Pet Hates!

[Monster Zero]

Managed the bath last year, but the sink has been a nightmare.  Think it's because I need a really thin bead and it's just not happening.

Did you use a squeezy tube? I've found buying one of the trigger gun things and then getting a new cartridge of sealant to use with that is easier to control than trying to manoeuvre a squeezy tube where you want it while applying steady pressure to get a good bead going.

[girl anachronism]

Did you use a squeezy tube? I've found buying one of the trigger gun things and then getting a new cartridge of sealant to use with that is easier to control than trying to manoeuvre a squeezy tube where you want it while applying steady pressure to get a good bead going.

I used a gun and cartridge.  I think the problem (aside from me just being terrible at DIY) is that even with opening the nozzle close to the tip, it's still letting out a bead of around 5mm, which seems just a wee bit too big for this space. 

[The Milner]

Sealing baths or sinks is a pain, i tend to use my finger, to smooth it off, i quite like pealing it off my finger later on (i know im weird). 

 

I would recommend getting the nozzle into the space as much as possible and just over filling it, then wiping the excess off, it can be a pain of a job like, plus it stinks up the room something awful. 

[Soda Jerk]

http://www.northsouthfood.com/dear-jamie-oliver/

 

This blog boiled my piss. A bunch of folk seem to be losing their shit over this new Jamie Oliver programme about cooking up some cheap meals, as if he's being a condescending money-splooging bell-end, rubbing it in the faces of the poverty-stricken. Seems like piss-and-moans for piss-and-moans sake. I don't really see what he's done wrong, and what he's saying makes sense, but because he's successful and has made a career from rustling up posh pukka, he's not allowed to have his say on budgeting for food?

 

This blog goes above and beyond the shite point they are trying to make, and the lass just starts speaking out of her arse. She goes on to slagging off supermarkets for limiting the options for shoppers with total lies about how all vegetables are portioned - which is shite - then she says that the local market isn't an option either, because there's no parking, and it closes down at lunch time, and there's no trollies. WHAT DO YOU WANT?! Are you proposing to knock down every Sainsburys and replacing it with a local market next to an ample car park? I'm not sure why the distribution of disability benefits is Jamie's fault either. Yeah! What a twat. He's got his own house and a good credit score. Let's kick that lisping cunts head in...

 

I don't really care what his motives are behind it. He's got a new book or something? Whatever. Of course he's a self-publicist. He's a celebrity chef, but the point behind his TV show is incredibly valid.

 

 

LEAVE JAMIE ALONE!

[Paranoid Android]

I didn't read all of that but Oliver's comments about the poor did come across as a bit ignorant and potentially insulting.

[Paranoid Android]

I generally like him though and think he is mostly trying to do good.

[Soda Jerk]

I didn't read all of that but Oliver's comments about the poor did come across as a bit ignorant and potentially insulting.

 

Which bit of what he said do you find potentially insulting? His sentiment might be a little blanket, but I still agree with him. I grew up with poor parents, or supposedly poor. His mini-rant about poor people eating shite food but kitting out their homes with gadgets certainly rings true for my childhood. Food, qualitywise, wasn't really a priority when I was a kid. We lived on microwave meals and chicken nuggets, whilst my dickhead stepdad prioritised money on other junk. Drink and gadgets. It was grim.

 

And I actually don't really care for Jamie normally. His school-dinner stuff was woefully ill-informed. He seemed to blame the dinnerladies, when it wasn't really their decision on what was being cooked. It seemed like a pretty harsh attack. He's a bit of a tit mostly, but I think he's pretty spot on at the moment.

[ca_gere]

"The poor" always get a bit touchy when you question their lifestyle choices. Noone will ever make me believe that healthy eating is something reserved for people with money - as some of the blog comments try to. Oliver may be a fat-tongued twat at times but he fights for good causes and knows his shit. If you can afford to eat, you can afford to eat healthily.

[Jaaakkkeee]

He's pretty spot on. So many people I know were poor, but would go out and get brilliant gadgets.

 

To be fair, my mum and dad weren't the best off folk in the world, and me and my sister always had playstations and such. But we ate well. Odd day it would be nuggets and chips but my dad was always about having loads of veg and nice meat. Yup, my dad wanted us to have his nice meat. So what wanna fight about it?

 

Anyway, they did overspend, but I think a lot of that was keeping up with the joneses. My mates and my sister's mates were getting all these cool things and they wanted us to have the same. I love my folks. Best folks. Better than your folks. And even after the spoiledness, we've turned out nae bad. I overspend, but that's predominantly down to other reasons.

[Chris]

[Monster Zero]

[MattJimF]

[The Milner]

[girl anachronism]

Food poverty is unfortunately very widespread issue (I think something like 18% of the UK population is affected?) and whilst it might be easy for those of us who don't suffer to sneer and adopt a "you're doing it wrong" attitude, many of the guidance and fixes offered do not address the underlying issues and although doubtlessly well-intentioned will always fall well short of solving the problem.

 

The price of food is very high at the moment and aside from the mortgage, I would honestly say that the food shop is consistently the second largest monthly expenditure for us (I'm including monthly essentials such as cleaning products, basic toiletries and food for the cat in this).  We don't buy anything particularly expensive or flash (no meat, no dairy), but even things like cans of chickpeas are about three or four times the price they were a few years ago.  Fresh fruit and veg is very expensive, sometimes there are savings to be made by buying loose items, rather than pre-packed, but I'd say such savings are becoming less noticeable now.  I tend to try to buy fresh veg at places like the Chinese supermarket where it's invariably far cheaper, but with not having a car, the convenience of just picking it up on our monthly supermarket trip often over-rules.

 

When I did my postgrad in Glasgow, I'd taken the prior year out to work and save to pay my tuition fees and accommodation fees for my Masters year and a little bit left over as a cushion to help when I first moved.  Initially, I'd assumed that I could search for a job when I moved, but it soon became apparent that with the nature of the research I was doing, that I'd be in the lab at odd hours and I quickly found that I couldn't hold down a steady job.  Although there were a lot of reasonably priced fruit and veg shops (both local and international) where I lived, in the end I was eventually priced out of those and supermarkets like Iceland became a godsend.  I'd buy 50p veg packs and make massive pots of soup that I could freeze portions of for later.  Or, if I was feeling particularly adventurous, I could buy huge bags of cheap pasta, tomato sauce and bags of pre-cut frozen veg and chuck in a handful of that.  Fortunately I'd already covered my accommodation costs for that year and I got some help from the uni's hardship fund.  The next year, I tried to survive off a small stipend for my PhD.  It didn't work out and I had to move home- I simply couldn't afford to stay.  I wasn't in poverty but I certainly learned to live incredibly thriftily, and at the end of the day, I had a way out and a plan B, which isn't the case for a lot of people.

 

Been following this blog for a while; http://agirlcalledjack.com/tag/jack-monroe/%C2'>

 

I think what's gotten peoples' backs up about what Oliver said is that he's over-simplified and totally trivialised a massively difficult and complex problem.  His heart is definitely in the right place and he's at least raising awareness of the issue if nothing else.

[Gypsum_Fantastic]

Excel. Death by Excel. My soul is almost destroyed.

[girl anachronism]

Edit: The link didn't post: http://agirlcalledjack.com/tag/jack-monroe/

 

and half my post has disappeared.  It's an affecting and sobering read, particularly this post on the merits of tinned veg (should anyone really have to think like this in this day and age) http://agirlcalledjack.com/2013/07/23/viva-la-tinned-potato/

 

The blog also addresses the emotional issues associated with food poverty, such as pride and staying strong for a dependent, and wider socio-economic issues such as jobhunting and minimum wage.

[The Milner]

[Paranoid Android]

I don't really agree with the having a go at these families for having a nice telly. They're not really that expensive these days and I'm sure they can be bought on long term hire purchase schemes for not much money a week. If a family has 4 kids the amount of time they will be entertained by it makes it incredible value for money, it's quite easy to see why people stretch to this one luxury. I think it's way to simplistic to ridicule someone for watching corrie on a flatscreen while in poverty.

[MattJimF]

[The Milner]

Thing is, im sure the TV was just an example he was using on how people who claim poverty throw money around. You could look at fags, drink, TV's, computers, expensive mobile phones, designer clothing as things people would rather spend their money on before they think about food. Ive seen friends do it, spend all their money on shite, then come the end of the month they are eating packs of asda value super noodles, complaining everything costs too much. 

[Adam Easy Wishes]

I'm mostly concerned with those who spend what little money they have on unreasonable amounts of cigarettes and alcohol as opposed to eating a balanced and well-rounded diet, and in turn providing this for their children where applicable.

[girl anachronism]

[Paranoid Android]

Ok now my pet hate is people replying to this thread before I finish typing one post myself!

[Paranoid Android]

Ready meals are horrendously expensive,  I honestly don't know who could afford to survive off them as a regular source of nutrition anyway.

 

Really? You can get meals for like a pound can't you? Or less if reduced.

[The Milner]

It's part of his point, but what he's done is oversimplified a complex issue, minced his words a bit and as a result sweepingly generalised a huge subset of the population, all of whom will have different circumstances.

 

Ready meals are horrendously expensive,  I honestly don't know who could afford to survive off them as a regular source of nutrition anyway.

 

Yeah he doesnt word it in the most gentle of ways, but i think his point is sound. You can make a huge pot of soup for under a fiver, huge bags of pasta for a pound, ect. Eating doesnt have to be expensive, buying a new TV is never cheap no matter how you pay for it. 

 

I have no idea how any one could live their life on processed meals, i find eating one as a quick snack bad enough, but to live on that crap is just stomach turning.