The General Chat Thread (2024)

It's raining, raining, raining. The Netherlands is a wet country in general, but this is the wettest year on record and it seems like it's been raining non-stop since september.
I have never experienced seasonal depression before, but I am feeling something similar by now. If I look out and see a grey sky I have all motivation to do anything leave me. I really hope summer comes soon and will stop the incessant rain. It feels like I need to build an ark sometime soon.
noahs-ark-1709825744.jpg
 
Windigo said:
It's raining, raining, raining. The Netherlands is a wet country in general, but this is the wettest year on record and it seems like it's been raining non-stop since september.
I have never experienced seasonal depression before, but I am feeling something similar by now. If I look out and see a grey sky I have all motivation to do anything leave me. I really hope summer comes soon and will stop the incessant rain. It feels like I need to build an ark sometime soon.
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It has been extremely rainy here this winter too.
Agree totally, after a while it’s wearing, just the occasional sunny day would be enough.

The forecasters say sunshine tomorrow for my postcode, I really wouldn’t mind if they were right but the regional BBC forecaster pointed at the forecast and said don’t take this literally, it’s possible it could go in any direction!!
 
Windigo said:
It's raining, raining, raining. The Netherlands is a wet country in general, but this is the wettest year on record and it seems like it's been raining non-stop since september.
I have never experienced seasonal depression before, but I am feeling something similar by now. If I look out and see a grey sky I have all motivation to do anything leave me. I really hope summer comes soon and will stop the incessant rain. It feels like I need to build an ark sometime soon.
View attachment 113124
Click to expand...
I could envision that ark made out of chocolate with tiny candy animals all over it, perhaps a gingerbread roof?
 
Windigo said:
If I look out and see a grey sky I have all motivation to do anything leave me.
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Hopefully it clears up for you soon.

It’s been very sunny and hot (by my standards) the last few days, which most people have been absolutely giddy about, and it was supposed to be more of the same today, but I heard thunder about 4AM, and when I got up a couple of hours later, it was quite a bit cooler, and today, it’s overcast and a good 10°F cooler than yesterday (so…maybe 24C versus 29C yesterday), and it’s spitting rain.

I think I’m the only one in my town in a good mood. :laugh:
 
I'm working away my days in a 32C kitchen and 36C outside. Never mind. Air conditioning in the hotel, so I'm not too bothered.
What might bother me is that my client announced he might be throwing a dinner party tomorrow for 20 people.
That'll make the kitchen staff jump...
Could be this:
1714776752452.png


Or it could be this:
1714776926375.png
 
Just going home from our weekly shop and the supermarket have introduced a new policy regarding customers using their own weigh bags for fruit & veg. Cashiers now have to remove all items from a customer's own bag, weigh the items and put them back into the customer's own bags!

Needless to say I wasn't happy about this for many reasons not least of all the cashiers hands and the scales are not cleaned or sanitised between customers! Our cashier was being trained, so I raised my objection for her supervisor who subsequently allowed her to use our bags.

Hopefully the cashiers will have forgotten about this new rule in a couple of weeks. It's utter madness. I don't know what our weigh bags actually weigh, but if it is more than a gram each, I'd be very surprised.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Hopefully the cashiers will have forgotten about this new rule in a couple of weeks.
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What’s the rationale in that - are they thinking some shoppers will have bags lighter than the ones the shop provides, cheating the shop out of a tenth of a cent with each order?
 
TastyReuben said:
What’s the rationale in that - are they thinking some shoppers will have bags lighter than the ones the shop provides, cheating the shop out of a tenth of a cent with each order?
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It isn't cheating the shop, but overcharging the customer that they are concerned about. That's what we were told.

It's hard to have bags lighter than the ones provided, but the ones provided don't breath, are very unenviromentally friendly and all goods need extracting immediately from them. We just put veg and bag straight into the fridge with our bags. They are designed to allow the veg and fruit to breath. Periodically they go through the wash to clean them. We've been using the same weigh bags since before we went off the try to cycle around the world, so that must be at least the last 15 years that those bags have been used for without issue until now.

We did work out how much something costs in our bags. So if the produce is $5/kg then it's 5cents extra... $10/kg is 10c and so on. Given some produce such as ginger can be $27/kg (the cheapest it has been for a long time), that's 27c extra for our bags. We can use 10 bags per shop, so it is probably costing us $1 each shop, maybe.

So on this shop, the top 5 items were in our bags and weighed. We often put stuff in bags that's priced per item, but that won't count.

Screenshot_20240504_132730_Rewards.jpg

So broccoli cost 4c extra, aubergine 9c, mandarins 3½c, navel oranges 4½c, and the ginger at 27c. The bananas were loose and all other 6 fruit/veg items were per item, not by weight. So this time around we were 'over charged' 48c for using our own bags. Apparently that is their concern.

It raises the question of what about their paper bags for mushrooms verses their plastic bags? What about time wasted waiting for the poor cashier opening your bags to remove and replace the veg/fruit. Hygiene twice (cashier's hands and the weigh scales) and cross contamination for those with food allergies. We don't cook all of our veg. We often eat it raw. A quick rinse isn't going to remove potential contamination or germs.

I'd rather click that I agree to ignore the extra few cents per shop and be able to carry on using our own bags.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
It isn't cheating the shop, but overcharging the customer that they are concerned about. That's what we were told.

It's hard to have bags lighter than the ones provided, but the ones provided don't breath, are very unenviromentally friendly and all goods need extracting immediately from them. We just put veg and bag straight into the fridge with our bags. They are designed to allow the veg and fruit to breath. Periodically they go through the wash to clean them. We've been using the same weigh bags since before we went off the try to cycle around the world, so that must be at least the last 15 years that those bags have been used for without issue until now.

We did work out how much something costs in our bags. So if the produce is $5/kg then it's 5cents extra... $10/kg is 10c and so on. Given some produce such as ginger can be $27/kg (the cheapest it has been for a long time), that's 27c extra for our bags. We can use 10 bags per shop, so it is probably costing us $1 each shop, maybe.

So on this shop, the top 5 items were in our bags and weighed. We often put stuff in bags that's priced per item, but that won't count.

View attachment 113156
So broccoli cost 4c extra, aubergine 9c, mandarins 3½c, navel oranges 4½c, and the ginger at 27c. The bananas were loose and all other 6 fruit/veg items were per item, not by weight. So this time around we were 'over charged' 48c for using our own bags. Apparently that is their concern.

It raises the question of what about their paper bags for mushrooms verses their plastic bags? What about time wasted waiting for the poor cashier opening your bags to remove and replace the veg/fruit. Hygiene twice (cashier's hands and the weigh scales) and cross contamination for those with food allergies. We don't cook all of our veg. We often eat it raw. A quick rinse isn't going to remove potential contamination or germs.

I'd rather click that I agree to ignore the extra few cents per shop and be able to carry on using our own bags.
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They could just add a weigh bag feature to the scales that you cold press at the beginning. A bit like a tare scales function but one that has a max weight so if the bag is unrealistically heavy people couldn’t slip extra by without paying!
Thats what some of the self checkout tills have here.
Or like you say the cashier taps to say you accept the cost and if not their stuff is handled as you described.

Personally I would not be up for the cross contamination involved. My son has severe anaphylactic level allergies to some fruits like kiwi and avocado and he is very much not alone in that.
I don’t think it’s worth risking health and welfare for the sake of people using their own bags.
Given my concerns if I was there I’d be sending a letter and giving them good grounds to stop a silly practice, they’d probably be relieved they have a reason to stop!
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Personally I would not be up for the cross contamination involved. My son has severe anaphylactic level allergies to some fruits like kiwi and avocado and he is very much not alone in that
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I'm in the same boat only with dairy protein. I've had anaphylactic shock to a generic antihistamine tablet before now. The lactose monohydrate tablet filler had not been cleaned enough to remove all traces of casein from it. That was enough to need both epipens and a branded antihistamine tablet, not too mention extra steroids and nebulisers.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I'm in the same boat only with dairy protein. I've had anaphylactic shock to a generic antihistamine tablet before now. The lactose monohydrate tablet filler had not been cleaned enough to remove all traces of casein from it. That was enough to need both epipens and a branded antihistamine tablet, not too mention extra steroids and nebulisers.
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I think it’s hard for people to understand or take seriously unless they’ve seen it. They approach things from their point of view only and anaphylaxis is a unique experience you can’t imagine unless you’ve been there.

But once you have it’s a whole different ball game where navigating others complacency or sometimes outright ‘tish n pish’ attitude makes having an allergy utterly life changing, not just from the allergy itself - you become ‘one of those people’
The fuss makers who say they’re allergic to dairy and then order ice cream for pudding.
I wish their was a separate planet for those people!
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
It has been extremely rainy here this winter too.
Agree totally, after a while it’s wearing, just the occasional sunny day would be enough.

The forecasters say sunshine tomorrow for my postcode, I really wouldn’t mind if they were right but the regional BBC forecaster pointed at the forecast and said don’t take this literally, it’s possible it could go in any direction!!
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Fingers crossed for you! Because if it improves there, it improves here. The weather you have there is usually ours the next day (I know from living there and having relatives here).
JAS_OH1 said:
I could envision that ark made out of chocolate with tiny candy animals all over it, perhaps a gingerbread roof?
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That's a really cute idea, I'll think about it some more! Maybe a cake ark? :laugh:
TastyReuben said:
Hopefully it clears up for you soon.

It’s been very sunny and hot (by my standards) the last few days, which most people have been absolutely giddy about, and it was supposed to be more of the same today, but I heard thunder about 4AM, and when I got up a couple of hours later, it was quite a bit cooler, and today, it’s overcast and a good 10°F cooler than yesterday (so…maybe 24C versus 29C yesterday), and it’s spitting rain.

I think I’m the only one in my town in a good mood. :laugh:
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Glad you aren't affected by any weather related mood swings.

The sun was out this morning and I suddenly felt light and fine. So it's definitely related, because that empty feeling is only there when it rains currently. I ignore it as much as possible but my chocolate drawer is a lot emptier :meh:
 
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