losses. Hang in there!

[Bigmike911]

3 hours ago, techteach said:

@Bigmike911 I hope you don’t have to replace the generator $$$. Is that a reasonable amount for removing a downed tree? I bet there is a huge demand. Over 200K without power still? That’s a lot of people, but unless utilities are underground the high wind is going to take out the poles, not to mention trees falling on lines. People are critical of the City of Seattle for hacking away at street trees, but we seldom loose power due to falling branches/trees. Cities outside of Seattle have lots more power losses. Hang in there!

I think there is a bit of "storm" uplift in the price, but the guy is good and does not make a mess. Most folk think that South East Texas is a barren prairie, but it is actually heavily forested, and one of the complaints has been the power company doesn't cut the trees back as the should. That has NOT been my experience, and I have had to have some 'butchered' trees trimmed up because they just cut the branches in the power easement leaving the a mess. We will recover in time. Thanks for the encouragement.

[Bigmike911]

On 7/16/2024 at 12:49 PM, Bigmike911 said:

Interesting Question. The generator which I thought was dead, might be reparable. I opened it yesterday and the buttons had lights. I pressed manual start and it started. I let it run for about 20 seconds and shut it down, is case running it might make the issue worse. The gen. maintenance company has not yet returned my call to come and take a look at it. I may go ahead and replace it anyway, it is 12 years old and one failure is one to many. 

 

The tree removal activity has made progress. My tree guy finally returned my message and came by yesterday and gave me an estimate $2,750., and I am on his schedule about 1 month away. He did say in case he could get to it sooner he would as I am a good customer.

 

I have started an insurance claim. Everything is moving but at the speed of molasses in January. The power company still has 200K remaining outages. Everyone is outraged with their lack of preparation and response. The CEO appears on television in a hard hat and safety vest and sounds like a fool, one excuse follows the prior one. 

Friday AM after getting the tree estimates and expecting a few weeks for the removal, a call at 7:10 this morning from the tree guy: could the remove the tree this morning. YES, I said and they are here as of 8:30 doing just that. 

[techteach]

@Bigmike911 I thought of you last night as I swept up the mess from the neighbors tree. I need to call someone today to cut back their mess.

[ronpes]

Am writing this sitting in the BA lounge as we make our way down to Southampton. 
 

We board QM2 tomorrow for round trip transatlantic to New York.

Each time we have sailed a TA I was struck by the number of people staying on and doing the round trip. 

We said to ourselves last year that we would give that a try and here we are 12 months later. 
 

The last few months have been a tad hectic so we are very much looking forward to lazy sea days, good food, good music and great company in this beautiful  ship.
 

Have a nice weekend. 

[techteach]

@ronpes Enjoy your TA forth and back! I hope you have an opportunity to sit on deck, soak up sun, and view wild creatures swimming.

[Bigmike911]

On 7/16/2024 at 4:54 PM, techteach said:

@Bigmike911 I hope you don’t have to replace the generator $$$. Is that a reasonable amount for removing a downed tree? I bet there is a huge demand. Over 200K without power still? That’s a lot of people, but unless utilities are underground the high wind is going to take out the poles, not to mention trees falling on lines. People are critical of the City of Seattle for hacking away at street trees, but we seldom loose power due to falling branches/trees. Cities outside of Seattle have lots more power losses. Hang in there!

I made the decision to replace the generator. I might be able to repair it but it will cost big bucks and I will still have a 12 year old machine, that may have other parts that fail next time it runs

 

It's a quick clean installation as all the other parts are there now. The pad, the smart switch which determines the lack of street power starts the generator and switches to generator power, and the natural  gas line are already in place, so it will be a remove, replace and hook up. The guy is coming out Monday to give me a price, but I have decided I am going to do it whatever the price.

 

I joined Club 80 today, and that is too old to deal with problems like the generator, so it will be how soon can you put it in, not how much. 

 

 

[exlondoner]

7 hours ago, Bigmike911 said:

I made the decision to replace the generator. I might be able to repair it but it will cost big bucks and I will still have a 12 year old machine, that may have other parts that fail next time it runs

 

It's a quick clean installation as all the other parts are there now. The pad, the smart switch which determines the lack of street power starts the generator and switches to generator power, and the natural  gas line are already in place, so it will be a remove, replace and hook up. The guy is coming out Monday to give me a price, but I have decided I am going to do it whatever the price.

 

I joined Club 80 today, and that is too old to deal with problems like the generator, so it will be how soon can you put it in, not how much. 

 

 

Felicitations.

[alc13]

Happy Birthday, @Bigmike911.  I always enjoy the news from Magnolia.

[NE John]

12 hours ago, Bigmike911 said:

I made the decision to replace the generator. I might be able to repair it but it will cost big bucks and I will still have a 12 year old machine, that may have other parts that fail next time it runs

 

It's a quick clean installation as all the other parts are there now. The pad, the smart switch which determines the lack of street power starts the generator and switches to generator power, and the natural  gas line are already in place, so it will be a remove, replace and hook up. The guy is coming out Monday to give me a price, but I have decided I am going to do it whatever the price.

 

I joined Club 80 today, and that is too old to deal with problems like the generator, so it will be how soon can you put it in, not how much. 

 

 

Happy Bday!!  Just turned 20 years behind ya’!