Peter Piper And His Pickled Peppers

No!  Nothing To Do With "Blue Peter"

Although I may try and work it in, because I'm perverse and unpredictable like that.  Now, excuse me whilst I go take a couple of photographs -

<disappears to kitchen>

     Back again!  Although you will have to just take my word that I was, indeed, off taking pictures and not vandalising a bus stop.  Vandalism is simply not my style; world domination, yes; scrawling my "tag" on a sheet of plastic, no.

     If you are one of our more recent readers, then you may not appreciate that Conrad likes Polish cuisine.  He regularly guzzles "Warka" beer, crunches his way through Sesame Snaps and has a soft spot for these rubicund rascals:

Pickled peppers

     Here we get to the reason for the title of today's second post.  Aren't I clever*?  I can tell you where Peter will not have left his pickled peppers, and that's in his lunchbox, if he has any sense.

     "Ah - quite what are you prognosticating on this time?" I hear you question.

     Oh, just one of those Minor Domestic Events that colour all our lives in an excessive manner considering how small they are.  Those peppers, as you can clearly see, are marinated in a sweet vinegar, and need to be allowed to drain.  Art?  Helpful illustrative photo, please.

Dangled that it may drip dry

     The trouble is that no matter how long you dangle it, there is always plenty of vinegar left over - the result of having a large surface area, I suppose.  To the extent that it formed a little puddle at the bottom of the sandwich bag I had it ensconced*** within, and had also leaked out to decorate my lunchbag.  Sharing in this case not being wanted.

     So, I have added a third stage to the process.  Art?  Another photo.

     Ha!  Take that, marinated peppers!

     Whilst on the subject, allow me to run a Cryptic Crossword clue past you. 

     "Possibly black or white pelts (7)"

     The answer is "Peppers", except how on Mars, Venus and Mercury, let alone Earth, would you ever derive that answer from the clue?

Another Minor Domestic Event

Your humble scribe had a hand in the creation of what Wonder Wifey somewhat dismissively called "Glop".  Art?

     I chopped the onions, you see, and she only did everything else.

     For Glop, it was delicious!  Not only that, it will taste even better tomorrow, and allow me to inform you that, after a tiring day at my Still Coyly Anonymous Employer, arriving home to be greeted with bowls of stew is one of those little things that make life a shade better.

Enough of food!  More about TANKS!!!

Centurion

I am minded to put this up as, back in the day (actually 2013) we did have lots of stuff about tanks and I've covered all the ones I wanted to.  Now that default description on Facebook comes up and I fear the disappointed reader who adds in the Comments "Where are all the tanks?"

     All tanks are a compromise between speed, firepower and protection.  During the Second Unpleasantness the British suffered from not getting this balance right, until the Centurion arrived in late 1945.  This got the balance right, and got it so right it was in service for over 30 years and still serves as the "Olifant" in South Africa.

     Art!  A suitable photo, please.

EXTRA LARGE to face down the Sinister hordes

     It was fast and reliable, it had thick armour and it carried a whacking big 105mm gun that had excellent ballistic characteristics and very flat trajectory, which is tankie jargon for "kills bad guys dead first time" with an APDS**.

     Although the Cold War never turned hot, for which most of the Northern Hemisphere can be grateful, if the Warsaw Pact rolled westwards they would have come up against the Centurion in the British Army of the Rhine.  Whilst we can only speculate what would have happened, you can look to the "Valley of Tears" engagement during the Yom Kippur war.  An Israeli tank brigade, outnumbered by 5-to-1, not only stopped a Syrian attack, it inflicted such damage that the Syrians withdrew.

     Let's have another photograph.  Art?

Centurion in Israeli camo

     The Israeli name for these tanks was - don't laugh - "Sho't" which means "whip" or "flail".  The IDF revealed a sense of humour when they rebuilt them, as the - ahem - "Ben Gurion".

A Centurion Flail - hang on, I'm confusing myself now -

Meanwhile, At Strategic Rocket Forces Base #16 -

We've not heard from either Misha or Grisha for a long time.  This is because they're only just back on duty after serving some prison time.  Art?

Russian inspection workers are shocked

     The rascals sold an SS22 missile to [THIRD PARTY DETAILS REDACTED] and then substituted it with one made out of tinfoil.  Their defence, that they were drunk at the time and it seemed like a laugh, did not carry much weight.

*  "Yes" is the only appropriate answer here.

**  More jargon.  "Armour Piercing Disposable Sabot", a British invention that rendered the lives of tank crews across the world a lot more problematic.

***  Come on, how many blogs will use this word?