What will they tell us is bad for us next?

Now scientific or medical 'experts' are telling us that in order to avoid bowel cancer and many other forms of cancer we should reduce our consumption of red meat to 75 grammes a day. That means three rashers of bacon or two sausages. Perhaps someone should point out that our very early ancestors, the cavemen, had to run after and kill their meat and as they didn't farm vegetables or fruit, their diet consisted mainly of large quantities of raw red meat. They didn't own fridges or freezers so what was not eaten immediately probably went off but still got eaten if their hunting hadn't been successful. I know they didn't reach ages to match ours today but nevertheless I am sure that they didn't all die in huge numbers from bowel cancer either.
The problem with these experts is that they latch on to something and then tell us that it's bad for us but very often another lot of experts come up with other studies that have the opposite opinion so that we don't really know who to believe. Perhaps they haven't heard of the rules that the majority of us live by and that's: 'all things in moderation' and 'a little of what you fancy does you good'.
As for me, I don't have any plans to turn vegetarian even if I do have a couple of days each week when I don't eat meat and NOTHING will make me give up the occasional bacon sandwich or roast beef dinner!

A taste of spring

Today the weather was almost springlike although the wind was still a bit chilly and fresh. We did have a few sunny spells which is always enough to give the heart a lift. Now the birds are really pairing up in earnest and looking for places to nest especially the little house sparrows who are beginning to investigate possible new homes under the tiles of the houses around the corner. When they find something they think might be suitable they sit on the guttering chirping their hearts out.
The dunnocks, robins and blackbirds were also singing their best songs on Castle Green this morning when I walked around and the daffodils are starting to flower too. I think they are coming into flower because they are in a sheltered spot on a slope under the trees, yet only three weeks ago there was hardly a sign of them. There is a large mahonia bush in full flower there too and it's delicious smell always reminds me of lily-of-the-valley.
In the garden the crocuses were wide open and a few dwarf daffodils are coming into flower as well. The pansies have recovered from being frozen solid when we had the snow just before Christmas and the perennials are starting to show green shoots so I cant't wait to get out there to do some tidying up. I don't think it will be this weekend though because the weather is supposed to remain changeable.

Ready to work out

Getting a bit older does have it's downsides and one of them is the fact that things get a bit stiffer and although I'm shrinking, the floor seems to be a bit further away if I drop anything!
Well, I have decided to halt all this silly business and address the problems. I certainly cannot think of anything worse than not being able to get my feet up high enough to be able to give myself a pedicure and polish my toenails when the summer comes and I want to wear sandals. Perhaps this seems a bit decadent for someone of my age but I don't like feet, especially naked ones in sandals on me, so I like to wear a pretty shade of pearly pink on my toenails so they look like little shells on the end of my toes! (And before you say it, false ones are definitely OUT!).
So, I hear you ask, how is an arthriticky overgrown teenager going to address the stiffness issues especially as we aren't born with oil holes in every joint.
Simple, I'm going to start some bendng and stretching exercises which I can do in the privacy of my front room and in a very small space. The trouble is that if I let things get too stiff I won't be able to do the gardening and the arthritis will eventually take over, so in order to hang on to some degree of flexibility I have decided to make a start.
If you find yourself walking past my front window please don't stop and stare, or worse still, start laughing!

Woohoo! A judge has seen the light!

On the 11th February on my blog I wrote about the prisoners demanding the right to vote and also wanting to sue the government for thousands of pounds of compensation because this had been denied despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
On Saturday I read in the paper that the prisoners had appealed and the High Court judge turned down their appeal and ruled that those who had appealed should repay the costs which would amount to £78 each. This court case cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds and he has decided that they should now pay that money back and very right too. It's about time we stood up to the European bullies because that's exactly what they are. The British public has never given them a mandate to tell us what we should be doing.
Now we need to fight back against all the ridiculous rules that are made about our food, such as not being able to buy certain types of seeds for vegetables and fruits, not being able to buy bent cucumbers and mis-shapen strawberries etc. Then there are the rules around farming and fishing practices which we have to adhere to but other countries seem to be allowed to ignore.
I say, let's get out of Europe. We are an island race and we should shut the doors and stay that way.

Petitions do work

Recently I have signed a few petitions on line to help protect various things that I feel very strongly about and it seems that they have been quite successful.
The government has now decided to do a U turn on selling the woodlands and forests which is our heritage and should be kept intact for future generations. One of the others was to gain more funding and protection for the RSPB campaign to protect our future by the encouragment of wildlife friendly farming and this too has been successful so far but will be ongoing too.
Then there is the Big Fish Fight which is to address the scandal of our fishermen being compelled to throw back perfectly good fish that they have caught above their quota (the fish are dead) because of stupid rules and regulations laid down by the European Union.
As long as people keep fighting for these causes then we can make governments change their minds.

A special comedy performance

Following the bad weather that we've had lately I have been scrubbing out and cleaning the birds' seed feeders. This is something that I do regularly but I haven't been able to do them since about November.
We have had a couple of good early springlike days so I grabbed the opportunity and finished the last one today. All through the winter I have been putting extra food on the ground so that the blackbirds, hedge sparrows and wrens could feed and they have also had a very varied diet. This has of course, been enjoyedby the squirrels as well. With spring being in the air I get a pair of collared doves that come down and I really don't mind these as they have perfectly polite manners and don't make a mess but unfortunately, if the wood pigeons see them in the area they come down too.
The wood pigeons are almost as big as turkeys and not only do they scoff more than their fair share of food, they do alarmingly big poops which I get stuck on my shoes and then it gets trodden inside, yuk! So, I always rustle the net curtains or open the back door in order to shoo them off and this is something the squirrels and little birds have got used to so they soon return for their food. This morning after I had put out the rubbish for the bin men, I came through to the kitchen only to see about six of these pigeons in the garden so I started to rustle the net curtains but this time they didn't take a lot of notice so I opened the back door and started to wave my arms about and jumped up and down like a live scarecrow!
The squirrels couldn't believe their eyes and sat up on the top fence rolling about with laughter while the sparrows and blackbirds lined up along the roof watching the show and I feel sure they were also having a chuckle.
Anyway, it worked because the pigeons didn't return and I think the squirrels have nominated me for an oscar too!

Cooking for the rich

Although I enjoy watching some of the cooking programmes on television, because I get a few ideas and tips from them, I can't help wondering what planet some of these celebrity chefs actually live on. Not only do they primp and ponce their dishes, drizzling drops of sauce here and there, smearing pureed vegetables round the edge of the plate but they handle the food with their fingers and I would be surprised if it's still hot by the time it gets to the table! I am sure that people would be left feeling very hungry too especially when you see some of the portion sizes so it wouldn't be a satisfying meal for a lot of active people.
The other thing that often annoys me is the number of ingredients they use, the amount and the cost. I'm sure they think everyone can just walk into a butcher's and buy a lump of fillet of beef which would cost around twenty pounds, or a piece of monkfish which would cost the same. Then there's the Parmesan cheese that they all seem to have in an enormous chunk weighing around five pounds, so big that they've got a job to hold it.
Wine, marsala and other types of alcohol are thrown in in very large quantities and if they recommend wine to go with whatever they've cooked as they do on Saturday Kitchen, the bottles usually cost in the region of eight to ten pounds a bottle or more. They don't make do with the plonk ordinaire that most of us can afford.
It surprises me that the cookery programmes are as popular as they are, especially as most people seem to buy the ready made meals and families rarely sit down together to eat these days. I'm just waiting for the day they put on a series of cookery programmes for people who live alone and have to manage on a very tight budget. Perhaps I should volunteer!!!!

No punishment

There's been a lot of press coverage over the last few days about prisoners being given the right to vote by the European Court of Human Rights. The court was formed over sixty years ago and is very out of date.
Why should our government be told what to do by some over paid, obsolete fuddy duddies who haven't got a mandate from the British people and are seen by ordinary, honest folk as the interfering busy bodies that they are. What about our human rights then?
If someone is given a prison sentence in this country it's like putting them in a five star hotel. They have access to anything they want, their own televisions, gyms, libraries etc. all they have to do is ask. There have even been cases where prisoners have been granted legal aid to sue prison officers because they've spoken to them in the wrong way and these cases are very expensive to the taxpayer.
I don't think prisoners should be given the right to vote regardless of how long or short their sentence is. They have committed a crime and have been sent to prison as a punishment although this seems to be the soft option. Many of them are far better off than most pensioners in their late seventies and eighties who struggle to manage on a pittance. heat their homes in the winter or even eat a proper diet. These pensioners worked hard for their country, paying National Insurance and income taxes yet there are many prisoners who have never worked or contributed anything to this country but they are kept in luxury at our expense, receive free health care and will probably receive housing benefit and Jobseeker's Allowance when they are released.
Should they be given the right to vote? Definitely not.

e-mail to Tesco

Dear Tesco

I hope you didn't delete this e-mail when you saw who sent it especially as I am ususally complaining about the lack trolleys and poor customer service in your metro store.
This time I want to thank you because this morning when I went into your metro store there was a stack of nice new trolley baskets just waiting to be used. On many occasions in the past I have had cause to complain to you particularly because you haven't done very much to improve the shopping experience of the numerous 'little old dears' like me who visit your store every day to do our shopping. We are, after all, your real bread and butter customers because as I have pointed out to you and your customer service manager in the past, we don't just pop in at lunchtime for a sandwich and a bottle of pop, we do our main shopping there because it is the nearest supermarket.
So now we no longer have to struggle around juggling our shopping trolleys, baskets and walking sticks, hurting our poor old creaky backs and joints in order to do our shopping. It did cross my mind that perhaps you did realise I meant it when I said I would sue you for compensation if I injured myself in you store because you had failed to provide adequate and correct equipment for me to do my shopping. Or you might have overheard me discussing an alternative to some of your cashiers recently when I suggested that you might employ a team of very strong, handsome young men to stand at the door ready to accompany us around and carry our baskets for us. But perhaps you thought this would detract your checkout ladies from their duties, at least they wouldn't have been late for work. Besides, men get plenty of opportunities to look at attractive young ladies so why shouldn't little old ladies have the pleasure of looking at a few hunky blokes. Anyway, our arthritis would ensure their safety!
While you are reading this perhaps you would also consider stocking some shrimp paste in your store. It is a key ingredient in a lot of Eastern dishes and is used by Ken Hom and Rick Stein as well as several Michelin starred chefs on the telly. Other supermarkets use TV celebrity chefs in their advertising to encourage people to buy their products but I don't need them because I am a woman who knows what she wants and I like to cook everything from scratch. Sadly, I have a lot of recipes that I am unable to try because I haven't been able to get any shrimp paste but well done for stocking the low fat coconut milk, even if I can't use it until I find some shrimp paste.
I will be checking to see if you get the shrimp paste in stock in the future and if I find anything else I think you should know about, or improvements that could be made, I will certainly keep you informed.

Yours etc.

Getting impatient

The weather has been very mild for the last week or so, despite the strong winds, which has got everything on the move in the garden and me jumping up and down with sheer frustration. The early flowering clematis is showing fresh green shoots as are the honeysuckles, the crocuses are just beginning to flower but we need some sunshine to give them that last encouragement.
The birds and squirrels are pairing up while I'm stuck inside gazing longingly out of the window because I want to be out there pruning the roses and clearing out the dead stuff from last year. What's stopping me? I've not been feeling myself for a few days and the arthritis is giving me hell especially in my shoulders and hands. Not only that, every time I think I'll get out there for a half hour or so it starts raining!
Every February when there is a bit more light I start to feel restless because I want to get hands on in the garden even though it's only tiny. This wakes me up and I feel much better pottering about in the fresh air and I can't wait for spring and for everything to start growing. The weather forecasters are hinting that next week could be colder but if it's dry, I will definitely be out there, arthritis or not!

Why are men so useless at designing?

This morning I decided to clean the cooker including the large and small ovens. The top is done every time I use it but the ovens are only done about once a month. Because I have OCD it means I am very fussy about some things and a mucky oven is one of them, mucky being a few splashes of fat on the door and floor of the oven.
It's easy to tell this cooker was designed by a man, one who has never had to clean a cooker or oven, especially as extra long arms are required to reach the back of it. I only bought this one when I retired about eighteen months ago and as this was the only one that fitted in the space I have (the others were all too big), I had no choice. This one is made by Hotpoint and I would certainly never recommend anyone to buy one. It is impossible to clean properly in the grill/small oven compartment because there is no removable part above the element which means that if fat splashes above the element it burns on and sets off the fire alarm at very regular intervals. The enamel coating is black which also makes it difficult to see whether it's clean or not.
The large lower oven isn't any better either as it's so close to the floor that poor old dears like me not only have difficulty getting down to clean it, but again you require arms that are three inches longer than normal in order to reach the back of it and there are too many difficult little 'out of reach' places where grease builds up. How I long for the last cooker I had which was a Creda Hallmark and was a much better design altogether. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty close and I had owned it for twenty five years before I bought this new one. I wish I had been able to keep the other one but the insulation in the doors had worn out and it didn't retain heat very well. I must admit I was very sad to see it go and the man who took it off to dispose of it remarked that it 'looked brand new' and couldn't believe how long I had owned it. He said I had obviously looked after and loved it and he was right.
The other thing I have problems with, that was also designed by a man, is my car. I love it to bits but when it comes to cleaning the inside of the front windscreen I need arms at least six inches longer in order to reach all of it. When I try, the bumpy bits that ladies have sticking out in front get squashed on the steering wheel and honk the horn and I haven't yet found a way to avoid this! As it is, I have to stand on a little stool so that I can reach to clean the top of the car and the front outside windscreen but this isn't too much of a problem.
So you guys that are into designing domestic appliances and cars, just try giving the darned things a good clean by hand and do it without stretching before you finish the design so that short, arthriticky little old dears like me don't have so much of a problem when we clean things. Just remember, our standards are probably much higher than yours and we've been cleaning things all our lives because they last longer when they are looked after properly.

The biggest losses

The latest television reports and pictures from Egypt are very disturbing, not only for the violence and loss of life, but for the whole population and their history, both current and ancient. The problems caused in countries where there is a dictator, tyrannical ruler or despot in power have a detrimental affect on more than the people who live in these countries when war or violent protests break out.
Ancient history and historical sites can be lost forever not to mention the loss of wildlife. You only have to look at what Saddam Hussein did in Iraq when he dammed the rivers so that the marshes dried up when he tried to get rid of the Marsh Arabs that had lived there in peace for thousands of years. Fortunately people are trying to re-instate the marshes which it is thought, used to be The Garden of Eden and was also an important wildlife refuge, but the area is so large it will take a great many years and the co-operation of Iran and Turkey to stop damming the rivers in their countries too.
There are so many priceless sites of early Egyptian civilisations that could be lost, just as other ancient sites have been lost all around the middle eastern countries due to wars, civil unrest and rulers who were hell bent on power over their people, money and the destruction of their history. The loss of such treasures and ruins has a knock on effect for the people of these countries when they lose the tourists who bring money and employment to them.
It's very sad when the people of these countries don't stop to think about protecting their inheritance for future years and even worse when some of them think that looting and wanton destruction of priceless antiquities is alright.
While I can fully understand that they want to rid themselves of a tyrant, I also feel very sad about the very long term effect and cost that any civil unrest or war will have for them and future generations.

Ridiculous money

This week on the sports news they have been talking about transfer fees for footballers which are now so high that they're obscene. Nobody is worth the millions of pounds that clubs pay for them and the players obviously have no conscience either when they accept wages that would make any ordinary person's eyes water.
I'll bet they don't give a thought to the fans who could never expect to earn the money they receive for one year in the whole of a working lifetime. I worked for over forty years and didn't even earn half of the amounts that some of these footballers receive and I'm sure they're not better people than me or anyone else come to that.
Some of the television personalities are the same, demanding wages that sound more like telephone numbers than salaries and some of them don't work anywhere near the number of hours in a week that most ordinary people do.
As for the bankers that got us into the current financial mess, I don't think they should receive five or six figure bonuses this year especially as the British taxpayer now owns most of the banks and if we hadn't bailed them out, they wouldn't even have jobs.
The government should bring in a new law: Everyone will be paid only what they are worth....there will be an awful lot of people who will have to pay money back!

Who stole time?

I'm starting to wonder where the last few days have gone because it's already Tuesday and I feel sure that I've missed a day somewhere! Eden was with me for the weekend and as usual we found lots of things to fill the hours, but even she thought the time had gone particularly quickly by Sunday afternoon.
For the last two days I have been busy with shopping, paperwork and other chores and haven't had the time to switch on the computer let alone do my blog. I wonder how I ever found time to go to work and do all the other things that I do now! Something must have been missed but I know it wasn't.
This morning I had a strange experience because after I have had a shower, I come downstairs and go out to feed the birds and today was no exception. Yesterday I bought some more bird food and had to open the bags today so when I went out they got a bit extra as I emptied out what was left in the other bags too. I went back upstairs and put my 'face' on and did my hair, but when I came back down, there wasn't any sign of the bird food that I thought I had put out only a half hour before.
The blackbirds were sitting on the fence looking hungry and I was beginning to think I hadn't done it after all, but when I went to the bin that I keep the bird food in I knew I hadn't 'lost my marbles' because the new bags of food were there and opened. I went outside and put some more food out and then I spotted who I thought were the culprits. On a roof across the road there were three large wood pigeons the size of turkeys so I think they had scoffed the bird food and made me think I had 'lost' fifteen minutes or so this morning.