Our Phili-Pam

Hi all, Oh I'm silly, oh so silly. After a feasting & family evening yesterday, I'm looking forward to a simple lunch in my pub. Well, my snug.

Hi all, I'm living quite well. A no meat day today, a veg stirfry. Partially boiled whole potatoes & a carrot, frozen mixed peppers added to the boil. Cherry tomatoes that needed using, cut in half, started off in the small frying pan, to which the rest was then added. Using the lid that's seen better days, but fits the small pan perfectly, the smell is gorgeous. I've used lard in the frying pan so that's a hint of meat, but must go & dish it out. Hope that you like. Well, that didn't take long to demolish. I didn't add salt, or herbs, which I have done in the past. There's salt in the dripping. Allowing it to simmer under the lid fuses all of the flavours. I'm telling you that was so simple yet so scrumptious. Putting the cherry tomatoes in first & letting them give a base flavour I think really worked well. I've been eating more meat of late, Asiana curries, mutton chops, as well as my own lamb chops, so a meat free day I enjoy. My Pam was always doing concoctions, she was a dab-hand with sauces. I've added garlic butter to my lamb chops recently, but except for cheese sauces, mine come out of a packet or a jar. Anyway, all the best.

How the other half live! We have had to make do with a cheese and ham toastie. It must be the financial help for the North, spreading down to the Midlands. Spare a copper, mister?

Hi Argon, I love cheese & ham toasties.

Hi all, Just midweek yatter. All of my years in the past, when visiting locations here, there & everywhere, Pam & I would often engage in conversations like "Wouldn't it be nice to live here". Both of us tied to our work & home in Coventry, such a notion was little more than a pipe dream. Once I retired from fulltime employment, over twenty years ago, the option of living anywhere became a real possibility. Yet, neither Pam or I had a strong desire to move. Until six years ago, neither Pam or I, knowingly had health issues. The sky was the limit almost. I was recently looking at photos of some of the locations that we both loved to visit. Nice as they are, I'm so glad that I'm living where I am. Now, make no mistake. My mind isn't your mind. I almost share in the romance of where various of our members live, no matter if it's ten miles away or around ten thousand miles away. As long as for you it's your home. Well, with that in mind, I've a Cornish pasty for tea, then Scottish kippers for breaky in the morning. Make of that what you will.

I've been known to play fantasy chateau shopping. Are 20 bedrooms too many? It is really a good chateau without a moat?

Philip, that dream is carried out by many people when they retire but my observation is that many regret it at a later date. The adjustment to be accepted in a new area is not easy and you are distancing yourself from your family who in later life you need as a support system. I have a friend who moved to this area from London and after 20 yrs here, when in his late 80's, he and his wife started to have health problems. With no family to support them locally, their family decided that they would need a rest home and in three years that has drained all of their savings including the sale of their bungalow. We moved here in 1976 with our then young daughters and so we have been absorbed into the area and our daughters, our support team, live locally. My advice to anyone making a move to a new locality is to do it before you are in your late fifties.

No matter where I lived Philip I would be making a pig of myself. A Cornish pasty on the beach front in Falmouth - yummy, yummy.

Hi all, Thank you Dreamtime. My input on our forum tends to be current issues, but that doesn't takeaway my absolute delight of reading the fascinating historical discussions that take place on our forum. My socks flew off at the speed of light when I realised my cock-up regards my understanding of John Gulson school. A pity that I was in a public building at the time.

Hi all, Like most folk, I do have issues or off days. I come across all singing & dancing, but I had an unpleasant reaction to my shingles vaccination. I'm human, or at least I think that I am.

Sorry to hear that you've reacted badly.

Thank you Helen, It didn't last long, but I posted that remark more to show that I'm simply human. I never pretend, except in drama & I'm out of that nowadays.

I think that most of us have more off days as we age. I know I do, I think that I will soon have to hand in my Captain Indestructible cape

I don't think I ever went through a super hero phase. I've always been more of a Little Miss Wonky.

Super heroes are such an American thing! Who are the British heroes? Robin Hood - an outlaw? Who are the Aussie heroes? Ned Kelly - an outlaw? Admittedly, Robin was useful with a bow and arrow, but only ever aimed at the bad guys. Ned Kelly was useful with a musket but was basically a protester for human rights - well, perhaps he did knock off a few law enforcement officers, but they were oppressing the "ordinary" gold miners. Why do Americans need these Super heroes, with Super powers? I suspect it's to compensate for a well-deserved inferiority complex. Oh dear, maybe I shouldn't have had that second glass, but "In vino veritas" works for me. Goodnight all!