Monday 22 September 2014

STORMY WEATHER & THE BIG GUY!

No new posts on my Blog.. whom should you blame? Me or her that taps the iPad? Debatable but let us leave that debate for another day.

Wow.. have you had those noisy storms rampaging over your head at night? Last week the days got hotter and hotter, the humidity was gruesome and then crash bang wallop, we had the first storm and then another the following night.

Yesterday was an iffy day, she was slightly chilly around the neck at the market at Parson's Green and very grateful for a big cup of coffee that Debbie gave her plus some delicious cake from the next door stall.

Head's up folks.. for every Sunday at the Farmer's Market at Parson's Green there is a charming woman called Valerie Janicki, who bakes delicious things, her company is called..

                      HONEY PIE BAKERY

Go early, the market opens at 10.00am, and see what she has to offer, Valerie's baking skills are
formidable, this comes from a daughter whose mother, aka Constance, was an ace baker!

Not very much to report, she is having to do a huge amount of research into something the like of which I am not well versed in so I will not talk about it for I am bound to get it all wrong!

So what news do we have? Well, not a lot of that either, I am afraid, however, she did go to a small but very sweet party last week. 

For about ten months there has stood at the top of a tiny street very near to our home a large man. He was the traffic marshall responsible for getting impossibly large lorries down this tiny street and back out onto a major road safely with no damage to buildings, cars or people.

If you pass someone every day, five days a week and sometimes two or three times a day, you start saying "hello". Well, she does and did and they started to chat, when he wasn't directing trucks and lorries!

So she learnt about his wife's shingles and mixed her a bottle of essential oils which she gave to him on a Friday, on the following Monday he pounced on her and gave her a big hug in the middle of the street!

"Blooming marvellous that oil" he said, "she's so thrilled, it stopped the scratching and left her skin much cooler, so she says thank you very much".

Several weeks went by and coming up the little street she saw her big 'friend' (whose name she still did not know) limping!

"What have you done", she asked, "tripped over on a loose paving stone and landed on my knee", whoosh, she turned and went home, grabbed a new bottle of her much beloved Black Seed Oil, (Nigella Sativa - Black Cumin Seed Oil) and went back up the street.

She gave it to him saying "this will help, massage this in twice a day after your bath or shower whilst the skin is still warm" and off she went to the allotments.

The next day she was walking up the little road, it is her short cut to the local bus stop, and saw him doing a silly dance and the silly dance got even sillier the nearer she got to him!

"You are a marvel, first you cure the wife and now my knee, it is a little tender but the swelling has gone right down, the pain is negligible and look.. I can bend it!" said the large man as he frolicked to and fro across the street, dressed in his bright orange day-glo vest and hat much to the amazed amusement of all the passers-by and the drinkers in the pub!

The building works then entered another phase, which meant that the team that were doing the works were due to hand over to the next team of builders. This is a very BIG job, four stories above the ground and four stories BELOW the ground, the plans were passed two weeks before the local council put a stop to these massive excavation works.

One day the large man greeted her with "Good morning, we are leaving September 10th and would you believe it, three of the local residents are giving ME a leaving party in the pub, please will you come, it is on Tuesday the 9th September and it starts at 5pm".

So she went hardly recognising Thomas, she had by now asked him his name, in his smart 'civilian' clothes and without his hat!  

She told me the pub had organised it most beautifully, it was a buffet supper and the food was really delicious! 

The three women who had put up the money for the drinks were just astounded but Cecile said "ah, but he has kept the pub safe, so the food is on me", it was a charming and very jolly evening.

The street doesn't seem to be the same without him, the new man is slim and quite short. Thomas was a very big guy, well over six foot and broad with it.

And so if you live in the Notting Hill Gate area and have a new building site near you and see a large guy in an orange vest (possibly with his hated orange hat on) directing traffic, go and say "Hi Thomas, a mutual friend says to keep rubbing the oil".

Now we have to go, we have things to do and she has places to go.. PipPip.. Dear Readers.. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 22nd, 2014.

Friday 12 September 2014

Nine Eleven .. oh dear.

Sombre is the mood in our house in the lead up to today, September 11th, otherwise known as Nine Eleven, for it is, of course, the anniversary of the New York City twin towers atrocity.

And much nearer to home and three years later to the day, it was the day that Dagga Parrot died in a 'silly' accident at home in the bathroom. Today is the tenth anniversary of his death.

Earlier this week she was told the very sad news of the death of an old friend, Marina Orpin (of Valmar Antiques) and today she was given some very startling news.

So there we are. 

TomFoolery would not be appropriate and so I am sticking very close to her and refraining from being my usual 'Beaky-knows-best' self. 

The subject of this startling news has to be very, very carefully looked at and gone through with a dear and trusted friend who is an expert in these matters and then her decision will be made and given. 

I know, I know, there is nothing more annoying than only getting half a story but she is not in a position to say any more at this moment in time.

Lots of laundry has been done! An enormous bag of extremely fine linens was donated to the shop and she volunteered to bring them home and 'do' them. They had been stored for many years and were aged and dusty. They're now 'sparklingly' white and crisp and will be delivered back to the shop tomorrow.

Whilst she was ironing, I sat on top of the door, no Salsa cd was played (sad that) but she sang and I followed along as much as I could and made her laugh by doing my 'whoosh' noise, occasionally I flew around the room at high speed screaming at the top of my voice, what the neighbours must thing is beyond us!

What other news have I for you? Not a lot, I am sad to say. Except those thieving Pear Rustlers have struck again! Bastards! And other rude words that I am sure you can work out for yourselves, they pick and take them before they're ripe or even fully grown. This time they left the Apples but who knows what has gone on down there this past week? 

I hope, Dear Readers, that you are all happy and healthy? We know a couple of friends are not in great shape, I was very disturbed to hear that our much beloved Leigh (owner of cats who think I am an avian hat) has to have an MRI on her spine.. ouch.. poor spine, poor Leigh.

And a dear friend is being given 'a run-around' by someone.. huh.. if he is not careful old Beaky could and would give him a very serious nip!

So there we are folks.. it is time for our supper and to call it a day. I apologise for not posting more often in recent times but it has not been appropriate given the mood in our house.

She wondered why she was not woken on her birthday by Marina, who used to call her on July 7th at some ungodly hour to sing "Happy day to you" for many years, she tried to call her several times but received no answer. 

However, as Marina would often be away on a jaunt, as they had done many times together, she thought well, it is summer, she could be in Italy or with the family in Wales.

But on Tuesday she woke and thought "Where is she" and called a mutual friend and was told the news.

No, that was not what was happening, Marina was not on a jaunt. Our lovely friend had died in bed at her home on the night of July 4th - 5th and was found when a very concerned friend, Ian Harris, got the police involved. 

So you see.. apart from one very happy thing that I will talk about tomorrow, it has all been a bit 'blue' here.

PipPip.. Dear Readers.. PipPip.
September 11th, 2014.
ps: aka nine eleven.

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Nut Case..

NUT CASE? No, Dear Reader, I am not referring to myself (or her), I am referring to the most wonderful emporium full of very, seriously very, delicious things to eat.

And, guess what, its' name is.. Nut Case Ltd!

This wonderful small but bursting to its' seams shop is located at the following location:
352 Uxbridge Road, London W12 7LL.
Tel: 020 8743 0336.

They sell every nut known to parrots, squirrels and mankind, plus dates, crystallised fruits, baklava and every other possible delicacy in the sweet range.

"Nougat! Get away from me, you naughty girl" was what she said to the charming girl who tried to tempt her when she was buying walnuts and other such edible things yesterday!

That made them all laugh and I am proud to tell you she did NOT give in, nope, not a morsel of any sweet stuff passed her lips.. now.. the same cannot be said about dry roasted pistachios or the chilli roasted almonds.

For supper last night I had the first tasting of what she had brought for me. Fresh cashews, walnuts and almonds.. oh slurp-the-durp!

She mentioned that if I liked the nuts (?), that she would be a regular customer. Yes, I am extremely fussy about nuts and can sniff out a rancid one in a nano-second, they get picked up and dropped on the floor. The mice don't mind but she does, a lot.

A parrot! You have a parrot, said the nice man behind the counter and so she left the store much 
later than planned as much parrot talk was talked for he had just got an Indian Ringed Neck parrot, they are seriously cute to look at.

So she will be going there probably every week now, the quality of the merchandise is superb and supper last night and breakfast this morning was just as a parrot would dream about.. a cashew, two walnuts, a soft boiled egg (yum), a slice of my favourite bread and a crust of her toast.

She has to go to MailBox to give them a parcel for America and I will doze on my favourite pole, digest my yumyum and dream about a fresh date or perhaps a chillie'd almond or two.

I will be back.. as she is SO incensed by a remark that the Prime Minister said yesterday that she will be writing on this subject later, but for now, it is PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 3rd, 2014.

Monday 1 September 2014

The Loner and Hour of Darkness both by Quentin Jardine & The Expats by Chris Pavone.

Thriller diller.. Dear Readers.. she's got three great books for you to read.

'The Loners' and 'Hour of Darkness' are the latest books by Quentin Jardine, he is one of her favourite authors.

The third book is the first novel by Chris Pavone. He may have now written more as this one was published in 2012.

These three books are well worth reading, you don't see the very clever twists and turns in the plot coming, good stuff!

You can tell it is autumn in our home by looking at the amount of books that come trundling home in old Wicker Wheelie. 


For Mr. Sun now goes to bed a great deal earlier than he did in July, ah, July, the last time we were really warm for August has been a dismally cold and very wet month.

There have been no sunny hot days to ripen off the fruit and vegetables and those three days of torrential rain caused the 'best-ever' crop of blackberries to rot on the bushes. 

They say that we are supposedly going to have an Indian Summer and that September will be dry and sunny, well, it has been known September and October to be glorious but it will be all too late for the sweet corn, the figs and the tomatoes.. sigh.

And so with the days drawing in, there is less time spent at the garden and more at home. 

However, she plans to go back to doing an old volunteer job at our local hospital and has another one, which she is really excited about tucked up her sleeve, which I will tell you about when it is confirmed.

So off you go to your Library or to a book shop and find Mr.Jardine's books, there are three series of books - twenty four feature Bob Skinner, five feature Primavera Blackstone and nine feature Oz Blackstone - and a stand alone book called The Loner. 

And, whilst you are there, see if they have the first book by Mr.Pavone as well. There, that's your autumnal and winter reading sorted out for you!

The next one she will read is, no, I'll wait to tell you about the next one but as a 'taster', I will tell you that it features Lisbon, Tangiers and Bombay, besides lots of other places and stuff!

Now I am off, have you said "White Rabbits" or plan to eat Natives? For yes, folks, there is an 'R' in the month again!

GeeGee Parrot.
September 1st, 2014.