The Moose Factory - Virtual Bar and Grill - Version 3

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

That's what we get through the state for our unemployment under normal circumstances (after converting, also I should note that under normal circumstances we're only eligible if we lose our jobs due to no fault of our own, not if we get justifiably fired or we quit). The federal government chipped in another US$600 (seems to be about NZ$980) on top of that for everyone who lost their job during this whole thing. I wish I was still on it. That's almost twice what I make at my normal crappy job that I hate, and my way out got postponed until the end of the year. Oh well. I'll work on my stories and see if I can't get some money that way in the meantime.

 

We're on our second heat wave day and as we ease into the evening the heat has subsided as well. We're looking at fall-like weather this weekend and I am very excited for that. Anyone up for some chili? I'll put on some Texas toast to go with it, but we also have oyster crackers, saltines, French bread, shredded sharp cheddar cheese and sour cream if those are more your thing.

[catty-cb 4,412]

Yummy, I think I'll have a bit of everything as I love chilli.

Here the unemployment amount differs depending on your situation (being fired isn't a reason not to get it), age, whether you are married, etc

Plus there are additional payments you can get .... say your fridge broke and needed replacing you can apply to buy a new one.

I was briefly unemployed some years back and got the unemployment benefit for a time .... I got an additional payment each fortnight as I had a mortgage plus I was paying off a couch so those payments were covered ... and when I finally got a new job I got a one-off payment so I could buy new work clothes and also pay my transport costs until I got my first pay

[catty-cb 4,412]

If anyone here watched Avatar, you will be pleased to know the film crew has been given permission to return to New Zealand to continue work on the next film in the series as long as they went into quarantine for two weeks on arrival.

Film company organized a charter flight to bring everyone plus all their equipment it arrived today, and it seems the government has also given permission for the lord of the rings tv series film crew to return as well.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

It's ...........            Jeff Curry Sunday

 

Explore his wants and desires

 

See his many moods

 

See him date above his pay scale

 

 

 

In the mean time...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

15 hours ago, catty-cb said:

the lord of the rings tv series

Hiya @catty-cb, it's terrific if it's true! I never heard of that before, Frankly, I'm very excited as a huge fan of the lord of the rings, I hope Gandalf will also be an actor in this series, as you might knew, I started to model the Minas Tirith Lot before, though temporarily paused due to lack of technique of modeling, but I believe i could continue and finish it to commemorate this moment, Thank you for sharing!

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

BTW, Could someone show me a few tips that what's this thread about? I had looked through here before, however have no idea what we were talking about here.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

This is a virtual bar and grill set up by the incomparable A Nonny Moose who is sadly no longer with us. I've been manning the bar, so to speak, since he departed as I've been known to swing through here on my frequent visits to Simtropolis, along with anyone who wants to help or hang out. It's basically an open thread where you can talk about whatever you want to while "ordering" virtual vittles.

 

And now that we've made it through another week, you know what time it is... CURRY SUNDAY! For today's curry, we're going with curried salmon fillets grilled to perfection and served over a bed of basmati rice. Going with one of my favorites as a side dish, we'll have bowls of fried zucchini to enjoy. Have a glass of iced barley tea to cleanse your palate for dessert, a slice of chocolate ice cream cake in honor of my daughter's 8th birthday.

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

Well, Thank you very much! Dear @NMUSpidey, I got it now, RIP Grandpa Nonny! It seems like i have found out an appropriate place which Cori refered to, My English is not very good, whereas I thought it will be no harmful due to it's a off-topic thread, Right? Thanks again!

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[catty-cb 4,412]

Am going to bypass dinner and go straight for the chocolate cake (and happy birthday to your daughter I hope she had a great day) also a big glass of the iced Barley Tea to go with the cake as I'm getting quite fond of it as a drink

Thanks

18 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Frankly, I'm very excited as a huge fan of the lord of the rings, I hope Gandalf will also be an actor in this series, as you might knew, I started to model the MinasTirith

Am looking forward to seeing Minas Tirith completed, unfortunately you won't be seeing Gandalf in the TV series as according to Amazon they are setting the series in the second age of middle earth .... the hobbit and lord of the rings movies took place in the third age.

12 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

It seems like i have found out an appropriate place which Cori refered to, My English is not very good, whereas I thought it will be no harmful due to it's a off-topic thread

I always thought of this topic as a bit like the TV series Cheers  which was set in a bar, so feel free to talk about anything that interests you, or even what's going on in your corner of the world .... and I think your English is really quite good.

Introduced my brother to slow tv today, New Zealand has done two slow tv programs, the first one called Go South takes viewers on a road, rail and sea trip from the Strand Railway Station in Auckland City, to the Tasman Sea just out of Milford Sound and is 12 hours long, the next one which I've started my brother watching is also 12 hours long and is called Go Further South and starts out from the port of Bluff at the bottom of the South Island and sails to the Sub-Antarctic islands and along the Ross Sea coast down to Antarctica ... we had got as far Enderby Island before he decided to head home as the weather was getting a bit unpleasant

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Slow TV sounds amazing, and New Zealand is an amazingly beautiful place to see on a show like that. I wouldn't mind watching it if I can find it here in the US. There is something wonderfully relaxing about watching travel TV, too. There were some neat travel shows in Japan, but they were very short in comparison. One was called Sekai No Shaso Kara (See the World by Train), a 5 minute thing I remember seeing later at night, showing a foreign land from a train window. There was another one on NHK (Japanese public broadcasting, like PBS or BBC) that was a half an hour or so and a cameraman walks through a foreign city while having dubbed conversations with locals. I wish we had something like those here, but we don't watch much network television anyhow.

For tonight we'll serve up paella, complete with shrimp and clams and as much saffron as we can afford.

[catty-cb 4,412]

11 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

.....There is something wonderfully relaxing about watching travel TV, too....

The first Slow TV I watched was a two-hour real-time reindeer sleigh ride with the Sami people filmed in Karasjok, Norway and my Mother who was still alive and living with me at the time thought it was going to be the most boring TV program ever and couldn't believe I was actually planning on watching it, but ending up watching the whole journey with me and getting me to pause the TV when she left the room so she wouldn't miss anything while she was gone.

It was a part of series made by a British TV station, altogether there was

1. three-hour tour of London's national gallery, with no voiceover, underscore or sound effects
2. hour-long composite recording of birdsong at sunrise in Devon
3. two-hour narrowboat journey along the Kennet and Avon Canal from Bath Top Lock (lock 13) to the Dundas Aqueduct
4. two-hour real-time reindeer sleigh ride with the Sami people filmed in Karasjok, Norway
5. two-hour bus ride along the Swaledale valley in North Yorkshire

The was also a three part episode where they filmed
Handmade: Glass documents the blowing and shaping of glass to create a jug; Handmade: Metal shows a bladesmith using a forge to make a knife; Handmade: Wood sees a whittler create a wooden chair

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

That all sounds amazing. No voiceover? No sound effects? Great! I'm fine with a little soft music if they need to have something, but on the occasions when Japanese travel TV shows include comedians, well, they can be an overly rambunctious farce and easily turn grating after a short while. On American TV, network TV that is, there really isn't anything like a travel show. Maybe you get a drama or action show set in an exotic locale, like Magnum PI in Hawaii, and there's of course The Travel Channel if you're still paying for cable or a satellite dish, but those shows always feel like they're trying to sell me something.

 

Today's special is a slow cooked English roast, complete with potatoes, carrots, asparagus, and mushrooms in a creamy gravy. Served with toasted garlic bread and a green salad, it should prove a comfortable way to unwind after a long day at the salt mines. Now excuse me while I pour us some iced teas.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

On 5/31/2020 at 12:51 PM, Raymond7cn said:

BTW, Could someone show me a few tips that what's this thread about? I had looked through here before, however have no idea what we were talking about here.

I just realized that you probably have no concept of public social drinking. The last time Chinese people got together to get F'ed up, Britain and France held large chunks of the country and the taverns were opium dens. As has been explained, it's all virtual fun and games and a good place to escape some of the deadheads on other parts of the forum.

Well, I'm in the middle of the second week of catching the virus. The incessant coughing is the worst part. I had just bought a new motorcycle,  and caught this stuff the following day. So I still haven't ridden it. My luck...as usual.

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

3 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

Well, I'm in the middle of the second week of catching the virus. The incessant coughing is the worst part. I had just bought a new motorcycle,  and caught this stuff the following day. So I still haven't ridden it. My luck...as usual.

Ah Jack, Is that true?? I'm very sorry to hear about it, I really hope you could go through with this hard time, and we're all standing by you through this. God bless you!

Yours,

-- Raymond

[catty-cb 4,412]

13 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

That all sounds amazing. No voiceover? No sound effects? Great!

It does .... I would hate to add up the number of TV documentaries over the years that I've wanted to watch and have had to turn off within minutes because of the background music (or noise pretending to be music) that the producers of the program have decided to inflict on their audience, even worse is the ones that insist on playing the noise while the presenter of the documentary is talking ... my hearing isn't great so I end up switching it off.

The Sleigh Ride is on Youtube

Part One

Part Two

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

On 6/2/2020 at 10:00 PM, Raymond7cn said:

Ah Jack, Is that true?? I'm very sorry to hear about it, I really hope you could go through with this hard time, and we're all standing by you through this. God bless you!

Yours,

-- Raymond

You know, it doesn't seem as bad as they make it out in the news. Which leads me to believe

a. I contracted a fairly weak dose

b. I caught a really bad dose of flu, and just thought it was CoVid

c. I'm a lot healthier than I thought

Whatever it is, it's starting to feel like it's leaving.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

YURI SUNDAY

 

hmmm? All hat, no herd! Oh well...

 

 

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Ah, the USSR, home of nuclear meltdowns, the AK47, and tens of millions of starved, tortured, imprisoned, and dead people who disagreed with the leadership in Moscow. Good times.

 

It's curry Sunday! Should I have capitalized the C? Well, I'm not this time. Maybe next week. Usually I do it all CAPs, but not this week. We'll have a more subdued dinner of racism-free Indian curry: brown curry with tender sheep meat, onions, and potatoes. We'll serve it with either basmati rice or fresh, hot naan. Wash it down with an ice cold barley tea. Let's make it an international affair by eating some ice cream for dessert. Who's up for chocolate with peanut butter ribbon? If that's not your taste, feel free to root around in the freezer. There's bound to be something you'll like!

[catty-cb 4,412]

10 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

....Indian curry: brown curry with tender sheep meat, onions, and potatoes. We'll serve it with either basmati rice or fresh, hot naan. ....

Sounds nice, but will avoid the cold drinks and icecream as winter is starting off with a bang this year, the meteorologists are talking about the temperatures dropping to -15c this weekend, mainly in the South Island, this morning was a go to work day and was -4.3c when I left home which certainly wakes you up.

At 11:59pm tonight which is just over an hours time New Zealand is going down to L1, it basically means we no longer have anyone with Covid-19 in the country, so life is about to return to normal, apart from border controls which will remain in place.

Our boss is still waiting to find out if that means back to work full-time in the office, have mixed feelings about that as I've got used to working from home, since mid-march have only been in the office four times including today.

-catty

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

22 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

Ah, the USSR, home of nuclear meltdowns, the AK47, and tens of millions of starved, tortured, imprisoned, and dead people who disagreed with the leadership in Moscow. Good times.

Eh, what's a little internecine mayhem amongst komrades?

22 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

... a more subdued dinner of racism-free Indian curry...

Will there be woke wasabi and white-privilege chutney with that?

Finally able to get out of the house and take a ride on my new bike. Took it about 30 miles into the country. Good fresh air. I haven't rode in 20 years and it feels like I never stopped. I'd say another 1 or 2 days and I'll be back to my old self, health-wise. Just a little cough right now.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

The weeks always feel like an eternity when I'm at work, probably because I hate my job and my boss is a short-sighted moron I wouldn't trust to lead a group of cub scouts down a marked path in a city park. And then I get home and suddenly it's Friday night and I realize I haven't made anything up for you guys all week! Let's remedy that with some miso ramen, complete with big, round slices of pork, green onions, tofu, corn, sprouts, and hard boiled eggs. Mrs. NMUSpidey used to make it all the time when we lived in Japan. The ingredients are more expensive and difficult to find where we live now. But we'll be serving it up all day to celebrate the weekend!

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

URI SUNDAY

with musical accompaniment, of course:

 

 

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Ah, the theremin, what a neat instrument! Led Zeppelin used one in Whole Lotta Love, too.

 

We're staring down the barrel of another week, my friends! To start it off right, let's cook up some curry for our CURRY SUNDAY! For tonight's curry, we're going to serve up some curry ramen, with homemade ramen noodles in a curry broth, with a thick slice of pork, some halves of hard-boiled eggs, green onions, daikon, potato, and yellow onions. Japanese pickles are served alongside every heaping bowl, and we have a variety of teas to cleanse your palates. Enjoy!

[catty-cb 4,412]

11 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

Ah, the theremin, what a neat instrument! .....

They used a theremin for the theme music for Midsummer Murders (been watching the program for years)

 

11 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

...... We're staring down the barrel of another week, my friends! .....

And a curry seems a perfect start to it, am finally back at work full-time so far the novelty hasn't worn off yet and boss is talking about getting us all work laptops and giving us the option of spending part of the week "working from home" as it seems having us all using what we managed to get up and running in the two days before L4 kicked in on the 25th of March and we were all restricted to our homes left a bit to be desired.

-catty

 

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Huh. I could have sworn it was just Monday. I guess that means I made it through another week somehow. Don't know how I managed that. I have another 4-day workweek coming up, lots of time driving around up here in the schedule. Keeps me away from the boss, and that's a good thing!

 

Tonight we'll make burritos! Soft flour tortillas, refried beans, seasoned ground beef, sharp cheddar cheese, salsa, sauteed green, red, and yellow bell peppers and onions, and sour cream. A bowl of tortilla chips and salsa will be available as well. Who's having a Corona with me?

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

 

SCURVY SUNDAY

aaaaargh!!!

 

 

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

AVAST! 'TIS ANOTHER CURRY SUNDAY! To get us ready to face the upcoming week, let's partake of the slow-cooker Indian curry we have going today, with beef cutlets so tender they melt in your mouth, mushrooms, onions, and served over a warm bed of basmati rice. We have some buttery, garlicy naan if you prefer that as well. A cup of tea to wash it all down, and we're looking at the start of another great seven days!

 

I'm doubly celebrating since I finally finished (for like the third or fourth time) my fantasy novel about a guy who gets roped into a mission he thinks is ridiculous that eventually spirals out of his control and sends him off gallivanting across the face of the world. I'll work on my prose version of The Sensational Six again for a little while and then I'll get back to work on the sister novel to the story I just finished. It needs a heavy edit to keep the continuity tight.

[catty-cb 4,412]

On 6/21/2020 at 10:31 PM, SIM-ple Jack said:

This picture seems oddly appropriate as I've just been reading an article about the Zealandia (also known as Tasmantis) drowned continent

Its also the reason New Zealand didn't have any mammals except for seals when humans first arrived as none of them had survived the sinking only fish, birds, bats, lizards and insects made it along with a number of plants

Quote

Indian curry we have going today, with beef cutlets so tender they melt in your mouth, mushrooms, onions, and served over a warm bed of basmati rice

Yummy that sounds really nice

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I hate to be a stickler, but bats are mammals, right? ANYWAYS, a friend of mine back in Japan, another teacher, her sister lives in New Zealand (I don't remember which part). She used to go there to visit during the longer holidays when she didn't have to be at the school (Japanese teachers generally work year-round as they have club activities and other various school-related work to do even during "holidays" which I thankfully had off) and she raved about it. I don't know if we'll ever make it there. I mean, traveling to and from Japan with three kids is quite a journey, and NZ is MUCH father away, and I'm sure it'd be even pricier, and with no in-laws down there to foot the bill, well, I'll probably be relegated to northern hemisphere travel for the rest of my life. I'd love to visit some day though. I've heard of Zealandia. Maybe when we get our next ice age we'll be able to see more of it. That and Doggerland.

 

I'm on the road all day tomorrow. Michigan still has rather draconian regulations over the re-opened restaurants so it's been a challenge to find someplace to eat in relative ease and comfort. Thankfully, we don't have any of those to worry about here at the Moose Factory. Tonight we're going to serve up some soba noodles! Use your chopsticks (hashi) to pick them up and dip them in the mentsuyu (soy sauce-based dipping sauce). To help fill you up, we'll fry up some shrimp, pumpkin slices, eggplant, baby ferns, shishamo (little fish, maybe 3 or 4" long native to Hokkaido), and potatoes. Itadakimasu!

[catty-cb 4,412]

11 hours ago, NMUSpidey said:

I hate to be a stickler, but bats are mammals, right? ....

The sneaky little things .... one of them is a normal bat and its ancestors came from Australia, the other is only found in New Zealand and is a weird little thing about the size of your thumb, its spends most of its time rummaging about on forest floors for bugs so can fold its wings away in a sort of pouch to keep them out the way while its wandering about, as you can imagine it hasn't done well since carnivores like stoats and weasels got introduced into the country .... and yes they do have eyes

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

Yes, bats are so cute and cuddly you just want to wrap them up like a burrito...

 

 

 

and deep fry them. Wait a minute, isn't that how this whole mess got started?!!!