First-World Problems.

[Mr Larrington]

Alternative fruits.

[hellymedic]

Indeed; all these people have had enough of FACTS and SCIENCE.

The pedant in me acquired a Biology O Level in 1974 and A Level in 1976. While I am happy to call a tomato or pea pod a fruit, I will not accord this appellation to a carrot or onion.

[Jaded]

The Bath Ales Gem bitter ran out in the Backstage Bar at Womad mid afternoon yesterday.

[Efrogwr]

The Bath Ales Gem bitter ran out in the Backstage Bar at Womad mid afternoon yesterday.

That's not a problem; it's a diaster.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Partner has chopped an onion on my FRUIT chopping board!

Botanically, the onion is a fruit.
</Boris Johnson mode>

Is it really?

Hardly looks like a seed case that develops after the plant has flowered!

This is an onion fruit or capsule.



The spherical bulbs we consume are not fruit IMHO.


Might be a Trump post-truth fruit...

[ian]

An onion is a true bulb.

Daffodils, tulips etc., on the other hand, are pseudobulbs, so are in actual fact genuine false bulbs.

Onion juice and smell will wash off, I slice fruit and veg on the same board (obviously not at the same time).

[hellymedic]

Partner has chopped an onion on my FRUIT chopping board!

Botanically, the onion is a fruit.
</Boris Johnson mode>

Is it really?
Hardly looks like a seed case that develops after the plant has flowered!
This is an onion fruit or capsule.

The spherical bulbs we consume are not fruit IMHO.
Might be a Trump post-truth fruit...

Oops!
Failed to notice mode!
Apols!

[hellymedic]

An onion is a true bulb.

Daffodils, tulips etc., on the other hand, are pseudobulbs, so are in actual fact genuine false bulbs.

Onion juice and smell will wash off, I slice fruit and veg on the same board (obviously not at the same time).

I think this depends on the chopping board material; my GREEN polythene board has a persistent onion taint, which no amount of scrubbing will shift. My RED fruit board is no longer tainted. It's made of a firmer, stiffer plastic.

[ian]

Allium smells are primarily thiocarbonyl S-oxides which are quite polar so should come off with a scrub in water or a round in the dishwasher. If it's got into the board, a soak in vinegar or lemon juice should do the trick. Or try bicarb.

[rafletcher]

I think the basic problem here is having separate boards. I do have three, but they're all white, and the first one I grab gets used. No issues with cross-contamination in c15 years. Simple washing or the dishwasher sorts them out.

[ian]

I have one board set aside for raw meat, the others are fair game for whatever needs chopping.

[Kim]

We have a nice set of chopping boards that  a) fit in the cupboard properly  b) are colours I get the name of right  Obviously they don't follow the industry standard colours, so it comes down to:
red = raw meat
green = veg and stuff
yellow = bready things
blue = the spare one

In practice this works fine because I avoid fruit and veg, and barakta avoids chopping things.

[T42]

Ours are all wooden: pine, teak, bamboo & A.N.Other. It's usually the last that gets used for everything.  We also have one of those ridiculous glass boards that ruin knives and split ears but I put a fatwa on it and all it does now is go under the toaster.

[rafletcher]

My Sonos speakers are “offline”.   

ETA: Seems it’s a know issue where Alexa just sort of forgets them. Even deleting all settings, both apps, and factory reset of the speakers only got the non-Alexa enabled Playbase working again. So the kitchen and office shed are addressed as “OK Google”.

[T42]

Ah, the delight of biting into a perfect nectarine and finding half the stone in your mouth and the half remaining in the fruit to be hollow, and black and powdery-looking inside.

[ian]

My Sonos speakers are “offline”.   

ETA: Seems it’s a know issue where Alexa just sort of forgets them. Even deleting all settings, both apps, and factory reset of the speakers only got the non-Alexa enabled Playbase working again. So the kitchen and office shed are addressed as “OK Google”.

Alexa sometimes forgets her own name, like a gran on her third sherry. A parade of reboots usually works, starting with the devices and then the wifi hub. My Sonos is quite good, the only thing that usually defeats is it my wife who exists in a cloud of coherent bogon condensate that is not only impervious to wifi but also disrupts any electronic device within a few metres.

[Mr Larrington]

My Sonos speakers are “offline”.   

ETA: Seems it’s a know issue where Alexa just sort of forgets them. Even deleting all settings, both apps, and factory reset of the speakers only got the non-Alexa enabled Playbase working again. So the kitchen and office shed are addressed as “OK Google”.

Alexa sometimes forgets her own name, like a gran on her third sherry. A parade of reboots usually works, starting with the devices and then the wifi hub. My Sonos is quite good, the only thing that usually defeats is it my wife who exists in a cloud of coherent bogon condensate that is not only impervious to wifi but also disrupts any electronic device within a few metres.

And this, apparently, is The Future.

[ian]

To be fair, they generally just work and the ability to cue up a tune of my choice anywhere in the house and have it issue from whatever speakers I choose is rather splendid.

As mentioned, I mostly don't bother than much with Alexa or Google, it's usually less hassle to work the phone. I realise this makes me old. One of the sad facts of modern life is that it used to be possible to identify mad people by the fact they were shouting into thin air, whereas these days that's pretty much everyone under the age of 30, either on their phone or yelling at a machine.

[ElyDave]

The Bath Ales Gem bitter ran out in the Backstage Bar at Womad mid afternoon yesterday.

That's not a problem; it's a diaster.

how did you cope? Don't leave us in suspense, this should have made the headlines.

[Beardy]

Cordless vacuum cleaners are a right royal pain in the proverbial when you are faced with a need to vacuum the whole house and furniture twice in close succession in order to deal with a cat flea infestation¹ that has taken hold whilst we’ve been away. 

1. You’d think it was of biblical proportions the way Dr Beardy (Mrs) has been driving me this morning.

[rafletcher]

That's why we have the cordless for day-to day, and a proper decent corded one for a deep clean. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

People are complaining about Morrison's charging 30p for a carrier bag. Get a fucking life! Also, get a bag and take it with you when you go shopping. Hint: it will only cost you 30p.

[T42]

Why don't they make the coin-slot in the screw caps on the battery compartments of gadgets powered by wide flat batteries like the CR2032 wide enough to be unscrewed with e.g. a CR2032?

[Kim]

Why don't they make the coin-slot in the screw caps on the battery compartments of gadgets powered by wide flat batteries like the CR2032 wide enough to be unscrewed with e.g. a CR2032?

...or narrow enough to be unscrewed with an electronics-fettling sized screwdriver, for that matter.

My usual tool (ie. that which lives within reach of the drawer where the spare batteries live) is a pair of small needle-nosed pliers.

[PeteB99]

Got back yesterday afternoon to find one of the smoke alarms giving a low battery bleep. No spare battery and I couldn't be arsed going out again so risked fiery deth last night with only one working smoke alarm.