Here's another I like and most certainly can't afford.
Guessing a mechanical watch may be regarded as an anachronism, more than ever simply jewellery for men.
Yet it is an investment for your life and is passed on.
The quartz digital and its lithium battery will sooner or later end on the rubbish tip, not good in this age of sustainability.
Personally I think athletes ought to be divided to compete against others who were born the same gender.
Roast potatoes are truly the tastiest way to eat potatoes, even better than chips. Best when the potatoes are first chopped into smaller chunks... Mrs A can do them perfectly.
I usually microwave and then mash spuds, using butter and pepper. I actually leave the skin in the mash for a bit of healthy roughage.
I'd agree with the ratings of the 2nd video. Stargazy and eels I've never had.
A lot depends on ingredient quality and care taken.
Within 30 minutes drive of each other, the Quarry Tea House make the best full English breakfast I've ever bought at £13, while that offered in the cafe at George Bolams Foods is rightly priced at £7.50. The difference in bread, eggs, tomato bacon is dramatic.
Similarly the popular cheapish pub carvery yorkshire roast doesn't appeal to me; it's difficult to spoil the meats on offer but the veg is often awful by the time you get to eat it.
Traditional grocers/ delicatessen are quite rare now. Greengrocers even more so. London has the people and affluence to make them viable.
wtg
Bates is where I'd get my caps. There's also Christies which has move to North Oxford Street where ground rent is more reasonable, so is a little less expensive.
Steve
Yorkshire puddings are popular, probably rather English food though?
As children they were made for Sunday lunch. A good piece of meat, a couple of home made Yorkshire puds and 3/4 veg with onion gravey. All fresh, often seasonal from the garden, nothing from a freezer.
Puds made in a metal tray holding 12.
Now I buy them in bags for the freezer along with broccoli, brussel sprouts, runner beans, mange tout etc.
Occasionally mum would make two large Yorkshires in cake tins, 3x6 and 4x8 inches which I had like a pancake with milk and sugar. Dad would have the big one of course.
Steve, I've watched the first video, (shall see the others later, got to do some diy on daughters flat)
I'm actually in London. Never been to Fallow, it's in the poshest area south of Picadilly where the king shops. For me its where i buy caps. I bought Mrs A a £300 fedora in Lock &co of St James and was looking for a hat box. Their traditional leather hatbox is... £3000.00
I got a cardboard version 
You get the idea.
Fallow appears terrific value for top quality food.
We rarely eat out in Central London and now live near Durham.
However my daughter and I were in a small quiet clean restaurant 2nd floor of Selfridges and paid £14 for two eggs with flatbread (delicious) 6 for a bottle of water, 4 for hot chocolate, and 6 for croissant & jam.
£33 for a lunchtime snack; worth it when seeking refuge from the Subways and Starbucks.
Fallow compares very well.
Rare in UK to see fish heads. Commonly left on in Malaysia. Never seen a fish head dish but I'd love it.
As it happens we shopped Oxford Street on Monday (Barbour jumpers for me), Covent Garden yesterday (couple of Rohan jackets) and the final shopping day will be Bond St-Burlington Acade and St James area.
Ukraine could win if Europe committed to fixing the Russian problem.
Instead it seems the will and consensus is not yet present; not yet seen as vital.
It's all too easy to slag off Trump(CF) for his ridiculous comments that Zelensky started the war and that Zelensky is a dictator.
But what is Europe going to do regarding the war? There's no point us whinging about the demented stream of consciousness emanating from the brain of Trump(CF).
We need European leaders to agree on a coherent, viable plan.
Gaviscon brand is expensive here in the UK. Luckily Asda, Tesco, Morrisons etc. sell their own versions at half the price.
Whether any or all of these have effects on body salt balances I don't know; a while back I recall magnesium trisilicate being the one medically recommended.
Seems to be rarely available here, mostly in tablet form, and you need to ask for it.
Gaviscon is everywhere!
Trump asking Ukraine for minerals is typical. He's given less military aid than Europe and if you count humanitarian and financial then half as much.
Meanwhile there's the real worry that he negotiates something which has the same result as his Afghanistan deal. Biden inherited it and it collapsed.
Ukraine has been given just enough weapons not to lose.
Putin must be rubbing his hands together in glee at this sudden possibility to keep face, and Crimea, Donbas etc.
We should be supplying and arming Ukraine with the aim of winning, regaining territory and taking easy Russian land; basically doing everything we can except providing our professional front line fighters.
I love this dress watch, all I'd ever need.
Some of the rectangular designs, squaring the circle, are very appealing.
I don't think I've written this, someone was on about the Trump-Putin thing, NATO having to get it's act together because only the US, UK, and Greece(!) had made correct 'subscription' amounts.
However whatever the outcome the war, it has been disastrous for Russia:
Lost 200,000 young men plus wounded?
Brain drain exit of a million?
Foreign investments and assets frozen for the wealthy?
Further economic sanctions?
NATO actually strengthened by new countries joining out of fear of invasion?
Putin a pariah to much of the world?
Gazprom, once Russia's most profitable company lost 7billion in 2023. 2024?
It has gained a miniscule amount of land, 0.04% of the whole of Russia added?
Possible mineral gains long term?
Too many people flooding in to take advantage of our NHS and benefit system.
Imagine if Turkey joined and their millions could enter our job market. We'd already had an influx of Albanians and Roumanians.
And we are already a very multi ethnic society.
We knew all the money supposedly to be saved by not being a member was rubbish. We knew that businesses would suffer. We knew there was and still is no clear plan.
Thanks for this.
I've been thinking of going to Hurstwood Farm pianos near Sevenoaks and this Piano Shop in Tunbridge is only a few miles south.
Tasteless and meaningless bluster that when added only trashes something beautiful.
You found Trump's piano
The Baltic transition appears to have gone well.
Still, it's not over until the fat old judo player croaks.
Interesting, I recall learning about this in school geography.
Why are the villages of Goldcliff and Howick named?
The latter is locally known for being the country seat of Earl Grey (think tea and Prime Minister a couple of years before Victoria ascended the throne)
Don't you want a united free democratic world that works as a harmonious whole serving the good of all people?
Put aside innate tribal nationalistic thoughts, join together to create a harmonious superdupercountry?
BTW I voted yay for Brexit as did the Mrs, while our two kids voted nay.
Such is our world.
True.
My taste in watches is restrained, liking Blancpain and IWC brands which I ogle through the windows of Watches of Switzerland.
However given a lottery win I could become a collector of some real bling as you have guessed.
Not chunky gold rolex types that flaunt modern money, but rather art deco or antique pieces.
One of my best friends likes sporty looking watches and often wears an Omega-divers, despite ironically never having been deeper than the 6' end of a Shangri-La hotel pool.
What would be your brand choice to wear given a hundred thousand to spend?
(Please don't say chunky gold rolex 🤭)
Well they could rebuild a third at a time, so only a third would be moved out at a time.
Something needs to be done; Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia are no more helpful than Yemen, Iran, Qatar and UAE.
The massacres and kidnapping of 7th October 2023 cannot be allowed to be repeated. And if Gaza has to be bulldozed then amen.
Possibly, but there are others...
John Harrison,
George Daniels.
