this and that

london 2.36pm 1.8C or 0C snowing and sunny tuesday 2018

i can take my pick of temperature, because the readings are all over the place. it is snowing outside, yet the readings are above 0C. perhaps it does not matter , take it as below 0C. it is sunny though . oh look, the snow has stopped. so i guess it is just blasts of snow and then not. 

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

the first one overlooks the primary school playground from my kitchen window, the other view over the courtyard from my lounge window.

its all stopped now, the snow, and the sky is blue and it is sunny. it was only a very short episode of snowing. i think it will snow on friday, because i can see they have laid down salt on the pavements round victoria station. i think that  presupposes they are expecting snow later in the week. 

i was out earlier, to return 5 books to the library and then i borrowed 3 more. one of them is robert jackson bennett’s city of miracles. i have been following his trilogy and read the earlier 2 books. and so was really surprised and delighted to see this latest one , the last of the trilogy, on the library shelf for recent arrivals. it will end the trilogy. this is one trilogy which you have to read from the beginning. 

i was at the macdonalds , to get a free coffee, haha. yesterday they had a voucher to give away a free flat white coffee and it is valid for two days, today being the final day. so i was drinking it at the victoria place macdonalds, and enjoying the bustle of people eating there.

and i was sitting next to a couple, man and woman,(in their 20s, so quite young, caucasian) who were signing to each other and having a silent conversation. later they left, and i saw their receipt . a long one. they each have a cheeseburger, a hamburger, and shared a chicken legend.(i have never heard of it, so dont know what it is except it must be chicken of some sort) they were quite fussy about what is inside… the receipt specifying no pickles, no this , no that…. they did not have any drinks. nor fries. the bill came to £8.50 or so. hmm i thought that was a lot to eat. is that normal ? there was a offer to fill up a questionaire and get a free meal … so i did, and got a code which i should copy in the space provided in the receipt  for a free big mac and fries to the value of £1.99. it is the first time i see the offer of a questionnaire and free meal. is that normal too? or is it because of their unusual order? or their high cost order. anyway i shall go one day and redeem that meal. haha.

added 10.54am wednesday 28.2.18. sunny -0.7C . it snowed last night, and the snow is still on the ground now.

i got another free voucher for coffee from macdonalds, it was a fresh promotion in today’s metro free newspaper, and valid for today and tomorrow. i wanted to redeem that free meal too which i thought i got from filling the questionnaire , but was told it was not free, it only allowed me to get that meal for £1.99.

not much of a bargain, because you can get vouchers for that price all the time in the metro newspaper. i misread it, it would seem.

and luckily i went so early today, there was no crowd, it would be embarrassing, if i had gone at busy lunch time, because the server had a hard time trying to cancel that order from the machine… it kept refusing to do so. haha. ah well, nevermind, the coffee is still free. 

why go into a macdonalds to buy salad?

london 5.18am 7.6C friday 2017 dry night.

i got woken up just now by simon coughing, he looks like he is coming down with something. then he was able to go back to sleep, whilst i could not. so i decided to get online and browse the internet instead. and read this interesting article in the daily mail about a book, how things become popular by derek thompson. with quotes like this…

why do we go into a macdonalds wanting to order a salad but end up ordering a double cheeseburger instead?

or i like it because it is popular, i hate it because it is popular, referring to fashion. ( and they end up wearing the same clothes as another in a function. haha)

‘the tension between neophilia and neophobia’. Neophilia is the liking of new things, neophobia the fear or dislike of them, and both come into play when you are launching any product. As Thompson rather pithily puts it: ‘Many people crave new products, ideas and stories, provided that they are just like the products, ideas and stories they already know.’

its an interesting book i shall keep an eye out for it in the library. it does not offer a solution, it seems. 

what is your reason for that macdonald behaviour? my opinion is that i dont think it is value for money to pay for a salad. somehow i get a feeling that a hamburger is better value for money. you can buy one with chips for £1.99 , with one of those free vouchers that u can find in any metro newspaper. i dont think it is worth it to pay that money for a salad. (come to think of it, i dont even want to buy the hamburger, so i dont think it is worth it to buy it even at that price…am i confused or what?!! haha .i think if i were travelling and cannot cook, i will be tempted to get a hamburger for that price.)

for one thing, it is very easy to make a salad yourself, it takes no skill at all… whilst it does take a lot of effort to make a hamburger. also, i dont think many people actually go into a macdonald to buy a salad. if they are vegetarian they would not want to set foot inside a macdonalds at all and will order their salad in a vegetarian place. after all, if u are a vegetarian you want people to know it and your credibility will be destroyed if they see u inside a macdonalds.

so that question may not be quite true, not many go into a macdonalds to buy a salad only. in fact, he should ask why does anyone go to a macdonald to order a salad? haha. so maybe the book is full of questions that no one asks really. haha. 

another tidbit of news i see is the headline result of the by election. with the conservatives taking copeland. (its in the lake district)and labour retaining  stoke.  it is the first time in 35yrs that a party in govt has taken an opposition seat in a by election.  that is historic indeed. and it also is bad news for UKIP. even with all the things in its favour,( the labour candidate who won is a ardent remainer , in a place which have voted for brexit), it still cannot capture stoke. 

added 10.35am 7.3C sunny . i went back to sleep and just woke up again. and reading my post i was extremely impressed with wikipedia. i noticed they have immediately updated their entry about copeland and stoke with the new MPs, that were just elected earlier this morning. 

cooked breakfast

london 12.28pm 8.8C cloudy/foggy friday 2016

i got a macdonald leaflet sent to me recently by post offering breakfast for £1. or £2 if it is with coffee.  its good if u are travelling and so out of the house/flat; but it is so much cheaper to just cook it at home, and you can have it with fried fresh tomatoes, that it is a no brainer which is preferable. though i have to admit i was tempted when i got that leaflet. even me, because there is something rather appealing about those photos. not to mention someone else have cooked it. and you are seated in a restaurant and also able to use their free wifi. it feels very grown up. haha. the voucher is valid before 10.30am. i also got free vouchers for a big mac with fries, or a quarter pounder with fries for £2. and that is valid all day. i think the big mac with fries or quarter pounder with fries is the better value. but i have not bought any. i sometimes wonder why i dont. maybe the thought of my pass experience when it was so salty has lingered in my memory. they look great in the pictures but no so in reality.

breakfast.

when i cook it myself i get two fried eggs!! this breakfast  costs 40p.

it seems people have used the price of big mac to show the difference in cost of living in different countries. but as u can see, the promotions they give, in terms of money off vouchers; can make a nonsense of those prices. for eg, uk big mac costs (according to the website) $3.94. = £3.11. but in actuality it is £2.95. (i think , i must go by a macdonalds and check! added. it is £3.09)yet i have vouchers that allow me to buy it (plus fries) for £2.

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people who buy and eat  these hamburgers all the time really deserve to be poor. £2 seems quite cheap for a macdonalds quarter pounder, but think of this… for that same price u can buy 500mg of minced beef. 1lb = 453gms. it would make u a lot of quarter pounders, because hamburgers are not pure beef, it is 50% fillers, (rusks etc). so u could get 8 quarter pounders out of that minced beef.even if u make allowance for all the cheese,gerkins and buns, u could still make 4 meals out  of those. added. 11.48pm 3.12.16 4.7C saturday. my usual breakfast is porridge with a small handful of sultanas. that is it. and it is really very filling. today i did not feel like eating till 9pm. 

what is this about macdonalds and olympians

london 1.43pm 25.1C sunny blue sky wednesday 2016

saw another fullpage promotion of burgerking, in the metro free newspaper this morning. with discount vouchers for a large variety of meals. my favourite is the 9 chicken nuggets for 99p. the same paper has a macdonalds offer 

i was surprised to read that macdonalds give free meals to the olympians in the rio village. and that it is so popular that they are forced to limit each to 20 orders. 20 orders are still a lot for one person to eat. there were pictures showing the long queues at the macdonalds outlets in the olympic village in rio.

one chap bought such a meal and showed how difficult it is to eat it all. yet those olympic players were eating it . it certainly is a great advert for macdonalds, when even peak condition olympic players would eat macdonalds and a lot of it too.  

whatever people say about how unhealthy these burger fast food joints, they are very popular. 

 

 

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

Digital StillCamera

valid till 1.9.16 for the burgerking, valid till 18.9.16 for macdonalds.

added. 3.03pm friday 19.8.16 i saw this eating dirty review of a macdonalds, and saw a picture of the writer standing next to a macdonalds ordering machine. all big screen of it… and it reminded me that macdonalds have no servers taking your orders anymore. it is all a computer display where u click on buttons. i remember wandering inside a macdonalds once, and was so frightened by these display screens that i crept right out again. 

 

 

 

 

living in london is actually very nice

London Monday
It’s March already and some might say the start of spring, though most of us will take after the spring equinox for the real spring to begin.

It’s quite cold outside  when I walked to the swimming pool centre yesterday, sunday. 

It’s a huge building slap bang in prime land near the victoria station. It is owned by the Westminster council but run privately. it’s a really nice place to swim, but can get quite crowded esp today (is it because it is the weekend?) when I went around 12.30pm. Though when I left at about 1.30pm the lanes were quite empty. You have to take potluck.
I think the water is warmer during the weekend, though it is not consistent. I have known the water was warm in the weekdays too. But today it was warm.
There was a sign at the desk saying the pool will be closed during some hours on some days this month. So I took note of the days and times just so I don’t go there then. I think there is some kind of gala event happening at those times. Or maybe groups have booked those times.

I thought I will meet some guys who go regularly to swim and make friends that way, but I go so haphazardly that I don’t see the same guys twice. So like the gym I don’t really make friends to find regular swim buddies. But then, swimming is one activity which u don’t need another to do. It is a great activity for introverts haha.
And it is very nice to go whenever I like without having to go at set times; if I have a swim buddy I will have to go at set times. On the other hand, having a swim buddy may force u to go more often to the centre to swim instead of laziness taking over. Though I think I am strong minded enough to go often without the need of a swim buddy to force me.

You may be wondering why I am talking so much about this swimming. It is because it is one of the activities that one can do that is enjoyable , free in my case, and healthy.

I read this article in older hood.com about living in france.
http://olderhood.com/2014/03/03/retired-in-france-mcdo-is-coming-hip-hip-hooray/?relatedposts_exclude=2066

I was surprised that they still adhere so strictly to closing their shops between 12pm-2pm. I read somewhere that they are closed all day Sunday too. In uk, we are so used to everything open all day, we can go into any place and expect it to be open. Not in france it seems. And not in spain too if my experience there is anything to go by. They close their shops between 2 and 4pm I think. That is one thing I cannot stand about living in Europe. This closing of shops just when u are going out. many a time we were left hanging about waiting for the shops to open. 

I am very glad that in uk the shops open for the customers’ convenience and that is another reason to like living in uk.
The writer of that blog said she enjoys the cheap wine, the cheeses, the French food… she says she prefers eating a 3course meal and bottle of wine for 11.50euros, rather than mac donalds for 6euros. I can see why she would , but I was thinking it does make u eat more than u want. And drink more than is good for you. Is there no half way house where for 6euros u can have a cheaper French fix price lunch? Perhaps 2course and a glass of wine?

One thing in uk we don’t have… their fix price lunch menus that is so ubiquitous in Europe. It is good value for money more so if u drink, but it is still a lot to pay for lunch when most of us just want a quick snack.

I think that is why macD is so popular in the uk . Here u can have a macD for £2, get the vouchers given out in the metro or standard … you can get a big mac and u get free chips included too. Of course £2 is still £2… is not as cheap as making your own sandwich which I do… that is why even though I sometimes get tempted by those vouchers, I don’t buy it. I have eaten it once and found it was not as nice as my own homemade sandwich. I thought it was too salty and strangely not very filling. I found I want to eat some more after eating a big mac. ( do u think they put something in the food that makes u crave for it? It is very salty and yet you want more of it…does salt make people wish that?) Whilst after eating my sandwich I am full.