Zola

Well done Emma! Now what I think you should do next is buy is all a round of drinks to celebrate. Mine's a Black Vad! Cheers, and congrats!

I have only read about 20 pages thus far. Not because it's a slow read but due to other commitments. As such I haven't really come across anything relevant with regards The Wire itself, other than more background on Burns and Simon shadowing the Baltimore police in the late 80s, and Simon's work on "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets". All fascinating and insightful stuff, but I just wish I could get a couple of hours to myself and this book because it is definitely food for the brain.

Talking of annual public holidays, I notice my country of England ranks very poorly in the holiday stakes, with a rather miserable 8 days. And it always me laugh when workers and unions in this country demand an extra public holiday, and yet big business and their puppet government always retort with the usual tropes of "it would be too expensive", "it would make us uncompetitive" or "it would cost jobs" blah blah blah. Absolute rubbish of course, because Japan, South Korea, India, Span, Austria etc all seem to be doing very well with their respective economies despite having far more public holidays! The table below is a shortened extract from the original article. COLOMBIA – 18 INDIA – 18 LEBANON – 16 SOUTH KOREA – 16 JAPAN – 15 ARGENTINA – 15 CHILE – 15 SPAIN – 14 RUSSIA – 14 AUSTRIA – 12 BRAZIL – 12 SWEDEN – 11 ITALY – 11 FRANCE – 11 CANADA – 11 NEW ZEALAND – 11 CHINA – 11 USA – 10 NORWAY – 10 NORTHERN IRELAND – 10 AUSTRALIA – 9 SCOTLAND – 9 HUNGARY – 8 NETHERLANDS – 8 ENGLAND AND WALES – 8 MEXICO – 7 http://metro.co.uk/2015/04/03/happy-easter-almost-everyone-in-the-world-has-more-bank-holidays-than-the-uk-5131970/

Oops! For whatever reason I always thought Mother's Day (and Father's Day) was celebrated globally on the same day (i.e. March 11th). But it seems not. Sorry about giving you a panic attack :) Nice ideas, by the way.

Mother's Day on Sunday, and am trying to be original with my gift. But typically & historically it's always flowers, chocolates, alcohol - or a combo of all three. And all three are hideously expensive. I think my mother must a bit fed up receiving chocs and/or flowers every year, but people say "mothers love flowers" but I'm not convinced. So this year i have ordered a personalised scarf & gloves, and an engraved compact mirror. But again, despite being fairly original, because all of these items are somehow associated with Mother's Day, they too command a premium price. And yet come the next day, and these items will be heavily discounted Emotional and financial blackmail at its best.

Now I did just that on a couple of occasions not so long ago. So fed up getting called at all hours of the day (and late evening) by the same "have you had an accident in the last 5 years" insurance claims business, that I decided to change tack from my usual "No thank you!" or "Bye" and resorted to fake orgasms! The person on the other end of the line soon shut the hell up, but didn't actually hang up (no doubt wondering what the hell I was doing) After about 20 seconds of this "Harry Met Sally" business, I decided to hang up. But this ploy didn't work because the following night the same guy rang again - either wanting to sell me their product, or to hear me moan & groan. But I just hung up. Unfortunately, the company still kept on calling me every day and night for a good couple of weeks before they finally gave up.

I have 2 or 3 different Korma recipes, depending on the occasion. But the BBC link below is the one I use most because its quick, easy and not overly spicy (although I do sometimes like to add a pinch of Tandoori curry powder, and/or garam masala just to hot things up ever-so-slightly). I might also add a tablespoon of coconut milk, which really brings out the flavour (but this will add to the calories if you're trying to diet) Good luck! https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1897680/light-chicken-korma

Home-made chicken korma curry, pilau rice, poppadom and some mango chutney sauce. And a glass or two of white wine.

Agreed - some of his early output (possibly up to and including "The Bounty") were all quite impressive., but then he went off the rails both personally and as an actor, and just became quite an odorous individual (Braveheart, was very good though)

If I see an unknown number appear on my landline or smartphone, I will answer in my second language of Afrikaans, which always trips them up mid-speech. And if they choose to carry on with their pitch I will reply in kind with more Afrikaans until eventually they give up and go away (I put their number on block too) One thing I have noticed about putting a number on block is that it doesn't prevent them from leaving you voicemails. So even though they can't get through, after a certain number of rings my phone goes to voicemail, and they leave their crap on that for me to waste time listening too.

I'll be your IT girl! (actually, talking of dirty little work secrets. The company I used to work for last year, had some pervy managers, most of whom would browse "adult" sites on company computers after hours. Usually there is a company policy stating that such activities are strictly forbidden, and nearly all of the company IT equipment has customised firewalls that we implemented blocking users from browsing such sites. But this "blocking" didn't apply to managers and directors because it was determined they would be far more responsible! But it turns out quite a few of them had some really "out there" fetishes when we checked their log files. And the worst thing is that when we reported this to our boss he told us to turn a blind eye and not create a fuss! The double-standards at that place were disgusting)

On one occasion, I ordered toilet rolls but they sent me kitchen rolls. On another occasion I wanted some Tampax pads but they sent me Brillo pads. I mean FFS, who are they kidding!! Some stores here in the UK give the option of no subs or "best alternative" subs like you. But even that isn't perfect. That said, I still prefer home delivery compared to collect. The example you highlighted about people stopping in the middle of aisles for a chat on their phones and blocking other people from shopping, is just another I don't bother unless I really have to (usually due to bad weather and deliveries are delayed or cancelled) If I had a swear box with me every time I went to a supermarket I would probably end up with £20 ($25) in it by the time I finish.

I would have loved to have learnt more of Jenny, but all we got were little bite-size chunks before she disappeared. No doubt she had been a rock for him over the years of drug addiction & alcoholism, but we never really get to appreciate that because from those very few scenes we see of her, as well as the conversations about her, we - the audience - don't appreciate that long-term support, and probably just see her as a selfish uncaring person. Jenny was one of the few characters I truly missed from the show.

This is another reason why I really loathe driving out to supermarkets these days. I don't think there's ever been a time when I haven't had some kind of hassle, either with parking, trolleys, queues, check-outs, defective bar codes, "customer" services, etc. And on top of all that I always end up buying far than originally intended! So am thank for online delivery shopping - far less hassle, and rarely do I buy additional items. The only real downside is substitutions - some of which bare little or no relationship to the original product. But apart from that I love online shopping

Congratulations on winning a new job offer! It really is a wonderful feeling being told you've succeeded in all the tests and interviews to reach the job you've wanted to excel at, as well as offering more money and a shorter commute. Of course its always a bit nerve-racking leading up to your first day. It's a bit like your first day at school: you don't know anyone, don't know where to go, or what the protocols are. But once you've got your first day out of the way everything seems to slide into place. Good luck!

Am taking a break from Ann Bannon's lesbian pulp fiction indulgence, and have moved onto "All The Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire" by Jonathan Abrams. I just adore this criminally underrated TV show from the early 00s. Although critically acclaimed, it never won any awards or picked up decent ratings. But for me I would regard it as the most complete TV drama I have seen thus far. I just hope this book is equally as good and informative.

I like the sound of that! Never had a salmon omelette before, so will add that to my list of new things to try for 2018. Thanks! Later tonight I am wining and dining out in a Thai restaurant, so will probably go with something a little different like "kang keow warn talay" (green thai mixed seafood curry with coconut milk)

I was just about to make myself a ham & cheese baguette, but have lost my appetite all of a sudden. Can't imagine why!

I intentionally haven't seen S3 episodes just yet. Instead I prefer to wait until season end and then enjoy a back2back episode feast over a long weekend or something. It's a hard thing to do waiting for 10 or 11 weeks before doing this, but I often find I can follow the story lines better when watching it in full over a period of a couple of days. Even though I have no idea how S3 will play out, I am kind of hoping this will be the last. Anyway, enjoy the blood & gore, folks.

in my local supermarket there was a special offer on one of my favourite boxed chocolates - Ferrero Rocher. A box of 24 for £4 ($5.52) or 2 boxes for £6 ($8.28) =just couldn't resist buying both. The difficult job is not devouring them in one evening!

fixed-sized pop-ups! Sometimes when filling out online forms or trying to go through online installation instructions for an application you want to install locally, you'll get a pop-up appear for you to either read or fill out. However, the pop-up is generally quite small, and because it's fixed, there's no way to maximise or expand it. This is even more difficult on a laptop or tablet. I really don't understand why developers don't design such pop-ups with a bit more flexibility for the user

"Sex and the City" and "Sex and the City 2" I quite liked the DVDs of the TV series during my time at university a few years back. Although in truth it was more background noise to my studies rather than being a focus-of-attention for a couple of hours a night. A few years later I watched the film release of "SATC" with a couple of friends. Not half as good as the TV series of course, and to be honest I don't even know why they bothered with a full length film when a TV reunion special might have been a better idea. But then I read all the severe panning for the sequel; and it really was a carpet-bombing of hate & revulsion from all the lead media critics. I thought to myself, surely SATC2 can't be all that bad? So, just like trying to resist not picking at a scab, I relented and watched SATC2, Damn! It really is truly awful! Drunk or sober, it doesn't matter because SATC2 really does live up to the critics' collective conclusion of being a complete and utter waster of time, effort and oxygen. And yet....... For whatever reason, (car-crash television, seems an ideal example), I feel compelled to watch it again from time to time. It really is so terrible, with some really annoying characters and storylines that you just can't help yourself but shout at the TV screen! It's like watching all those dim-heads on reality-progs; they're so loathsome, vile and tedious that you just want to reach out and strangle them. But not to the point of killing them because you want to sit back and see what else they can do to push your buttons so you can scream at them again! Even writing this post I can feel my heckles rise thinking about SATC2. And knowing me I will probably watch it shortly, just so that I can vent and throw a few more "WTFs" into the atmosphere.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Ann Bannon's "Odd Girl Out", so have moved onto her next lesbian pulp fiction book "Beebo Brinker" (first published in 1962), focusing on the well-worn trope of young girl living out in the sticks, finding it hard to "fit in" there, deciding to head for New York, where she meets various eclectic characters, thinks she's found love with another girl, but still isn't sure. Am only a few pages in and already there are some parallels with "Odd Girl Out", but this is the world of pulp fiction, so I guess I shouldn't be expecting anything more than an easy ride - which seems rather apposite for some of the lead characters in Bannon's book thus far. Beebo Brinker

So after a couple of weeks trying my hand (literally), with the art of calligraphy I have finally found three fonts that I have practised and practised on to the point where my friend (who initially suggested I get involved in this hobby), has asked me to write some Easter signs and posters for a car boot sale she is organising next month. So it will give me a chance to flaunt my "LD Wedding", "Hummingbird" and "Monte Carlo" font styles with a flourish!

Its 4:40am here in England, and I've been awake for about an hour after failing to get to sleep. I came across this thread and all this talk about food has given me the munchies! So right now I am dunking McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestive biscuits into a mug of hot tea whilst reading these posts. Absolute Heaven!