A few flakes.

Just a few flakes of snow. That’s all it seems to take to bring the whole country to its knees.  When will the United Kingdom ever be able to cope with a few flakes of snow and not grind to a standstill? Because winters were far harsher when I was a girl, with snow that fell for days, blew into drifts sometimes six feet deep, and necessitated everyone having to ‘dig’ their paths in order to even leave their premises to get to work or school, its so amazing to see how a  few inches of snow can devastate a country as it tends to do today.

The difference is of course that way back then, we didn’t rely on cars, nor was the whole country planned around car owners.  Our place of work was usually a walk away from where you lived, there were no ‘out of town’ industrial sites miles away from any residential area in those days! The same applied to shopping, your local shop catered for all of your needs and was usually again just a short walk away, not incorporated in some ‘vast shopping centre’ miles out of town.

It’s our reliance on the car to get us anywhere these days that is the real problem, not the few inches of snow that has fallen.  I watched a car owner spend half an hour yesterday clearing his car of snow, he could have walked to town in the time it took to scrape the snow from his vehicle and been far healthier for it into the bargain! 

Moan over.

TG

Technorati Tags: snow,shopping,cars,work

Making breakfast in 2011.

You will require one pair of pliers, a  pair of very sharp scissors, a sharp knife and one or two packets of plasters in case of accidents.

 

Add an extra ten minutes or so  onto any cooking time to allow for penetration of the packaging surrounding most of the ingredients.

Method.

1. Open the Tropicana orange juice container by turning the knob anti-clockwise with the pair of pliers.  Once you have managed to turn the knob and open the container, pour the  orange juice from the container into some glasses.

2. Whilst the grill is heating up, take out the grill pan and using either the scissors or the sharp knife, proceed to penetrate the packaging containing the bacon and also the packaging around the sausages.

 

3. As soon as you have managed to make headway into the packaging, take out the bacon and the sausages and place on the rack in the grill pan.  Place the grill pan under the heated grill.

4. If serving mushrooms as well, you will also need to use exactly the same method to access those inside their plastic packaging. Peel said mushrooms and place onto the grill rack with the bacon and sausages.

5. The eggs are fairly straight forward to open as they are packaged in a cardboard box  which has a very handy ‘push in’ type opener which therefore does not require any use of  either the knife or scissors.

6. Once everything is cooked thoroughly, serve onto warmed plates.

7. Use the plasters if you cut yourself with either the utensils or any sharp parts of the packaging.

NOTE! Dispense of all packaging into the correct containers provided by your local council for that purpose!

TG  

Technorati Tags: breakfast,carton,plastic,cardboard,plasters

There and eventually back again. The King’s Cross Saga.

To continue this tale and be fair to Grand Central, part of the ensuing farce was brought about by the way that King’s Cross station is organised. ( or should I say disorganised?) On all of our railway stations ((up North) you are allowed to wait for your train on the platform that your particular train has been allocated. Not so at King’s Cross, arguably one of the busiest railway stations in London. Now I can’t comment on any of the other London stations and whether or not they are exactly the same, but at King’s Cross you are not allowed to go on any of the platforms until boarding time. You are stopped from doing so by closed gates manned by staff.  Instead all passengers are expected to all congregate in front of the huge departure board in the lobby.

The Early Birds…

On Friday, K had to be escorted down to the Adult Education Centre to begin her new course in Yoga. Yoga!  As if she’s not laid back and relaxed enough! It really ought to be me beginning Yoga class seeing as I am the uptight one out of this duo!  As it turned out, I very nearly needed more than Yoga, I nearly needed some smelling salts to help my recovery from shock!  The reason?  We had to use the bus before 9.30am and therefore we had to pay some bus fare.

 

These boots are made for walking…..

I am still recovering from the shock of paying so much for a pair of walking boots. £79.99 for a pair of walking boots!  Boots that will get muddy and dirty and wet. Its not often that I buy myself any new items of clothing. I’m simply not into clothes at all. Of course I need to wear them, but anything I buy has to be cheapo. I honestly can’t recall paying so much on a coat or an outfit never mind a pair of walking boots! What rankles the most is that K’s boots look practically identical to mine and certainly as well made, yet cost less that half the price!  If only the assistant had informed me that my final choice was not in the sale, I would have acted like one of the ugly sisters and squeezed my feet into the toe pinching, tight fitting, bunion rubbing one’s instead.

The Early birds………….

Whilst doing our weekly shop last Sunday, I was very nearly driven to actually hitting someone with one of the items in my basket, either that or suddenly losing control and charging willy nilly into every shopper in sight with my trolley screaming my head off. (they would have come to take me away, but it would have been worth it.) There was a time when K and I were the only shoppers (well apart from perhaps one or two more) who did our shopping on a Sunday, but lately we have been joined by  every man, woman, nattering child, screaming infant, and yes, even the occasional dog who now pile into Tesco's every Sunday morning.  We badly needed a cunning  plan.