Homework

This weekend I have had my 12 year old grand-daughter with me and she brought some homework with her again because the last time she came and I helped her, she got the highest marks in the class! Two weeks ago her homework was about digestion and because I specialised in gastro-enterology for a while when I was nursing, I was able to go into a lot of detail for her and explain it with the help of a diagram or two. She complimented me by saying that I made it much more interesting than her teacher and I had also told her some things the teacher didn't mention. With the information that I gave her she was able to write her short essay, then I 'proof' read it to make sure that she had everything in the right order.
This time she had two small projects to do. For the first, she had to design a poster for the NHS by selecting two subjects with advice for people to follow in order to prevent the spread of various infections or contagious diseases and the second was about batik. Yes, I did have a bash at this in the sixties along with the tie dyeing!
Again we discussed a lot of possibilities for the poster and she noted down everything I knew about the craft of batik. Then I agreed to let her use my computer so that she could do the work on that rather than doing it all by hand because it would be quicker. I left her to it for a half hour or so while I did a few things in the kitchen and when I returned, she had already got a fair way with both projects. I gave her some suggestions and she showed me how to use the internet to search for things and then how to copy and paste etc.
The end results for both her subjects were very impressive and quite different to what I would have done when I was her age because mine would have all been hand written and drawn but hers look far more professional being done on a computer.
We both get a lot out of these sessions but I don't think I'm learning from her as quickly as she learns from me. To her a computer is an extension of her school books and pens but to me it's still a complete mystery, but I'm determined to get it!

Offices & Flats to Let!

Over the last nine or ten years all around the area that I live has been re-developed on a very large scale and it is a long way from being finished. There has also been large scale re-development in other parts of the city but what I cannot understand is why?
Most of the offices remain empty and many have been for the last several years since they were completed so it can't be anything to do with the recession. As for the apartments and flats, this city can only support a limited amount of yuppies and students are not in the market for buying penthouse pigeon holes.
I really think the planning committees should do a survey of empty offices and homes throughout every city and town before allowing permission for huge quantities of offices and flats to be built only to remain empty for years. This may keep construction workers in paid employment but it is a waste of resources especially when the end result remains empty.
There are any amount of people who have nowhere decent to live as well as those who cannot afford to buy in the places where their families have lived and worked for generations, in country areas and seaside towns. Then there are the loaded gentry who buy the best properties in all the beauty spots around the country for 'holiday homes'. As far as I'm concerned this is obscene greed because we can only live in one place at a time and then they have the gall to complain if any of their properties is taken over by squatters. This is not an action which I condone, let's just call it 'poetic justice'!
If every empty office across the country was turned into flats, then if all the empty flats and houses were occupied and if people were taxed so high on any property other than the one used as their main home, there would be no need to build the twenty thousand or so homes we are told will be needed in the next twenty years. This will also preserve the greenfield sites and all the brownfield sites could be turned into parks!
Problem solved! What a lovely thought!!

Fashion show

Perhaps I'm getting old or it's that I just don't get today's youngsters, especially their fashion sense (or lack of it).
This morning when I went out to do some shopping there were quite a lot of young people about, more than usual and I was amazed by the clothes that they had thrown on before leaving home and not one of them had used an iron! Any Oxfam store could have provided them with much better outfits and they probably would have been pressed properly too. The clashing mixtures of style and colour beggared belief and it was not only the girls but the boys as well. If they were all students I would love to know what it is they are studying because it certainly isn't style or fashion.
One of the girls who was very overweight and had thighs like tree trunks, was wearing purple tights with brown Ug boots and frayed denim very short shorts which were topped by an extremely low cut pink top which ended and inch or so above the waist. This ensemble was topped off with an oversized baggy grey cardigan and a long green scarf. Her friend was as skinny as they come and dressed all in black with the tightest skinny jeans I've ever seen and little black ballet pumps (or dolly shoes). They resembled a Laurel and Hardy nightmare!
The boys didn't fare much better either. They all wear baseball caps backwards, presumably because they don't know which way is the front, hooded tops and the craze for buying baggy jeans that sit just around the top of the legs so that they display not one, but TWO pairs of underpants is a real mystery to me. So is the fact that these jeans defy the laws of gravity because when I walk behind them I am positive that they are just about to slide towards their ankles at any minute but I haven't seen it happen yet!
There isn't any business for hairdressers with this lot either as they all look as though the birds have started building nests on top of their heads despite some of them sporting really weird colours like shocking pink. I suppose the hairdressers get their money from all the ironmongery that bedecks their ears, nostrils, eyebrows and other parts that remain invisible to the naked eye (thank goodness - but just wait for summer!).
I'm glad that we were brought up to take a pride in the way we looked, even though I dress casually I like to make sure everything is properly pressed and I wouldn't dream of answering the door unless I had my make up on and had done my hair. But then, perhaps I'm just old fashioned.

One, two, s-t-r-e-t-c-h!

Being rather overweight, or fat and lumpy, which is due to some tablets I have to take, I have decided that I need to put more effort into losing weight and toning up this year. It is going to be a constant battle between me and the tablets because I started to balloon shortly after the tablets were prescribed and I have never been so heavy in my life, not even when I was pregnant!
Because I have arthritis and a few other problems I cannot go to a gym or do certain exercises so walking and stretching are alright as long as I stick within my limits and don't overdo it. The rest will be hard dieting (I know I've got will power because I gave up smoking last year) but it won't be easy.
Now is a good time to start the stretches as I'm already walking out every day and it won't be too long before I will be bending and stretching in the garden as there is a lot to do come spring.
Of course there are the usual gymnastics or aerobics for the over 50's in the area but I'm afraid I won't be joining these for two reasons. The first is I don't believe in paying for something I can do myself for free and I don't need other people to to chivvy me along because I'm motivated enough. That's why I won't go to Weight Watchers or Slimming World, it's too expensive and I know enough about healthy eating anyway and who in their right mind want's to be weighed in front of a dozen or so others? Not me! I prefer to do it in the privacy of my own bathroom and the only exception is when I have to be weighed at my check ups at the surgery.
So, in a year's time I'm hoping that I will be a new woman. Just wish me luck!

The forgotten ones.

The politicians are banging on again about the huge gaps between rich and poor and I have to say that regardless of which party they come from, they are all responsible for things that happened in the past.
We now have a larger gap between rich and poor than we have had since the 1940's and every government we have had since then is partly responsible. However, politicians are blind and every one of them is missing a huge number of 'forgotten people' - WOMEN.
They assume that everyone has inherited property from parents or married and bought a property with a husband who had a well paid job but how wrong they are. Most women my age did not have parents who were wealthy enough to ensure that we went to university. In fact, we were not expected to have a career after leaving school, perhaps a little job in an office or a shop and then get married, stay at home to bring up the children and keep house. In those days there was no help in the form of Child Tax Credits either, families had to survive on the husband's wage no matter how small because women did not go out to work. We were not supposed to have any ambitions of any kind and in the 1960's, 70's and 80's women were paid a pittance whatever job they did - we were second class citizens, something that has continued for years and in some ways still does.
Any woman on her own following a divorce where there was no property to divide, found it extremely difficult to keep up with those around her. With low wages and ever increasing rents there was never a chance for many to get on the property ladder especially if they did not re-marry. Many did not realise that they would not receive a full pension on retirement because most had been paying 'the married woman's stamp' on their National Insurance and as for pension schemes, they were never informed correctly about these or given the opportunity to buy into them, or if they were optional, many could not afford them due to low wages.
Many of the women from my own generation are destined to be very poor pensioners but they will always remain the dignified and silent 'forgotten ones'.

Rubbish!

One of the reasons I dislike living in a city is because parts of it resemble a huge rubbish tip. Some people that live or work in the city (or both) treat it as a giant land fill site by throwing their rubbish down on the ground instead of putting it in the rubbish bins or taking it with them until they see a bin.
If someone drops litter on the street and gets caught then they could find themselves in front of the magistrates who could fine them. Unfortunately, the fines aren't large enough to deter people and it is very rare indeed for anyone to be prosecuted. Perhaps if there were more people caught and the fines were much bigger then people would do it less. Maybe they do the same in their own homes too, I just dread to think.
Of course there are permanent street cleaners, (or street cleansing operatives as they are now called) in the city centre but the areas just outside are only done every so often. Where I live, they're almost an extinct breed. There are a few places which are hidden from the main road where commuters park, children walk to school and most people use as a short cut so the lane and street are always strewn with rubbish which only gets cleared when someone complains. Occasionally there have been black plastic refuse sacks full of rubbish dumped by the commuters that park in the area. As they arrive very early in the morning no-one sees who it is that is leaving their rubbbish. All these people need to do is drive another two minutes up the road and they can leave it at the local re-cycling and refuse depot, but perhaps it's too much to expect them to do that.

Oops! What's in the freezer?

I think I must make another New Year Resolution or make a mental note to label everything that I freeze. This morning I was looking through the drawers to make out a list of what was in there because as I live alone, I often cook more than I need and freeze the extra portion(s) for another day.
This however, is not an easy task as I soon discovered when I realised that there were quite a lot of things in there that were not labelled. Although most of the dishes I can recognise if I take off the lids, there are some that I have no idea about! Many a time I have been caught out when I have defrosted something that I thought was one thing and when it was defrosted, it turned out to be something totally different. Take my word for it but sweet and sour pork definitely does not go well with pasta neither does a bolognese ragout sauce go well with rice!
Herbs are another of my little problems because in the summer when I grow herbs in pots, I tend to chop a lot up and freeze them then if I buy fresh herbs for any reason, I do the same with them. Once again there have been a few mistakes such as putting what I thought was parsley in a dish only to find out it was coriander!
Everyone at some time or other, finds something buried at the back of a freezer drawer which has so much ice on it that it is totally unrecognisable and I am just the same. What I tend to do with these 'unidentified' packages is defrost them first before deciding what I am going to do with them. Perhaps burying them in a bucket of sand and calling the bomb disposal squad might be more appropriate, but I put it in there so it should be harmless and as I don't keep pets I am quite safe!
Items like this make up what I call my 'mystery dinners' and I have had a few strange ones in the past and some very successful ones too. One of them was some sausagemeat and herb stuffing balls in a bag which was heavily frosted and it was only when they were completely thawed that I realised what they were. I cooked them in a tomato based sauce and had them with spaghetti and they were very nice.
Perhaps this is how chefs come up with new dishes!

Itchy feet and memories

When I got up today there had been quite a hard frost so I scraped off the car windscreen and went out for my usual short drive. The sun was shining here in the city centre when I left but before I reached the city boundary I had run into thick fog.
Nevertheless, I went out on my usual route and when I returned back into the city I was back in sunshine. I called into the garage and filled the car with petrol and drove home for breakfast.
Later on, I went out for a walk, well wrapped up as the wind was quite fresh and very cold. There are not many places where there are no people or cars in the city so I headed across Castle Green where I usually encounter a few people but no cars. I stood and watched a couple of young men rowing along the river in front of the old brewery and listened to the chaffinches and blue tits in the trees and when I looked down I noticed the tips of daffodils just poking a half inch or so through the soil in the rememberance garden in front of me. So spring is coming.
On my way back home, I thought about the walks that I used to have years ago, up on the downs in Wiltshire or along the path that went through the park to a place called Henford's Marsh where I could see swans nesting in spring. I expect that's all been built on now but I know that the downs around the golf course remain the same. I used to walk there every day with my mother-in-law, my aunt and the dogs before I had the children and it's where I learned to recognise the slightest changes which heralded a new season, either through the different plants and flowers that grew there or the birds and their songs. There was not only a long path running up through the woods but also the wild grassy areas just below the golf course which was right on the top of the downs. The view was spectacular because you could see for miles on a clear day. Even if it was wet and windy, there was always something new to see or hear or smell.
Oh! How I long for walks like that.

The wrong time of day!

Now the weather has improved I am making sure that I go out for a daily walk even if it is raining. Today has been dull but dry, so after getting up I walked over to the newsagents for the newspaper then came back to have breakfast and read the paper. As I did not really need anything in particular from the shops, I decided that I would go out for a walk after lunch.
After a steaming bowl of home made vegetable and pearl barley soup I went out but decided that after all, I would walk into the centre because there were a couple of items I needed.
Now usually, I go into the centre in the morning and it has been several years since I last ventured there on a Saturday afternoon and what a shock I had. It was very, very busy with people everywhere and there seemed to be a lot of large groups of extremely noisy youngsters. The boys were all wearing the usual uniform of hooded jacket and jeans and the girls were all in clothes that appeared to be two sizes too small and they screeched, screamed and squealed at the tops of their voices every time one of the boys glanced in their direction and then giggled and pushed each other before starting the whole process over again. This sort of behaviour was something we would never have contemplated in my younger days because we believed in having a good time while conducting ourselves with a certain amount of decorum and we certainly never dreamed of wasting a Saturday afternoon in the shopping centre when we could be playing some kind of sport, depending on the season.
As I made my way back across Castle Park for some peace and quiet, I was beginning to think perhaps I was getting old because I can't tolerate crowds or too much noise, when I was distracted by half a dozen hunky firemen on the top of a mound. It was obvious that they were practising various rescue techniques as one of them was wearing a harness and the others were beginning to lower him backwards down the steep slope as they would if it were a cliff. The one in charge kept telling him to lean back because the others wouldn't let him go and as I walked along the path below, a wicked voice in my head was telling me to shout 'Let him go. I'll catch him!' but I thought better of it and continued my way home with a smile on my face. If only they knew!

I'll only eat a happy pig

Being brought up in the country has always ensured that I am aware of where my food comes from and how it is produced and now I am older, it has become even more important. In my younger days, there was no panic about saving the planet or climate change and the world population was much smaller so the thought that resources would soon run out never occured to us.
Fortunately, we all grow up and as I did so, I became increasingly aware of what was happening in the world as well as the effect that each and every one of us was having on our environment and the dreadful effects on animals of the mass production of meat. Watching a programme last night about various intensive farming methods, including the way in which pigs were mass produced in the USA, only strengthened my resolve. While the animals on this huge factory farm were healthy and well, they were also in cages or crates where they couldn't even turn around and for a pig, this is not natural.
A pig is an animal that enjoys snuffling about in the ground, especially in wooded areas where there could be acorns or beech nuts to eat and a few nice tasty roots. He also enjoys a mud bath to keep his skin in tip top condition and stop sunburn and the occasional scratch up against a fence is very welcome. After dinner, a good stretch out and a nap in the sty or arc, makes life complete for him. As for sows being inseminated to produce up to twenty seven piglets a year, well, only a man could think of that because they don't have to give birth!
I am fully aware that keeping any animal in idyllic organic conditions is going to cost a lot more so therefore, the meat as an end product will too. However, this doesn't bother me even though I am on a much reduced income. I would far rather eat mostly vegetarian and fish dishes (all ethically sourced of course) and enjoy a really good joint from a happy pig as a special treat but less often. A happy pig is also a much better flavoured pig and the same goes for chickens, ducks, beef and lamb etc.!

Lost skills

At the week end I went with my grand-daughter to the homeware store that is close to where I live to get a knife sharpener for her mum. While we were looking around the kitchen department I noticed that they had some tea cosies for sale and some of them were knitted.
Now, I use teabags because it's more convenient as I live alone and I can't remember when I last used the teapot to make tea so obviously I would have no need for one of these. However, I can remember when I was about eight years old, I made a knitted tea cosy for my Mum at school. It was turquoise basket stitch on the outside and pink garter stitch on the inside with a large pink and turquoise pom-pom on the top and as I remember, it was well used for many years.
I had learned to knit when I was about six and as I got older, I started to design and knit clothes for the first doll I had been given for Christmas when I was four. By doing this, I learned a lot about how thing were constructed, especially when I made the doll a swimsuit from odds and ends of wool. As I got older, I continued to knit from time to time and when my children were very small I progressed to machine knitting as well as hand knitting and made all their clothes.
Another craft I enjoyed was needlework and embroidery which I also learned as a child. Even now I can remember the agonies of getting my french knots and lazy daisy stitches right for the teacher. Of course, dressmaking followed when I was in my teens and these crafts were again very useful when the children were small because they enabled me to work from home as a dressmaker as well as sewing and designing the girls' wardrobes.
Nowadays, children are not taught any of these skills at school and if their parents have not enjoyed the simple pleasure of knitting or sewing a garment, it will be unlikely that any of them will show an intersest in learning how to knit or sew. This means that they will probably never be able to sew on a button properly, take up trousers or skirts if they are too long, mend small tears or make a pair of curtains!
I think I know what I will be teaching my grand-daughter before long. I've already been teaching her to cook and have done so since she was about five, so now she is twelve maybe it's time for her to learn a few more skills if she wants.

A change of lifestyle?

Since retiring and because I want to concentrate on writing short stories and poetry, I have decided that I need to downsize by getting rid of a lot of clutter, especially the ornaments and bits and bobs that take forever to dust. When arranging a visit to my eldest daughter a while ago, I had said to her that I would just be able to fit the cleaning in before going to see her. She said to me "Leave the cleaning. Or do you want 'I wish I'd done a bit more dusting' as your epitaph? She was right of course (but don't tell her)!
The problem is, where to start. Not all of it will be thrown away because I hate the idea of waste and prefer to recycle where possible, so much will be recycled by one of the local scout groups who I know will be having a jumble sale in March. Ornaments and crockery that is not used will be sent there along with a few travel books that I won't need anymore as holidays abroad ceased a long time ago.
I also have a load of photographs that were taken at various locations from holidays that I had abroad but I have never looked at them since putting them in albums so I need to sort those out and throw them away. Then I'll have room in my bookcase for all my cookery books!
Sometimes I wonder why we surround ourselves with so much unecessary 'stuff'. Do I really need eight vases in different sizes and colours when I rarely have fresh flowers indoors and when I do, I always use the same vase? What about all these little brass knick-knacks that I spend a couple of hours polishing every two to three months and is the iron that doesn't steam anymore really worth keeping? Perhaps I really don't need six assorted shopping bags AND two shopping trolleys!
As I'm not a sentimentalist and can easily part with most of my possessions its just the getting started bit I need to get underway.
The biggest problem will be with my jewellery (that all stays!) and my clothes. Now I hate to admit it, but the scruffy old cardigan which is covered in bobbly bits that I am currently wearing, is over ten years old! I have two nice new ones upstairs but I cannot bear to part with anything that 'still has plenty of wear in it' and the wardrobe currently has at least five pairs of 'gardening jeans' on the shelf but I really don't think my backyard warrants that many!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a scruff, but I think I may need hypnosis to go through the wardrobes!

What a waste!

On Sunday evening, I watched Country File on TV and they had a story about the food which is thrown away as a direct by-product of our supermarkets. This included tons of vegetables that were unacceptable to the supermarkets because they were not uniform in shape, size or colour.
One of the examples was purple sprouting broccoli and there was nothing wrong with this, but it would not be accepted because some of it had thick stalks and the rest had thin stalks, so the grower was going to plough it all back into the soil. Another farmer had a huge quantity of cauliflowers which the supermarket would not take because some had dirt in them which was easily removed by turning the cauliflower upside down and giving it a good shake. I wondered if the buyer at the supermarket realised these are actually grown in the ground! Some were considered much too big (ideal for large families though) and some had small areas of damage to the florets.
When one of the presenters spoke to ordinary people and asked them which the supermarket would sell and which they would buy, it was pretty unanimous. Only one person got it wrong (he was a man!) but the rest knew which box would be for sale in supermarkets but they would all have bought the mis-shapen and odd sized vegetables. However, the supermarkets try to tell us that the housewife dictates what they sell but the housewife will tell you they don't have a choice.
Another programme that I watched with my grand-daughter on Saturday was all about rationing in the second world war and because food was very short it was a crime to waste it and you could be prosecuted if you did so. Pity that doesn't apply today!
I was disgusted at the attitudes of the supermarkets, especially when there are people in this world who never have enough to eat yet they are forcing farmers and growers to destroy perfectly good food. Well, from now on I will boycott supermarkets when possible and continue to make my weekly visit to our local farmers' market. At least there I can speak to the people that grow my food, I know that it is absolutely fresh because they harvest it all the day before and it comes from within a fifty mile radius. It may have dirt on it from the field, but I am lucky because I have running water in my house! I also know there have been no pesticides or nasty chemicals used in producing it and what's more, it not only tastes better but it is cheaper too, even if it does come in assorted shapes with a few places where the insects have munched it!

Spring approaching?

At Last! Today I was able to go out for a good walk for the first time in about two weeks without slipping and sliding everywhere so as I needed a couple of large, bulky but light items from Wilkinsons, I decided to take the 'pretty' route to the shops across Castle Park.
The weather was dry and cloudy but the sun was making a few futile attempts to break through the veil of cloud, which almost had a few broken patches, but in the wrong places and the temperature was fairly mild compared to that of late.
Walking towards the park, the first clues that spring might not be too far away were the mahonia shrubs on the car park of a large homeware store. The flowers are just beginning to show the first faint signs of lemon yellow and I think that by next week the flowers could well be open if the weather stays this way. The willow catkin buds also looked decidedly fatter than the last time I really looked at them so I am living in hopes.
When I got to the park, I could hear a robin who was really singing for all he was worth and there were blue tits and chaffinches also flitting between the trees and calling to each other. There are a couple of prunus trees which already have some blossom but these are always the first to flower so they are really the true harbingers of spring. As I walked up to the church ruins even the soil smelled different and full of promise and there was a pair of blackbirds busily turning over the leaves under the hedge. All of these signs and sounds filled me with hope that soon winter would be forgotten about as all the trees and plants go through the most amazing transformation.
When I got home, I couldn't resist going out into my little back yard/garden to see if anything was beginning to wake up and show that spring was coming but alas, as the garden gets very little sun through the winter anyway, I wasn't too disappointed.
But now there are only a couple of weeks left of January I know I won't have to wait for long before things really start to happen.

I told you so!

On Friday I wrote about my supermarket nightmare and yesterday morning when I went over there with my grand-daughter it was not only exactly as I said, but worse!
The store was the usual obstacle course with the in store 'dot com' shoppers and cages blocking almost every aisle and I was looking for some curry paste when we heard an altercation taking place in the next aisle where the teas and coffees lived.
We stopped our search and stood and listened for a minute or so and there appeared to be just two voices involved. The first was very loud, bossy and dominant and I described the owner of this voice to my grand-daughter saying that her age was about forty, she was very overweight, had very few manners and had attitude with a capital 'A'. She had been demanding that the other person "Move it out of my way NOW!". The other voice again belonged to a lady who was uite well spoken and very polite.She was politely but quietly refusing to obey the commands of the other person. Then I thought the first person was speaking to an employee of Tesco and demanding that a cage be moved out of her way, but as she grew increasingly louder and ruder in her demands I realised that this was not the case. As I had found what I was looking for, we made our way round to the aisle where this racket was going on. I told my grand-daughter to wait at the top by the coffee while I went to get the teabags (I really felt like going to poke this rude woman in the eye!).
My description of the owner of the first voice was spot on and as I approached, a Tesco employee came around the shelves at the bottom and stepped in to stop the situation escalating. The mouthy woman went off and the other lady was very visibly shaken by the whole thing. She told the lady from Tesco what had happened and I said she was right because I had heard from the next aisle what was being said.
Anyway, seeing the second lady was alright, I left her in the capable hands of the other lady from Tesco, got my teabags and we went on our way.
Never a dull moment in Tesco!

Save our fish....

Watching part of an episode of Rick Stein in France this morning on Saturday Kitchen, I was again reminded of how stupid the EU fishing quotas are and yet we seem to be the only country that follow them religiously. You only have to walk down to the harbour of any fishing village when you are on holiday anywhere in the Mediterranean to see the catches that are landed by the local fishermen and which are all purchased by local housewives and restaurateurs. Some of the fish are so small but they are landed and all are eaten.
This does not happen in the UK where our fishing fleet, obeying the stupid rules, prefer to throw those which are too small and anything over their allowed quota back into the sea...dead. This means that these fish are not given the chance to grow to maturity and we wonder why some species are being fished to near extinction.
One of the other problems we have in the seas around our country are the huge factory ships from other countries in Europe and beyond, which take thousands of tons of fish from our waters, ignoring all legislation and generally getting away with it. Although our fisheries are patrolled by Navy vessels there are not enough of them and they appear to be virtually powerless to stop this.
There are some enlightened fishermen in the UK who realise that in order to preserve their livelihoods, they have to make drastic changes to the way they fish and the kinds of equipment and nets they use. In some localities around our coast there are 'no fish' areas where all fishing is banned in order to allow certain species to recover their numbers and this is proving to be highly successful. Some are using different nets so that small fry can escape rather than being caught, only to be thrown back dead and some have stopped 'bottom trawling' in order to preserve the seabed and all the flora and fauna that it supports.
For some considerable time I have been very choosy about buying fish and prefer to deal with the fishmonger and fishermen at the farmers' market where the fish is fresher, cheaper, sustainable and line caught. I think we should respect the fish we catch and eat it rather than waste it. If more people were aware of how their fish is caught and the effect it is having on the environment and fish stocks for the future, perhaps they might think twice before buying it.

Supermarket Nightmare!

I'm dreading tomorrow morning because I will be up very early in order to go shopping at Tesco. Although I have had to use Tesco Metro since Christmas due to inclement weather conditions, I'm afraid I will have to brace myself for the horror that is the main Tesco store.
Even when I go on a Saturday and get there before eight o'clock I will still find that a lot of the shelves have not been re-stocked properly despite the fact that they are open for 24 hours and there will cages littering the store.
Then I will have to manoeuvre my way around the 'dot com' shoppers who will be doing the shopping with their usual gusto and enthusiasm (that should be apathy), for those who simply can't be bothered to do it for themselves or who are living such busy lives that they don't have the time along with those who are too posh to shop.
I will have to check the freshness of the vegetables but with any luck there will be a farmers' market on Wednesday and I will be able to get my supplies from there again but I won't need to bother with the bread because I've gone back to baking my own. Checking the 'use by' dates on fresh foods and milk is a nightmare as many will expire over this week end, so I will be rummaging at the back of the shelves to find items with a longer shelf life, after all, I don't want to gorge myself over two days.
The other time consuming part of shopping is reading the labels to check where the stuff came from and what's in it and I get stroppy at the print which is getting ever smaller on the list of ingredients despite the fact that I wear my contact lenses and reading glasses.
Finally, I will make my way to the check outs only to find there are queues building up as there will not be enough open, that the person in front of me will have a huge trolley full even though it looked less than all the others. To put the icing on the cake, the cashier will have to get someone to go and check a price because the bar code on an item is damaged which will mean that they will have to go to the furthest part of the store (and still won't be able to find it) while all the other queues move faster than the one I'm in!

The Great Unveiling......but it's not nice!

At last the snow is beginning to thaw but what a change! From the first fall last Wednesday, which was about three to four inches of fairly dry, powdery snow (ideal for skiing so I was informed) to the wetter stuff that fell yesterday, everything has looked fairly clean. When snow has freshly fallen it makes the whole place look totally different because the light levels are enhanced and when it is pristine, before feet and car tyres have started to churn it up into slush, it even makes the city look pleasant so when the sun shines it's a bonus.
But not anymore. Today, I had to go to the surgery which is about three quarters of a mile away and to say I walked would be a misrepresentation of the facts. Despite being so close to the city centre, the pavements are lethal and I slithered all the way. The weather has been dank, dark and gloomy all day and because the thaw has set in, everything is black and filthy. The roads may be clear but the pavements are still covered in grey, wet, slushy ice and in some places the ice has gone completely black where the dirt has been trodden in.
In the garden, I can see the dark skeletons of plants emerging and some greenery too. Because I did not have the time to cut back everything at the end of autumn due to the rain, also because I like to leave some growth to protect plant crowns from frosts, I will have a considerable amount of pruning and clearing to do next month. This is a time of the year that I quite enjoy because not only will I be able to get outside on dry days, it means that spring will not be too far away and I can look forward to all the plants waking from their winter's sleep and bursting into life.
I always think that the thaw after snowfall is a bit like a bad magician who has put a clean cloth over something and then whisks it away with a flourish only to reveal a complete mess! That's probably because I have a strange sense of humour and I hope that the bad magician doesn't pay us another visit before spring.

Guarding dinner!

Every morning when I am having breakfast there is usually a fat, furry squirrel or two outside the kitchen window having a peanut breakfast. As we had more snow last night there were two of them today and they spent much longer than normal filling up so were outside for a considerable time.
I wanted to go out to put some more raisins and cheese out for the blackbird and robin as there seemed to be enough of the seeds and suet pellets but I know that they are rather partial to the dried fruit and cheese. Well, we have treats so why not the birds, especially in this weather. The water had frozen too so I needed to thaw this out but I waited until the squirrels had finished and left before I went out. As I did so, the blackbird flew over the fence but I hoped that I hadn't scared him too much and that he would soon come back. He flew up to the roof and watched while I dealt with the water and replenished the bird table with goodies and within a few minutes of me closing the back door he was on the bird table.
Leaving him to it, I carried on with a few bits and pieces and next time I looked out, the robin was tucking in and the blackbird was nowhere to be seen. A little later in the afternoon I saw the blackbird sitting on the bird table again and didn't think anything of it at the time. However, about fifteen minutes later I looked out and he hadn't moved so I wondered if he was alright. I know the crows had been out shortly before and they were chasing off a magpie because the commotion went on for quite a few minutes and I had watched four of them chasing the magpie mercilessly.
Anyway, the blackbird seemed to be perfectly alright and sat there for about half an hour in all before having some more to eat and then flying off as it got dark.
Now I know this may be strange behaviour, but I think he was protecting his food. After all, there have been reports on the local news about flocks of fieldfares and redwings coming to gardens in the West country over the last few days and I had seen a pair of redwings in my own garden the other day. What is even more strange are the reports that the redwings are chasing the local blackbirds off the shrubs, bushes and trees with the berries on in the posher parts of the city.
Perhaps this blackbird had heard this too and decided that no one was going to get his raisins and cheese! What do you think?

Is it the trouble with children (or parents)?

Okay, so I'm on my soapbox again but so what. I heard a report on the radio this morning which said that research had been done into what primary school children were taking to school in their lunchboxes and only ONE percent had a balanced packed lunch with vegetables and fruit.
Back in the dark ages when I first started school, I used to take a packed lunch in an old Oxo tin and in those days we didn't have yoghurts, very rarely had crisps and absolutely no fizzy or sugary drinks. My packed lunch was usually a cheese sandwich and an apple with a rich tea biscuit. We used to have water to drink because we had already drunk a third of a pint of milk at breaktime then when I got home in the afternoon I would have a cup of tea.
Dinner was eaten in the early eveining by the whole family and was meat with two veg followed by a milk pudding. In those days we didn't have the choice of foods readily available to today's families and there were no supermarkets in the fifties either so food was simple home cooked fare and we were NEVER asked what we would like. Because I came from a large family, we all used to devour everything put in front of us. There were no fussy eaters in our house.
Luckily, my mother was an excellent cook and could knock up a very tasty meal out of almost nothing at all and we were all fairly well fed. My father used to grow vegetables and we kept rabbits for the table and chicken, so eggs were always readily available and so was fresh meat.
It's all a bit different now as the family unit has all but disappeared and the majority of mums have to go out to work so have very little time to bother with meals. In some ways I can understand them taking the easy way out and giving children what they demand but perhaps the main problem lies with our educational system. We had 'domestic science' lessons at school and learned how to cook basic meals for a family and also how to prepare meals that were nutritionally balanced but I don't think that happens today. It seem that pupils can choose the lessons that they wish to do once they're a couple of years into senior school.
Another misconception seems to be that it takes too long to prepare a good meal and it is also expensive, but that's not true as many of the well known TV chefs are quick to demonstrate. Then you get the ones that say 'I can't cook'. Rubbish! If you can read and follow simple instructions then you can jolly well cook because there are no end of basic cookery books on the market. As for it being too expensive that's also tosh, since retiring and finding myself on a very tight budget, I eat every bit as well as I did when I was working (a bit too well actually!).
My mother never had the choice of cookery books, time and work saving gadets and selection of foods available when we were children and I didn't have as many as there are today when my children were small but we managed. I sometimes wonder how todays parents would manage if they were transported back thirty years and beyond!

More snow coming so more disruption

I saw the local weather forecast on television at lunchtime and they have given a severe weather warning for this part of the country from tomorrow afternoon into Wednesday for heavy snowfall. It seems there is a front moving in from the Atlantic which usually gives us rain in copious amounts but this time we will get snow.
At the moment I feel a bit like an animal in the zoo because I am trapped in this cage, unable to get out due to the packed ice which has melt water on the top and is therefore treacherous underfoot. I made a resolution to get out for a walk every day this year but because of the ice I did not risk it yesterday and today I have only ventured two steps outside the back door to feed the birds and two outside the front to put some rubbish in the bin. To risk actually going out for a walk would be folly. Just standing and looking out of the window watching other people slipping and sliding on their way to work this morning was enough for me!
The bins have not been emptied since before Christmas and the recycling collections have not been done either. I have no idea when they will come again and I cannot leave rubbish out in plastic bags because the foxes will tear them apart. All I can do is put all my considerable weight on the bags that I put in the bin and compact it down as much as possible.
At five thirty yesterday evening I looked out of the front window to see if it was freezing and I saw a fox casually walking across the road. He was in superb condition and stopped to pee on some small shrubs by the pavement and outside the window. Then he sniffed at the air all around, decided the coast was clear and walked off round the side of the house.There was obviously no one out and about which allowed him to roam where he liked. He must have been quite hungry because normally I don't see them scavaging until much later in the evening.
If this snow does come, at least I will not need to worry too much about getting in shopping as I made sure that I got enough on Saturday to see me through the week, but I will miss the farmers' market if it's cancelled again on Wednesday.
Let's look on the bright side though because it's only seven weeks until the beginning of March!

Home made and worth it!

Last night I decided to make a beef stew with dumplings for dinner as I thought this would help to keep out the cold. I dragged the pressure cooker out of the cupboard and although it's over twenty years old it's still as good as new but I must admit I haven't used it as much as I have wanted because it took too long to heat on my old cooker. Now I have a new cooker I think the pressure cooker will get lots of use again. The stew was made in under forty five minutes (which included the time it took to prepare the vegetables) and because all the flavour is retained within the cooker, the taste was fantastic. Because I live alone, there is always enough for two or three meals and the freezer is kept topped up which saves me time, electricity and money and there is only one pan to be washed up!
With this new cooker, I have a fan assisted oven which is brilliant for ensuring that everything is cooked evenly. In the old oven I had to keep my eye on any baking and regularly turn cakes and pies etc. so that they didn't get baked one sided. As I am fed up with the mush that is sold under the guise of bread I decided to bake a loaf this morning because I have a longing for really crusty bread and crunchy toast. Perhaps it's a comfort thing in the cold weather, I really don't know or care, so anyway, I baked a loaf and the smell is driving me crazy while I write this but I must exercise every bit of self control so as not to eat it all!
The other thing I did was to 'prove' the pizza stone that my daughter and grand-children gave me for Christmas. I can't wait to make pizza with my grand-daughter the next time she comes although she has given me a very long list of all the things she wants me to cook again but I'm sure that pizza is on there somewhere. This gadget will be very useful in the summer too when I make quiches because it will ensure that the bottom of the pastry is crips too. In fact, I can think of loads of things I can use it for when I'm cooking so it will get plenty of use.
Hopefully, we will have a farmers' market this week as the weather forecast shows that there will be less snow so 'fingers crossed'. I much prefer to buy all my vegetables there because they are certainly much fresher and cheaper than the supermarket and all grown within a thirty mile radius of the city centre. The meat and poultry is local too and although a little more expensive, the taste is far superior. So, lots of home cooking!

Tie me down and gag me quick!

Today I'm left wondering if this is all a bad dream. Someone please tell me it is because I thought I had wax in my ears when I heard the news this morning and you couldn't make this up. The government are now telling councils around the country to ration the salt because supplies are so low and we only have enough left for a couple of days!
I think it's time they woke up and smelled the coffee. Hasn't anyone told our government that we've got salt mines in Cheshire because this is where the councils get the darned stuff! They should fill up a few coaches with the unemployed (you know the ones I mean, those who have never worked and have no intention of doing so if they can help it) there are a lot to choose from. They could quite easily work twelve hours shifts, (I used to when I was nursing and some shifts were even longer), that would soon improve our stocks and would also give the taxpayers some return for all the tax we pay to them in the form of benefits just to keep them idle!
Then the government should all be returned to the classroom because there are quite a few things they need to learn. Firstly and most importantly are listening skills. They are very fond of hearing their own voices but they never have the guts to listen, even to those who are experts in their field. This is demonstrated by the fact that recently they tried to gag a very eminent scientist because they didn't like what he said! Good for him, he resigned! They haven't been listening to the experts who study the subject of the climate. We have all been warned over and over again that due to global warming and climate change, this country along with many others, will suffer extreme weather in the form of severe and extensive flooding, ferocious storms with abnormal storm force winds, very hot, prolonged dry spells and very cold winters with plummeting temperatures.
To any reasonably educated person I should have thought that this was quite clear but not so to those who govern us! After the snow we had last February when we ran out of salt for the roads, they said it must never happen again and plans were put in place, or so they had us all believe, in order that history would not repeat itself this year (every time we have snow, we hear this!). Then lo and behold, on the radio this morning one of them said that there had not been enough time to get new salt store yards in place. Well how long do you bloody well need? There are more than enough 'brownfield' sites in this country where nothing is happening. Some of them are in the hands of developers who are not developing at present, due to the recession so why can't they use these in the short term? Honestly, this lot haven't even got the sense they were born with so hopefully we'll get shot of them this year. Sadly, the next lot will probably be as bad!
Then the politicians are complaining about how much the country is losing because people are not going to work. Well they can't because the roads are treacherous due to lack of salt so do they expect everyone to walk even if they live an hour's drive or thirty miles or so away? This lot want their cake and eat it too!
These politicians are the same greedy so and so's who were caught with their fingers in the cash box. They have been happily fleecing the British taxpayers by claiming what can only be described as obscene expenses for second homes (or country piles) while some of us are struggling to pay our rents or mortgages. They buy their furniture and household items from a shop that most of us can't afford, we have to make do with the flat packs from Argos or Ikea (you know, the ones that fall to pieces after a couple of years and don't have enough screws to put them together). Some people just don't have any conscience when it comes to feathering their own nests.
This leaves me puzzling about what sort of experience will endure during the next cold spell.

The unusual visitors and a wicked landlady

With this very cold weather I have made sure that there is food and water out for the visitors who honour me when they visit my little back yard or garden. There have been three grey squirrels who amuse me with their antics and they have been coming for about eighteen months now. There is also a tiny little woodmouse who comes from time to time but goodness knows how he gets in because there is a wall all the way around, so perhaps he's a mighty mountaineering woodmouse or maybe he parachutes in!
Then there are the birds, but very few. Since this cold weather began just before Christmas I have had a robin, a pair of blackbirds, wren, great tit and today there were a pair of redwings sitting on the fence! This is a sign that the weather is very cold because it is unusual to see country birds in the middle of a big city in their hunt for food.
My little back yard and bird table used to be a magnet for dozens of birds including jays, long tailed tits, magpies and hedgesparrows and the occasional visit from a sparrowhawk. I had about thirty collared doves up until Easter last year and they would get through a 7 kilo bag of peanuts every week but as I planned to retire in the summer, I knew that I would not be able to feed them at such a rate, so I had to wean them off expecting to get a meal for free every day and now the nuts are reserved for the squirrels. There is a nut feeder for the great tits, blue tits and other small birds and I also have a large hanging seed feeder which I was filling every other day for the sparrows but they have not been into the garden since the beginning of December because of my wicked landlady.
At the side of the house there is a piece of land that used to be 8 foot high with brambles and home to dozens of rats and to get the landlady to do something about it was like asking for the moon. She had never been to the property since I had moved in during 1985 (her father was the landlord but he died about 1987) and she didn't do any maintenance or repairs until forced to do so by environmental health in 2001 after I contacted them. Anyway in 2004 I was on a residents association committee for the area to have a home zone and as this land was an eyesore we decided to take it over. The other residents gave me a hand to clear the rubbish and then we planted a few shubs and three trees which had been donated. I looked after this garden which grew and grew. Almost every time I went near a garden centre I bought a new plant or two and people used to come to take photographs because it looked so nice. This was the birds' playground and hunting ground too and a flock of thirty or so house sparrows used to play there then come over the wall into my garden to feed. At the beginning of December the landlady had employed a builder to do some work on the gable end of the house and with his small digger he managed to destroy five years hard work and love by removing the lot in two hours. The landlady told me that I was to have nothing to do with this piece of land even though I had saved her a fortune getting it cleared twice a year.
The birds are so traumatised that they have not yet returned to my garden to feed even in this freezing weather but I live in hopes. I also believe in divine retribution, poetic justice or karma so the landlady had better be prepared! I have decided to write a short story about the garden along with a few others that I have ideas for so you may see it in print one day.

Getting on with it

As I couldn't get to the shops yesterday because it was too slippery, I had to get there today because I was running out of milk and the elderly gentleman round the corner had not had his bread and milk delivered by his care worker yesterday. I had given him some to keep him going as he didn't know when she would be able to get down with the roads being so bad.
There are a lot of able bodied younger people living around here but not one of them has offered any help to the older people who are unable to get out and about to see if they needed any basic shopping. Even those that usually work who stayed at home yesterday didn't even jump into action to clear the snow from the pavements so that people could walk freely, but when I was a lot younger, this is something we did automatically. We nearly aways had snow each winter and we were sent out to clear snow from our paths and from the paths of any older people, we also did their shopping but that doesn't happen nowadays.
So, after my porridge, I put on my boots and funny hat and went out with my backpack. As I cannot carry or lift anything, I usually take my shopping trolley but because it was pretty bad outside I thought I would be better off having both hands free.
Luckily, when I had gone a very careful half mile, I noticed the buses were running on the main road so caught one into the shopping centre which saved me struggling on the ice. Although the snow was packed and frozen, it wasn't as hard to walk today just as long as you were careful where you put your feet.
In the centre there was a pathway cleared and gritted all along the front of the shops in the main shopping area and there were not too many people about so it didn't take me too long to get what we needed in Tesco Metro. Now I usually do a big shop in the main Tesco early on a Saturday morning twice a month, but I will not be taking the car out while there is ice and slush on the roads and Tesco don't clear their car park. This Saturday, I will be taking my big trolley into the Metro and also getting a few bits in Wilkinsons. The weather forecast is more of this to come at the week end so this time I will make sure that I am well stocked up then it won't matter if I can't get out until next Wednesday when I'll go to the farmers' market.
When I got home today, I had just put the shopping away then went out to feed the birds with some more seeds and cheese. I was delighted to see a wren picking insects off the wall and a couple of fat blackbirds, who have obviously paired up already, enjoying the seeds. I knew the robin was around because I could hear him close by and I know he likes the cheese so I must put that on the list for Saturday!
As long as I can get out and about and make sure that the squirrels, birds and little woodmouse all have their food and my fridge freezer has enough for me, then I'm quite content.

Snow blind or stupid!

Well we've got snow at last! Before I went to bed yesterday we had only had about six flakes in the middle of the day but this morning I woke up at 5am and looked out to find we had about three inches and it was still snowing but not heavily. There is nothing I like more about being retired than to be able to make a cup of tea and get back into bed and doze off again on days like this!
Later, just after I had got up, I looked out of the window to see that some stupid a*****le had just left a car almost in the middle of the road which made it difficult for anyone to get past and my car was in danger of being bashed yet again! I called the local police station to let our PCSO's know and they came around within 10 minutes. While the young man was doing a check on the registration and I was taking photos (after all if mine was damaged I would be claiming on their insurance), the young lady was jumping about with delight because she said she had never seen so much snow.
While we were discussing the car, it was obvious that it wouldn't be possible to get it 'lifted' because the car pound was closed today, the woman who owned it came back. The lady PCSO pointed out to her that she had left it in a silly place because it was likely to cause an accident and she was lucky that they hadn't issued a ticket yet. The woman, who couldn't speak much English and was very rude to both of them and as she reversed around to go back along the road, her wheels were spinning like mad and she blamed it on them!
We just stood in the road open mouthed as she drove away and they said they wish they had started to write out the ticket before she came back!
The squirrels that come down into the garden seem to be reluctant to jump off the fence, they have just been sitting there looking at the nut box but there has been a robin on the birdtable so when I've had some soup for lunch I will put some grated cheese out for him.
I was unable to get into the shops today because it was too slippery. A large homeware store closeby was closed and I doubt that there was a farmer's market, but I must try to get some shopping tomorrow. I also need to check whether the elderly gentleman round the corner has had his usual visit from his carer who gets his shopping on a Wednesday because if she hasn't come today he may need some milk and ready meals too.

My manifesto!

With this being an election year I thought I might as well publish my manfesto as all we are hearing on the news at the moment are the politicians sizing up to each other. We've only had two days of it and I've had enough already so here are some of the changes I would make if I was in charge!
a) No child would be able to leave school until they could read, spell and write without the aid of any gadget. They must also show that they can speak at least six proper sentences without using the usual smattering of grunts, 'f' words and 'innit'. Be able to say 'please' and 'thankyou' when appropriate and show manual dexterity by eating a meal with a knife and fork instead of fingers. This would greatly reduce the number of 18 - 24 year olds who leave school and fail to find work then claim Jobseeker's Allowance until retirement. Employers always prefer employees to have some basic and social skills.
b) Everyone will be paid what they are worth. This may mean that a lot of people (especially MPs) will be paying money back to their employers!
c) There will be no more management. All managers will become general employees as they currently spend too much time in meetings about meetings and as such are non-productive.
d) The father who is called 'Unknown' must have a vasectomy because he has produced too many offspring (according to birth certificates issued) and has failed to pay any maintenance thus leaving it to the taxpayer to provide for his children.
These are just a few of the changes I have planned so I shall work on the rest. It will probably make me totally unpopular so perhaps I won't go into politics after all!

Mobile information desk!

Sometimes I think I have a big placard round my neck saying 'Ask me anything' or perhaps I should put one there because very often when I am shopping people come up to me and ask the strangest questions. In the past, I have been asked about which wine to serve with a particular dish to what is the best cure for heartburn or the quickest way to another part of the city. The problem with the last one is that after I've given directions and the person has driven off, I realise that I've sent them down a one way street or worse still, through a pedestrian only area because I won't drive in the city and either walk everywhere or use a bus now that I have my bus pass!
This morning while I was in the Tesco Metro minding my own business, as you do, a man who looked as if he came Morocco or Tunisia asked me which was the best spread to use. He had some Utterly Butterly and Vitalite in his hands and had obviously been puzzling over this for some time. I asked him what he was going to use it for and pointed out that both were unsuitable if he wanted to cook with it because they were low fat and would go watery. He said he wanted it for spreading on toast and with bread. Then I suggested he try one of the olive spreads because it was more versatile and would be better for his health and his heart. We then had a discussion about the various properties of the different spreads and butters on the shelves and eventually he made his choice and went on his way.
I think the strangest encounter I had was one evening in our big Tesco when I was stopped by a young Somali boy about 10 years old who was with his Mum. He asked me what custard was and how to make it. His English was quite good but Mum obviously couldn't understand a word or speak it. I explained that it was a hot, sweet sauce that could be poured over fruit or hot fruit pies etc. so he repeated what I said to his Mum and then after some discussion between the pair of them he asked if it was easy to make. I told him it was quite easy and went through the instructions on the tin which he in turn passed on to Mum in Somali. Then I told him that they could buy it already made and duly found some which I showed to them. After yet another discussion in Somali they decided to take some and Mum said something else to him. He looked a bit embarassed and finally asked if I could show them what sort of things they could eat it with. So off I went with both of them following me to the dessert section where I showed them the fruit pies and also some steamed puddings. As these had pictures on the packaging I thought it would help them to decide what they were going to try. Mum and boy looked as pleased as punch and both thanked me with great big smiles so I left them to decide and went to continue my own shopping.
After all that, I was looking at the pre-packed fish for some to put in the freezer at home when an elderly gentleman asked me if I could tell him the best way to cook trout!

Baby! It's cold outside!

Usually on a Sunday, when I don't have my grand-daughter with me, I get up early and take the car out for a run. There are two reasons for this, firstly, as I don't do a lot of driving I need to make sure that the battery is charged up and secondly, because I don't like driving in the city there are fewer people about so I can drive rather than the usual stop/start.
This morning, I fully expected to have to de-ice the car but I was quite surprised to see that the frost that had been on the car at bedtime last night had all melted and this was eight o'clock this morning. I set off on my usual route out of the city and as I got further out, I noticed that all the side roads looked quite white with heavy frost so I continued on my usual round trip which is about 20 miles in total and as I came back and got nearer to home, I could see that there was a lot of ice forming on the pavements. When I got into my road this ice was also forming on the road itself so I carefully parked the car and went inside.
After having breakfast and catching up with the Archers, I thought I would go out for a walk because the sun was shining and I don't mind the cold. Wrapping up warm I set off along the road and had only gone about a hundred yards or so when I met two young men coming the opposite way. They asked me if I was taking the short cut up past the school and told me to be very careful if I was and to walk where the sun had been. Apparently it was like a skating rink and both of them had slipped and fallen. They didn't appear drunk besides it was too early and they hadn't even got to the pub!
Thanking them, I carried on but went by way of the main road. The wind was really biting and as most of the pavement was in shade, the wind was freezing all the moisture from where the sun had melted the frost earlier. Eventually, after doing a few bad impersonations of Bambi on two legs I decided to walk in the road but the sides were just as icy so I had to be really careful.
Now it's all very well going out for a walk but it is impossible to walk only where the sun shines because it is unlikely that you will ever get home again! I decided to give it up as a bad job and continued what was almost around the block and back home.
When I got back home, I couldn't believe how long the walk had taken. Under normal weather conditions I would be able to do that in about twenty minutes but trying to do it on two feet in such icy conditions it had taken me more than twice as long.
So beware! It may look nice and sunny but this weather has set a few booby traps!

Ready to try the recipes?

For Christmas I was lucky enough to receive two cookery books to add to my collection and today I had a look through them to see what new dishes I could make in the near future.
The problem with me is, I think I am already a good cook and usually look in recipe books for ideas then end up doing my own thing completely. As I have been cooking for a great many years, my mother was an excellent cook before me and I still use some of her 'unwritten' recipes as well as my own tried and tested ones. Sometimes I start out with the intentions of cooking something specific and half way through I add a bit of this and some of that and end up with a dish that is really good only to find that when I come to repeat it I can't really remember what I put into the dish in the first place!
To avoid this happening now I note down anything different that I might use so that if I want to repeat the exercise I can and I also plan to start writing my own 'sawdust and splinter' recipes into a book that I can hand on to my grand-children and anyone else that's interested. This trial and error method of cooking has a lot of pros and only one or two cons. The good thing is that I have discovered some of my best dishes this way and it's also usually a lot cheaper. On the down side, I have had a few disasters which, while edible, the food doesn't look particularly appetising and I wouldn't want to serve it to guests.
With the cold weather that we are currently having, I have made several delicious vegetable soups using my standard base and they are all much better and cheaper than the supermarkets. For a sample, how about trying my carrot and coriander soup. Easy to make and costs next to nothing.
For 3 large servings you will need:
1 medium size onion 2 sticks celery* 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1 medium potato 2 pints vegetable stock (made with stock cube)
3 very large carrots 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh coriander

* (celery can be omitted but does improve the flavour of all soups. It keeps very well in the salad drawer of the fridge and I have used it up to 2 weeks later and it has still been OK)
1) Chop all the vegetables into very small cubes
2) Heat the oil in a large pan (I use a large wok with a lid) and then add all the chopped vegetables which you need to cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
3) Add the vegetable stock and bring to simmering point then cover and cook for 20 minutes while you chop the coriander
4) Remove from heat, add the coriander and some seasoning then blend until as smooth as you like, using a hand blender, food processor or liquidiser. Serve with crusty bread.
The soup can also be frozen.
Bon appetite!

To rave or not to rave......

I never stay up alone to see in the New Year and last night was no different. Feeling quite tired I went to bed at my usual time as my eyes are programmed to shut for increasingly longer intervals after 9pm. After listening to 'Book at Bedtime' I soon drifted off to sleep and was not even woken at midnight by fireworks or people coming out of their houses singing or laughing and shouting.
Instead, I was very rudely awoken at 1:30am by the sound of 'head banging' music, thump, thump, thump which at first I thought was coming from next door. However, I soon ascertained that it wasn't then I thought that someone in fairly close proximity was having a very noisy party, so I looked out of the windows front and back but could see nothing.
After that, I did not get very much sleep. First I tried earplugs but they only make me sneeze violently. I came downstairs and made some ovaltine but that didn't work either so I put the radio on and still the thumping continued louder than the radio. In the end I gave up and was glad when it was time to get up but still the noise continued. By this time I had worked out that there must be a rave nearby as there are a few warehouse places in the locality.
After breakfast, I decided I would go out for my walk and I must admit that within 100 yards of my front door I thought I has stumbled into a nightmare scenario! Along the bicycle track there were various people relieving themselves, cars of all ages and vans were parked in every available space along the road which is unusual at weekends and holiday times and the pavements were scattered with empty cans and broken bottles. There was an assortment of what I can only describe as shifty looking sub-humans either under the influence of alcohol or drugs (or both) and all of them looking as if they hadn't had a good wash in a very long time. The clothing they wore (or not in some cases) was a strange selection of what I assumed had been thrown out by Oxfam because it wasn't good enough to be sold.
Luckily, I had not taken my handbag because I certainly didn't feel that safe as there didn't appear to be any normal looking people around as I continued to walk towards the city centre, instead there were even more weirdos, some carrying large rucksacks, heading towards the rave which was very close to my home.
Making sure that I kept to all the main roads instead of my usual short cuts which are quite isolated, I continued my walk. Even some considerable distance from the rave I saw one couple having sex in a car and a young man relieving himself in the middle of the ambulance station car park while someone else was asleep under a scruffy duvet in another car. They obviously arrived too late to park anywhere near the rave and were a stone's throw from the main shopping centre.
What leaves me speechless is apparently everyone knew this was going to take place (one of my neighbours said it had been in the Evening Post), yet there was not a policeman or police car in sight and no effort had been made to stop them. My walk took me about a mile from where this was held and back around almost in a circle and I certainly saw no sign of the police although it was obvious that there were a lot of drugs to be had.
This rave must also have broken every H & S rule in the book with the number that attended as there could not have been adequate toilet facilities, fire safety precautions and usually they 'break in' to the electricity supply as well. The city council 'Noise Pollution' department is also at fault because they didn't stop it and I'm beginning to wonder just what I get for all the council tax I pay. Surely people that pay their council tax are entitled to a peaceful night's sleep and all these weirdos have not contirbuted a penny towards what it will cost to clear up the mess they've left behind.
The racket eventually stopped around midday and I only hope they don't start up again tonight because if they do, I will crtainly be making a few phone calls including one to our local councillor if I can find her number, I'll ring her about 2am!