REMEMBERING FRIENDS WHO HAVE DIED & THEIR FAMILIES.

All it takes is a telephone call. It is more direct and personal than a card or a letter and this afternoon she called Rod, who was the husband of her dear friend Sylvie. Sylvie died at the beginning of November 2016. 

"It's ... Rod, how are you, how are you doing?" she said and then listened, she listened for a good length of time whilst he told her about himself, how he knew she wasn't ever going to walk through the door but that the house never felt 'empty', it was as if she had just stepped out for a while, how the children were coping.

And for most of the whole length of the telephone call she was quiet, except when she asked a couple of questions, because it wasn't about her.

This telephone call was all about honouring her many years of friendship with Sylvie and extending the 'hand' of kindness to the man who has lost his best friend whom he had known for 45 years and been married to for 43 years.

This is what you do. Yes, it is sad and upsetting to hear a grown man cry but you have to, you must listen, talk and 'be there' - if only on the telephone - for friends when they are in the state of grief.

Luckily a 'few good men' had been there for her when she learnt that Bill had died.

You get and you give support. That, Dear Readers, is what friends, real friends do and are all about. Don't expect it from your family. You're fortunate if you get it but she didn't.

It's the last day of December 2017. It has been a year of mixed blessings. There has been great sorrow and much happiness. She has spent the day speaking to friends and BUB, soon to be SUB I am told but that, Dear Readers, is a tale for 2018.

We send you, whoever you are and wherever you are, Gods' blessings and we pray the new year of 2018 will be a kinder year, for 2017 has been brutal and very cruel to a great number of people.

GeeGeeParrot.
December 31st, 2017.

SUE GRAFTON HAS DIED. SHE WILL BE GREATLY MISSED BY HER FAMILY, FRIENDS, READERS AND GARDEN.

This is a very short post. We have just read that Sue Grafton, the author of twenty five mystery books, has died in Santa Barbara, California.

Starting at 'A is for Alibi' she titled her novels through the alphabet but sadly, for her family and us her readers, her alphabet has stopped at Y.

She voiced her desire for her books not to be turned into either films or television series nor for a ghost writer to continue her character, Kinsey Millhone, so we'll never know what happens to Kinsey in 'Z is for Zero'.

Besides being a wife, mother and an author. She and her husband, Steve Humphrey, turned themselves into gardeners and transformed the gardens of Lincliff, a 100 year old house in Louisville, Kentucky.

There was an article written by Logan Ward in Garden&Gun published in February / March 2014, you can view this on line, it has photos of the house and the garden. Both are quite beautiful.

We're saddened by this news.. Rest in Peace Ms. Grafton.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 30th, 2017.

THE OPTIC SHOP.CO.UK & REALISING THAT SHE NEEDS SUNGLASSES AND FINDING JUST WHAT SHE WANTED FOR ALMOST NO MONEY!

It's a shock when you are unused to having to wear glasses all the time and she really 'bucked' against it until the day she clambered onto the wrong bus and it started off down Harrington Road instead of heading for the Fulham Road.

Upon arriving at work, she told Amy, her new manageress about it and said that she needed to go back to her opticians to get a new pair of sunglasses.

"No no" said Amy, "you must go to this website that we all use, it's called theopticshop.co.uk and they are marvelous for two reasons which you will see when we log onto it!"

So today she went into the shop knowing that Amy would be there and would show her the website.

And, sure enough, Dear Readers it is an extraordinary website with everything you would ever possibly need in the way of prescription glasses or sunglasses.

Now you can, should you so wish, pay mega money for frames by the big names but as she doesn't so wish to pay mega money, she searched for a pair that were a reasonable price, tinted and by good make.

And she found just what she wanted, a pair of sunglasses with a pretty tortoiseshell frame made by Converse for the very non-mega amount of money.. 34 pounds.. we haven't found the sterling pound sign on the new laptop yet.

Of course, you have to have your current eye prescription, which she has from Moorfields Eye Hospital, they'll be thrilled to hear that she will be wearing distance tinted glasses when she's out and about.

OK.. here's how you find them..

                 www.theopticshop.co.uk   

And no, you don't have to tell them that you found them on my blog. But, you could pass the word on about them to all of your friends and tell them that GeeGee told you about them.

Now to something completely different. Dear WW came home tonight with the following:

2 tins of mixed beans, 20 large eggs, 4 bottles of Schwartz spices, a bottle of Worcestershire Sauce aka Lea and Perrins, a giant swede (vegetable not human), 5 persimmons aka Sharon fruits, 20 easy-peel satsumas, a red cabbage, 10 library books, 2 lamb chops and a ceramic pot for a cacti.

That would have been physically impossible for her to carry in bags but WW just swallowed the lot with no complaints, trundled along behind her and brought everything home safely.

Do you get my drift? Have you looked at:

               www.madebydiane.com 

yet? If not, why not? This is, of course, directed at our Dear Readers in America, because WWs and trolleys are very popular in the UK and Europe. 

When WW dies.. pray not yet.. she will be getting a Trolley Dolly, that's for sure, we will ask one of our friends to bring one over, I wonder if she'll do an oil cloth pattern of parrots? One can but ask.. and hope.

Now, easy-peels await me.. toottoot.. chirp.

GeeGee Parrot.

December 29th, 2017.
PostScript: TheOpticShop, the two reasons are the good styles and the very good prices. 

LOOKIELOOKIE.. PRETTY THINGS @ WWW.MADEBYDIANE.COM

You must think that she does nothing except surf the web to find you edible / pretty / readable / useful things, it's not true, she does lots of other stuff as well but she does love it when she comes across somebody who designs and makes pretty things.. that are also useful!

And this website.. www.madebydiane.com will make your day-to-day life easier and save the environment from those awful, hideous plastic bags.

Totes, trolleys and clever aprons with amusing or 'fresh' patterns are probably the chief draw on this website but Diane also designs and makes charming pillows, tablecloths and very pretty sarongs.

Now if you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that she never goes shopping without WW.. aka Wicker Wheelie.

For everything is so heavy, you buy a few things like 6 oranges, a couple of grapefruit, two lbs of sweet potatoes, the same of carrots and hey presto! You now have more than your arms want to carry. 

And that's before you buy washing powder and dog food, so a trolley is a great idea, plus it saves you having to go back and forth to the car, if you have driven to the shops.

Diane Ludwig is a Californian and here are all the contact details that you need to contact her and to access her website with its' charmingly designed products.

Phone: + 1.714 394 6557

Email: info@madebydiane.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/MadebyDiane

No, we don't get anything at all for promoting this website, except the pleasure of helping a designer to further their business and the happiness of knowing how my Dear Readers will find Trolley Dolly to be so useful!

Pssst.. but, you could just mention that you heard about her and the Trolley Dolly on GeeGee's Blog.

Now I'm off to investigate a pile of dried White Mulberries.. and a slice or two of easy-peel as you can if you're as spoilt as I am.

GeeGee Parrot.

December 28th, 2017.

Huh-huh.. a bare mattress & a silly mother equal a fun day!

Well, to my amazement, a lot of serious work went on in our home today. This was despite the fact that a equally large amount of silly behavior occurred during the time she made the bed with clean linens.

We sleep with sheets, an old fashioned eiderdown and the bed is topped off with a washable blanket. All of this makes for a cosy place to read books, write posts for my blog and, of course, sleep.

But it's bouncy.. which means that I, with my long front toes, cannot run across it, well I do but it usually means that I end up falling over onto Beaky.

So, when she strips everything off down to the mattress, it becomes the perfect place to run about, swooping up and down, jumping on and off her, we've have played this game for many years and it's such fun! 

It's a very noisy game, I squeal as she pounces on me and she squeaks with laughter as I wiggle out of her grasp and swoop on her head and growl and then she grabs me, whisks me upside down and kisses me all over my tumtum and Beaky.

It is, Dear Reader, a miracle that anything got done in this home.. because we like a clean bed but we love to play.

Bathroom had a scrub-a-dub-dud, as did YumYum HQ, lots of papers were sorted and put into bags to be recycled or burnt at the allotment.

She started to flag and thought of food, I agreed it was a good idea and hopped onto Goosie Head to watch what she was going to cook. 

Shallots, garlic and a porky chop. Oh, delicious and we finished our meal off with a couple of easy-peels and half an enormous pomegranate 

Now she has a book to finish, I have feathers to preen, we will be back soon. She is working tomorrow so I don't know when.

So tootle-pip.

GeeGee Parrot.

December 26th, 2017.

'Little prayer be on your way. Bless our friends on Christmas Day'.

We have had a glorious day, we dressed or rather she dressed, I just straightened a few feathers, then we went up the stairs for a family Christmas lunch with Tereza, Jean-Luc, Georgia, Rebecca and another guest whose name, I am ashamed to say, I didn't actually catch.

There was my French buddy who'se used to us parrots and knows how we like to hang out on them, I clambered out of my cage and onto his hand.

And stood chatting with him until it was time to sit down for lunch, then I flew onto mum's head and settled down to receive whatever was going, for Tereza had provided lovely yumyum.. snack-attack is a phrase that comes to mind!

I descended via her ear, slid onto her shoulder, waddled along her arm and got down onto the table. A little munch here, a slightly bigger munch there and then a slurp of tea. How very pleasant it all was.

And Tereza gave mama two beautiful pashminas, in scarlet and a butter cream.. so beautiful.

Then it was time to come downstairs, pick up a large square mysterious package, grab a coat and go up the street to have tea with our Lebanese friends.. aka Myra and Raja.

What was in the package? Well, her, our Lebanese friend's favourite nuts are pecans, so what could be more perfect that a glorious 'proper' Pecan Pie!

"Hello darling, how lovely to see you, oh and you've brought GeeGee, come in, come in out of the wet", with that we sat down, mama produced the big square box and said "this is for you".

"Ooooh, pecan pie" said Myra as she took the top of the box, "and it's a proper pecan pie too, oh yum, where did you find this?". "Ah ha" said mama, "it came from Baker & Spice in Milner Street".

We sat, chatted, drank coffee and ate pie.. or rather the adults drank coffee, I had slurps of tea and crunched pecans from the top of the pie.

What a great festive 'foodie' day this was!

Then it was time to come home and for her to call friends whom we didn't speak to this morning.

And now.. heehee.. I'm going to make you wish that YOU have one of our friends as your friend.. for guess what was in a gift that she opened this morning?

Psssst: I'd better tell you that you don't have the smallest snowballs chance in hell of guessing what Raja has given her.

It's two dvd sets, the first 2 disc series is from BBC Earth called 'Yellowstone'. We caught two episodes of this incredible documentary and raved about it here (on my blog) and so to have the complete series is just brilliant and a truly most wonderful treat.

And the other? It's also from the BBC and it is called  'Wild China', this is a documentary that was shown quite recently and we only caught the last couple of episodes and it is truly magnificent.

Dearest Raja, who remembers everything, had recalled conversations they had in the autumn about these incredible documentaries and had bought them for her.

Well, now you know where we will be for the next few evenings.. we'll be glued to a screen watching wondrous things which are real.. like 'really' real.

Which is a 'little' bit better for you than being addicted to that weird thing called FaceBook, which tells HUGE wopping gross fibs.. aka lies about people wanting to send you 'Messages' and constanty thrusts strange people at you all the time saying 'these are friends', when hello, we've never seen any of them before in our life. 

Don't let me get started..

Instead, I will tell you what that Goaty person Debbie gave her.. it's a long, very long hot water bottle!

No, I ain't kiddin' you folks, it's about a metre long and it has a cosy fleecy cover. And she can't wait for the weather to turn cold again so she can fill it up and go out to the garden with it. For you can wear it around your neck or around your waist.. like a fat, hot snake.

Dear Readers, the man on the moon and our postman already know that she's a trifle strange and now that norty goaty friend of ours is making sure that everyone knows it! I shall have to have a little word in her shell-like.. aka ear.

But what is puzzling me, is how did she find it? For she's an extremely busy goaty mum, she milks them, she makes incredible award-winning cheeses, she does all the paperwork and let me tell you folks, the paperwork that is involved with the production of milk and cheese and the 'husbandry' of goats (or cows) is mind-boggling.

So how did she have the time to find the 'YuYu' - this is what it's called and snug is a completely inadequate word to use for the sheer blissikins of this long furry snake.

Yawn, well, it is our bed time for us dollies. We've had an happy day spent with friends who've been extremely kind and very hospitable and we'll pen them our 'thank you' notes tomorrow.

We also have to call the Pewsey gang to find out how Tom's deep-fried turkey came out? Yes, you read that correctly.. he deep-fried or was planning to deep-fry the Christmas bird. I'll report back with all the news that's fit to print.

Good night to you all.

GeeGee Parrot.
Christmas Day.
December 25th, 2017.

A WELL KNOWN FACT BY THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE IN 'TUNE' WITH THE ANIMAL WORLD..

Is that we animals can 'speak' on Christmas Eve, we, of course, speak our own languages throughout the year, cat, dog, donkey, horse and of course, parrot.

And as she knows this, I am mystified as to why she has never taken me to the Christmas Eve service at our (very) local church. It is literally on the very next corner of the street on which we live so I couldn't possibly get cold and I know quite a few other people (humans) who will be there but no, I am always left behind. 

Pity that as I do enjoy a good sing-song and those Christmas songs or carols, as I believe they are called, sound as they would be wonderful to sing and listen to, especially in our church.

But maybe I am left at home to be in charge, that's it! I'm left behind to guard all the festive food and gifts that, I'm sure, Mr. and Mrs. Mouse would like to eat and scamper off with.

She still hasn't peeked at any of her gifts, I find that truly amazing! Not even at the two bags that Myra gave her last night.

She had to let a delivery man in for our upstairs neighbours and he, bless his heart, came earlier than scheduled, so she was able to pick me up and we went to have supper with her and her brother and took our gifts for them that she had wrapped and decorated the day before.

They both proclaimed that her wrapping was 'enchanting', she had used crisp brown paper - which packs things beautifully - together with scarlet ribbon, stencils with bronze, gold, silver and red pens with which to decorate the paper and labels onto which she had put the tiniest amount of red glitter.

We spoke with BUB this morning and will speak to our UK and overseas friends tomorrow. I find it 'strange' to realise that we will not be telephoning several friends this year.. we've 'lost' a few to the great upstairs.. sigh.

But, as I'm able to speak human speech tonight, I'll pray for our much beloved folks and tell them that we love them and miss them very much and The God of my understanding will listen to my prayers and make sure that our friends know that we are thinking of them.

And, Dear Readers, we will think of you as well, we only know a few of you personally but there are thousands of you throughout the world who read my blog and to those of you who celebrate the birth of Christ.. we wish you a happy Christmas.

And.. we wish for Peace on Earth.. you don't have to be a Christian to want that.

GeeGee Parrot.
Christmas Eve.
December 24th, 2017.

WELL OK.. ARE YOU ALL READY FOR CHRISTMAS? THAT QUESTION IS, OF COURSE, DIRECTED AT THOSE OF WHO ARE OF THE FAITH THAT CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF CHRIST

We are, or rather, she is and as she's the chief cook and bottle washer of my flock, I am too.

Life's been a 'trifle' busy around here, she has a piece of hardboard which she puts onto her bed upon which she works. This work involves: white labels, brown paper, stencils, coloured pens and crayons, sellotape, red ribbon and bubble wrap.

And there has been much making of brittle in YumYum HQ, brittle as in caramelised nut brittle made with almonds, pistacchios, cashews and sesame seeds to give as gifts. Hence there's been a lot of packing of gift boxes with home decorated wrapping paper and labels.

I gave you the recipe for this brittle recently.

And today she gave a gift box of a mix of sesame and almond brittle to our Lebanese friend, who tasted them and said "Yum, where did you find these, they're delicious" and upon being told that my mum had not found them anywhere but had made them herself, she dived into her handbag, extracted paper money and said "Oh, please make me more, I am crazy about caramelized nuts", who knew?

What else has been going on? Well, she's back working as a volunteer but for a different charity and in a different location and does a 6 hour stint twice a week. They're a merry bunch of folk, all ages, all nationalities, both sexes.

But no trips to the allotments have been done, she may go on Saturday in the late morning for a few hours, for the weather, which had been bitterly cold and hovering around zero, has now cheered up and London today was into double figures!

But it was very wet and there's nothing you can do in the wet, except get wet and there's no point in doing that, is there?

A lot of our friends have already left London, we are staying here. She has absolutely NO desire to play that silly game of 'catch a plane or train @ Christmas time', for the rail system throughout the whole of the UK seems to be either on strike or undergoing major works all over the festive period and into the new year, so although we had a lovely invitation to visit friends, she asked if we could visit them in the spring and during the week time.

Sneakily I am rather pleased, much as I love them, the bedroom they give us is always a 'trifle' chilly.

Now I have to report that she is, much to my utter astonishment, becoming quite 'grown-up'.. I know that you'll be confused about that remark as I usually refer to her as if she is some ancient old fossil, but I mean 'grown-up' as in the sense that there is a little collection of prettily wrapped gifts with her name on the tag.. of course I've looked at them.. and not one of them has she prodded, poked or squidged in order to ascertain what the contents might be!

And, as she was well renowned for being untrustworthy where presents were concerned when she was a child and well into her teenage years, this s quite remarkable!

My Christmas gift to her this year are some new feathers. For you see, as I don't get pocket money and don't have access to shops, it has to be something that either astounds or amuses her, like my human speech, for she squeals in delight when I do her chuckle or talk in her or a friends' voice, poor dear, so very easily pleased!

Many years ago, I think it was in 2006, I woke her up very early on Christmas morning by 'singing' and doing the funky chicken dance.. but you can't play the same game twice, can you and, actually if the truth is told which it always should be, I can't actually remember the steps or the words.  

So my new feathers will just have to do, I wish I'd thought of growing them a bit earlier as my vest is a trifle thin but they're coming through, albeit slowly, veryvery slowly.

Hey up.. on a happier note? Do you know what this month is? No reddies for guessing but it's the month that I started this blog all those years ago in 2011, six years ago and some of you Dear Readers have been with us for all of these years!

Now I have to stick a wing up and admit that this year has been a bit hit and miss, for there were a couple of months back in the autumn when we didn't put out any posts.. no excuse, she was busy and I was idle.


We're having an early night, she needs to go to the market for nuts and sugar with which to make the order for Myra, our Lebanese friend and to collect dry cleaning and to change library books, plus stock up on my latest passion.. aka walnuts.. oh, yubba-dubba, how I love them.

I hope to be with you again before Christmas Day but if I am not, we send you all our sincere wishes for a peaceful holiday and, please remember those less fortunate than yourselves and either donate food, warm clothing or money to a proper charity that support people who are in need. 

And if you are not with your loved ones, telephone them and tell them that you love them and how important they are to you.. make someone happy.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 21st, 2017.

PSSST.. WANT TO HEAR SOMETHING FUNNY.. LIKE IN FUNNY PECULIAR!

Has writing a post with a recipe in French put the mockers on our French Dear Readers? 'Cos since we did, we haven't seen a sight or heard a sound from across the channel. Strange that.

What else is strange is what she plans to do with our bedroom tomorrow, she's going to buy three roll up blinds in off white and plans to fix them into the ceiling so she can pull them down in front of her bookcases.

The books in the hall, which I regret to say have been badly munched by Beaky, are mostly design and cookery books and her valuable books are in our bedroom and I have, until today, never as much as looked at them.

However, after my disgraceful munching of two books which were part of Pats' Christmas present, I followed that up by flying onto the top of one of the bookshelves, she realized that she had to do something pretty smartly. And.. although her friend George would give his eye teeth to have me, she has no plans to give me away.. gulp.. so she had to come up with a plan that would save her books and porcelain.

She does try to keep me entertained, I do have toys but I never play with them, I just like crunching books.

The design books in the hall were, once upon a time, worth a lot of money, some of them are signed first editions and she planned to sell them when she retired but alas and alack, Beaky beaked them and now their spines are in tatters and they're worthless.

Hence the need for the blinds you see. She'll make brittle in the morning, then go to Wilkinsons on Fulham Broadway in the afternoon to get them.

It is time for me to say "goodnight", she's got to put eye drops in and to wash supper dishes and I've got to investigate what she was doing in my cage earlier this evening.

Stay warm folks, wear layers of clothing and drink hot tea.

GeeGee Parrot.

December 9th, 2017.

EMMA BEDDINGTON HAS WRITTEN AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN.. "SO WHAT" YOU SAY, WELL.. HAVE A LOOK AT THE PHOTO!

It's very bright and shiny out there, this, of course, signifies that it is brass monkey weather.. aka veryvery chilly-billy indeed.

But here I am to make you snort with laughter. Do you read the Guardian newspaper? Well, we suggest you do today and on other days too. 

Anyway, back to making you snort with laugher, there's an article in the paper today written by Emma Beddington and we want you to 'see' it, because there's a photograph that not only make her snort, she choked as well!

For there is Emma.. with a chicken on her head. And seeing as she is never going to allow a photo of herself with me perched upon her head to be published, she thinks that's it a good idea for you to realise that yes, it's true. Birds, of all breeds, find sitting on a warm head very cosy.

Alas and alack, I have blotted my copy-book. She was getting laptop to wake up and I was a trifle bored so flew to the top of the bookshelf in which the television lives.

And found two new paperback books, now you all know I can't resist a good book, they're oh so crunchy.

So Beaky was having a grand old time when something made her look up from tapping laptop and she saw what was going on.

Good grief, her scream made me flap practically into next week, she threw laptop off her lap, jumped up, reached for the two books and said "oh ...., GeeGee this is beyond awful, you've just munched Pats' Christmas present".

It wasn't my finest hour.. I am now in the deepest dudu that you can possibly imagine and she has done all manner of sneaky things to try to prevent me gaining access to the bookcases beside her bed.

And now, she's going out.. boohoo. She's going to get bird yumyum, I have bowls of this to snack on whilst she's out and at night, just in case I feel peckish.

Now that takes me back to chickens, they peck.

Adios amigos..

GeeGee Parrot.

December 9th, 2017. 

POUR NOTRE 'DEAR READERS' EN FRANCE..' MINI-MUFFINS CHEVRE COURGETTE'.

We have, I am pleased to note, a great many Dear Readers in France and so feeling of a generous nature this morning, I asked her to give you one of her recipes that I like.

Pour 4 personnes:

225g de farine.

100g de courgettes.

75g de chevre frais.

175 ml de lait.

1 oeuf.

75 ml d'huile d'olive.

1 sachet de levure chimique.

1 cuillere a soupe de romarin frais hache.

Beurre.

Sel.

Poivre noir.

Les mini-moules a muffins.

Prechauffer le four a 180C.

Beurrer des mini-moules a muffins.

Raper la courgette.

Battre l'oeuf, le lait et l'huile.

Melanger la farine, la levure, le romarin, saler, poivrer.

Ajouter la courgette, le fromage et le mélange oeufs lait.

Repartir dans les moules.

Enfourner 15 / 20 min suivant votre four.

I apologise for the lack of accents etc but our computer is set to English and, therefore, she does not have the ability to write this properly.

She bought gift wrapping materials yesterday, gifts have been wrapped, she's leaving to take them to the post office and to do shopping for our Lebanese friend who has a sore knee and has asked mum to get some things.

PipPip.. a bientot.

GeeGee Parrot.

December 8th, 2017.

ONION & CHEESE BALL.. ADD A DASH OF CHILLI AS WELL IF YOU WANT TO.

She's been making this cheese roll for over forty years, Maria 'la Gorda' gave it to her after she had eaten it at her house and loved it.. veryvery much!

Maria had a herd of goaty folk and used their milk to make the cheese for this recipe but you can make it using very soft goats' cheese, unless, of course, you have access to goats' milk like we do.

Here's what you need:
8oz of very soft goats' cheese.
1 clove of crushed garlic.
1 tbsp. of finely grated & chopped white onion.
1 tspn. of dried dill.
1 tspn. of dried tarragon.
OPTIONAL.. 4 drops of hot chilli pepper sauce.
A pinch of ground sea salt.
2 tbsp. of Hungarian paprika.
A good sized mixing bowl.
Another deep bowl.
Tin foil or greaseproof paper.

Here's how to make it:
Combine cheese, garlic, seasonings, salt.
And hot chilli pepper sauce if you want.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Shape cheese into a ball
Place cheese ball into deep bowl.
Cover bowl with cling film.
Place into fridge and chill for at least 1 day.
Remove from fridge 1 hour before serving.
Roll in paprika to coat ball completely.

Maria used to make her own very morish and crisp crackers, sadly she lost the recipe years ago and as both Maria and Constance are both 'up there', there is no one alive who would know the it.. sigh.

But you could serve it with your favourite brand of crispbread / crackers or raw vegetables and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

A packet of dried figs has just appeared so you must excuse me.. for Beaky is extremely partial to the odd dried fig so I'd better go before she eats them all.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 7th, 2017.

AND, YES, OF COURSE, YOU CAN ADD CHILLI TO THE MIX!

Silly me, I forgot to add that, if you like to spice your caramelised nuts up, you should grind up some chilli and add it to the mix.

We are 'long' on chilli and other spices, because yesterday she went down to the head office of SpiceMakers and collected a box of grinders. 

She completed her Christmas shopping as well, for on the same road as SpiceMakers, here are several 'high street' shops. 

St. Mary Cray is the local station, this is two bus stops away from these shops and it is easy to get to from London.

She caught a Dover Priory train from Victoria and got off at the third station. She walked down the hill but there are lots of single decker buses that whizz up and down this road.

No, of course, I'm not telling you what she bought as gifts but I will tell you that she was extremely pleased to find some proper, old fashioned thick woollen socks to wear with boots. Made in Italy. For herself.

That makes a change, doesn't it? She's mighty annoyed that almost everything these days is 'Made in China'.

Yes, she understands that they have to have work but at the loss of other people's jobs? 

Sir James Dyson and his team of engineers may be very clever at designing machines - she doesn't like Dyson vacuums, all they do is suck dirt, they don't actually brush clean a carpet and please, whatever you do, do not use them on any sort of valuable carpet or rug, for it will be destroyed.

But Dyson products are all made in China, as are Apple and shock horror.. Ikea products! 

So to find Italian socks with properly turned heels and toes.. was a delight! Cosy toes, what bliss.

We will be back later today with a recipe that she has had for a veryvery long time, she was given it by Maria la Gorda. She was a dear friend of Constance and was the butchers' wife in the village near to where her parents lived in Spain.

It is an Onion Cheese Ball and it is delicious, in fact, it is SO delicious, I would go so far to call it..  truly scrummydumptions.

But she has to source brown paper, Christmas paper, a box and other exciting gift wrapping supplies and she can't do that whilst taking dictation from me, can she?

So go off and go about your business and we will be back this afternoon with more Tales from a Parrot to amuse and educate you.. get up off the floor, it wasn't that silly.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 7th, 2017.

CARAMELISED NUTS.. READ HOW TO MAKE THEM.

Now this is an easy-peasy recipe for you to make but be careful.. they're veryvery tasty, so I don't want you squeaking and a'squawking about how addictive they are.

Recipe 1.

You will need.

150g (5 oz) unblanched almonds or pistachios.

100g (3.5 oz) caster sugar.
1 tbsp. groundnut oil.
A non stick frying pan.
A baking tray.
A wooden spatula.

Recipe 2.
You will need:

150g (5oz) white sesame seeds.

200g (7oz) caster sugar.

A frying pan.

A baking tray.

1 tbsp. of groundnut oil.

A wooden spatula.

A rolling pin.

How to do it recipe 1.

Heat your frying pan over a very low heat.

Add nuts & sugar & allow sugar to melt, stirring

from time to time with the spatula until sugar turns to caramel.

Oil the baking tray with the groundnut oil, then use a spoon to remove a few nuts from the frying pan & form them into a small pile on the tray.

Repeat with all the nuts.

When nuts are cold, transfer them to a serving plate OR put them into a jar with a screw lid.

How to do recipe 2.

Heat frying pan over a very low heat.

Put in sesame seeds & sugar.

Allow sugar to melt & caramelise as in the previous recipe.

Tip the mixture onto the oiled baking tray.

Flatten the seeds with the rolling pin.

Cut into small pieces whilst the mixture is still hot & soft.

We give these as presents. You could too. It would save you scoffing the lot.

Now I am off to pole position, she's off to collect her order of grinders from Spicemaker.

GeeGee Parrot.

December 6th, 2017.

OREGANO IS NOT JUST FOR PASTA! IT'S A WONDERFUL WITH LAMB.

HAHA... Wot Ho Dear Readers..  Yes, it is your favourite blog writing, red-bummed Parrot.

I had fast-breaking eggs and slurps of hot tea and now, I'm going to give you a recipe for roast lamb.

This is one of the ways that she cooks lamb that we buy from our lubblyjubbly butcher on the North End Road, Dickinsons of Fulham.

I know that sadly, for a lot of you, the chance of getting hold of such a wondrous piece of meat is a big fat zero. 

But you can try.. search your area for a proper butcher, please bear in mind that this does not mean sloping off to an oversized supermarket and picking up a joint pre-packed in plastic.. ugh.

She cooks this when she has more than a couple of people to feed and has cooked it several times at the allotments on her bbq.

*Depending on your greed, we reckon a 5lb - 2.5 kilo leg of lamb feeds about 8 people.

What you will need:
Leg of lamb. *See our note above
Freshly squeezed juice of 2 Lemons.
A small amount of Smoked Paprika.
3 crushed big cloves of Garlic.
3 tbsp. of Oregano.
2 tbsp. of Olive Oil.
Salt and Pepper to grind.
A mixing bowl.
A large roasting dish.

Preheat the oven to: electric 200C / gas mark 6. 

How to do it:
Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, paprika, oregano, garlic, freshly ground salt and pepper together in a bowl.
Place the meat into a large roasting tin, make small cuts over the meat and rub the herb mix over the meat and into the cuts.
Cover the tin completely with tin foil and let it sit for at least 2 hours so the meat takes up the marinade.
Remove the tin foil.
Place the roasting tin in the centre of the oven.
Roast the meat for 1.5 hours. 

The meat will be browned on the outside but will be pink on the inside.

Remove the meat from the oven, place on a carving board, cover loosely with tin foil and allow the meat to 'relax' for a minimum of 10 minutes. This makes the meat easier to carve.

Drain any juice from the board back into the roasting dish and make your gravy, don't forget to use the vegetable water from your steamed vegetables.

No.. we aren't telling you what vegetables to eat with this as we never eat the same ones twice in a row! But you could roast potatoes with the meat, put the potatoes in about half way through the cooking time at 45 minutes.

She went up to Barteks in Streatham yesterday, she was hunting for Hamburg Parsley, but there was none to be had.. boohoo.. it's a great root vegetable to use in vegetable soups, she didn't grow any this year but it's on next years' seed list, that's for sure.

But she did find spray starch so that's what we're off. She'll iron and I'll perch on the door pole and observe. That's a fair division of labour, is it not?

Chirp.. Psist.. Tingaling.. Beepabeepbeepbeep.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 5th, 2017.
PostScript: Beepabeepbeepbeep is my new noise, it is the noise of her alarm.

SUGAR AND SPICE AND ALL THINGS NICE.. FROM THE SPICEMAKER

We didn't do the ironing today, having pulled out all the necessary equipment, she saw that she had no spray starch, so she rolled the linen back up, wrote spray starch on a notepad, tore the page off and stuck it on to WW's handle.

Instead we went in to YumYum HQ, aka kitchen and she opened the upper level cabinets, "I'm checking that I've got enough of those lovely spice mixes and some decorative things for baking GeeGee" she said and picked the notepad.

Much scribbling was scribbled as she examined bottles. "BUB wants stuff too, I mustn't forget to add his bottles to the order, I hope they have everything in stock then I could pick it up next week" she said as she shut the cabinet.

If you are a Dear Reader of several years and have a good memory, you'll remember that we have written about this spice company before but there are a lot of new Dear Readers.. sometimes known as 'folks'.. who won't know about this company.

She came across them several years ago and loves their products. One product we use a lot is their 'Chilli & Garlic' mix, sounds good, doesn't it? The 270g comes in a tall grinder.

We suggest that you go online to :

info@spicemakerlondon.com

or call them on : 01689 897 677.

She'll phone her order through to their office tomorrow morning before she goes off to the dentist to have her teeth and gums scrubbed by a hygienist. 

So that's your lot from us this weekend! We have accomplished a great deal, or rather, she has and I have aided and abetted and driven her potty by 'ringing' her landline and making the noisy noise of her alarm clock.. heehee.

We're having an early night, our tummies are happy, we'll have a few slurps of LapySang before the lights go out but it's "goodnight folks" from us.

GeeGee Parrot.

December 3rd, 2017.

AND CAME ACROSS A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS STREET FAIR!

Hello Dear Readers. Are you up to date on my blog? If not, why not? Are you off busy doing serious things or just goofing about?

But never mind, you're here now so I can tell you about the wondrously happy thing she came across yesterday.

There were no notices for it in the station when she got to Hammersmith, that was an ommision of the organisers, so it was a BIG surprise when she crossed over to King Street.

The street was blocked off and for as far as you could see, and beyond, both sides of the street was lined with stalls selling all manner of extremely nice things!

There were lots of Christmas related things plus festive food and drink but plenty of other things as well.

She wants for nothing but there were LOTS of really well made things that she would have bought had she needed any or an another.. bag, hat, jacket, plate, jewellery, wooden bowl, babies clothing, sheepskin slippers, socks, gloves, you name it.. they were selling it!

She treated herself to a mug of spiced apple juice and oh.. it was very good indeed, the spice mix they had used was hot and punchy! Slurp!

All that was missing was a stall selling crystallised ginger! But she's ok because she knows about 'The Ginger Woman' who makes excellent products.. crystallised ginger, ginger syrup, pure ginger juice and pickled ginger.  

And on and on it went! There were LOTS of people and, it being a Saturday, lots of families with children and their dogs, all of whom, were being very well behaved! 

There was a brilliant comic, she was dressed as an old fashioned waitress and she was pushing a very big trolley, 'what was brilliant about that', you are thinking, well, she was on long stilts that were shaped as long skinny legs with black buttoned shoes.

There was one small family whose children and dog were transfixed by her and she bent down to talk to them which was very sweet. 

What a lovely thing to experience on a bright sunny day. she walked on and found exactly what she was looking for. That made her happy!

She walked back up King Street, crossed over Lyric Square, which also had stalls on it, and caught a bus to Fulham. She went to see her ironmonger on the North End Road to ask him for an door bell, one with a loud bell, to run off electricity or a big battery.

"Gosh, I haven't been asked for one of those for years, I'll have to order one in for you, give me your telephone number and I'll send you a text when it arrives", she gave him her card, they smiled at each other and she left the shop.

She went back over into the street market, bought needles and different coloured cottons from Maggie and, because it was so late and the stall holders were packing up, she scored lubblyjubbly fruit for nothing money!

Ten big pears for 50p, sixteen satsumas for 50p, twelve russet apples for 50p, two big boxes of Muscat grapes for 50p, ten good but not too big beetroots for 50p, goodness me, it was a good thing she had trusty WW with her, wasn't it!

And what an amazing compote she made last night, spices are so so good folks, I hope that you use them in your cooking? 

Four beetroots will be grated, mixed with a chunk of homegrown horseradish root, also grated, two cored, peeled and sliced russet apples, two finely chopped white onions, golden granulated sugar, white wine vinegar and salt, it takes about two and a half hours to cook, then it has to cool down and packed into sterilized jars.

Now this isn't for this Winter, oh no, this is for next year! It requires at least two months to fully reach its' full potential, she'll make several batches of this relish. 

There are a couple of people who are addicted to this beetroot relish and send her hand written thank you notes when they receive it! Yes, for you see, they reallyreally love it!

And we've just received a great piece of news! An allotment friend has just reported that there haven't been any break-ins to our sheds, phew, the thought of having to repair sheds wasn't a happy one.

For today is chilly and damp and she has other plans for this afternoon, she'll gather together : iron, ironing board, spray starch and the white linens that she washed yesterday. 

So stay dry folks, eat ginger, use spices in your cooking, put more clothes on and wear a hat when you go out in the cold.

Oh lookielookie.. Ppissh.. it's my old friend the steam iron.. ppisshh.

GeeGee Parrot.

December 3rd, 2017.

Postscript: The Ginger Woman can be contacted by emailing.. thegingerwoman@aol.com 

UPON BEING HANDED A LEMON..

Ooh, oh boy, she came through the door and I could tell she wasn't happy, in fact, she was.. grumpy!

This is a mood you seldom find her in as she is, by nature, a cheerful soul, she walks on the sunny side of the street, looks upon glasses as half full and avoids situations of tension.

So for her to be less than smiley upon her return into the flat at 10am yesterday morning, I knew something was 'amiss'.

Her nose wasn't red, it wasn't that she was cold, she'd left the house at some ungodly hour but dressed in proper winter clothing for it was zero degrees.. brrr!

No, something had happened to cause her to be less than pleased with life.

However, she firmly believes that things happen for a reason and whilst we will never know what caused 'the grump' to sit upon her for a couple of hours, it did have an excellent outcome.

For she came through the door, whistled me up and said "I am not standing for this mess any longer, either whatever is causing it finds itself a proper home, or it's leaving mine".

And with that, she proceeded to rip through the flat sorting out things that were not where they should be, putting them away in their proper place or putting the things out into the hall if they shouldn't be here!

And in doing so, came across the things that she had brought at HobbyCraft - which is a wonderful shop but not a patch on that marvelous American shop Michaels.

Having found them, it changed her plan for today, she was going to go to Baldwins, the herbalists on Walworth Road to start her Christmas shopping, but now she's heading in the other direction to Hammersmith for materials with which to make Christmas gifts.

And to look for wool with which to mend some sweaters for, despite having anti-moth lavender bags and cedar sachets everywhere, we had an infestation of moths earlier this year.

Her favourite old ruby red cashmere cardigan has a big hole in the back and there are a couple of others that have little holes that she needs to darn.

Poof.. it's 11.30am already! The egg breakfast we had has filled my tumtum, I had many a slurp of hot LapySang and will perch on a door whilst she ventures forth in search of materials and cottons with which to sew her gifts.

No, I'm not telling you what they are, for some of these gifts will end up in the hands of a few Dear Readers of this post.

We must go, she's got to pack a gift for Debbie, aka Goaty mum and give it to Anthony, he runs the Ellie's Dairy stall at South Kensington's Farmer's Market on the first Saturday of every month.

But guess what? Upon awakening this morning, I flew down the hall and into the bathroom and my bird's eye view showed me.. a tidy hall and a tidy and spotless bathroom..

So remember, if someone gives you a lemon, use it to make lemonade (or hot lemon in the winter).

PipPip.. I have to flapflap.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 2nd, 2017.

"BUY ME LADY" SAID THE FROCK..

"And I will make you into a beautiful and whole and complete human being". "Do not be silly" said the man, "for a frock alone cannot do that". "True" said the lady. "I will have the shoes and the bag as well".

Oh, how this makes her laugh and remember an extremely funny - both funny haha and funny peculiar - shopping expedition in January 1973.

She was going to Chicago to start a working road trip with two friends and Bill had asked her to fly to Washington DC to spend a week with him before going up to Chicago.

'How lovely' she thought to herself and off she flew with a medium sized suitcase.

Bill meet her flight and drove to his home in Georgetown. He showed her a closet for her clothes and sat on the bed whilst she unpacked.

"But where are your evening clothes darling?" he asked her when her last item of clothing had been hung up. 

"Evening clothes, I'm not going to anything fancy Bill, this is a working trip I'm on" she responded.

"But didn't you get that message I left you about a week ago, that you had to bring at least three long evening and a couple of short cocktail dresses and that you could leave them with me when you went to Chicago".

"Nope, I didn't get that message but why would I need all of those clothes, what's happening, where are we going?"

He was an extremely patient man, he'd have to be!

But his eyes rolled and said "it's President Nixon re-election weekend.. we'll be going to lots of parties and balls all over town at different embassies and you can't not be dressed properly darling. We'll have to go shopping tomorrow, I'll call my sister to ask her where she goes for her more formal clothes, now let's go and eat something, you must be hungry, I know you never eat on planes".

And out they went.

When they got back, he called his sister and she, bless her heart, came to the rescue with chapter and verse of where he was to take her for pretty but formal clothes.

The next day was Saturday and after breakfast, out they went. Luckily her undies were pretty! For a lot of dressing and undressing went on, in three shops, in front of the lovely assistants who were incredibly helpful.

And it was at the last shop where the sales assistant who had found some wonderful things for her, said "what about shoes and bags, my advice would be to go to so&so on such-n-such a street, they have lovely shoes and a huge range".

And off they went to so&so on such-n-such a street where, sure enough, they found several pairs of beautiful shoes with matching bags that could have been made to go with all her pretty dresses.

WHAT a time they had! 

Now zoom yourselves fast forward about twenty years.. she was in New York on work and Bill flew up to join her for a few days in the city.

She had a hair appointment and they arranged to meet at her club, the ESU.. aka the English Speaking Union, on East 39th Street.

She called the club before she went off to the hairdressers and asked them to put Mr. Bill somewhere cosy until she'd come and claim him.

When she got to the club, she found that they had indeed let him in and taken care of him, in fact, he was chatting to friends who were members and whom he had joined. She asked for a cup of tea and was introduced.

Bill looked at her and grinned.. a silly sort of grin, she looked at him with an eyebrow raised and he mouthed "later".. 

\His friends said "we're off, it's a long drive, we hope to see you both again" and off they went.

"Very pretty hair, I like it very much" said Bill.

"Nah, don't think you can wiggle out of telling me what you've been up to, you have a very naughty look on your face, fess up" she said.

He reached down to a bag that was beside his chair and passed it to her.. it had something hard in it.. and he said "this made me laugh so much, you had to have it".

And she unwrapped a china mug.. on the mug is a cartoon with a dress, a pair of shoes and a handbag and written on the mug is..

Go back to the begging of the post and read it again.. he'd seen the mug, who knows where.. and remembered the crazy shopping and knew she had to have it.

She's still got the mug and she's still got those bags and all the wonderful memories of that most extraordinary time nearly forty five years ago in Washington DC.

Geegee Parrot.
November 30th, 2017.

WORKING A CHAINSAW..

'Just get on with it girl, you cannot be sentimental about a dead tree' she said to herself. She nodded at Dean, who was standing holding onto the first branch, and switched on the chainsaw.

It didn't take very long as the sharp blade ripped through the dry wood, she cut each of the branches down in two pieces, then it was the time to cut through the trunk. She took it down in three pieces and levelled the base as flat as she could.

The pieces were taken out to the car together with unwanted bricks and other unwanted materials. And off they went with Dean to the council dump.

She swept up the sawdust, straightened the garden furniture back into place and sighed.. poorpoor tree.

What a stupid man, fancy planting those dreadful ivy, then training them up a Japanese flowering cherry tree.

Ah well.. it's gone now but let this be a warning to you all, don't let ivy anywhere near any of your trees or garden and house walls.

These evil plants suck moisture out of trees and the cement between bricks and you don't want that.

She's a bit stiff but it's nothing that a hot bath with a couple of handfuls of magnesium sulphate can't cure.. ah, you may know it by a different name.. Epsom Salts. PipPip.. we're off to splosh.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 28th, 2017.

OUT OF BED, WASHED, BREAKFAST COOKED & EATEN, DOWN ONTO THE TUBE, INTO AUDIOLOGY.. TO FIND THERE'S NO CLINIC ON A MONDAY.. GRRR.

Poor mum, she didn't know that the hearing aid clinic at Charing Cross Hospital wasn't open on Mondays. How boring.. for it was cold and wet and she thought of how she needn't have woken up so early, nor hurried our breakfast.. sigh.

The receptionist, whom she has known for several years, gave her a pack of batteries and told her to come back on Wednesday as Tuesdays are always busy.

She thanked her and went down to catch a bus to Clapham Junction which would take her to Battersea Flower Station in search of a big pot of Christmas Roses for a gift and a couple of Christmas Cacti for us.

She loves these cacti, the way that they grow quietly all year then, just before the begging of December, put out the prettiest of blossoms.

Now are you wondering how we're getting on our new laptop? Well, she's pleased at the way her fingers remember how to touch type, for it is well over seven years since she's used a keyboard and she's finding the big screen wonderful!

There's no trouble with making the letters bigger 
and what bliss it is to be able to read something on line without the websites continously crashing, I fear poor old iPad is dying, she must get her photos off it before it does. 

Tomorrow she is cutting down a tree.. a glorious 45 year old Kanzan flowering cherry, poor tree. It was killed by a tenant who rented a friends' house. 

The friend asked her to do it whilst he is away, I am not surprised, I wouldn't want to see it cut down either if it was mine, she'll meet Dean there at 10.am, cut it down and take it to the council dump.

It will be an early night for us, she has a book by Monty Don to read, it is called 'A French Garden Journey', published in 2013, she remembers him when he had a pretty little shop in Walton Street.

We'll be back soon.. don't go too far away!

GeeGee Parrot.

November 27th, 2017.

IT WAS A VERY CHILLY BUT CLEAR DAY SO SHE WENT GARDENING.. AS YOU DO WHEN YOU'RE AS DAFT AS A BRUSH!

FREEZING! Brass monkey weather! Frosty tigers! Veryvery chilly indeed! Do you get my drift?  What my drift means.. it was a day that sensible folk, if they didn't have to go out, would have gone for a short walk or stayed home and read the papers or watched television.

But stuff that had to be done, so having dressed herself in multiple layers of thermal clothes, and her old pigskin trousers, off she trotted to the allotments and smiled as she walked down the steps on the plots, for the sun was shining, those daft wild parrots were zooming about and.. it was warm. But no one else was there.

There was no need to open shack up for she had only gone to check the state of her sheds for sadly there have been reports of break-ins, to pick herbs and vegetable leaves and to gather the rest of the beans that had been left to dry on their plants.

The father of Tereza, our upstairs neighbour, gave us a bag of these beans which germinated so quickly she calls them 'Speedy Beans'. She planted eight rows of these beans which are what we call 'Runner Beans', stopped picking them in late August and had left them to grow and dry on the plants.

Lots of them were dry by early October and they're already podded in a huge glass jar. Yesterday, she stripped the rest of the plants and brought the dried pods home. Yum, beans for hearty Winter fare.

She collected a big bag of endive, chard, Japanese spicy mustard and spinach for her friend who told her about the computer deals at Peter Jones and picked a small handful of white carnations for his sister, you may call them Pinks. They smelt glorious, as if the frost had deepened their perfume, perhaps it had and then she heard her name being called.

Joska had arrived, he is a charming friend of hers who has gardened his plots for almost as long as she has. He was there to do serious pruning to his apple tree, they chatted and then she left, bearing with her a huge bag of perpetual cabbage leaves which he had picked and given to her.

That's why she loves this place, apart from the land and what she has done and grown, it is the people who work these plots. Her Master Baking chum Corinne was not in sight but there were signs that Stuart, who shares the plots with her, had done lots of hard work digging two more huge beds.

HOHO.. time to go! The sky was darkening and she was glad that she had taken a high visibility jacket with her, for she has to cross the A316 and wearing dark clothing, she would be invisible to cars.. not clever if you want to cross a very busy road and make it safely to the other side! The bus came along, she hopped and was grateful to be out of the sharp blustery wind and the temperature had certainly dropped!

She dropped the leaves and the carnations in to her friends', then jiggedy-jig, home she came. She had bought two chickens from our butcher yesterday, so supper was going to be delicious, she heated the oven, put the birds into an oven-proof dish with home grown garlic, herbs, carrots, two shallots and a carrot and set the timer for two hours.

Ooh, such a good smell came sneaking out underneath YumYum HQ's door! She changed into pj's and got a tray ready, with a big plate for her and a small bowl for me. Huh.. as if she thought that would stop me raiding her plate!

How great, hot yumyum is on a winters' evening. She flashed boiled the cabbage leaves, then tossed them in a little olive oil with freshly ground salt and pepper. Pudding was a persimmon and several easy peel satsumas and we drank Lapysang.. it was all delicious and then we settled down to watch Blue Planet 2 on BBC1 and watched in absolute amazement as an octopus, who had been grabbed by a shark, stuck one of his tentacles in to the sharks' gill, thereby cutting off its' air supply and it was able to escape! The whole programme was wonderful so we are grateful to BUB who told us that it was on.

"Thanks BUB". To those of you who are new Dear Readers.. BUB is her cousin but I call him Big Uncle Bruce.. hence BUB.

Her escapades of this morning will be in my next post.. meanwhile, it is wet underfoot with a dreary sky, we need hot drinks and something to eat.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 27th, 2017.
PostScript. The engagement of HRH Prince Harry of Wales and Miss Meghan Markle has been announced. And the reason they didn't announce it earlier was, of course, so it wouldn't take any shine away from the 70th wedding anniversary of his Grandparents.. aka HM The Queen & HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.

PETER JONES REALLY DO HAVE GREAT DEALS!

Frosty Tigers! They said that it was 10 degrees C. Well, here in deepest Knightsbridge at the ungodly hour that we awoke yesterday morning, it wasn't.

But things had to be obtained so she washed, dressed, pulled out a long shearling coat, grabbed a woolen hat and left the house. I was pretty glad that we had had a hot breakfast and that I could perch up somewhere and cogitate my bald navel whilst she had to battle with the outside elements.

She was heading for PC World, the crew at her eye hospital, Moorfields, and her optician are not happy with her just using the iPad and a mobile and told her that the strain of looking at print on such a small screen is causing huge problems with people's eyesight, including hers.

Upon arriving at the branch on Wandsworth Bridge Road, she perused the laptops and wasn't very impressed with their so-called Black Friday deals.

Everything she wanted, 15.6" screen, Intel 5 or 7, dvd, and a 3 year guarantee was way over 500 pounds.. gulp.  


Then she remembered her Lebanese friend told her that he had found his laptop at the winter sales in January at Peter Jones.

She caught a bus back up the Kings' Road and went into the store and up to the 4th floor. Where a helpful man asked her what she was looking for and he asked her to wait until an assistant was free to help her.

She said to the assistant "I know nothing about the technical side of these things but this is what I want it for and I have to have the minimum of a 15" screen and a dvd'".


He showed her several models but they were much too expensive and so she said "I'm retired and I cannot afford that sort of price", he looked at her, smiled and said "come with me" and he led her to the back of the computer and television section, where there was a laptop and several other items.

He said "I have just the thing for you, it has no box but it's an Lenovo, it has a 15.6" screen with a dvd and it comes with a 3 year guarantee, the price is 299 pounds, it was 429 pounds, would this be ok?"

She smiled at him and said "thank you, it is just what I wanted", he unbolted it from the display 
stand and off they went to the till.

Where she handed over a credit card and smiled to herself as she entered the pin.. her frugality over the past few months had certainly paid off!

He disappeared and came back with it and its' charger carefully wrapped up in bubble wrap.

She thanked him for his kindness and help and they parted, she went back to the desk and told the two men who were now standing there how helpful he had been and they smiled at her.

"Thank you madam, how kind of you to tell us, yes, he is good and on a day like today when we are really busy, it is nice to know that customers are happy with the level of service that they have received".

And off down the escalators she went.. to take it to show to her Lebanese friend and to thank him for suggesting that she look in Peter Jones's computer department for a reasonably priced laptop.

And what a joy it is to use! Except she cannot find the pound sign..

GeeGee Parrot.
November 26th, 2017.

NOT A CRUMB WAS LEFT.. AND IMAGINE BEING ABLE TO TRACE YOUR FAMILY TREE BACK, RIGHT BACK TO HAVING WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR AS YOUR ANCESTOR!

We went out to lunch yesterday and took a spiced orange cake with us. We ate potted shrimp, have you ever made them? They were brought by one of the other guests and were delicious. Next came roast pork, yes, there was crackling, with delicious vegetables, roast potatoes for the other guests and mashed sweet potatoes for us. Then our cake with Mackie's vanilla ice cream.

Two guests said "no, thank you" until our host said "Yes you can eat this, I asked her to make this especially because it's both dairy and gluten free", well, that was the end of that cake, it disappeared in a flash for everyone had a second slice! And two of the guests asked her for the recipe of the cake so she directed them to my blog as she said "you'll find it there".

It was a happy meal and not a strain on our host, have you ever thought of doing a lunch like this, it makes sense for the host to do the heavier or hot dish so it doesn't have to travel but actually, if it was a casserole done in a slow cooker for instance it could travel quite happily but it would be quite heavy.

The potted shrimps were scrummydumptious! Little brown shrimps, traditionally caught from the coast of Lancashire, they are also called Morecombe Bay Shrimp. There's a company called Baxters who have been potting them, in clarified butter, for a very long time and very good they are too! Ask your fishmonger if he can get you some as we will be posting the recipe, they're easy to make.

It was a bright sunny day but chilly. A clear sky meant no cloud cover and Jack Frost had visited in the early hours of the morning but after lunch, they went out into the garden to look at the camellias and a crazy, absolutely daft narcissi that has decided to bloom and then we walked home after staying for a cup of tea and wanted for nothing.

But our host had slipped a little surprise in to her basket, for when she went to put her cake box away, she found a package of roast pork together with a jam jar of his excellent home made apple sauce!

We watched television and had an early night.. and one the television programmes we watched 'Who do you think you are?' was extraordinary, the subject of the programme, Frank Gardiner, had always been told by his mother, whose side of the family tree he was tracing, that they had come over to England with William the Conqueror.

And through very exact records, he found that she was correct but it was a bit 'more' than that, for, yes, the ancestor had come over with the Norman invasion of 1066, because it was William himself who was his ancestor! What a turn-up for the research teams!

I don't know the names of my ancestors, it doesn't bother me in the slightest for I care about things of today, like a warm place to perch, a thermos of LapySang tea and her.. aka my mum. Chirp.. she plans to go the allotment today, I'm not going, we have already ascertained that it's veryvery cold out there.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 25th, 2017.