How to Cook Brains.

 'Allow it to soak in salt water for an hour, then peel off the outer coating, cleaning off any bits. Put in milk over heat and cook for 15 minutes, no more. Then pour milk into a roux and mix thoroughly. Babies love this and eat this being unaware what it is.'

This was the instructions given to a young mum, trying to get her baby onto solids by her own mother! And is in the book I'm reading by Patrick Gale! 

I wasn't given brains to eat as a child but tripe and onions arrived once, that I do remember and I hated it. 

I don't think i ever gave my own children offal to eat but I do love pigs liver and we have it as an occasional meal. liver and bacon and onions is a favourite meal.

My little dog Mari loved liver too and I often cooked it for her. On one occasion it was gently cooking, when my Ex arrived home and remarked, 'That smells nice,'

'Its for the dog,' I replied and nothing more was said! 

These days you don't often see it in shops. I wonder with the increasing rise in the cost of living and food costs rising, will we see more offal to buy, what do you think and would you buy and eat it?

Chrisxx

20 mins read?

 

Isn't this so true? At the moment I'm reading the latest Patrick Gale book.It has the same character Harry Cane as his book,' A Town Called Winter,' and I'm loving it.

He is such a talented author. We've heard him talk as a guest of an Essex Literacy Festival, when we lived in Billericay.  and he was amazing. 

He takes two years to write a book, researching it and the first draft is hand written. He showed us one of his A4 note books with lines crossed out and the new writings underneath. 

He read a section of his last book, 'A Perfectly Good Man,' and you could have heard a pin drop in the silence when he finished, before the loud clapping of hands started. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the talk and then as I was the person, who ran the book group, with a couple other members we served the drinks and snacks.

It was a super evening. If he is ever talking near you, do go, its very worth it.

And I am thoroughly enjoying his latest book,' Love Lane,' If you haven't read any of his books, I recommend them.

Chrisxx

Finished at last!!

When I first saw this jigsaw, apart from its very pretty sea scenes, I thought as each picture was enclosed, it wouldn't be too difficult. How wrong I was!! 1000 pieces is what we usually tackle, but as each scene has a white border, it wasn't an easy one at all and there was a lot of blue sky and sea.

When we started it, we had nothing planned and being on a board, it was easy to move to one side at meal times. Then suddenly we were within days of expecting visitors, (July). So it was lifted down and slipped under the sofa!! And there it stayed till after Christmas!! 

Dh has finished it in the last few weeks and we have a piece missing, very annoying. All the furniture has been moved, vac bag emptied too, but we've not found it.. we'll look again when we spring clean the lounge. It might turn up who knows where these odd pieces go? 

Perhaps Sister Veronica (Call the Midwife) sneakily took it??

Chrisxx

 

Dripping Tap?

 A text message that a parcel had been delivered yesterday, caused Dh great anxiety, because it hadn't arrived.  He walked all around our bungalow, but no parcel.  'What did the text say?' I asked..

'Left in back porch by green sacks,' he replied. Oh no! Not good, because we don't have a back porch..He went next door as he has a porch and some green garden sacks were beside it. No answer when he knocked.. So next step was to phone Yodel. He was ages on the phone, getting more and more impatient. (irate!!) Yes he was talking to an ibod! (Is that what they're called)

He hadn't said what it was, he has his secret buys, mine are kindle books, which don't show, his are CDs! It doesn't bother me one bit, but he doesn't like to show how many he buys. 

Anyway he was back on the phone and it stopped ringing as it got through... probably because his number was recognized and may be blocked, well he had phoned twice and was on the phone quite a while. The search for the missing parcel was like a dripping tap, Dh could not let it go.

'What is it?' I asked.

'A wind up torch, in case the war disrupts our energy supply,' He admitted.

What?? Honestly what is he like?? I suggested using a different phone, mine or the house phone. It was answered by a real person.. the result of this was, that they would email a photograph of where the parcel had been left. He felt better and decided he'd have another look around by one of our side entrances.. by our green garden sacks.

And that's where it was in dark grey plastic packaging! I think in all it took over an hour, whew!

And it works, so if there are power cuts and its dark, we have a wind up torch.. incase you wanted to know!

A man toy?

Do you think we'll need it?

Chrisxx

My Walking Mantras

 Heel toe, heel toe....lift your feet higher than you think you need to, take your time on steps, always use the hand rail, stand up straight and look ahead.

These were words said to me by physiotherapists, after I tripped and broke my arm. They are still in my head coming up to 16 years later! I take care all the time and they were brought home to me last week, when we saw someone trip over in our main road in town. It is paved in blocks to be a pedestrian way, there are broken ones and out of alinement ones. I walk very carefully, as there deep dips too, where possibly heavy delivery lorries have been.

It all looks very nice, but it's a like an obstacle course trying to avoid the trip hazards.

 When I saw that lady fall, I started to cry, I get very emotional. Fortunately she wasn't hurt and with help was able to get up. Unlike a gentleman who fell just before Christmas, and was on the ground for over 3 hours waiting for an ambulance! People got blankets for him, poor man.

So you can understand why I keep in mind those physio instructions.. and of course I have Rhett Butler, my wheels.

Councils don't seem to care about pedestrian safety and repairs are very slow to be done... money? What are your walk ways like where you live?

Chrisxx

Longevity?

 I'm dreadful in supermarkets often drooling on the contents of other peoples trolleys. I whispered to Dh when seeing the contents of a  trolley load totally different to our own..'I'll go home with them.' Yes, they had cakes and desserts, sausage rolls,  white crusty loaves of bread, while we had fruit and yogurts.

But yesterday the man behind us in the queue, loaded up his items ready at the check out,  and it included a huge packet of what looked like wood chippings. Of course I had to ask about it.  'Its like a muesli he said, but with larger chunks of oats, so they take a bit of chewing!'

So a healthy load of groceries and what did I read about today.. a longevity tip is to eat healthily.. and what is healthy?

An expert has said, foods that people ate 100 years ago, 

Beans

Whole grains

Vegetables

So the foods that us oldies ate when we were young.

There's hope for me then?? 

But sometimes often I want that greasy Chinese meal or that sweet cake and ice cream, rather than the healthy foods.

What about you?

Chrisxx

RIP.

 

I feel very sad to learn that Jenni Murray has died, of the dreaded breast cancer. She hosted Woman's Hour on the radio for over 30 years.

I was a faithful listener as a young housewife altho it wasn't Jenni but Sue MacGregor, Martha Kearney and others then. I loved it and  missed it when I started work, but fell right back into it when I retired! It was on that programme I heard about the wonders of Stinging Nettles and it works... sting yourself where you have arthritis and the heat of the sting acts like one of the arthritis creams, but lasts 2 or 3 days and no arthritis pain! Who would have believed that!

So RIP Dame Jenni, you were loved by many and will be sadly missed.  

Chrisxx

A Good Thing?

 The meningitis outbreak in Kent Universities and schools is really frightening, young people don't think they can get ill. I feel very sad for the families who have lost someone. My cousin's daughter died age 31 from meningitis.

When I was a student nurse in the sixties, there was an outbreak of small pox and we were all given the vaccine right away. Clinics were set up to offer vaccines and us junior nurses were 'lent' to help with the crowds, who arrived for the vaccine. 

We had talks on what to do and what not to do. They frightened us to death and  those of us, who usually went out partying,  stayed in and I avoided travelling on buses, so missed going home for a few weeks.

There were notices pinned up around to remind us......

1.Wash your hands always, especially when you've been out.

2.Keep your hands from your face.

3. Don't touch handles of doors. (I still don't!)

4. Avoid handling money, ie coins.

And these have stuck with me all my life. I still don't touch door handles when out and use a tissue. Dh and I had a meningitis vaccine at age 71, along with pneumonia and shingles later, and today, I have an appointment for the RSV. vaccine, Respiratory Syncytial Virus. vaccine.

The NHS offers these to protect us.. I'm always incredulous that people don't have them. They obviously have never seen real illness, nor been really ill.

I have had all the covid jabs and flu jabs.

I think they are all a good thing to have, what do you think?

Chrisxx

Driving Home.

We can take several ways to drive home from town,  but our favourite way is driving along the front prom, yesterday the sea was gently coming in.

There were a lot of people walking enjoying the sunshine. 

We drive up to Rest Bay, 

Here this grassy area often has mole hills and cowslips. When its cut, they mow pathways in the long grass. 

And wild flowers grow all round in the rocks at the top of the bay.

Then down through Nottage estate, where they are nearly all bungalows. I keep a commentary as we drive along; 'Neat hedges at my cousins, her gardener has been,' I say.

Down all the way to the roundabout, to pass the field where there are four Shetland ponies, they are sometimes separated, I think its because they bite each other! But they are so small and pretty!

We pass an allotment and then further on we pass the Meadow, now with a large Lake, presently there are large geese there, Canada Geese? 

Opposite is the Buttercup field where the Beach ponies live. 

All the way is different, from beaches to fields, and hills in the distance. Often sheep grazing, and the wind turbines slowing turning. We can see them from the end of our road, slowly turning against the blue sky.

When we turn into our road we can see our golden daffodils,  'fluttering and dancing in the breeze,' Wordsworth's poem.

It was beautiful yesterday, a sunshiny day and our town looked beautiful and we love it, and when it rains, we say thank goodness we're not on holiday!

Chrisxx

You could have knocked me down with a feather!

 This post won't  have the same meaning to readers who don't live in UK.

Something medical that has been bothering me for a few months, got worse over the weekend, I had to try for a Dr's appointment yesterday morning. I dread the  8 o'clock scramble, as its called. Before now I have been up to an hour listening to the voice saying are 'number 23' or what ever number is next. So I was ready and started dialing the Medical centre number at 7:57 and kept redialing and as soon as it started to ring. I quickly pressed 2 + 1= #2 for English and #1 for reception and I was speaking to someone right away. I think I was one of the first patients!! I had an appointment at 9:00am Wow!! I've never had that before.

I saw one of the new Dr's, Dr Jenny Jenkins, she was very nice and gave me the medication that is sorting me out.  I don't know why I leave problems so long, but I suppose it's how I was brought up, not to be a nuisance!! 

After it, we went into town to Costa's for coffi and a Cheese toasty, which was very nice. Not the SW food plan but we called it our breakfast!

How do you find getting a Dr appointment where you live?

Chrisxx