Your ViewsKeep your e-mails pouring in, it's good to know that there are lots of you out there with views and opinions. To help you work out what is what, are now little icons to help you see biscuit related themes. And now you can see at a glance which are the most contested subjects via this graph (requires Flash 6.0 plugin). Please keep your mails coming in to nicey@nicecupofteaandasitdown.com | If you like, you can use this search thingy to find stuff that matches with any of the icons you pick, or use the fantastic free text search, Yay! | Your e-Mails |
David Cowie |
Hi
Now this is going to sound like one of those Viz ideas or even something out of Take a Break magazine but anyway here is a very nearly revolutionary idea.
You see I only ever use milk in tea, I drink coffee black and dont have time for cereal in the mornings. Sometimes I dont even have time for tea (because I believe that 10mins extra in bed is approx equal to a cup of tea).
Because of this I was finding that I was throwing out alot of unused milk.
So I came up with the following idea - you know those freezer bags which you fill with water to make ice cubes? Guess what?! Yep fill 'em full of milk and hey presto! Milk Cubes!
I find that one cube is sufficient (I like my tea on the strong side) and that after infusing in a cup whilst I shower in the mornings one milk cube makes a perfect cup of tea which is just on the right side of hot / drinkable.
What do you think?! |
Nicey replies: I think it gets a cautious Rocket Science icon.
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Nancy Price |
Dear Nicey
When i started my present job, i was very pleasantly surprised to find one such hot drinks machines in place of the standard d-i-y tea and coffee area. Having once suffered terribly at the hands of two unscrupulous employers who forced me to make tea for them several times a day to assert their superiority, i was even quite relieved. A year on, and i am now adamant that this machine is, by far, the very worse of its kind.
The vile liquids it excretes costs 20p a shot. It blatently steals money from people and runs out of cups at least once a week. It is such an archaic machine that it doesn't even alert you to these cup shortages. It happily takes your 20p and pours your drink into the empty space where a cup should be, literallly pouring your money down the drain. Sometimes it's days before it's workman turns up to fix this. Thirsty and desperate workers stand there poised with flimsy cups stolen from the mineral water machine, waiting for the crutial moment to 'catch' their drinks and to do so with pin-point accuracy. To do this successfully takes much skill and often results in half empty cups, stained shirt sleeves, scolded hands and wet shoes.
The mineral water cups go worryingly floppy when used in this manner, proving exactly why they are for chilled mineral water and not warm gunk. All we can do is hope that we are not poisoning our bodies with dangerous plastic chemicals from these half melted cups, but then again it's fair to say that drinking from the machine itself poses as much, if not more of a health risk.
In desperation, i purchased a travel kettle from Argos, which is now kept discretely on a spare chair in my office. Making 'proper' tea, however, has turned out to be a real misson. First the kettle has to be taken to the only source of drinking water, the mineral water machine, and cheekily filled up in front of a room full of people. Then fresh milk has to be purchased from the garage down the road (no fridge here). The making of the tea involves kneeling down on the floor in a 'camping holiday' style and using a spare screwdriver to fish out the tea bag. All this hassle means that i now very rarely use the kettle and continue to be bullied, deceived and poisoned by our evil vending machine. They should all be scrapped, starting with the one in my office.
Yours Sincerely
Nancy Price |
Nicey replies: Your mail is beyond fantastic, where do you work in such pampered luxury a Siberian Salt mine?
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Zoe Healy
HobNob Review |
Dear Nicey, are you sure that the biscuit name has nothing to do with The Giant and Hob Nob at Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum? Hob Nob is a kind of hobby horse - a pageant figure of the Salisbury Guild of Merchant Tailors. The Giant is first recorded in 1496 when, accompanied by the Mayor and Corporation and morris men, he was taken to meet Henry VII at nearby Clarendon Palace. The path of the Giant was cleared of people by Hob Nob, who chased and snapped at people in the crowd. I expect he could also be appeased with a happy old brown nice oat biscuit. |
Nicey replies: Zoe,
Oh yes that all sounds a perfectly plausible explination, well done. |
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Ben Keen
HobNob Review |
Where did the name HOB NOB come from? |
Nicey replies: Would it be glib to say a marketing person at McVities? Alright its an acronym 'Happy Old Brown Nice Oat Biscuit'.
Or it might be from the expression to 'Hob Nob', implying you are obtaining gratification by mixing with your social betters, which captures the aspirational aspects of the biscuit. No, I'm going for the acronym again. |
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Karen Duthie
Ginger Nut Review |
RE: previous message from Donalda Bint
I too was brought up being told this and much to my horror no one else ever appears to have heard of it - they all just think I'm completely potty. Imagine my delight to hear that I am not the only person to have humiliated myself by smashing the ginger nut, in company, before realising what I was doing. It does seem to be a very adept form of brainwashing as it is a totally instinctive reaction when picking one up. But again, it appears the more training you have, the better you become as after 25-30 years of practice I can still get a very respectable 95'ish % hit rate. I wonder if it's a skill only us Scots possess. |
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