Another lockdown… another commute

[Stumpy]

Ahhh yeah Mendy. The haul of stuff back home. Every time my wife and I return from the states it's fun to unpack all the suitcases. We do not bring back much in regards to food but nice bedding, clothes, wife's make up, my cordless yard tools and spare parts for my mower and gifts and requests for family. Of course each suitcase also has a 750ml to 1 liter bottle of Bourbon or Tequila in them. This trip was 6.

Safe Travels.

[Headworx]

With this new Omricon variant there is a new 4 day quarantine requirement. It's a bit inconvenient but better safe than sorry.

For sure, but one can never be too careful. Love the pics, there'll only be Dicken's cider soon so make the most of Thatcher's while you're there.

[aging one]

Originally Posted by Mendip
With this new Omricon variant there is a new 4 day quarantine requirement. It's a bit inconvenient but better safe than sorry.

I have seen nothing of that here. Only you must do the test and wait a day in your hotel. Let me know where the source is. Thanks.

[Headworx]

^His source will be Dr Ramchandra of the Delhi institute of communicable diseases who for the equivalent of 135 Baht has emailed Mendip a medical statement saying 4 days of self quarantine in lower Sukhumvit is his firm recommendation before leaving Bangcock for the boondocks.

[Saint Willy]

^His source will be Dr Ramchandra of the Delhi institute of communicable diseases who for the equivalent of 135 Baht has emailed Mendip a medical statement saying 4 days of self quarantine in lower Sukhumvit is his firm recommendation before leaving Bangcock for the boondocks.

it was 150 baht for a 5 day notice.

[Mendip]

I have seen nothing of that here. Only you must do the test and wait a day in your hotel. Let me know where the source is. Thanks.

I doubt you will see anything about this AO as it'ss not been widely publicised. It's more of a personalised quarantine package I designed myself to be extra safe. I must admit it's re-assuring to find it endorsed by Dr Ramchapati from Delhi.

When you are there please check the price of their large bar mats/ runners.

I popped in today mate as I was passing anyway.



The £3 rubber bar runners are the ones on the shelf on the right, above the tea towels.



These are the £6 bar runners.



I don't know if buckets interest you at all? They are £12.50 each.




I took my mum out for a drive today and after Thatchers Cider shop we drove up Cheddar Gorge. Of course there was the obligatory stop-off to pick up some of the only genuine Cheddar cheese in the entire world.



Nice geology...



And some nice Soay sheep. These were introduced to manage the vegetation.



Another nice little haul of tat. It looks as though the wife and daughter will be getting lots of Thatchers themed presents this Christmas. I also took the opportunity to liberate a couple more bottles of Green Goblin.

[malmomike77]

I can see you are stocking up the accoutremants of a mancave Mendip, the makings of future thread perhaps

[helge]

Thatchers

Seems that I can't send PM's, so....eventhough your fascination with fermented applejuice worries me, do have a nice trip back home, and give your mum one on the cheek for me.

[Mendip]

^ Thanks Helge, will do.


I reckon these Somerset sun sets can rival anywhere's... just a shame about the telephone wires.

Three more sunsets to go!

[Saint Willy]

just a shame about the telephone wires.

you could walk forward five paces…

[naptownmike]

^^Nice sunset.

It's hard to beat a mid winter sky. To bad everything else about winter sucks.

Have a safe trip home.

[Mendip]

^ Thanks Mike.

Today the sky is grey and heavy with cloud, and it's raining. I guess everything sucks now and it's definitely time to go!

you could walk forward five paces…

What, and get my socks wet?


It's not all scrumpy and pasties in Somerset. Last night I had quite a cerebral conversation with my sister who popped in and need the help of a teacher.

I have noticed that 'Thatchers' as of 'Thatchers Cider' has no apostrophe.

I keep checking and this is the case on every single bottle. Surely it should be Thatcher's?

The sister says not, as it may have been a couple of brothers who started making the cider... but in that case surely there should be an apostrophe after the 's', as in Thatchers'?

My niece went to the same school as a boy in the cider dynasty, and says that the surname is Thatcher (with no 's' at the end).

Maybe I'm getting bored?

[bsnub]

As you were in Cheddar, surely you while be having a contribution to the Cheese thread?

[baldrick]

or the thatchers

[Shutree]

I have noticed that 'Thatchers' as of 'Thatchers Cider' has no apostrophe.

It is a brand name, so they can choose to have it or not. In these days of the Internet the apostrophe is fast disappearing.

One example is Smith's crisps. The company name still uses the apostrophe, most packaging but not all is Smiths.

Your grammar is fine, these names are not full sentences so they don't need to bother.

[Shutree]

Great pics, btw. Next time I'm in Somerset, maybe next year, a trip to the Thatchers shop could be on the cards.

(I am deliberately avoiding the apostrophe. If the name is Thatcher's then their shop would be the Thatcher's's shop? No, surely too messy.

[malmomike77]

It will be as many old English names were, derived from the trade the family was involved in, Thatching in this case so they were Thatchers, Somerset levels being a place where reeds for Thatching grow so a common trade in those parts.

[cyrille]

Soay sheep

Is that the breed, or some 'pigeon' Thai that will get on willy's tits

[Mendip]

^ From Wikipedia...


The Soay sheep is a breed of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) descended from a population of feral sheep on the 100-hectare (250-acre) island of Soay in the St Kilda Archipelago, about 65 kilometres (40 mi) from the Western Isles of Scotland. It is one of the Northern European short-tailed sheep breeds...

... Soay sheep were introduced from St. Kilda to Lundy, an island in the Bristol Channel, by Martin Coles Harman soon after he purchased the island in 1925. There is also a small population living wild in and around the Cheddar Gorge in Somerset.

Soay sheep - Wikipedia

Great pics, btw. Next time I'm in Somerset, maybe next year, a trip to the Thatchers shop could be on the cards.

(I am deliberately avoiding the apostrophe. If the name is Thatcher's then their shop would be the Thatcher's's shop? No, surely too messy.

Thatchers it is then!

Many years ago one of my sisters lived in Glasgow and one evening she was surprised to find draught Thatchers scrumpy on sale at her local pub - it often had guest ales/ciders and I once saw the wonderful Butcombe Bitter for sale there as well (from another Somerset village). Anyway, the cider had to be marketed as 'Sandfords' in her local pub as not a single Scot would touch anything with the word 'Thatchers' in the name.

As you were in Cheddar, surely you while be having a contribution to the Cheese thread?

Yes, but it will have to wait. I picked up a few genuine pieces of Cheddar but won't open it until I get home. I've really screwed up to be honest... usually I take several kilos of cheese back to Thailand but due to all the online shopping I did over the past 3 months while at work (and shopping I'd forgotten about that I did a year ago while I was stuck in Gothenburg) I have no space left. I've got 3 check-in bags all crammed full.

[Reg Dingle]

I picked up a few genuine pieces of Cheddar

Genuine pieces of Cheddar Why isn't it available in any UK supermarkets if its any fukkin good? it's still the same fukkin recipe and I bet it tastes no better than that Aussie Coon stuff.
Genuine fukkin cheddar

And your mass produced full of chemical Thatchers cider pish you keep raving on about .. Only raging alcoholics drink that fukkin heartburn inducing gut rot outside of BST

And what's these Vale of Mowbray pork pies from fukkin Yorkshire bollocks? Pork pies are from Melton Mowbray which is in fukking Leicestershire, you daft apeth

And this Bitter Buttcome, sounds like something you'll be tissueing off soon in Bangkok.

[Saint Willy]

ole grumpy cvnt, aint you Dilly?

[Reg Dingle]

It will be as many old English names were, derived from the trade the family was involved in

That'll explain the guy above.... Mr.Willy

[Mendip]

^^^ Cheddar is called Cheddar because it was invented in Cheddar... you're saying you can have Cheddar from the other side of the world but you can't call a pork pie a pork pie cos it comes from the wrong ghetto up north?

What's the difference between Yorkshire and Leicestershire anyway? They all speak funny... a different colour flat cap?

[malmomike77]

Why isn't it available in any UK supermarkets if its any fukkin good? it's still the same fukkin recipe and I bet it tastes no better than that Aussie Coon stuff. Genuine fukkin cheddar

Look Dill, its available but just not to you mouth breathers in plastic wrap ooop norf of the M4. It was never given special status and protected which is why Americans can produce replica plastic shite and apply the name Cheddar much the same way Utd can prefix their footie team Manchester - hope that clears it up in monkeyville.

[Mendip]

I had my last job today in preparation for my return to Thailand... the PCR test. I went for a four hour turnaround option at Bristol Airport to save driving right into Bristol. The slightly cheaper 48 hour (ish) turnaround option was less definite and wouldn't have given a lot of contingency time if the worst happened. I should get my results by email by tea time today and then I can relax... I'll be going home. So long as it's negative, of course.

The 4 hour turnaround rapid RT-PCR test at Bristol Airport cost 120 quid, ker-ching!

I've also had to do a 2 day and 8 day home antigen test after arriving in the UK two weeks ago... that test kit had to be ordered prior to arrival and cost 60 quid... ker-ching! Some people are making a lot of money out of Covid in the UK. Both tests were negative by the way... so I'm optimistic of a negative result today.

I left a bit late for my test appointment and got stuck behind this b@stard along the narrow lane. We get two buses a day along this route so I was very unlucky. It was empty as well.



The bloody bus driver crawled along but eventually reached this junction where he turned his b@stard empty Number 51 right, and I was going left. Good riddance... but that's not the way to Birmingham!



It wasn't my day... one thing after another. I think a pack of b@stard cyclists would have finished me off. They never go in single file round here and should be shot on sight.



But despite all these obstacles I made the appointment on time. Bristol Airport wasn't finished with my wallet of course... they fleeced me for the use of a parking space for the 20 minutes I was there.



I noticed this sign which really takes the biscuit. Bristol Airport have long charged 2 quid for a trolley which I think is outrageous... and now this. It is truly my least favourite airport anywhere and I wouldn't be surprised if next time I visit they'll be charging to breathe the air. Rip off Bristol.



On the way home I stopped to take a couple of pics of the Yeo Valley. The River Yeo flows through this valley after leaving Blagdon Lake. That is Crook Peak in the extreme background at the western extremity of the Mendip Hills. Soon after is the Bristol Channel.



I used to go ferreting along those hedgerows many years ago. Sometime around the mid 80s a wave of myxomatosis swept threw this area and the rabbit population has never recovered.



A nice hill.

This hill used to be a favourite for sledging down on the rare occasions we got a decent snowfall during the winter.



A few days after Christmas when I was around 12 or 13, I was doing some head-first sledging down this hill when I lost steerage and hit that b@stard telegraph pole squarely with my head. I knocked myself out and apparently I was unconscious for a fair few minutes. Why put a telegraph pole in the middle of a field?



I was badly concussed but the village was iced up and my parents couldn't get me to hospital. I lost all memory of that Christmas and it never came back, but I guess I was lucky... it could have been a lot worse. You need a bit of luck growing up, that's for sure.

I wasn't sure what to do this afternoon while waiting for my PCR test results... so I picked up a few bottles of cider to help pass the time. Seemed like the sensible thing to do!