To Hampton court with Monsieur Le Beard, on the coldest day of the year. It was shorter than I remembered! There’s a wonderful new knot garden running down to Thames, but most striking of all is this display of daffs in maze garden. Even on a dull day it glowed and I swore you could smell the scent. I know an appreciation of flowers is at best thought of as metrosexual (even these days).I have never understood this for several reasons, firstly the growing, production, sale and planting of flowers is like most things a heavily male dominated activity. Also my granddad a horny handed shipwright was the renter of two allotments and grew loads of fruit, veg and flowers. In fact no trip to Nana’s was complete without a
slide show of their latest trip to one Britain’s seaside town, complete with Technicolor formal bedding planting. At the time I didn’t think this was very rock-and-roll but would love to sit down and see them now. The idea that granddad was the least bit “effeminate” is truly funny. So I’ll keep enjoying blooms, seeing as I’ve never had fight, don’t own a car, but do own a Dolly Patron album, it’s not going to dilute my manliness any further.
Also hope you like the heron in was just standing in a pond, as we crept up it just stood there. We could have probably have stroked the thing it was so placid.
The high cost of looking cheap!
Dolly as reported elsewhere was apparently excellent at
Wembley this week. Here’s a much reported quote if you didn’t see it.She caught her hair on her mike stand and made this apparently off the cuff quip.
“It didn’t hurt a bit , but somewhere in the world a Korean women’s screaming” harsh but funny.
Life on Mars: Not sure why but BBC seem to have thrown LOM away, it seems to have lost impetuous and they seem to be ashamed of it. But, last night’s episodes where really good. I can see why this series is the last and fear there will be a “ta dah!” ending or maybe a “oh, I’ve got some thing in my eye” ending. Is it just me or is anyone 
surprised that DS Ray Carling (played by Dean Andrews) has not been done for being bent etc every week it seems like this is coming up but they just step over it.
Also with all his time travelling, Sam’s not done many time paradox staples yet. What about the “compound interest scam”. Well, seeing as the Police (well everyone really) got paid nothing in 1974, say £2,000 -3,000 a year, (he’s not paying much for that flat) if he could put a grand in bank he’d only wake up today with £18,000 in the bank!
I know this thanks to this page.
In fact if he bought up the vinyl in this week’s episode and put it in a damp free garage he would probably make more. Also didn’t Red Rum win for the first time 1974? Obviously if he did buy a house in Hyde his grand would now be worth…..
Lastly the LOM Liz White like everyone else has an unofficial fansite, I hadn’t seen her before and thought her high voice wouldn’t get her much work but she seems to be doing pretty well.
Any way it’s almost lunch time and I’m having hoops.
A rose by any other name…:
As mentioned earlier I spent some time in Hampton this week. Have not explored it fully but “by thy shops will ye be knowest”. My high st has shops selling yams, live blue legged crabs, salt cod, 1kg bags of paprika for 99p, reactivated mobiles etc. Two of the shops are Pentecostal churches and one of them a Vietnamese social centre. Hampton on the other hand seems to have a smattering of convenience stores, estate agents and on the main drag this row of shops. A kids café (yes a café just for kids, who knew), “Lavender” candle and scarf shop “Aster” (probably the same with misshaped over priced pottery) “bumps and bundles” (baby stuff) and “Announce it!” (a shop for all your announcement needs) i.e. to tell everyone you know about why you need the preceding shops.
So we can safely say Hampton is a “nappy valley”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just telling that how we spend our money say’s so much about our aspirations.
Also on the subject of floral named shops, you can instantly tell the sort of shop by its flower name.
“Lavender” posh tat,
“lilies” frocks for women of a certain age,
“Sea Holly” pebbles, drift wood etc
“Daisies” wooden toys that middle class parents buy because they look good but that their kids hate.
The same shop if it was called “Daffs” wouldn’t be as classy as “Narcissi”.
Hampton did have a charity second hand bookshop at the station which is a good idea.
Nonsensical corporate strapline of the week:
I know these have been done before but honestly who came up this:
“Quebec providing emotions since 1534”
It spectacularly it does the opposite to its intention i.e. puts you off going. It should be of course be
“Quebec: full of chippy French types grumpy because Wolfe kicked your arses of the Heights of Abrahams since 1759.”
Having said that I wouldn’t mind paddling through the city, like the jolly family on the poster. One last thing the crazy frogs have to meddle don’t they, it would seem Blog is “Blogue” in French
SNOTD
Emarkle karthaus subject :Are at driftwood
Millard Capps subject: Of hueysville do blandville
surprised that DS Ray Carling (played by Dean Andrews) has not been done for being bent etc every week it seems like this is coming up but they just step over it.Also with all his time travelling, Sam’s not done many time paradox staples yet. What about the “compound interest scam”. Well, seeing as the Police (well everyone really) got paid nothing in 1974, say £2,000 -3,000 a year, (he’s not paying much for that flat) if he could put a grand in bank he’d only wake up today with £18,000 in the bank!
I know this thanks to this page.
In fact if he bought up the vinyl in this week’s episode and put it in a damp free garage he would probably make more. Also didn’t Red Rum win for the first time 1974? Obviously if he did buy a house in Hyde his grand would now be worth…..
Lastly the LOM Liz White like everyone else has an unofficial fansite, I hadn’t seen her before and thought her high voice wouldn’t get her much work but she seems to be doing pretty well.
Any way it’s almost lunch time and I’m having hoops.
A rose by any other name…:
As mentioned earlier I spent some time in Hampton this week. Have not explored it fully but “by thy shops will ye be knowest”. My high st has shops selling yams, live blue legged crabs, salt cod, 1kg bags of paprika for 99p, reactivated mobiles etc. Two of the shops are Pentecostal churches and one of them a Vietnamese social centre. Hampton on the other hand seems to have a smattering of convenience stores, estate agents and on the main drag this row of shops. A kids café (yes a café just for kids, who knew), “Lavender” candle and scarf shop “Aster” (probably the same with misshaped over priced pottery) “bumps and bundles” (baby stuff) and “Announce it!” (a shop for all your announcement needs) i.e. to tell everyone you know about why you need the preceding shops.
So we can safely say Hampton is a “nappy valley”. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just telling that how we spend our money say’s so much about our aspirations.
Also on the subject of floral named shops, you can instantly tell the sort of shop by its flower name.
“Lavender” posh tat,
“lilies” frocks for women of a certain age,
“Sea Holly” pebbles, drift wood etc
“Daisies” wooden toys that middle class parents buy because they look good but that their kids hate.
The same shop if it was called “Daffs” wouldn’t be as classy as “Narcissi”.
Hampton did have a charity second hand bookshop at the station which is a good idea.
Nonsensical corporate strapline of the week:
I know these have been done before but honestly who came up this:
“Quebec providing emotions since 1534”
It spectacularly it does the opposite to its intention i.e. puts you off going. It should be of course be
“Quebec: full of chippy French types grumpy because Wolfe kicked your arses of the Heights of Abrahams since 1759.”
Having said that I wouldn’t mind paddling through the city, like the jolly family on the poster. One last thing the crazy frogs have to meddle don’t they, it would seem Blog is “Blogue” in French
SNOTD
Emarkle karthaus subject :Are at driftwood
Millard Capps subject: Of hueysville do blandville
It’s Friday so it must time for some junk food.
I was remembering a birthday lunches of yore. When I was very young we would got to a steak inn or similar, I remember one year getting a “coke float” an undreamed of luxury in the “life on Mars” 70’s here’s’ Jaime’s big tongued take on it.
Also which floats higher diet or full fat coke
Sounds like something Heston Blumenthal would cook up “roast turkey” fizzy pop anyone.. anyone?
Popcorn Musings
Recently I was watching of all things the super bowl and fancied some pop corn. I had some un-popped kernels in the cupboard and for various reasons decided to put it in the microwave. I wasn’t sure if the shop bought stuff had special chemicals on it, but it worked surprisingly well. I did melt a plastic bowl but that was just me trying to pop every last kernel. After a little experimentation I found a brown paper greengrocer’s bag (I just tipped the soil out!) works best (how’s that for recycling). Just put the corn in and wait to hear the kernels stop popping.
It seems like I’m not the first to do this. “The invention of the microwave popcorn bag has meant more to mankind than the discovery of a galaxy of new stars. Popcorn was actually the first food to be microwaved deliberately. In 1946 Dr. Percy Spencer of the Raytheon Corporation was experimenting with a magnetron (a new type of vacuum tube) when he noticed that the chocolate candy bar in his pocket had melted. He was curious, so he placed some popcorn kernels next to the magnetron and turned it on - the popcorn popped. After experimenting with various other food items (including an egg that exploded!), he and Ratheon realized they were on to something and continued on to develop the first “
Here’s: a formal recipe off the net.
There’s a lot of splother about hot dogs on the interweb, I think the Americans think putting 9 sauces and a relish on a “tube steak” goes someway to having a national cuisine. There is also lots of folk history nonsense about the invention of the hotdog. See my earlier post on sandwiches.
There was one story about some guy in the US losing money on his sausage stand because before the bun was invented he had to give away white gloves to people to protect their hands! Why they didn’t go the sausage on a stick root as in Grenadier pub in Kensington (home of the bloody Mary) I don’t know. A great big wapping, bendy wiener that flops over on a little stick, delish. There is opportunity for slightly greasy romantic meet you in the middle noshing al la “lady and the tramp”.
Having said that fish and chips took along time to come together, chips from the north and fried fish probably from Jewish immigrants to the East end, so who knows.
The World’s longest hot dog anyone?
How about some survival army tucker?
Barnsley Chip shops online
Sweet of the week
Cola bottles
The only discussion is between plain or “sherbetized” and after that between sugar or “sourz”. The “sourz” are toe curling. Here’s the “I love the 80’s” bit, weren’t they more full of cola when we were yo
ung?
Cola bottles
The only discussion is between plain or “sherbetized” and after that between sugar or “sourz”. The “sourz” are toe curling. Here’s the “I love the 80’s” bit, weren’t they more full of cola when we were yo
ung?
2 comments:
Top stuff, even if it is Thursday. Your blogging has really taken off, as mine has ground to a halt!
going to me bro's wedding so thought i'd get it out early (matron), plus it's like those magazine where the xmas edish comes out in Nov. I also worked out i could write bit's all week and put themput together not do it all at once.
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