What Enid Blyton book have you recently bought?

[Moonraker]

How about swigging beer from a bottle, is that the same?

I have never done it. It is a habit I detest. A barman once asked my wife if she wanted a glass for a Coke. I said, "Do we look like the sort of people who drink out of bottles?" The beauty of drinking in Belgium is that you get a dedicated glass with whichever beer you choose.

Another pet hate of mine is the way some pubs serve food. What is wrong with a plate? It can now be served on roof-slate, pieces of wood - chips come in a bean can and peas in a toy colander. It won't be long before some bright spark serves up food in saucepans. Some idiot will think, "How cool!" and it will catch on.

Imagine drinking tea out of a tea-pot.

[Katharine]

No Nigel, I didn't really think you look like you'd swig beer out of a bottle. I don't like drinking out bottles if avoidable (not beer). When we go round a certain person who had better remain nameless, they usually have bottles of J2O on offer, and most of the other people there swig it straight out of the bottle, I always insist my children drink theirs out of a glass.

I don't eat out much, so had no idea that food was served in such a fashion. Surely they don't really serve beans in a can? The same people I've just mentioned don't put crisps in a bowl if we go round for tea, and just hand us a packet to open. I've also been to tea where there was a buffet, and the mixed salad leaves
were still in the supermarket bag, which had just been opened and left on the table for us to pick out handfuls.

I suppose we all have our own ideas of what is acceptable, I've always been used to my parents getting out the best china for guests.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Another pet hate of mine is the way some pubs serve food. What is wrong with a plate? It can now be served on roof-slate, pieces of wood - chips come in a bean can and peas in a toy colander. It won't be long before some bright spark serves up food in saucepans. Some idiot will think, "How cool!" and it will catch on.

That really does sound unappetising. Imagine having slivers of slate and splinters of wood in your food! Don't they get lots of complaints from customers?

As children my sister and I used to make pretend "banquets" out in the garden, serving things like dandelion salads and mud pies on bits of wood or stone. Your descriptions remind me of that, Nigel! We would quite often make a soup of water, flower heads and leaves in a plastic saucepan, which we called "goulash" for no particular reason. A few years later I found out that there really was a Hungarian soup called goulash!

[Katharine]

Oh yes, plastic saucepans with a mixture of leaves etc. in - today's children don't know what they are missing.

[Moonraker]

While we are spiralling away from the topic, how about a moment's thought to the poor old milk-jug. My mother wouldn't dream of putting a milk bottle on the table - it always had to go into a jug. We now usually pour straight from the 4-pint container and never use a jug. Quite uncivil, really.

[Courtenay]

Here's a poem for lovers of cats and milk jugs...

The Milk Jug
by Oliver Herford

The Gentle Milk Jug blue and white
I love with all my soul,
She pours herself with all her might
To fill my breakfast bowl.

All day she sits upon the shelf,
She does not jump or climb--
She only waits to pour herself
When 'tis my supper-time.

And when the Jug is empty quite,
I shall not mew in vain,
The Friendly Cow, all red and white,
Will fill her up again.

[pete9012S]

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Nigel how about The Fireman's Breakfast'??

[Courtenay]

Or how about this "outrageously themed" cafe in California...

(DON'T read this article just before lunch )

[Anita Bensoussane]

Nigel how about The Fireman's Breakfast'??

If you accidentally (or accidentally on purpose!) leant your arm on the handle of the shovel, you'd flip your breakfast onto the head of the person sitting to your right!

[Lucky Star]

Or how about this "outrageously themed" cafe in California...

(DON'T read this article just before lunch )

Uurgh! I wonder how long that will last.

[Wolfgang]

Ah yes - thanks for that. I wonder if any readers actually went looking for a shop called 'N. & B. Works'?

Maybe not for the manufucterer, but for Noddy dolls in general.

[John Pickup]

Or how about this "outrageously themed" cafe in California...

I wouldn't even consider eating in that place. Do they provide you with toilet rolls instead of napkins?

[Courtenay]

Or extra toilet bowls for those who suddenly feel the need to bring up their previous meal?

[John Pickup]

This thread should be re-named What Enid Blyton book have you recently brought up.

[Daisy]

Words fail me..... how utterly off-putting. Imagine the expense someone has gone to, to set that all up!