PC Prudes ban Spotted Dick!!

Years ago i worked in a pub and on the menu was Spotted Dick.. We had our regular old ladies come into the pub for their lunch on a daily basis and they always giggled when asking for a Spotted Dick. I decided to spare their embarassment by writing on the board that we had "Pimpled Richard" on as a desert.
They laughed like mad when i called it that and it became a known thing in the pub.. I did it as a joke and we often said that one day it would end up with a name change... lo and behold, look whats in the news!!




SPOTTED dick ranks alongside sausage and mash, jam roly-poly and shepherd’s pie as one of the nation’s best-known dishes.


But you won’t find it on one council’s ­canteen menu because politically correct souls have decided the name is offensive. Anyone wanting the steamed suet, flour and dried fruit pudding now has to ask for spotted Richard or sultana sponge.

The ludicrous move came after staff at Flintshire County Council’s HQ in Mold, said they were embarrassed by diners sniggering as they ordered the dish. Last night council member Klaus Armstrong-Braun said: “I find this unbelievable. I have been told it happened because it was felt the name was offensive. That is ludicrous. This dish has been around for 150 years and its name has never been a problem.

“It is part of British culture and heritage and to change it because of the childish ­behaviour of a few is absolutely ridiculous.

“It will even cost money because the name labels have to be changed. It is political ­correctness gone mad.”

Tory MP Philip Davies, Parliamentary spokesman for the Campaign Against ­Political Correctness said: “They are likely to get more people sniggering ­because they are calling it spotted Richard rather than spotted dick. It also speaks ­volumes that one group can be so childish and the other so sensitive.”

A council spokesman said: “We accept that the correct title for this dish is spotted dick, but because of several immature ­comments from a few customers, catering staff renamed the dish. Staff simply acted as they thought best to put an end to unwelcome and childish comments, albeit from a very small number of customers.”

My Weekend in Devon with Fellow Ovarian Cancer Ladies

Sixteen months ago I happened to be reading something on the Ovacome website. A lady had written about her feelings and worries on having Ovarian Cancer.
I sent this lady a private message offering my support as I too had OC.
This lady was Sandhy

We’ve chatted online about absolutely everything and got along like a house on fire. Gradually through our friendship we found other ladies with Ovarian Cancer and through facebook we have a little group where we all help each other along by chatting about the awful illness and trying to help each other cope. Its not all doom and gloom though as we are in fits of giggles quite a lot of the time too.

Imagine how thrilled I was to be invited to meet some of these ladies who I’d only ever spoke to via the internet.

Last Friday I climbed on a train from Newcastle upon Tyne to Exeter, a journey that would take me 6 hours but this was a journey I was really looking forward to.

As soon as Sandhy met me at the station I knew it’d be a fun weekend.
Rachel had travelled down from Croydon on the coach and had been met by Sandhy & Julie, they then travelled across town to meet me.
Rick Stein/Ffloyd/Gordon Ramsey/Delia AKA Andrew

On arriving at Sandhy’s home I met Andrew, her wonderful husband who was all ready at the barbeque, utensils in his hands and raring to cook.
Georgie arrived next clutching wine followed by her gorgeous daughter Claire and her family.
Georgie is a wonderful lady but unfortunately not a lady I had ever chatted to online as she has no home computer but I had got to know her daughter Claire who keeps Georgie upto date with all whats happening in our little discussions.

We had a fantastic bbq thanks to Andrew the Jamie Oliver of Devon.

All the weekend we did something from going for a magnificent Devonshire Cream Tea to visiting Darts Farm where you could buy all kinds of gorgeous goodies from fresh vegetables to spicy pickles.


This was the best weekend I’ve ever had and meeting these lovely ladies an absolute dream. I think we’re going to be staying in contact for a long time to come.


Please click the play button and another window will open for the video to play and turn your speakers on Sorry girls they didn't have Shine!

Thank you all for putting up with me and my Northern Accent and madness. I love you all your “Top Birds”

Were You Born In The 1920s,30s,40s,50s,60s, Or 70s..?

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1920’s, 30’s 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses full of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese & tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took cadging lifts.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
A trip to the beach on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the stream and NOT from a bottle.
Take away food was limited to fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Kebabs.
Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and only opened for a few hours at weekends, somehow we didn’t starve to death!
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner shop and buy fruit Spangles and some bangers to blow up frogs with.



We ate buns, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because……
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!




We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No mobile phones – no one was able to reach us all day. And we were always O.K.
We would spend hours building our trolleys out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. We built tree houses and dens and played in streams with matchbox cars.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on Sky, no video tape or DVD movies, no surround sound, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms……….WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
Lawsuits from these accidents.
Only girls had pierced ears!




We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross buns at Easter time…….no really!
We had air guns and catapults for our birthdays,
We drank milk laced with Strontium 90 from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them from the street!
Mum didn’t have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!
Mum & Dad didn’t need Brandy, Whisky whatever when they came in from work!

Footy had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
Our teachers used to belt us with big sticks and leather straps and bully’s always ruled the playground at school.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 70 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned
HOW TO
DEAL WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

VXRacing VIP Hospitality

Yesterday we had the most fabulous day ever..

I’d booked an early Birthday present for Dave of a VXRacing VIP Hospitality day at the BTCC races at Croft circuit.
The envelope arrived with our VIP guest passes along with a special pass for us to park the car in a private car park and not with the other cars.

We arrived at the circuit just after 8am, parked the car right next to the hospitality marquee and let the people know we’d arrived.
Straight away we were served morning coffee and told that breakfast would be served between 9 and 10.30. and given a VXRacing baseball cap signed by Matt Neal, one of the drivers



We were directed to our table which had a name card with our names on already placed at our seats, the table looked really nice.

At 9am Breakfast was served and there was plenty to choose from
We could choose from the following:






Soft floured breakfast bap filled with the choice of smoked bacon or Cumberland sausage served with sauted mushrooms.
Pan au chocolate
Danish Pastries

Cold meats and cheeses including home cured gammon ham, Mortadella and Salami.
Austrian smoked mini edam, Danish blue & belle passe cheeses.

Freshly exotic fruit salad
Muesli and fresh milk
Selection of breakfast and herbal teas
Fine filtered Columbian coffee
Fruit juice.

After Breakfast a dinky little wagon thingy came to collect us to take us to the other side of the circuit for a garage tour.



We were taken inside the garages and told all about the cars and tyres and had the chance to get up close and personal with the racing cars.


Dave on our garage tour

After that we could have had a lift back to the marquee but decided as it was such a nice day that we’d walk and have a look at the other cars and side stalls etc.
Later in the morning we all had our photo’s taken with one of the Vauxhall VXR racing cars by a professional photographer. At noon the first of the BTCC races was on so we watched it from our private viewing area ( so posh hahaha)
Between 12.30 & 13.30 lunch was served. We had a choice of the following:

Cold Selection

Honey Roast Gammon
Roast Turkey Breast
Cured Meats

Ploughmans Pie
Roasted Mediterranean vegetable quiche

Peppered Smoked mackerel
Smoked salmon rosettes

Mixed Leaf & Herb salad
Tomato and red onion salad with balsamic vinegar
Waldorf salad
------------------------------------------------------------------
Hot Selection

21 day aged sirloin steak from BBQ
Baby back pork ribs in a sticky BBQ marinade
Scottish Salmon fillets seared and oven roasted served on a tomato and sweet pepper concasse
Herb buttered new potatoes, green beans and cauliflower florets
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dessert
Classic lemon tart with pouring cream
Summer berry cheesecake

The meal was absolutely gorgeous. Later in the afternoon after the second BTCC race it was time for afternoon tea which included homemade chocolate cookies and a selection of tray cakes



Then we had a visit from the 3 Vauxhall drivers, they gave us a little talk and signed autographs at the end before leaving in the little wagon for a lift to the garages and to start the final race.




We had an absolutely fantastic day even if it did rain by mid afternoon, it didn’t spoil a thing. Vauxhall most definately looked after us, even the mobile toilets were the best i've ever seen!!

Yorkshire Pudding

I met a friend for lunch on sunday and thought i'd share my lunch with you all




I'm from Yorkshire and can honestly say this is the biggest and best Yorkshire pudding i've ever had, so much so it took over my plate.

Where have all the cheese chapatti's gone?

A few months ago we had a Indian takeaway. With it we got a cheese chapatti. The chapatti was absolutely gorgeous and oozing with cheese.

Anyway, this cheese chapatti has been on my mind ever since and about 2 weeks ago I made some curry and asked Dave if he’d go to the Indian for a cheese chapatti. I’m just dishing our curry up when he comes home, excellent timing.
He plonks onto the worktop 2 frozen naan breads..
“Where’s my cheese chapatti”? asks me
“They don’t sell them” Dave tells me, so I get the menu out and show him them listed.
“Oh I went to the local costcutter supermarket, I thought that’s where you meant” AAARRRGGGHHH
Needless to say the dogs got my very dry, very bland naan bread.

Yesterday I made a Chicken Madras and some Bombay Potato as a side dish. When I looked in the cupboard we had no rice, another aarrgghh!
Dave came to the rescue. He trotted off to the Indian takeaway for some of their gorgeous pilau rice and also a cheese chapatti.

Once again I’d dished our curry and potatoes up as Dave walked through the door.
“This seems a heavy bag for a carton of rice and a cheese chapatti” he said.
On opening it we discovered we had a portion of chips.. 2 poppadoms, a garlic naan bread and a foil tray of chicken massala.

We’d got someone else’s order!!

Anyway we ate it all except the chicken massala which is now frozen.

Later on in the evening Dave suddenly said
“ Its weird you know, the man in the takeaway called out for Mr Wells and looked at me and handed me the takeaway”
“I did think, I never gave him my name”

Do you know the funny thing which I started giggling about when I got to bed.. Fatal as I’m a menace when I start to giggle!!

Dave’s surname isn’t Wells or anything even similar… its Rutherford!!!

Sooo the quest is on… will I ever get my cheese chapatti? Am I doomed?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Victoria Sandwich

Today i had a baking day.. I always make savoury dishes but rarely make cakes. Years ago when my parents were alive i baked buns all the time.
Anyway i decided at the beginning of the week i'd be baking a cake today for Dave.. nothing spectacular only a Victoria Sandwich... I've never baked in a Convection Microwave before and it took longer than usual.. also it proved how wonky the floor is too as my cake is a weird shape..
Anyway its all filled with butter cream and strawberry jam... hope he enjoys it as its all for him as its not too good for my diet ;-)

Babies

Could you eat these?
A friend emailed me these and i thought i'd share them with you These babies are made of cake icing. But who could take a bite?

She's one very talented lady

Marzipan Babies..... Thought you'd be as fascinated with these as I. These are made with marzipan....really unbelievable! Every detail is amazing, and they look VERY real.

Marzipan is Almond paste: a sweet paste made of ground almonds and sugar, often with egg whites or yolks, used as a layer in cakes or molded into ornamental shapes.

Unbelievable!