The Cloven Hoof

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This topic contains 915 replies, has 42 voices, and was last updated by  Anonymous 8 years, 5 months ago.

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  • #36083
    Anonymous @

    @blenkinsopthebrave  how awful re wine. The woody drop I had wasn’t cheap nor was it expensive. So delicate, only a small amount required. @janetteb  car: droolin’

    @barbaralefty  “I swear you could taste the angels share in the air”  Oh my, that is beautiful. HeLLO!

    @laurellie  welcome!  Brilliant place. What drink would you like?

    Me: The Fountain of Youth.

    Kindest, p.

    #36088
    Barbara Lefty @barbaralefty

    @purofilion

    Why thank you puro 🙂

    #36089
    blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave

    @janetteb

    The monopoly isn’t nation-wide, as wine can be had in retail outlets like supermarkets in Quebec, but it does exist in provinces like Ontario and British Columbia, as @arbutus points out. Why this should be so in the 21st century is a baffling question. I put it down to a hangover (no pun intended) from the days of grim Presbyterian guilt in the 19th century. Of course, I am old enough to remember the awful 6 o’clock swill in the pubs of Australia, and the dry Sundays, until Australia entrered the modern age in the 1960s.

    And here in Canada the provincial governments use it as a revenue earner, in the way the state governments in Australia use the lotteries. Where it gets quite bizarre is with the existence of something prosaically called “The Beer Store” here in Ontario, which is actually a privately run state-endorsed monopoly on beer sales. A private monopoly enforced by the state. Think about that for a minute. And I was taught that monopolies were anathema to the law. But what do I know?

    #36090
    ScaryB @scaryb

    Woohoo!

    Been AWOL for a week due to sick internet (traumatic but probably rates about a 1 on the @Purofilion trauma scale 😉 ) and here you all are on a pub crawl – watching (great) TV, sniffing booze, and ritual sacrifices!

    Great stuff 😀

    @janetteb It’s ALWAYS the Mum’s fault – it’s what we’re for 😉 (Your vintage car sounds like my normal one! (Not saying too much about her, as she’ll be 20 next year (that’s about 102 in cat years), and not wanting to tempt anything into falling off)

    @barbaralefty Your description of Islay air made me want to head straight there. NOW. (But I’ll prob’ly just stay in the pub for a bit now I’ve found you all)

    @laurellie welcome… you’ll get the hang of it I’m sure 🙂

    #36092
    Anonymous @

    @scaryb  I’ve reached ‘zen’. If the house falls down, another gentleman asks me out, the toilet cracks again, I shall ….breathe.

    That’s very unlikely knowing my personality. But I can hope. You know what, though? Internet, or lack there of, is awful.  At least I had that -some of the time.

    @blenkinsopthebrave  Ralston Saul speaks a lot about the ‘rentier classes’ in Australia and Cananda. He mixes this discussion with the private government monopoly. An Australian wittering radio-talk show host who-shall-not-be-named embarrassed himself by saying monopolies dictate government. He had no idea of the implications. Do you know how many calls he got -angry with his stupidity?

    Nill.

    Of course when I teach government -and these are not stupid people (or so I thought), they think the courts make the laws (rather than interpret them and yes, I understand the nuances which must arise: Sundown clauses and Eddie Mabo… etc) and so do the police. How can they be 18 -19 and not understand that we don’t actually live in a Police State  – in QLD with Joh we did: and my parents (bless ’em) thought this was ‘just fine’. They’d escaped Don Dunstan -an instant success in some areas, particularly of the sartorial kind. But he brought ‘day-core and culcha’ and that worried people.

    Shame.

    The lottery system is a mess -in NSW – it’s getting worse and unfortunately whilst the Melbourne Cup probably entertains the regular ‘flutterer’, it too is ghastly. But then people dressed in bizarre ‘fascinators’ (a very odd word for that look) drinking champagne (which isn’t real champagne) doesn’t do much for me.

    Rambling. Can’t sleep. Puro.

    #36096
    Barbara Lefty @barbaralefty

    @scaryb, not sure Calmac will be sailing, think there is a bit of a front coming in, so best just stay here 😉

    #36144
    PhaseShift @phaseshift
    Time Lord

    I shall have an early morning pint, Landlord!

    Excellent selection with The Cloven Hoof. I love a pub with a roaring fire, even if it does smell of Brimstone and Sulphur. I’m afraid a few things kicked off last week, and I’m stuggling to get some things done in the runup to Christmas.

    #36301
    Anonymous @

    Hi all. Sorry I’ve been a bit elusive lately, I’ve had lots of homework to do and I’m also doing some voluntary work at Winterbourne Gardens in Birmingham (it’s where Gardeners World was filmed in the pre Monty Don days).

    It’s funny how our attitudes change as we get older.

    When I was at school, I’d be counting the days till the next holiday but now I’ve got two weeks off from college and already I’m bored. I haven’t even got any homework to pass the time with 🙁

    As much as I’m looking forward to a visit from The Doctor and Santa on Christmas Day, January 7th can’t come quick enough.

    On the bright side, I’ve passed the first 3 assessments (pruning a fruit tree, conducting a site survey and drawing a to-scale plan from the site survey). Only 17 to go before I (hopefully) get my Diploma in Horticulture.

    Right, I’m off to look at some pictures of plants to alleviate the boredom 😉

    #36306
    Whisht @whisht

    @fatmaninabox – I’ve been a bit elusive too and really glad you’re enjoying what you’re doing (and learning)!

    Don’t let the “whatever – everyone else is doing something else” put you off what’s actually more important – learning and enjoying!!

    🙂

    #36312
    Anonymous @

    @fatmaninabox  cheers to you:  pruning a fruit tree aint easy. I recall hiring someone to do that once and then I never got any more fruit….. hard to ask for the cash back a year later!  Keep on keeping on. Or, in Oz, we would have said: “don’t forget the aerogard”.

    Kindest and Merry Christmas FatManInABox,

    puro.

    #36336
    Arbutus @arbutus

    With the world turning as it does, it is properly timey-wimey on this forum: the eve of Christmas Eve here on the Pacific coast, the morning of Christmas Eve in the UK, and properly Christmas Eve down under! So just wanting to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas as it rolls over your part of the world. Thanks to all for the past year of laughter, wisdom, and general good times. Hope you all get your Christmas wishes, whatever they are!

    Affectionately, Arbutus     OOO

    #36342
    Juniperfish @juniperfish

    That’s a nice timey-wimey Christmas wish @arbutus 🙂

    I’d like to raise a glass to @craig for all his hard work creating and holding this charming Who space throughout the year.

    And to our moderators past and present, currently @jimthefish @fatmaninabox and @phaseshift for stirling services to keeping the sofa comfy.

    And also a toast to absent friends – to @htpbdet who brought such gentle emotional wisdom and Who lore to these boards. RIP friend.

    To one and all xxx @J-fish

    #36344
    ScaryB @scaryb

    @fatmaninabox I heard a rumour about a phantom midnight tree pruner in Birmingham. Wondered if that was you!! (sounds like everything’s going great – well done).

    @juniperfish has just said everything (in post #36342) I wanted to say, and much more eloquently. So just to second that and raise a glass to you all. Thanks everyone for making this space such a great place to come to!

    Cheers/Slainte/Skol/Proost/sante n all that!

    And a particular shout out to absent friend @wolfweed Hope you can melt a planet and get some festive internet soon sweetie 😉

     

    #36361
    Miapatrick @miapatrick

    Happy Christmas everyone! I don’t know if this pub serves hot drinks, but Masala tea with chilli honey and brandy is a great way to start Christmas day.

    Especial Christmas greetings to @purofilion, who seems to have managed some terrible and stressful events with fantastic spirit and good humour!

    #36398
    Anonymous @

    @miapatrick thank you -it’s all in the delivery. I would add that the good humour is just occasional -normally I’m a beast!

    @scaryb and @juniperfish @arbutus  indeed, a lovely message from all of you about festivities, our terrific mods and absent friends -I never knew HTPBDET but before joining up I read eloquent comments and saw the knowledge invested here.

    I’ve never been disappointed!

    Happy New Year to all. Kindest, purofilion

     

    #36402
    janetteB @janetteb

    Merry Christmas all.

    Have been too busy to post for the past two days, enslaved in the kitchen brewing up a feast. Now relaxing and looking foward to watching Dr Who tonight and of course joining in the discussion here afterwards. 🙂

    Cheers

    Janette

    #36403
    Anonymous @

    @janetteb

    ah, but enslaved in the kitchen has a certain romance does it not? 🙂  Did you do hot or cold or a bit of both?

    Merry Boxing Day to you. The Ilions will be thinking of you during the Big Watch this evening -though in Brisbane we have daylight hour issues.

    Kindest, puro.

     

    #36414
    janetteB @janetteb

    @purofilion The inlaws like to keep it traditional, roast turkey, glazed ham, plum pud etc. SO’s aunt brings a lovely bowl of mixed berries in keeping with a family tradition. I think I manage as head cook rather well for a vegie that is. The SO helps a lot as did the new BBQ. Even the boys were useful this year, setting the table etc. We follow the full Christmas Day lunch with curry on Boxing Day but the Hobbit was deferred until tomorrow when we celebrate our “second Christmas”. Greedy aren’t we? 🙂

    Cheers

    Janette

    #36479
    PhaseShift @phaseshift
    Time Lord

    I’ll have something warm and well-mulled please! I fully intended to be back last night to engage in a bit more conversation, but the weather, rather unseasonably, went all festive. As I was out, this was a bit depressing because we get a couple of snowflakes and the words “travel chaos” hove into view.

    Anyway, for them that likes it (and I know @janetteb likes a bit of snow at Christmas), here was the view from Phaseshift Mount, this morning:

    Continued Seasons greetings to all!

    #36486
    janetteB @janetteb

    I do indeed like a bit of snow @phaseshift and I am suitably envious.

    Happy Christmas, Still many days to go and if I hadn’t been celebrating with a bottle of very good Alicante I would be capable of counting. (I am of the opinion that Christmas is too important to be relegated to one solitary square in the calendar.)

    Cheers

    Janette

    #36491
    Miapatrick @miapatrick

    @janetteB- twelve days of Christmas, remember. Enjoy.

    #36502
    Anonymous @

    @phaseshift  that photo is gorgeous! I have rain, humidity and not an ounce of blue sky in weeks!  I would like snow. @pedant my heart has been filled, torn out, trodden on with big high heels and attached to the top of the highest tower .

    Kindest,  puroinSunnydale.

    PS: I should take this statement to the TV related section

    #36507
    lisa @lisa

    @phaseshift – I like pictures of snow but I am grateful to live just outside of the snowing places!
    So when I want a snow fix I travel up the hill to Jenkinson Lake among the redwoods and pines with
    the kid and the plastic sled and the hot cocoa thermos which is what we just did this past week.
    I read that your snow finally arrived ! Maybe a happy snowman wearing some Doctor accessories to see
    out of your window would be a fun treat? Perhaps with a Satsuma nose ? 🙂

    #36737
    blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave

    As the year draws to a close, I thought this might be appropriate time to raise a glass in The Cloven Hoof to absent friends.

    First and foremost, there is @htpbdet. Gone, but never forgotten.

    Then there are those, like @wolfweed, who I hope will be with us again soon.

    And then there are those, like @whohar and @chickenelly, who have been gone for far too long. Hopefully, they too will drop in sometime soon in 2015.

    To absent friends…

    #36738
    PhaseShift @phaseshift
    Time Lord

    Just got back this morning – apologies for the absence. The Christmas break hasn’t been much of a break this year. I’ll join in with that toast from @blenkinsopthebrave to absent friends, and wish everyone a splendid, shiny 2015. 2014 was rubbish really wasn’t it? Only Doctor Who and this forum made it bearable!

    Happy New Year to you, whenever it happened/happens. 😀

    #36740
    lisa @lisa

    Happy New Years to everyone in this corner of the galaxy! Dug up this from a few years
    back on some nifty ideas for celebrating a New Years Who holiday party…..

    http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/10/how-to-throw-your-own-doctor-who-party-for-halloween-or-the-holidays/

    #36744
    Spider @spider

    Happy New Year to all when  it comes (or if indeed it has already gone!).

    A few hours to go for me yet – will be happily watching the Edinburgh fireworks on the tele with my Mum, Dad and Brother while sitting by a warm stove with an extremely large glass of Whisky.

    @lisa  LOL nice link, not sure I’ll be able to come with some of those costumes but I shall be wearing my Tardis T-shirt and my little 10th Doctor action figure will be watching the celebrations too!

    So pleased to have found and taken part in this forum this year, have had a great time. Looking forward to all the bonkers in 2015! 🙂

    Slange Var!

    (\(\;;/)/)

    #36745
    Mudlark @mudlark

    I suspect that it is distinctly bad form to bring your own drink to the pub, but I seem to have this glass of champagne already in my hand, so I will raise it to drink a toast to The Doctor Who Forum and to wish everybody here
                                                                                        

                                                                                       A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR

    Mudlark

    #36748
    ScaryB @scaryb

    Thanks to @blenkinsopthebrave, beautiful toast. (#36737)

    To new friends, old ones, lost ones and those who are just temporarily AWOL

    Special thanks to our mighty Emperor @craig and the mods @jimthefish, @fatmaninabox and @phaseshift (I’m with you on 2014, it started off OK but I’m not sorry to see the back of it! (Loved your snow pic from last week btw, just gorgeous)) – it’s not just the troll bashing and repelling of monsters at the gates, it’s also about the little things – the fixing of nonsensical* posts/embarrassing errors when some of us miss the editing window or are just plain useless at embedding stuff 😉

    Thanks so much to everyone who contributes and lurks on here. Hard to believe our little forum is now 2 years old. We’re nearly a toddler!  Looking forward to exchanging theories and Who chats with you in 2015.  I’m not going to list everyone I interact with regularly cos I’m bound to forget someone, but you know who you are and I love you all!

    Special shout out for @Juniperfish tho – get well soon fishy friend and thanks for all the glitter;  also to @bluesqueakpip, Queen of Timey wimey diagrams and @pedant, Troll Baiter in Chief. I hope some of the missing will come back to us inc @wolfweed (must be time to burn another planet!), @timeloop @whohar (that bath MUST be finished by now!) and @chickenelly and her Scottish granny.

    <looks around and sees the barkeep has put free champagne on tap> Cheers everyone!

    Happy New Year when it comes. Lang may yer lums reek 🙂

     

    *ie the late night drunken midnight rambles 😉

    #36751

    Happy New year (not nappy new years, as I nearly typed), all. Here are my parting thoughts on a years start annoying and went from there:

    A year of living disingenuously.

    Now.Where’s the vodka?

    #36765
    Anonymous @

    @pedant without getting too personal -you’re moving? Well, OK, that’s personal and probably not good?

    It strikes me that even with baskets of newspapers strewn about my living room -and in the recycle bin- that I know very little about Nigel Farage. I could blame Packer, Murdoch and others; but mostly I blame myself.

    NY resolution: learn more about people not in Australia, the US and the Pacific.

    Happy New Year to you: may your desk tops and laptops work, tax rebates be used accordingly – or only for amusements such as holidays and lollies; your move be painless (though that’s not really likely?) and your car start (those annoying manual vehicles which clutch).

    Boy Ilion and I thank you for recommending Buffy. What an absolute burst of pleasure in an other wise crappy  weird year (I’m taking up positive thinking).

    We had a prawn marathon -it was 35 degrees at 8 pm and totally boiling. Not scientifically accurate, but what the heck. After a marathon of David Morrissey, John Sim and Bill Nighy  in State of Play, we fell into various beds/sofas accompanied by the sound of fireworks as well as, oddly, gunshots!

    The papers say all is well – so it was probably Tweens experimenting with power.

    Happy New Year! Purofilion.

    #36766
    Anonymous @

    @blenkinsopthebrave and @arbutus  Happy NY to you in far away Canada. Your comments have been truly engaging

    To @lisa and @barnable and others in the States -where’s @brewski ? Happy Living 🙂

    To @mudlark  @idiotsavon @scaryb @bluesqueakpip @juniperfish @miapatrick @spider @thekrynoidman @jimbomcmaster and others (honestly, I’ll spell names wrong and embarrass myself further) -your analysis and aspirational Who moments have made me blink away tears. Not that crying’s a bad thing. Not at all.

    @whisht for all the music, the theorising and the funnies -you bring it 🙂

    @janetteb  @serahni it’s been a pleasure to get to know you on Forum. One day we may even meet in person!

    @craig and @phaseshift for dealing with my perverse inability to cut and paste email stuff

    @fatmaninabox @jimthefish respectively, further good luck (well, it’s not luck it’s damn hard work!) with arboreal achievements and Jim, your info about the Buffyverse was spot-on.

    You mods, honestly, dealing with over-sharers (such as me), nutters, spammers and trollers -thank you.

    If I’ve left too many people out, feel free to clock me.

    Kindest, purofilion (I know, soppy, but still better than sappy)

     

     

    #36767
    Arbutus @arbutus

    @TheDoctorWhoForum

    As the New Year makes its way across the Atlantic and gradually creeps toward us here on the other Pacific coast, I wish you all the very very best for 2015. I joined this forum just over a year ago and could never have guessed how much amusement and enlightenment I would find here. Thanks to everyone for all thoughts shared, the deep and the quirky; thanks for the wonderful music; thanks for the cross-cultural pollination from all points of the globe.

    I am off to the botanical garden to look at Christmas lights, then return home to spend the evening according to Arbutus family tradition, with about five hours of stretched out eating and drinking, music, and general goofing off until midnight arrives, when we can drink our toasts and fall into bed. (Arbutus Jr. will probably remain awake for some time afterward, skyping or some such thing.) One of my toasts will be to all my Who-ite friends in places far and wide. For all of you who have shared your successes on the forum this year, I wish you many more of them! For those of you who have struggled this year, I wish you better weather in the days ahead.

    I raise a glass of bubbly to you all!

    With love, Arbutus   OOO

     

    #36774
    janetteB @janetteb

    Happy New Year to all. I would like to echo @blenkinsopthebrave‘s toast.

    Our New Year’s Eve really summed up 2014. We were heading down to the Sister in law’s for a fun evening, ample booze in the boot and the kids eager to try out the new uncle’s PS4. Half way the car overheated and we had to pull over. Called the RAA. Waited two hours. The first mechanic they sent couldn’t find us even though we were on the side of a main road. Luckily there was an oval nearby for the kids to run about on and a tree for the youngest to climb, SO had his phone and I had my book. The RAA finally arrived, patched up the car sufficiently to get us home, and yes sticky tape was involved, by which time the bubbly was warm, the kids were starving and the local pubs had stopped serving food. The bubbly went into the freezer to chill, we whipped up some emergency pasta and then we passed the night playing Munchkin. At midnight SO played the end of 1812 while the boys popped balloons wearing the masks which their aunt and partner gave them for Chrismas. In the end it was hilarious fun and I am not thinking about the car until Monday.

    Best wishes to all for 2015.

    Cheers

    Janette

     

    #36776
    Anonymous @

    @janetteb  Oh that sounds shit!  In the end -it was, sort of, OK?  Apart from the sticky tape, the blind RAA…

    The 1812 is wicked fun with balloons, and, pasta, come to think of it, we haven’t had it in weeks

    With olive oil, salt and garlic is sublime.

    Kindest, puro

     

    #36777
    janetteB @janetteb

    @purofilion everything is better with garlic (except jam sandwiches) but not so sure about the 1812. (I was momentarily confused there.)

    It was probably one of the best new year’s eves ever. Last year we spent three hours on public transport. Can’t get much worse than that.

    cheers

    Janette

    #36780
    Anonymous @

    @janetteb  oh Farrk.* that’s gruesome, she says all awestruck at others’ ability to tolerate Bad Things. How do you do that? I wobble and flake out…

    *can I say that here? it is the Pub after all!

    #36781
    Anonymous @

    @janetteb

    Confused? Ah, yes punctuation. Another little issue I have. No, don’t chuck the pasta around -you can do that with pizza dough. That tracks. It’s cool.

    #36782
    janetteB @janetteb

    @purofilion I have issues with spelling as well as punctuation, especially before coffee, so don’t worry.

    Cheers

    Janette

    #36785

    @purofilion

    Moving is a result of a confluence of things, rather than anything bad. Had things gone smoothly it would be done and dusted by now – but my buyer was made to wait five weeks to for his finance to be confirmed and my seller decided he didn’t want ot move after all, fortunately just in time for me to avoid lawyers fees.

    So I will probably be renting for a bit before I find a permanent pad.

    I wasn’t especially planned, but once I realised it was the most viable approach I was surprisingly unsentimental about it.

    The original State of Play is superb.

    Think of Farage as a discount supermarket version of Tony Abbott, with an added dose of anti-EU monomania, and you are there or thereabouts.

    #36786
    Barbara Lefty @barbaralefty

    @janetteb, once a year, as the days shorten/lengthen and the temperature drops/rises, it comes around..

    Car trouble! Hope it gets sorted and isn’t it the way that the most fun seems to happen when the odds are stacked against it. I think, it must be an age thing, where as you get on a bit, it does become easier not to sweat the small stuff.  Sounds like you had a ball in the end.

    @arbutus what warm and lovely thoughts. Particularly like the idea we are a cultural melting pot. I love that we get to share the minutiae of our lives, the ways they are different and the ways they are the same, which as we know, is what it is all about: Every detail, every moment, every life clung to. I wonder how many more cultures we can add to our melting pot?

    @pedant, hope the move goes well. It’s a tough one to leave family history behind, but exciting to think of the new lives to be lived.

    #36820
    Anonymous @

    @pedant I had no clue there was another one until I did a Google: 2009? Yes, the original was 2003. Terrific.

    Moving is still shit -well, I think so!

    @barbaralefty  “Every detail, every moment, every life clung to.”  You get more poetic and I’m gonna cry 🙁    But you’re right. Lovely.

    Kindest, puro.

     

     

    #36822
    Anonymous @

    @pedant

    renting is also shite, I’ve found. As for Farage: dear heaven, what I’ve read (yesterday) aint good. How can anyone top (or bottom) Abbott? Actually, in very many places now that I think closely.

    #36823
    Barbara Lefty @barbaralefty

    @purofilion, have to give credit to the Moff on that one! Deep breathe. Don’t know much Smith or Tennant, but can pretty much quote series 8 😉

    #36827
    Arbutus @arbutus

    Happy New Year! I hope everyone has fully recovered from any indulgences (over- or otherwise) during the year end festivities.   🙂  Onward to Twelfth Night and (eventually) a return to Real Life.

    #36835
    janetteB @janetteb

    Well what a start to the year. 44c in the city which means 46c here. No wonder the garden looks as though it has been blasted. Clear blue sky with an ominious billowing grey white cloud south east of here and no not potential rain but smoke. One of our son’s friends lives in the danger zone and has been evacuated but his Dad stayed so we are a little anxious tonight. Now it is getting dark we can see the red glow from the attic windows.

    Cheers

    Janette

    #36836
    Barbara Lefty @barbaralefty

    @janetteb, bloomin’ heck. Hope everyone is safe. So strange to think on the difference. Just started rubbish snowing here

    #36839
    Arbutus @arbutus

    @janetteb    Oh dear. I hope they can get it sorted quickly, but I know how that goes… once it’s the season, it’s just a constant struggle until the weather changes. But stay safe, and try to stay cool!

    #36841
    blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave

    @janetteb

    Oh, how I remember well the 45 degree heat of January (and with no nostalgia). Frankly, it was one of the reasons behind the move to Canada. Sure, there was that brief week or so in November when the blossoms came out, but it was only a week or so. Spring was gone in the blink of an eye, and then the endless summer began, as we all waited till Easter for the world to become bearable again. To be honest, I don’t miss it at all.

    Hang in there, with the aid of iced tea, Doctor Who, and lovely, lovely, air conditioning.

    #36850
    Anonymous @

    @janetteb  hope all is ‘alright’: these things spread very fast in more ways than one.  Thinking of you, puro

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