Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[RED-DOG]

Meanwhile...

We have no bathroom mirror at the moment, so I have been having 'selfie shaves'.

I was looking through my phones picture gallery this morning and realised that it has been secretly photographing me.

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

A word to the wise.

Never, repeat never take Mrs Red to IKEA.

It's not that she buys much, but she wants to look at everything.

Twice.

My wife has a similar problem with Victoria's Secret

Pictures or it never happened.

 

Basically this

A word to the wise.

Never, repeat never take Mrs Red to IKEA.

It's not that she buys much, but she wants to look at everything.

Twice.

My wife has a similar problem with Victoria's Secret

Strictly for research purposes one assumes?

Click to see full-size image.

It's also the reason she didn't play anymore poker tournaments after the first few I introduced her to.

She quite liked the poker but if she's got money for the entry fee it means she's got more money for shopping


EDIT: my wife has insisted that I clarify that she's younger than the 'scientist' in that picture.
Honestly, it wasn't me, she said I had to.

Sorry Mrs MW, everyone looks young to me these days.

 

[RED-DOG]

A word to the wise.

Never, repeat never take Mrs Red to IKEA.

It's not that she buys much, but she wants to look at everything.

Twice.

My wife has a similar problem with Victoria's Secret

Pictures or it never happened.

 

Basically this

A word to the wise.

Never, repeat never take Mrs Red to IKEA.

It's not that she buys much, but she wants to look at everything.

Twice.

My wife has a similar problem with Victoria's Secret

Strictly for research purposes one assumes?

Click to see full-size image.

It's also the reason she didn't play anymore poker tournaments after the first few I introduced her to.

She quite liked the poker but if she's got money for the entry fee it means she's got more money for shopping


EDIT: my wife has insisted that I clarify that she's younger than the 'scientist' in that picture.
Honestly, it wasn't me, she said I had to.

Sorry Mrs MW, everyone looks young to me these days.

 

EDIT: Almost everyone looks young to me these days.

[RED-DOG]

While were on the subject of food, why can't I find proper vanilla/custard slices any more?

I can't even find a good picture of one.






A proper vanilla slice has a layer of very flaky pastry, a ridiculously thick layer of vanilla custard, another layer of  very flaky pastry, and a layer of white, sticky bun type icing, and that's it.

There should be no other type of pastry, no middle layer of pastry, no jam, no fresh cream, no synthetic cream, no pink icing, no half strawberries, no dusting of icing sugar, and no fancy schmancy patterns drawn on top.

Oh and they should be oblong, not square.

[typhoon13]

Our brand new Lidl superstore has trollies with fancy wheels. Only two of the wheels are fancy though, the offside front and the nearside rear, the other two are common or garden.

Any ideas what they do, apart from support the trolley?

Is it tinfoil hat time again?

Click to see full-size image.

Wild guess some kind of wheel balancing

As wild guesses go Trev, that one is positively feral.

Okay how's this for a feral boy

When front wheel gets to gatekeepers boundary limit it then sends a signal to back wheel to lock

Kinda like balancing really

[RED-DOG]

Our brand new Lidl superstore has trollies with fancy wheels. Only two of the wheels are fancy though, the offside front and the nearside rear, the other two are common or garden.

Any ideas what they do, apart from support the trolley?

Is it tinfoil hat time again?

Click to see full-size image.

Wild guess some kind of wheel balancing

As wild guesses go Trev, that one is positively feral.

Okay how's this for a feral boy

When front wheel gets to gatekeepers boundary limit it then sends a signal to back wheel to lock

Kinda like balancing really

I love that theory but I think Tony has already vetoed it.



"Anyway, I knew their product catalogue inside out, including those with wheels designed to act as brakes on a sloping travelator. (They have these in a lot of Tesco & Sainsbury Stores which have a Mezzanine floor). They also used to have "anti-theft" trolleys, which could not be wheeled outside the confines of the Supermarket Car Park. (Similar logic to the travelator wheels)." 

"No idea what those wheels are meant to do though."

[booder]

While were on the subject of food, why can't I find proper vanilla/custard slices any more?

I can't even find a good picture of one.






A proper vanilla slice has a layer of very flaky pastry, a ridiculously thick layer of vanilla custard, another layer of  very flaky pastry, and a layer of white, sticky bun type icing, and that's it.

There should be no other type of pastry, no middle layer of pastry, no jam, no fresh cream, no synthetic cream, no pink icing, no half strawberries, no dusting of icing sugar, and no fancy schmancy patterns drawn on top.

Oh and they should be oblong, not square.

Like this ?

[RED-DOG]

Close boo, but:


"and no fancy schmancy patterns drawn on top."

[typhoon13]

While were on the subject of food, why can't I find proper vanilla/custard slices any more?

I can't even find a good picture of one.






A proper vanilla slice has a layer of very flaky pastry, a ridiculously thick layer of vanilla custard, another layer of  very flaky pastry, and a layer of white, sticky bun type icing, and that's it.

There should be no other type of pastry, no middle layer of pastry, no jam, no fresh cream, no synthetic cream, no pink icing, no half strawberries, no dusting of icing sugar, and no fancy schmancy patterns drawn on top.

Oh and they should be oblong, not square.

Like this ?

Can honestly say I have never had one of those custard slice thingys

Can honestly say I have had two homemade blackberry crumbles this week though

[RED-DOG]

While were on the subject of food, why can't I find proper vanilla/custard slices any more?

I can't even find a good picture of one.






A proper vanilla slice has a layer of very flaky pastry, a ridiculously thick layer of vanilla custard, another layer of  very flaky pastry, and a layer of white, sticky bun type icing, and that's it.

There should be no other type of pastry, no middle layer of pastry, no jam, no fresh cream, no synthetic cream, no pink icing, no half strawberries, no dusting of icing sugar, and no fancy schmancy patterns drawn on top.

Oh and they should be oblong, not square.

Like this ?

Can honestly say I have never had one of those custard slice thingys

Can honestly say I have had two homemade blackberry crumbles this week though

Well I only had one homemade blackberry crumble but it was fabulous. The only problem was I had to share it with 5 other people.

[Rod Paradise]

Our brand new Lidl superstore has trollies with fancy wheels. Only two of the wheels are fancy though, the offside front and the nearside rear, the other two are common or garden.

Any ideas what they do, apart from support the trolley?

Is it tinfoil hat time again?

Click to see full-size image.

Believe it or not, in a previous life, when i was in Property Maintenance, I held the UK contract to look after every Aldi Store in the UK as to Property Maintenance & supply of various shoppers accoutrements & paraphernalia.

I never did any work for Lidl as both Businesses prohibited a supplier or Contractor from working for both.

Anyway, amongst the stuff I supplied was Shopping Trolleys, & the biggest supplier of them in Europe (at the time) was a Company called Wanzl. They are German, & the "W" is pronounced "V", so "Vanzl".

Anyway, I knew their product catalogue inside out, including those with wheels designed to act as brakes on a sloping travelator. (They have these in a lot of Tesco & Sainsbury Stores which have a Mezzanine floor).  They also used to have "anti-theft" trolleys, which could not be wheeled outside the confines of the Supermarket Car Park. (Similar logic to the travelator wheels).    

No idea what those wheels are meant to do though. I had a peruse of the Wanzl catalogue, & these were the nearest I could find - the "Wanzl SoftDrive Castor".



https://www.wanzl.com/en_EN/products/castors/original-wanzl-softdrive-castors/

The wheels above the one in question are Wanzl's - you can read it on the one top left.

The wheel Red's asking about is aa American hi-tec version of the old magnet strip operated anti theft wheel. It uses a wifi signalled code from the shop and locks when the cart gets to the perimeter. The 2 coloured slotted covers are for the batteries.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gatekeeper-Automatic-Locking-Shopping-Cart-Wheel-Model-W-9460-/183642895519

I now know more about these systems than I ever needed to... eg the reason for 2 being used in opposite corners is to make the trolley turn in circles if people try to still push them away after they've been locked Gatekeeper (the manufacturer) recommend using 2 in high theft risk areas....

[tikay]

Ahh, that makes perfect sense.

When Gill and I were in Vegas we were at Walmart one day, but had parked the car a few hundred yards away as we intended to visit an eatery after shopping.

Whilst trundling across the car park the wheels on our Walmart trolley sort of seized up, and I struggled to understand why. It all makes sense now.

As an aside, Walmart shopping trolleys are enormous, about the size of a bath.

[RED-DOG]

We had a bit of frost this morning.

I wonder if Trev, my countryside correspondent, has seen any yet?

[RED-DOG]

Thermodynamics question.


I like my porridge cooked until it is more of a solid than a liquid, I also like to eat it whilst it's hot, so, will it stay hotter if I eat from the edges to the middle, from the middle to the edges, or from one side to the other?

[RED-DOG]

Additional info.

I use an un-efficient bowl to heat my porridge in the microwave, this means that the bowl gets hot. It takes longer to heat the porridge but the hot bowl keeps the porridge hotter for longer afterwards.