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Dunno - I saw a topic on an american forum and most were the belt or being grounded and I was curious if anybody over here had more interesting experiences.

I suppose these days punishment just isn't the same. My parents were not very creative about punishments they had only two that I remember.
The first was a beating with a wooden spoon(Why the hell a spoon I just don't know)
When we got old enough to laugh at my mums lack of beating strength they resorted to fines.

Neither was a good deterrent, I just got good at hiding my crimes.

I ran my first marathon this year and have a new respect for people who run it. I've done many halfs and started training hard for the full and got sick just when my long runs were getting up to about 30k. Then I was sick for the 4 whole weeks before the race and when it came to the day I thought 'screw it' it can't be that much different from a half and ran anyway. After 28k I was punished severely. I can honestly say that I don't think I have felt worse - It was on a par with Salmonella montevideo, which I caught a few years back and was a living hell.
My half time one month before was 1:35 and I finished the full in 3:54 abosultely dead and fuming that I had been so stupid.

I would say that here in Poland the bus drivers seem to be the most considerate drivers - but in my city there are no bus lanes so maybe that would change if they added them.

I'm usually the passive type as I know aggression doesn't work with angry drivers. they just get pissed off more.
I tend to feel sorry for most of the drivers in my city. About 60% of them are considerate but the rest are insane. At traffic lights people regularly beep at me(In the car) for not pulling away like a drag racer the second the lights turn green.
The abuse that learner drivers receive here is shameful too.
These people cannot be 'educated' through aggressive or passive words - They are always right.

There is a TV show called 'Uwaga Pirat' it's a bit like a traffic cop documentary and about 30% of people when caught say 'sorry, my bad' and the rest have a combination of - 'it's not fair that you are in an unmarked car', 'I've never been caught/had a crash before so I must be a good driver', 'yes I broke the law but it's ok cause I know what I'm doing' and each episode there are a couple of people who say something like 'Cool, I get to be on TV' or 'am I the fastest you got today?'

All these from people driving in a country with some of the worst road statistic in Europe - Poland.

I'm also interested in the pdf support as I have many pdf files that I would want to read should I buy one.
Do you still have to email them your files to get them converted or does it read them directly.

To be honest I'm struggling to use up all these mushrooms but I just found a recipe for mushroom ketchup in a book I have - 'Preserved'
Has anybody tried mushroom ketchup and is it worth making or a waste of good mushrooms.

Just saw this on youtube and it made me feel sick watching it
YouTube - Stairway to Heaven - climbing a 1768 foot transmission tower RAW

Those ones are hanging in front of the fire, but only in the evening when it is lit. In the day they are either out in the sun, or hanging in front of a desktop fan.
My FIL likes to dry them in the oven, but I told him he wasn't allowed with mine as he burnt about 2 kilos of ceps last time he tried!

I used about a metre of thread and threaded some mushrooms on then tied it into loop Then threaded the loops onto a hoe. Now however the loops are threaded onto thicker strong as I couldn't easily transport the hoe back to my place.

What is the market value of ceps and bay boletes in the markets in the UK? Here I guess ceps are about 5 per kilo and bay boletes about 2.50. But then we have thousands of people out hunting them and in the UK not so many people go out.

So, Fridays trip went bloody fantastic. First trip where I have been really fussy about what I picked - I must have left about 40 kilos of mushrooms behind! There were thousands of chanterelles, but they were a little older than I would have liked so I left them and started picking some suillus bovinus(in the smaller baskets) and a few other boletes then after a couple of hours and 2 kilos of those we stumbled upon a huge colony of bay boletus. We picked as many as we could carry in the basket and red bag, and left because we couldn't really process any more than that so all in all we half filled the boot if my FIL's car and went home after 4 hours.
I decided to dry the suillus and my in laws then started to fight about what to do with the rest - I kept out and so we dried half and cooked half.
[URL="http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs328.ash2/60791_10150262613505621_581240620_14888964_3047000_n.jpg"][/URL]

Alarm set for 4:30 am for an all day foraging trip tomorrow - You know, it's when you make an effort like that, that no mushrooms appear at all so wish me luck! I also heard that there are plenty about, so I'm hoping it's not just hearsay.

I haven't tried plums, but elderflower is my favourite. I prefer it to grape wine. The first batch I did also came out rather weak - about 7 percent, but it tasted so good that I couldn't resist. I spent a weekend drinking it like lemonade regretting the fact tha I had only made 1 gallon.

This is my first elderberry, so I am wondering what it will come out like.

So I have eventually got my elderberry wine working!
I picked 4 kilos of berries last weekend and was determined to make wine until I realised that in Poland they have a different idea on what is necessary to make wine. Nowhere can I find sterilising powder - Not with the homebrew equipment, not in the cleaning sections not even in the baby section. I also cannot find any additives except for yeast and nutrient. Strange considering that they have a fantiastic array of demijohns, testing equipment, labels, shrink caps, even some still parts.

So, returning from the shop with a wholly unacceptable quantity of equipment I started.

So how do you sterilise a 25L bottle with no powder. Boiling water is not such a good idea and it won't fit into the oven so (CRINGE) I poured a bit of bleach (yup, pine scented. Apparently you can't buy plain old bleach any more) into the bottle and filled it with water. After about 3 hours of rinsing I filled it up with my beautiful berry sugar mixture. About 18L.

Monday morning I pitched the yeast and waited.......nothing.

I put it down to dead yeast(Summer is scorching here, sometimes 40 degrees) and so I went and chose a different yeast, dried instead of the solution in the hope that it would help. I also checked the specific gravity to check that the sugar wasn't inhibiting the yeast. It was borderline but I left it.

So I mix up a new batch of yeast and check it is thoroughly fermenting before pitching it.

Nothing.

So after a lot of checking recipes I figured that the one thing missing from the recipe I was using that was in most of the others was citric acid and that the problem could only be that or the sugar level. The homebrew section of the shops here has no citric acid.

So a beg my wife to visit the supermarket on her way home and buy me 5 lemons.

In went the juice last night.

I woke up this morning to that wonderful sound - bloop, bloop. There it was bubbling away.

I knew that citric acid helped the yeast but I didn't realise that the must could be so alkaline that it prevents ALL activity. So that is one more thing I have learnt about brewing.

Has anybody tried to fortify elderberry wine by throwing in some brandy or spirit before fermentation has finished? Did it work? I am tempted to try it with a small amount.

Ultimate cheese but still pretty amazing what he can do.
Makes me feel a bit ashamed about how often I whinge about stuff too.
YouTube - No Arms No Legs No Worries
#!

My first impression was that it was amazing then I watyched again and though 'hmmm could be faked'
After watching many similar videos I have decided it is not fake.
http://www.youtube.com/user/AirkixTV#p/u
Some other videos at the same place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNhaPFvmqVU&feature=player_embedded

It kicks off about 2 minutes in. It looks real to me, but it seems a little too incredible. Is it real?

Just started reading 'Cooking for Geeks'
Absolutely great book for anyone who wants that kind of view on cooking.

Oh, but I did get one good edible find! I harvested over 4 kilos of elderberrys from right next to the beehives - I felt pretty smug as I got them before the bees had woken up so I managed to get a huge bucket of them. Roll on elderberry wine for Christmas.

Did they not call them 'kurki' in the polish market? That is what they are known as here.
When I brought my hedgehog fungus and chanterelles home my FIL though they were the same thing, so I told him I won't eat any mushrooms he brings home!

Didn't go hunting this weekend as my in laws garden needed dealing with (it has been left for ten years whilst they rebuilt the house and is about 6-7 feet tall and 800m2) I only had a scythe, a sickle and a rake to do it with. After 5 hours yesterday and 6 today I am about 4/5 done - I had to stop on both days due to the neighbours bees not taking too well to me cutting down their food. I did however find plenty of mushrooms, all inedible, but interesting nonetheless. The best find was Stropharia aeruginosa which I found at 7am this morning and almost thought I had found an aniseed toadstool. Alas another poisounous one!

I studied at Hull and after my first year I knew that I wasn't interested in working in music any more but I finished anyway and have a degree that I don't use and a student loan to pay off.....it was great.

Some cool stuff here - I forgot about john zorn and captain beefhart. That naked city album was a staple of mine at uni......somebody nicked it though.
As I said in my original post everybody has a different view of what is challenging. I listened to most types of stuff during my music degree and I have to say that I have a threshold - I can appreciate some really extreme music sitting down thinking, but I do not choose to listen to it whilst I run for example.My wife on the other hand only listens to really crappy radio and finds REM challenging........

I like Bartok - My brother loves bartok and can play some serious mean piano pieces of his.
My beef with Stravinsky mainly stems from having to write two compulsory essays on him, which counted as one fifth of my final years marks - I had to do it and it pissed me off that the lecturer only gave us the one choice to write about - I bet it was great fun for him to check
I went to fantastic concert last year called jazzplayseurope. A bunch of guys standing on stage improvising some really cool noise..

This is a thread for people post music they like that is tough to process and get through.
I know everybody has a different idea about what is challenging and that changes over time(what was challenging for at school is now nothing!)....please keep it serious - no white noise or 4:33!

I just had my first listen to Squarepusher - 'just a souvenir' it seems pretty good.

A few of my favourite artists are
Cornelius, Steroid Maximus, King Crimson, Estradasphere, Mike Patton(Bungle and Fantomas), Ween, Aphex twin, Secret chiefs 3.

My top tough composer is Stravinsky - no matter what I do I can't stand it!

I flew from stansted to Poland last month and over germany we randomly nosedived for about 3 minutes. Absolutely terrifying and I'm a good flier. No explanation from anybody though.....damn ryanair.

I was lucky enough to be given a bag of kimchee by one of my korean students mother.
Just had a great meal -
Starter -spicy beef soup made with slow cooked brisket, sliced thinly when cold then cooked in a beef stock with garlic, chilli, ginger and noodles.
Main - Fried rice with kimchee
Dessert..........a maxibon ice cream(I ran out of inspiration!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickyspaghetti1/

All black and white film - from a few cameras - Praktica b200, minolta dynax, yashica mat 124g