Words That Irritate You.

[Macca]

You kill the fat, you kill the burger.

Unless you load it with salt and all sorts of flavour enhancing chemicals.

[Sherwood]

Many years ago when I worked in an NHS Pathology laboratory we were approached by trading standards to assess the meat content of beefburgers. This was in the days before BSE. When we cut and stained sections of the beef burgers and examined them under the microscope it was incredible what they contained, bits of bowel, brain, etc., enough to put you off of beefburgers for life.Sausages were probably the same.

Anyone remember brawn or faggots. These do not stand up to close scrutiny but my mother loved them and I have vague recollections of eating them as a kid. She also loved tripe and green tripe which I could never stomach! BOOM BOOM!

[Macca]

We used to have brains and faggots for school dinner sometimes.

Their parents never did find out what happened to them...

[Marco]

Yes, my dad introduced me to those things at a time when most children's dads did not. I never said he invented them. If they were not there already he would have a bloody hard time introducing me to them!

Lol - indeed. However, the key point lies within the bit in bold, in that your dad didn't *need* to introduce you to them, because most already existed in your home town, if you knew where to look!

The way you described it earlier, was that such things back then [e.g. Chinese food and chargrilled steaks] were virtually unknown to your average Scouser (including you, until suitably educated by your dad) - and it needn't have been that way if others and you had been a bit more adventurous and aware of what was happening around you!!

Marco.

[Barry]

I'd rather just hang on rather than use a public toilet.

I certainly wouldn't walk into one whilst eating.

Regrettably the toilet habits of some of the non-indigenous personnel we seem to have acquired leave a lot to be desired. I don't think they are keen on using a traditional western toilet. At least not in the traditional western manner.

I know someone who won't actually sit on the lavatory seat in a public loo, for fear of the last user not being clean. He prefers to 'squat' over it in the manner as one would when using a lavatory common in the near and far east.

[Marco]

It really is not that easy. Ours is a rural village and the nearest supermarket is a twenty minute car journey on an out of town site.

Sure, but you're missing the point. You mentioned earlier about a 'group trip' into town to buy cheap tinned food (Fray Bentos pies for £1, etc). Well, my point is that the same 'group trip' into town, or wherever, could be done, but instead to buy (hopefully discounted) fresh produce from somewhere else in the same town.

If you're going to make a journey to go somewhere, then make it worthwhile. You mentioned taxis before, so they could all chip in together to pay for a taxi to the local supermarket and back. Most firms do attractive rates for pensioners.

I have a spinal injury and find it very difficult if I have to make the journey by bus and carry back more than a few items.

Sorry to hear that, so for you that puts a different perspective on things. Have you considered on-line shopping? Supermarkets these days will deliver groceries to your door.

I know Wrexham well, as in my early career I was a consultant to the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry and used to stay in Wrexham when working there. It is much more rural here and hard to get to the supermarkets.

I totally get that, although Wrexham will have changed considerably since you stayed there, and mostly for the better.

As to knowledge of cooking, I would be taking my life in my hands if i suggested to my elderly neighbours how to shop for food or how to cook it. This is still a mining community even though the mines are all closed. Many of the residents are third, fourth or greater generation miners who know how to survive on a tight budget: they have done it all their lives. Many people locally are reliant on food banks and pay day loans.

Sure, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't learn or change their ways if they wanted to, especially as it would be to their benefit in the long run.

It's essentially all about making whatever money you've got go as far as it can, and being as clever as possible with it [home economics]. And I'm sorry, in that respect, I don't buy the notion that the only solution is eating tinned processed food. That's rather lazy thinking.

Being stuck in your ways is no excuse not to try and better your life!

I agree with you about the excessive quantity of meat people eat. I did not eat meat for nearly 20 years and eat very little nowadays. I am also increasingly wary of chicken due to the contamination of meat and the extensive use of drugs to control infection.

Yup, and it's not good for you, especially too much red meat. As for chicken, you're absolutely right, which is why I only buy genuine free-range chicken, which tends to be treated differently, preferably sourced from local farms. My wife is veggie, but she's quite happy to cook it for me

There is a family butcher shop in the village, that offer excellent locally farmed meat but they are not cheap.

Then the butcher concerned is not catering properly for the needs of the local community, which you said was largely poor, so one wonders how they've managed to stay in business?

Marco.

[Barry]

Word f.... k

What's wrong with the word? Words themselves are largely impotent - it's how they are used and the context that is important.

Do you instead use the words 'sexual intercourse' or coitus'?

[amati74(Artur)]

What's wrong with the word? Words themselves are laregely impotent - it's how they are used and the context that is important.

Do you instead use the words 'sexual intercourse' or coitus'?

People too often use this word as a comma in a sentence. If a foreigner listens to it, it sounds very vulgar.

[Sherwood]

Sure, but you're missing the point. You mentioned earlier about a 'group trip' into town to buy cheap tinned food (Fray Bentos pies for £1, etc). Well, my point is that the same 'group trip' into town, or wherever, could be done, but instead to buy (hopefully discounted) fresh produce from somewhere else in the same town.

If you're going to make a journey to go somewhere, then make it worthwhile. You mentioned taxis before, so they could all chip in together to pay for a taxi to the local supermarket and back. Most firms do attractive rates for pensioners.



Sorry to hear that, so for you that puts a different perspective on things. Have you considered on-line shopping? Supermarkets these days will deliver groceries to your door.



I totally get that, although Wrexham will have changed considerably since you stayed there, and mostly for the better.



Sure, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't learn or change their ways if they wanted to, especially as it would be to their benefit in the long run.

It's essentially all about making whatever money you've got go as far as it can, and being as clever as possible with it [home economics]. And I'm sorry, in that respect, I don't buy the notion that the only solution is eating tinned processed food. That's rather lazy thinking.

Being stuck in your ways is no excuse not to try and better your life!



Yup, and it's not good for you, especially too much red meat. As for chicken, you're absolutely right, which is why I only buy genuine free-range chicken, which tends to be treated differently, preferably sourced from local farms. My wife is veggie, but she's quite happy to cook it for me



Then the butcher concerned is not catering properly for the needs of the local community, which you said was largely poor, so one wonders how they've managed to stay in business?

Marco.

My point was not about FB Pies per se, but that the options for getting cheap protein in rural areas are limited and you cannot really get better in protein terms than a £1 pie, even if it is unappetising. Fresh produce is not a problem here as there is a little greengrocer in the village, and many people or their neighbours grow their own fruit and veg. In fact, there are local farmers that will deliver a huge sack of Lincolnshire potatoes for just a few quid. Of course, when the elderly neighbours go into town they do a full shop, not just a pie raid.

The village is not entirely poor, as new housing has brought in younger more prosperous residents. The village butcher survives because of this and because there are more affluent communities nearby and it is possible for shoppers to park easily in the village high street (no parking fees and lots of spaces).

I think the butcher offers good produce at good prices, but it is expensive for local farms to have livestock slaughtered and good rearing practices are more costly. Difficult to compete with the supermarket prices because the products are not comparable. However, you do get people buying sheep heads and pig feet for stews because that is all they can afford

I was in Wrexham a couple of years back and it is hardly rural.

Geoff

[Marco]

My point was not about FB Pies per se, but that the options for getting cheap protein in rural areas are limited and you cannot really get better in protein terms than a £1 pie, even if it is unappetising.

Sorry, I'd have to strongly disagree. For £1, if you know how to cook, and buy well, or use your own home-grown produce, you can create something with far more nutritional value, and that's infinitely more appetising and healthier to eat than a Fray Bentos pie, full of all sorts of processed crap.

Fresh produce is not a problem here as there is a little greengrocer in the village, and many people or their neighbours grow their own fruit and veg. In fact, there are local farmers that will deliver a huge sack of Lincolnshire potatoes for just a few quid.

So why don't they avail of those facilities, and use that fresh produce, instead of relying on buying processed food? Sorry, I don't get it

Of course, when the elderly neighbours go into town they do a full shop, not just a pie raid.

So, as part of that 'full shop' they could buy some fresh produce to cook with, and not just tins of processed food? Again, I don't get it.......

The village is not entirely poor, as new housing has brought in younger more prosperous residents. The village butcher survives because of this and because there are more affluent communities nearby and it is possible for shoppers to park easily in the village high street (no parking fees and lots of spaces).

Well that's not quite how you pitched things earlier, which was that it was largely an area populated by penniless pensioners!

I was in Wrexham a couple of years back and it is hardly rural.

I never said it was. That's not the argument, although ten minutes in a car from town takes you into the countryside, and into some very rural areas.

Marco.