Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
Today was slow…perhaps God’s way of making us rest before the weekend gets here! We had lunch with Brian and Jan at Old Ship in Santa Ana. Always a pleasure but this time I could not record Brian’s stories as the restaurant was full of Brits watching soccer…however, I did remember the stories and will get him to retell them in a quite location so I can record them! Remember to look for a story about flying the British Comet aircraft in 1971.
Did You Know? The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world’s first commercial jet airliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at its Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four de Havilland Ghost turbojet engines buried in the wing roots, a pressurised cabin, and large square windows. For the era, it offered a relatively quiet, comfortable passenger cabin and was commercially promising at its debut in 1952.
However, within a year of entering airline service, problems started to emerge, with three Comets lost within twelve months in highly publicised accidents, after suffering catastrophic in-flight break-ups. Two of these were found to be caused by structural failure resulting from metal fatigue in the airframe, a phenomenon not fully understood at the time. The other one was due to overstressing of the airframe during flight through severe weather. The Comet was withdrawn from service and extensively tested. Design and construction flaws, including improper riveting and dangerous concentrations of stress around some of the square windows, were ultimately identified. As a result, the Comet was extensively redesigned, with oval windows, structural reinforcements and other changes. Rival manufacturers meanwhile heeded the lessons learned from the Comet while developing their own aircraft.
Although sales never fully recovered, the improved Comet 2 and the prototype Comet 3 culminated in the redesigned Comet 4 series which debuted in 1958 and had a productive career of over 30 years.
We arrived at Old Ship about 11:30 AM and had a drink before Brian and Jan arrived at 12:15 AM…they were dealing with their real estate person and some people who parked in frot of their driveway!
A pub, or public house, is an establishment licensed to sell alcoholic drinks, which traditionally include beer (such as ale) and cider. It is a relaxed, social drinking establishment and a prominent part of British, Irish, Breton, New Zealand, Canadian, South African and Australian cultures. The Old Ship Restaurant and Pub is quite like the real thing according to Jan and Brian so we enjoy going there the they are in town!
When we arrived, the waitress knew us and put us in our favorite seal..away from the TV and loud part of the pub. She must like us as she brought me a plate of Scottish Eggs… something I love and it included pickled onions…my favorite.
Did You Know? There are a number of different theories about the origins and etymology of Scotch eggs. The London department store Fortnum & Mason claims to have invented Scotch eggs in 1851 but the name for the snack was supposedly derived from a nickname used by Londoners who lived around Wellington Barracks after Officers of the Scots Guards stationed there developed a taste for the snack.
According to Culinary Delights of Yorkshire, they originated in Whitby, Yorkshire, England, in the 19th century, and were originally covered in fish paste rather than sausage meat. They were supposedly named after William J. Scott & Sons, a well-known eatery which sold them. It has also been suggested that they were originally called “scorch” eggs, as they were cooked over an open flame.
We laughed and giggled for two plus hours and dined on great English food. Sue and I both had the “Bloody Hot” Indian Curry while Jan and Brian did the extra large portion of their “UK Breakfast”.
We laughed about “blood Hot” and what that meant but it was quite spicy…not an eye popper…but definitely not for the faint of hart or mild of tunny!
The gin and tonic was flowing and mine must have had a mickey in it as I came home and crashed for 90 minutes.
Did You Know? In slang, a Mickey Finn—or simply a Mickey—is a drink laced with a psychoactive drug or incapacitating agent (especially chloral hydrate) given to someone without their knowledge, with intent to incapacitate them. Serving someone a “Mickey” is most commonly referred to as slipping someone a mickey.
The Mickey Finn is most likely named after the manager and bartender of the Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden Restaurant, which operated in Chicago from 1896 to 1903, on South State Street in the Chicago Loop neighborhood. In December 1903, several Chicago newspapers document that a Michael “Mickey” Finn managed the Lone Star Saloon and was accused of using knockout drops to incapacitate and rob some of his customers.
We departed for home about 3:00 PM after a great afternoon of story telling and sharing. After my well deserved nap, I popped off to BB&B to get some last minute supplies for our visitor…wanna make sure all it OK!
Our puzzle did not make it…we had not gone far enough to save it so we save the grouped colors in separate bags. We need the dining room table for Saturday!
Oh, I found this picture about technology. This is a five megabyte hard drive being delivered in 1959 via Pan American Airways in New York. OMG, 5MB and I just installed a 5 TB drive to my iMAc this morning…it was the size of a deck of cards!
We watched some TV and crashed about 11:30 PM. Yes, do NOT worry, we had our tookies! The weekend starts tomorrow with our guest arriving.
