Cold Ale - The Blokes' Thread!

[The Kid]

Are curries very popular in England? I've never tried one myself, but word spreads fast about good Indian food in this area. There are lots of Indian or Indian-descended people in this area, mostly related to the boom in the tech industry, thus the popularity of Indian cuisine is growing here. Perhaps I simply need to eat out more.

Or is there a non-Indian curry? Excuse my ignorance please.

[prendrelemick]

Curries are very popular in Britain, and a whole social popular culture has grown up around "going for a curry". If you get a good one they are delicious, and the best ones are not necessarily the hottest, a good curry has all kinds of subtle flavours. Most people have fast food type curries from supermarkets and takeaways, and to be honest they are not bad - until you try a proper one.

The Boy used to spend alot of his student loan money along the curry mile in Manchester when he was at Uni there. He went with his flatmates at least once a week, The challenge was to eat at every place along it while you were there, I think he managed about half of them in three years. He spent his work experiance year in Bradford, another curry hotbed, so he is quite an expert.

[The Atheist]

Atheist, we're getting reports of seismic activity out there in your neck of the woods. Please tell me you guys aren't working on the F-bomb. We don't want to get into a cold-war style F-bomb race, do we?

Seriously, did you feel the shake?

Haha! Yeah, quite a good shake that was, but it was down the island a bit from us, so I'll have to check up on my lower North Island associates.

Tragic consequences of the earthquake - one shop lost over 100 bottles of wine!

Or is there a non-Indian curry? Excuse my ignorance please.

Thai curries, and they're more on flavour and less on heat than a lot of Indian ones. Very popular.

[Calidore]

We have the rough equivalent of your curry mile here in Chicago. Not far from me, a roughly mile-long stretch of Devon Avenue and adjoining streets is home to a large Indian population, with lots of restaurants, clothing stores, groceries, etc. Once while looking around in one of the grocery stores, I got to watch (maybe "got to" isn't quite right) one of the staff behind the meat counter divide a goat into its component parts with a table saw.

[Sancho]

I'm guessing the goat-on-a-table-saw grocery wasn't run by the Hindus.

[stlukesguild]

We've been having a bi*** of a winter. I got today off (teacher) the third time today due to extreme temperatures: -14 to -17 ° F (-25 to -27° C). I spent the day preparing for a predicted blizzard with 40-50 mile per hour wind gusts. We dug out the electric blanket, taped off the windows, did grocery shopping for the week... including a slew of good coffee and good beer. Now I'm several beers (average 10% alcohol by volume) to the wind and sitting back listening to the wind howl... along with Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, and the Stones:



Right now I've moved on to Dylan's work of absolute genius: (Thank God for spell check!!!!)



"Because something is happening here... but you don't know what it is... do you... Mr. Jones!!!???

[The Atheist]

We've been having a bi*** of a winter.

Nice & warm in Alaska, though! http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wir...er-48-21627640

Glad to see you're keeping the internal warmth up.

[stlukesguild]

Yes... they cancelled the Iditarod dog-sled race in Alaska. Should have moved it to Illinois, Michigan, Ohio. Wisconsin, or Minnesota this year.



I'm about as blitzed as I I want to be. Jack Daniels on top of all the beer I drank. I'll take a hand-full of baby aspirin and lots of coffee tomorrow as the blizzard hits.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Nice & warm in Alaska, though! http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wir...er-48-21627640

Glad to see you're keeping the internal warmth up.

...

I'm about as blitzed as I I want to be. Jack Daniels on top of all the beer I drank. I'll take a hand-full of baby aspirin and lots of coffee tomorrow as the blizzard hits.

I pulled a few random selections from my morning after, hair of the dog medicine bag that should help sober you up:

Harry Nilsson
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbgv8Pk...%3DTbgv8PkO9eo

George Jones
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyns0Fqxg1E

Ernest Tubb
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qnEMOQTh27s


And for those of us looking forward to warmer days:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W3NU6hUYRo4

[Paulclem]

It's been very wet here this January - the wettest since records began apparently. There's been a lot of "since records began" stats for the weather here.

I've had two punctures this week, so today saw me pushing the old chariot the last half mile to work and then at dinner time, the half mile to the bike shop. (I've been outside there with the upside down bike a few times before). It was nice to roll down into the town then for a coffee.

[Sancho]

Weekly recap of life in the city of Atlanta:


Tuesday, January 28:

By 2pm - 2 inches of snow had fallen upon the city of Atlanta

By 3pm - everybody in the city of Atlanta had crashed their car


Friday, January 31:

The sun is up and the roads are dry, and yet the average driving speed in the ATL is 25mph - just to be on the safe side

[qimissung]

That was hilarious, Sancho, speaking as someone who lives in a place where we mock ourselves for the same terrible driving if there is the least impediment, weatherwise. I did feel badly for those trapped in their cars overnight due to the inclement weather.

We have currently been feeling a trifle ill-used because the temp has been in the 20's. Ah well, that's what happens when you screw around with mother nature.

[Sancho]

My theory is, Mother Nature has it in for the automobile.

Last year I had a windfall, so I bought my wife a new Subaru. She hadn't had it a month when we were sitting in a restaurant, eating tacos and nachos, drinking cervezas mas fria, and watching the sky out front get purpler and purpler. Mother Nature had seen the shiny new red Subaru sitting there in the parking lot, so she directed a surgical band of golf ball-sized hail upon it, giving it a dimpled golf ball-like look.

However the Sube' drives splendidly in the snow.

[The Atheist]

It's been very wet here this January - the wettest since records began apparently. There's been a lot of "since records began" stats for the weather here.

All around the world. Coldest January in USA since 1342, wettest January in England ever, hottest January in Australia since convicts first arrived...

I did feel badly for those trapped in their cars overnight due to the inclement weather.

Bad?

I'll tell ya how bad it was - the State Troopers were giving out MREs to the people stuck in their cars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meal,_R...Eat#Criticisms

[Calidore]

Mother Nature had seen the shiny new red Subaru sitting there in the parking lot, so she directed a surgical band of golf ball-sized hail upon it, giving it a dimpled golf ball-like look.

Ouch. And if it's not weather, it's our feathered friends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSnUDakNaek