Biscuits Not Suitable For Cavemen.

 Brr.  It's  that cold and windy today that  you wouldn't put a milk bottle outside.

Storm Barra is creating havoc today in Hibernia or the Emerald Isle.  It been forecast to cause  more havoc and most folk including myself are sat at home today.  

I stayed in bed most of the morning and thought of Ted Hughes ' Wind' poem, read some emails and read blogs.  

Then I Googled flooding in Bantry and Cork city and noticed there are lots of fishing boats sheltering and probably fishing in the bay which I can see from our kitchen window.  I'm glad I'm not on the ferry this morning.

The wife said she had brewed up and I sat down to sample a lovely cup of real coffee from the cafetier.   She makes a lovely brew unlike myself who always makes it too strong but it's an excellent home made laxative.😊

The wife produced a packet of Mcvitie's Bourbon biscuits.  I attempted to rip open the packet open and she piped up:

"Pass them me!"

Then she proceed to unwrap the bit on the packaging  that you easily tear.  Out popped the biscuits.  I don't think they are invented to be used by cavemen like myself.

There has just been a mighty wind gust and the wife shouted: " Bloody Hell."

I am waiting for the usual phone call:

"Have you still got electricity, we haven't?"

Cider With Roadies.

 I have read another Kindle book this week: Cider With Roadies by Stuart Maconie.  It's got to be one of the cleverest book titles I've ever seen and a wonderful play on words with Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee.   

Stuart Maconie writes about the Gloucestershire classic and his (and    mine) Lancashire uprising with petrol rainbows in the back street puddles.  He could have been a lyricist for The Smith's.

The book was wrote/written in 2005 but I only discovered it recently through Kindle book recommendations.  I have read two other books of his: Pies and Prejudice and  The People's Songs.

I enjoy his humour and I share his infatuation with music and he's met some of my Rock heroes like All About Eve, Elvis Costello, Kate Bush and Morrissey and how Lemmy supplied Keith Emerson with SS daggers to stab his keyboards when performing with ELP.  I saw this spectacle in action at Manchester Apollo once. I have never felt sorry for a Moog keyboard before.  RIP Keith and Greg.  ELP were probably England's finest Prog band. Up there with the greatest like my favourite band Kansas. 

Stuart even mentions my favourite Wigan joke which goes something like the following:

These Wigan lads see a sign outside a pub: A Pie A Pint And A Woman  For A Pound!

One of the lads says to the Bouncer:

"Whose pies are they?"

I found it laddish humour with a infatuation with music.  Something I share and imagine going from playing in pub bands to becoming assistant editor at the NME?   

I found the book very enjoyable with some laugh out moments like Mark E Smith of The Fall (I knew his cousin)  asking a journalist if  they would like "summat to eat?" Going into the kitchen banging pans down and opening and shutting kitchen cubpoards and twenty minutes late presenting a crisp sandwich on  a plate.

There are many facts some true and some that Stuart made up like the guy from the Monkees with the woolly hat.  His  mother actually invented Tippex (true) and Jimmy Page use to have jam sessions with the Loch Ness Monster in Alistair Crowleys  old house ( I made that up) and Bob Holness from Blockbusters played the sax solo on Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty.  Stuart made that up!

He also waxes lyrical about Stretford's Philip  Larkin and Elvis Presley: Morrissey.   Also that music journalists are failed or frustrated musicians and it's the Rock bands who pay for everything not the record companies.  It's all took out of their royalties in the end.

It was a good read and I will read some more of his books in the future.  I think my next book I'm going to download is Engish Journey by JB Priestley.  Anyone read it?

Steamed Up Reading Glasses When I Wear A Mask.

No I have not been reading "Big Girls Weekly" or looking at  the women's lingerie in Littlewoods catalogue again:

"Stick em up!"

People of a certain age like myself have to use reading glasses from Lidl to read.  This is ok until I have to wear my mask.  My glasses steam up like the upstairs  deck of a Selnec (South East Lancs and North East Cheshire) bus full of smokers or a chip shop on a Friday night.  

I find it very annoying and I have to get my handkerchief out of my pocket every few minutes.  So I thought I would see if there is any way I can solve my steamed up glasses problem.  I Googled steamed up reading glasses and it said you should pull up  your mask just under your glasses and they shouldn't steam up.  So I gave it a whirl and it's much better.

I also read that you can get anti fog glasses.

Do you have problems reading when you wear a covid mask?

A Classic Rock Track That I never Tire Of Listening To. "Ruby Tuesday".

 It was way back in August 2019 when I last saw some live bands at a Rock festival in Kent in Blighty.

These days I seem to find myself going over to good old You Tube and clicking on to some memorable tracks.  I might even start featuring them on here? 

One track that I absolutely adore is Ruby Tuesday by the Rolling Stones.  It's over fifty years since it was released and it still resonates with young and old and not so young like yours truly.

Apparently Keith Richards penned this track and it's about his girlfriend dropping him and moving in with Jimi Hendrix.  Like they do.  He said:

"Sometimes you're just left with your keyboard and guitar."

So here's a version of Ruby Tuesday sung the by Corrs and accompanied with Ronnie Wood.  

I actually think it's a  very good cover like that donkey jacket  I used for a blanket and my my mum said: "call it an Eiderdown."   

She was having some posh company round and I shouted downstairs: 

"Mum the sleeves just fell off the Eiderdown".

The old ones are always the best.

I would love to see The Corrs.  People often tell me the time they played Bantry Mussel Fair in the nineties and how good they were.  I often read and hear people talking about Rory Gallagher playing Macroom Castle and Nirvana playing Cork.  Someday Kansas will play somewhere exotic in West Cork like Dunmanway or Bantry even  I can dream.😊

Enjoy:

Another Interesting Cushion!

Yes I found another very interesting cushion on Saturday.  We drove sixty miles or so to Cork and visited The Range.  It's an English home furnishing store that is now appearing in parts of Ireland. 

We noticed this fifteen Euros cushion with the Donkeys and Robin Christmas scene.  Are they looking at the manger in Bethlehem or are they looking at you and me?

Any one else seen any fab cushions lately?

Compostable Plastic Bags.

 We went in Aldi yesterday for a tin of Scottish shortbread and I picked up some compostable multi use bags for 99 Cents.

Great idea thinks me.  Then I thought to myself:

"What do you put in them?"

So I started to think and  perhaps ask Doctor Google for some information.  But before doing that I consulted the missus:

"What do yo put in them?"

"Potato peelings and any vegetable peelings."

I said :" But I can just put them in my weeding bucket or a cardboard box or even just carry them in my hands to my compost heap".

"Exactly she says".

Have these manufacturers tried to reinvent the wheel or am I missing something?

So I  consulted Doctor Google for more information on these compostable plastic bags.  Apparently they are made out of potato starch and will start to decompose after five weeks.  You can put food waste or garden waste like lawn clippings but no meat or diseased plants.

I wonder how many people put ordinary household waste in them and lob them in the wheelie bin and they end up in landfill?

Don't get me wrong.  If you used them to bring your shopping home in they are a brilliant idea especially if you compost them afterwards.

Answers on a post card please or better still in the comment box!  Thanks.

Dining Time For The Cat And The Dog.

 Keen eyed viewers will have noticed this picture on Tuesdays post.

It's a photo we took last year or so and it's been put on a tile and hangs on the wall in the kitchen/dining room.

I think I have posted it before? I took the photo because we thought it remarkable that a dog and a cat could eat their tea together without any hissing, spitting or scratching.  

I have just remembered the picture I posted before was my loyal tripehoud and Jack Russell Fido who went to doggy heaven a few years ago.  We still talk about her and our beloved departed pets every day.  Seriously, every day.

Have a good weekend.