The way to tell if it’s sloes is to pick 300g of them, prick each with a fork, thrust them
Into a bottle of gin, add some sugar, wait 6 months, drink.

If it tastes like sloe gin then they are sloes. If you die then they are cyanide berries, but they’re pretty rare

Mine are taken from regular chilli peppers, one a gift from a Hungarian friend’s garden, some taken from shop bought peppers, I’ve a batch of superhots coming from friends in Italy in a couple of weeks. I like the idea of growing plants with a story, not just from a seed supplier, but I’ll not plant any seeds until New Year’s Eve or they’ll be ready to fruit during the wrong time of year and the short days and cool weather will hinder them.

Currently got:

Hungarian something from garden, fruiting prolifically
Apache from Aldi, heavy with fruit
Komodo Dragon, seeds culled from supermarket last year, laden with fruit
Habanero just beginning to fruit
Caribbean Random, heavy fruit but disappointing taste

That weird brake thing above wouldn’t be a benefit if it reduces braking every revolution. The effort only needs reducing if the wheel locks, hence no revolution and the gadget not working.

Delivering and collecting cars for a garage group dealing with Rover, Citroen and Subaru. Sounds good but it’s meant that I’ve no longer any interest in cars, driving all day long, swapping from vomit encrusted Citroen Picasso to WRX Imprezza via MG TF and heavily modded classic Mini.

Fun for a while though.

I’ve got a good number of ripening fruits on my plants now…

I was excited about my little ripe Komodo Dragon fruit. Despite it being waaay smaller than the other dragon fruits it was the only one that was red so I thought I’d pop it in and give it a munch…

Which was a very silly thing to do. I knew these were supposed to be pretty hot but had forgotten just what I was letting myself in for. Remember that this thing was only the size of my thumb-nail where most of the other unripe Dragons are around 3cm long, I’m bloody glad it wasn’t one of the bigg’uns that I tried. Immediate, instant burning, eyes watering, an explosion of full-on heat and regret. I’d only bitten the main fruit off its stem and not started to munch on it properly and was already aboard the pain train, direct to Infernoville. Anyway, like a trooper I continued to chow down, giving it a chomping like a cut scene from Born Free. Which didn’t improve things. Within seconds I’d had to rethink my strategy, I lunged for the fridge, milk gave slight respite, as did noshing off a Tiger loaf.

Eventually the heat died away, strangely there was no burn in my throat or stomach, all concentrated in the mouth, which was nice… Anyway, the Komodo Dragon very much fulfills requirements, heat, taste (similar to a scorpion, but less overwhelming) abundant fruit and very easy to grow.

Anyway, there you go, I’ve got a good crop of Dragons, Scotch Bonnets and Cayenne on the way, I’ll not be guzzling Komodo Dragons again any time soon.

Working with a woman whose surname was Gandhi, she introduced herself to the new girl with “Blah-Blah Gandhi, no relation” to which our new colleague replied, “Oh, were you adopted?”

This thread is useless without pics

It’s camping, not cottaging

Alkalised? Looks like I’m gonna have my work cut out for me…

Buy one for £150, sell it to him for £300, boom!

Your bro gave the last bike away? To a disadvantaged child? To someone more deserving? Or just cos he didn’t give a toss about your stuff?

Anxiety /= scared

Did you miss the bit about panic attacks and blackouts?

Nope, was cutting to the chase, your selective quote undermines your argument. Want the day off to kick some puppies too?

Just to confirm in simple terms.

Won’t fly for work as scared
Will fly on holiday as not VERY scared
Boss questions this
You feel hard done by

Imagine you asked your boss for Monday off to kick puppies. He says no as it’s gonna be a busy day. Then you discover he’s given both himself and your colleague the day off, AFTER you asked, so they can kick puppies together. He’s being selfish, it’s impacting on the business and is unreasonable.

That’s what you’re doing.

There are very few occasions where MTFU is appropriate, but this is one. Pull yourself together, you great sausage.

Can you just press the accelerator a bit further down? And drive it a bit harder, I doubt you’re driving to the current engine’s limits.

Slight off topic, but where’s the best / chePest heli tape ? For a car door sill, very simple curve

Go and get yourself checked at the std clinic / gum clinic. Then go and meet new people.

In Germany its called a ‘Vokuhila’ which is an abbreviation for ‘Front short back long’, I know, Germans abbreviating something, wtf?

Can’t be bothered to check dates but, miners strike, falklands, IRA bombings, challenger.

Nothing’s changed.

456 Summer Season, hard and unwieldy, like a concrete donkey.

My friend is world champion in bikejor. Heard of it? Nope, thought not.
Isn’t this like a cheap arse version of an eBike!

Derestricted… and controlled by shouting.

Depends if you like racing round a leisure centre field in the rain.

Both of my current bikes, a DMR Trailstar LT and a Specialized Pitch FS. Utterly out of date but a great pair

My friend is world champion in bikejor. Heard of it? Nope, thought not. She’s the world champ and works in sodding IT.

My rant was better

Supermarkets that put one brand of cumin / turmeric etc in the ‘herbs and spices’ section at 99p for 100g and yet, in the ‘world foods’ section there’s the same product, in a 300g packet, for 89p. Jesus Christ Sainsburies, I’m cooking a curry, do you think I give a Brexit-infused undercover daily mail reading racist rat’s arse about the label on some bollocking coriander. Put them all together and let us choose for ourselves.

That link somewhere above puts ‘machine operator’ above ‘veterinarian’ so maybe 7 years of uni for an underpaid, on call shift working, life saving role is actually a mug’s game.

Aussies use screw tops as they aren’t burdened by tradition, and snobbery in Oz is arguing over utes.

Knowing that of the top of your head’s a bit aspie even for here

athletes look cool in Lycra shorts and fluoro trainers, can you pull that off too?

Actually, athletes seem to have the shits in London hotels of today’s news is correct , it’s a strong look, but I’m sure you can manage that.

Don’t stress as you’ve made the first steps to getting it sorted, and hopefully you’re in good hands. Excess fluid can put pressure on the optic nerve, sometimes leading to patches of vision being lost, not so often an overall blurring so far as I know, though it’s not really my area. Did you do a fields test (looking for little flashing lights) and did it show missing patches of vision?

Good luck

Blair Atholl makes me think of a lisping schoolboy insulting a former Prime Minister.

The war criminal one…

ANyway, lovely riding round there, enjoy.

Mine are laden, loads of pods, plenty of flowers, bushier than David Bellemy wrestling Brian Blessed in a rhododendron.

Offer cake and a trip to the cinema, normal stuff, not things designed to ‘help’, who wants muesli and sympathy in real life? This will work for teens, 50 somethings and all in between.

Good luck

So many smutty answers, so little time…

Were you riding three abreast?

oh, and you’ve got a big old astigmatism there, so do things properly

Go and buy glasses from an an optician, not the internet.

IAAO

Pitch perfect II – you can thank me for watching it so you don’t have to

Sod the customer, he’ll get his Big Mac eventually