ANN CALLED TONIGHT, SO SHE'S NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO HAS DECIDED TO DO THINGS WITH FRIENDS!

And what a lovely surprise it was to receive her call, Roy and their son were out doings men's stuff so Ann had had an early supper and then picked up her telephone to have a long chat with mama.

The outcome of which is they've arranged to meet in two weeks time at their favourite place for lunch on Streatham Central, it's a Polish restaurant and serves delicious food!

And she squealed with joy when mama said "Just think Ann, we are 2/3rds way through Winter, so what are you going to grow this year in the way of vegetables?"

Lots to chat about, families to discuss, gardens to plot and plan and she too will come over and go to the Dior exhibition.. what a good thing mama is a member! 

We've heard from our dearest Tom in NYC, where it is bitterly cold, he says he is very glad to have his British Military socks for they're keeping his feet warm! We know those socks, she also has a pair for when it is bitter as rubber boots are not warm like leather ones!

February tomorrow.. it is supposed to snow tonight in London and the South East, Ann had a farily big snow fall on Tuesday night but they live way up high on the hills above Streatham, here in central London aka deepest Knightsbridge, we haven't had any, we did have a couple of bitterly cold days last week and one day there was a flurry of sleet when she was in the market, but so far, touch wood, we haven't any of that sneaky white stuff.

The temperature in our bathroom is 15 degrees, which isn't warm but she isn't going to put the heating any higher as our bedroom is deliciously toasty warm, thanks to our upstairs neighbour and people either side of us!

It's bed time for us dollies, we wish you a happy and healthy February, just think March aka Spring will be here in four weeks as of tomorrow!

GeeGee Parrot.
January 31st. 2019.

OH, YIPPEE FOLKS, IT'S THE 1st OF FEBRUARY TOMORROW SO WE'RE 2/3rds OF OUR WAY THROUGH WINTER!

Isn't that a cheerful thought! Yes, we know that March can be a cold and wet month but by then days are brighter and longer and Spring flowers are out and leaves are unfurling.

She was trying to trace an old friend, so put in a mutual friends' name to see if she could find him, only to see a death notice, he died last August. Oh dear. 

So now she has no hope of finding her, for she was an only child and their other two mutual friends are dead.

As this sad fact is occuring more often, she's decided to actually do more with friends, instead of just telephoning them, she's making plans and today made two dates to do things with friends next week.

Her much beloved Pat is going to meet her for lunch and stay to do the quiz next Wednesday and she is taking another friend, Jane, to see the Dior exhibition next Friday.

And when Myra has got over her bronchitis, she'll take her to see it as well, for Christian Dior Paris made Myra's wedding dress.

That's the wonderful thing about being a member of these museums, you get to go to their big exhibitions free of charge and to take a friend in with you as well.

But there are a couple of friends that she is allowing to drift off in the wide blue yonder, for when you never receive any acknowledgement or a thank you for birthday gifts, a Christmas card, let alone a birthday card. You get the message.. 

Such is life mes amis, such is life.

Another nice thing about February is that at some point during this month, she will get the propagators out and start a few seeds, there are some that take quite a long time to germinate and grow, so it's easy to start them off early at home and then put them out on the allotments under cloches when their root systems have grown to a decent size.

And this month she'll prune the apple and pear trees. Lots to do, it may be chilly but she has good weatherproof clothing and boots so out she must go to do it! But not today.

She looked in the vegetable rack and found a paper bag of sweet potatoes and lots of onions, we have kale in the fridge and those, together with a cup of roasted buckwheat, will make us both a very tasty supper.

There is no point in climbing into all that cold weather clothing and going out into the cold wind if you don't have to. 

With food in yumyum hq and books to read, she is happy to stay indoors but she will do house work which I'll oversee, that'll get our blood moving!

Chirp, we're full of chirps and hope you are too?

GeeGee Parrot.
January 31st, 2019.

CHRISTIAN DIOR EXHIBITION AT THE V&A MUSEUM.. YESTERDAY'S QUIZ.. SHE DIDN'T DO VERY WELL AT ALL..

In fact, she did badly and shame upon her for she did not know that the oldest public museum in the world is our own most glorious British Museum. 

She had not the faintest idea why Marlon Brando turned down the role of Laurence of Arabia.. the answer is because he had accepted the role in film Mutiny on The Bounty because the money was better!

And who knew that the origin of these words -
Chav, dinlo, cushti, mush and Wonga - is the Romany language! 

She knew: 
Three dots of Morse Code stand for S.
The Umbilicus is the navel.
Rice is a grass.
The initials after a MP's name stands for Privy Councillor. 
Hitler was born in Austria.
The river Rhone rises in the Swiss Alps.
It's the Canadian Mounties who wear ceremonial red serge.
You can tell a male tortoise from a female by the length of his tail.
It is the Peregrine Falcon who can dive at speeds of up to 200 mph. 
And thank goodness.. a few others.. phew.

Last week she was the highest scorer.. this week, she was one from the bottom of eight participants.

Moving swiftly along.. 

The Christian Dior exhibition opens on Saturday February 2nd at the V&A museum! Yippee and as a member she can slide in and out of it as many times as she likes! However, it's going to be a scrum on the opening day, so she is going to go early on Monday morning.

She worked for Dior in London in1968, 51 years ago! Wow, is she really old enough to have done that, I guess so, for she was born in 1950.  

It's a 'trifle chilly' outside and the temperature gauge in the bathroom says it is too cold and that she should turn the heating up, which she is not going to do for we are in bed catching up on the world's news, writing this blog and a few emails. 

She's toasty warm in cosy pj's and I'm perched on her head so all is well in our world. But, at some point she'll have to get up and go to the market for fresh vegetables and will come home via the library.

We hope that our friends who live in the USA and whose states are affected by these extreme weather conditions are all safe, for it's truly a monster of a snow and ice storm.

We're off now, she has to make a few telephone calls and I have a few grapes to eat and a box to beak.. pippip.. stay safe.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 30th, 2019.

29th JANUARY.. BILL & HER MOTHER'S BIRTHDAY.. REUNITING A FAMILY WITH PHOTOS & FINDING VALUABLE PAPERWORK.

They have been dead for many a year now but it is still their birthday. Constance would be 102, Bill 90.

It still seems weird in the week leading up to this date not to be putting cards into the post and going to stay with her in Somerset.

Not to go to the perfumery in Fortnum & Mason to buy a bottle of Jean Patou's 'Moment Supreme', which was her signature perfume. Or to be sending Bill a lovely book or disc.

We're spending the day quietly at home and she's done some work on tackling that awful room but not a lot.. as Paul Daniels would have said!

But she did do something yesterday, the outcome of which has pleased her greatly!

She bought a job lot of books in a second hand store recently and tucked into one of the bigger books was a small bag of photos and an Army demob book dated 1946.

There is a name and date of birth in the book together with the man's army number, his regiment and unit.

So yesterday she sent an email to the Royal Artillery Regimental HQ at Larkhill and they've responded asking her to send the package to them!

Yippee.. we do hope that they are able to reunite his family with the photos and paperwork.

This was a lovely start to the day and tomorrow she is going to have lunch with a small bunch of people and take part in the quiz at New Horizons.

Maybe she might do another bag of paperwork as well, for yesterday she found, amongst a lot of old rubbish, two incredibly valuable pieces of paper! 

What they were doing mixed in with a lot of old order forms and purchase orders circa 2007 she has no idea but now they are safely in a file and she has the proof that the watch company has her watch.

She sent them an email immediately requesting information about it but, as of yet, has had no response.

I think they are scurrying around trying to find it or lying prone on the floor having not heard from her for ages! Phew.. Thank goodness for that! 

And Valerie's daughter just sent her a message giving her Valerie's personal email address. How nice is that!

Have a pleasant day everyone, wherever you may be.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 29th, 2019. 

TOOTHPOWDER AND HOW TO MAKE IT WITH NO ADDED CHEMICALS!

Oh.. well here I am again and with one of the best recipes I am going to ever give you!

It is a recipe from a wonderful book called 'The Fragrant Pharmacy', this book, which was given to her many many years ago by Angela Flanders, was written by the marvellous woman who saved mama from going blind.

Valerie Ann Worwood is a consultant clinical aromatherapist with a doctorate in complementary medicine and the author of eight books.

She has now retired from doing treatments but still lectures and works on the clinical research side of aromatherapy.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon of raw Sea Salt.
2 teaspoons of Bicarbonate of Soda.
1 tablespoon of dried Orange peel reduced to powder. 
You can buy this powder in France, she buys dried Orange peel from a local middle eastern food shop.
2 teaspoons of dried Sage.
5 drops of essential oil of Lemon.
5 drops of essential oil of Peppermint.
1 drop of tuncture of Myhrr.

You will need a glass jar, she uses an old brown jar with a screw lid.

Method:

Put the dry ingredients into a food processor or a mortar and grind them until they are mixed to a fine powder.
Put half of the powder into a glass jar and add 2 drops of each of the essential oils and stir well.
Then add the remaining powder and repeat with another 2 drops of the essential oils, stir well.
Stir both lots together and add the final drop of essential oil and the drop of Myhrr and stir well.

You can turn it into a paste by adding virgin organic coconut oil but she doesn't, she keeps it as a powder and has a little teaspoon that lives in the same mug as her toothbrush.

She takes a little out on the teaspoon and dips a wet toothbrush into it.  

Shiny clean teeth with no horrid chemicals. The last thing she does is to tip a couple of drops of tincture of Myhrr onto her brush and brushes the roof of her mouth, tongue, gums and then, she swallows.

Job done.

Tincture of Myhrr is a wondrous thing, besides being incredibly good for you, it is very, very old.
Remember the three Wise Kings gifts? One of them was Myhrr.

Now off you go and have a look at the ingredients of your toothpaste and we bet you'll be horrified at what's in it.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 29th, 2019.

HARMFUL TO AQUATIC LIFE.. AND SLS.. WHICH WE HATE.

This fact is on the back label on many household sink and worktop cleaners. Nice no? So when you spray it into your grimy or greasy sinks, rub a cloth or brush around and then wash it down with water.. where do you think it goes?

Down the drain of course and into the water system. And can we quarantee that it won't end up in our rivers or our drinking water? Probably not. 

Another example of man's senseless inhumanity to our world.

Why are such chemicals even allowed to be used in household cleaners? 

Which brings me onto the question.. why do the makers of cosmetics, body care and household cleaners use powerful chemicals?

They say that SLS - Sodium Lauryl / Laureth Sulphate is not carcinogenic but why would you put a chemical that is used to strip oil out of dirty engines into toothpaste and children's hair shampoo?

Why do it? Well, they say it removes grease and oil quickly and that because it is on the skin for a short length of time, there is no harm.

But the mouth is warm and putting a chemical into your mouth in order to clean your teeth and, of course, you swallow some of it.. just doesn't sit right with us because of the bodies mucus system.

She makes her own toothpowder and the next post will give you, apart from other information, the recipe for this powder which you will love knowing that there isn't one dodgy chemical in it!

Off to do important things.. as Parrots have to do.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 29th, 2019.

THE VERY MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI RIVER. ITS' VERY STRANGE FISH & HOW MAN IS CAUSING BIG PROBLEMS.

Oh! We might have missed it but luckily we didn't.

Phew, for what a great programme it was. 

Jeremy Wade, a fisherman and biologist is show casing six of the worlds largest rivers, we've missed the first three programmes on the Danube, the Yangtze and the Amazon but we will catch up with them, for they have to be seen.

What we did see was the episode on Friday which was on the Mississippi.

The health of a river is vital and many of the problems with this incredible river were brought about by man.. surprise suprise.

The Asian Carp are a variety that were brought in originally to control vegetation growth in a specific part of the river but along came a huge flood and whoosh, the fish were washed out of their section and into the main river.

They have caused chaos amongst the rivers own native fish. 

Further down the river, they were not in evidence  and he was on the river with a protection officer to see what was there and they netted and tagged an Alaskan White Sturgeon, this is an ancient fish that can grow to be 20 feet, yes, 20 feet long, truly a massive fish.

Then Mr.Wade went looking for a variety of fish so old, he wondered if he would ever see one in real life instead of just pictures of it.

He set out three fishing lines at night and waited.. and bingo! One took his line baited with Asian Carp and he managed to bring it to shore.

An Alligator Gar, boy oh boy, what an amazing and extraordinary fish, they are millions of years old, think of dinosaurs and put these fish right up there with them.

The biggest ever certified recorded Alligator Gar weighed 327 pounds and was 8 feet, 5 &1/4 inches and its girth ws 47 inches!

It has a mouthful of teeth, a boney head and armour-like scales, truly a wondrous species. 

Next stop was further south, he interviewed a Shrimper, he is one of only two men on a section of the river where they used to be at least fifty.

The amount of shrimp he caught that day was pathetic, he had caught no more than forty in two traps, not enough for him to make a living out of.

Why are the shrimp not breeding? Well, man has everything to do with that question, for they have, for their own convenience, straightened the river in many places, this means the flow of the river is significantly faster which means that silt is washed down the river and shrimp cannot and do not spawn and breed in fast flowing water.

Man and his meddling are causing chaos and death in the Mississippi Delta, just like they've done on the Amazon, another mighty river.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 27th, 2019.
PostScript: Mighty Rivers with Jeremy Wade is available on American TV. There are 6 episodes.

WHAT PEOPLE WANT. THAT DREADED PLASTIC & CORAL SAND.

Politicians in power, usually also have the weight of the army and the police behind them.

And it appears that both China and Russia, both of which have massive economic interests in Venezuela, are supporting President Maduro.

Meanwhile the leader of the opposition, Juan Guaido, has organised and urged the population to protest against Maduro who came to power in 2013, after which date the country's economy has collapsed.

With Brexit in the UK, the horrendous situation in the Midde East and with trouble brewing in Venezuela, the world is a very troubled place and that doesn't count or touch what we humans are doing to the natural world. 

We have watched two television programmes within the last week which were well worth watching.

The first was on BBC4 shown on Thursday night, the programme featured a young naturalist who was exploring the British Overseas Territories.

The Chagos Archipelago is in the Indian Oceans where the first part of the programme was filmed, the second part, was on the island of Pitcairn which is situated in the South Pacific.

This was the island where Christian Fletcher and eight members of the crew hid from the Royal Navy and scuttled the ship after the mutiny on the Bounty on April 28th, 1789. 

Yes, it really happened! It wasn't just a film.  

And most of the inhabitants of the island are descendants from the crew and Polynesian women from Tahiti.

The filming was amazing, but how it not be as the places were spectacular. However, rubbish was there, for even on the beaches of uninhabited coral reef islands there was plastic, a broken toy, a crate, truly a sad sight.

The underwater filming was breathtaking, this young man and the camera crew were at home under the water as on land, we will search and give you the name of the show so that you can watch it on BBC iPlayer.

But the thing she will remember for a very long time was this.. a shoal of Parrot fish whose major source of food being Coral and so guess how coral sand is made? 

You got it.. coral sand, that fine powdery stuff which is so beautiful to walk on, is actually Parrot Fish Poo.

That did make her laugh. Which is a good thing as the news the Middle East and from Caracas this morning is not good and neither is the news about this Brexit mess.

The next post will be about the second programme we watched last night on the mighty Mississippi River.

She has to buy me yumyum and change books at the library, we will be back later tomorrow.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 26th, 2019. 

HOW WICKED SOME POLITIANS ARE

It doesn't seem to matter to them, their greed is beyond control, they steal their countries assets, they ruin their countries economies and stash their ill gotten gains overseas.

Take Zimbabwe for instance, a country that was so rich that it was called the bread basket of Africa. 

It also grew coffee, lots and lots of coffee. But the demise of proper and organised acricultural practises have seen a sharp decline in its growth.

The land was so fertile that Nestle had vast dairy herds with a yearly production of 260 million litres of milk, there are apparently only 25,000 head of dairy cows left. 

But because of the mass appropriation of farms by the then president and his wife and his cronies, companies have scaled back or sold out to local businessmen and, of course, the famers whose lands were stolen have left.

And it is now gripped with a major fuel shortage and price increase. The poverty is horrendous.

That is just one country, we have it here in the UK as well, ex-politians who have left government but are still on the world's stage, advising other governments and making millions of pounds in very dubious ways.

Corruption.. on major and minor scales is every where. 

Some fifteen years ago, she met a man who was not in good shape, mentally or physically.

He had worked in one of the Arab countries, his partner was a Prince of the ruling family. Their company won a large construction order and the prince demanded his 10% commission upfront, an enormous sum, which the man was unable to pay.

He was taken from his house that night, put into a jail and beaten, his torture lasted for several months. Somehow, somebody talked and the news of this got back to England. 

When a very powerful woman, whom I shall not name but you are free to guess her identity, I am not talking about Mrs. Thatcher, intervened at the highest level, he was released and flown back to England, I don't write 'home' to England because he isn't English, he is a Scot.

His ex-business partner has never set a foot on British soil since that date. His magnificent home in London lies unoccupied but he was never brought to justice.

Does their conscience never tell them their behaviour is wrong, do they never see the destruction of the countries they ruin and the deprevation that they cause to their own people?

Their greed is out of control, how many suits, Hermes handbags, cars, houses, just how much money do they actually need?

And some them have a scary amount of power.. really scary power with very big bombs. 

She wonders how they sleep at night and how they live their lives, knowing that someone, maybe sooner than later, might / will assassinate them and it might be done by a 'friend'.

Uhhh. What a depressing day, the nespapers are full of doom and gloom, all of it.. man made.

I am glad it is almost six of the evening clock and if I rummage about on her hair or jump down and stare into my empty bowl, she'll get the idea perhaps that yumyum should be rustled up sooner rather than later.

Well, I can but hope, can't I?

GeeGee Parrot.
January 20th, 2019. 

'THE FORBIDDEN DOOR' WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER & SPRING GREENS WERE IN THE MARKET!

It's not a diptych, a trilogy or a quartet! It looks as if there are five books by Dean Koontz on his heroine called Jane Hawk.

She looked in the front of the book to see the other books in the series and went off to the library, they had emailed her to tell her that a book she had requested had arrived and she thought that she could try and find the latest in the series.

What an incredible service this library offers. They have recently put in several new and very comfy chairs plus a couple of small tables and the place is humming with activity!

Back to books.. she walked over to the section where books are held and lo and behold, on a shelf marked New Books.. there was the book that she hoped to find right in front of her!

'The Forbidden Door' by Dean Koontz, this is the fourth of the series and the fifth will be published in May of this year. 

So she picked it up as well as 'Swallow This' by Joanna Blythman that she'd reserved last Wednesday.

She returned her books through the machine, picked up a couple of others by authors whose work she enjoys and headed off down to North End Road market.

My goodness me, we are SO lucky to have the transport system that we have in London, a 211 bus took her from just across the road from the library, down the Fulham Road and onto the Broadway, she walked down Vanston Place, waved at her hairdresser and into the market.

Ooooh! Peter, one of her favourite stall holders, had Spring Greens! And because it was Saturday afternoon and near to market closing time he was selling them at eight for a £1.00!

They are from the same family as Collards and Kale and.. we love them! She washes them and puts them into a pan with a finely chopped up onion and puts the lid on for no more than a few minutes, that's it.. no extra water goes into the pan.

They are actually young cabbage plants and are loose heads of thick green leaves but with no hard core. They are very tasty and extremely good for you, they contain a seriously useful amount of the Vitamins C and K plus sulforaphane and indoles.

She got the vitamin information from an article written by Joanna Blythman, the author of 'Swallow This', that she's just picked up from the library!

More fruit, we eat a lot of fruit, and apples are delicious at the moment, we've finished our own, she stored as many as she could wrapped up in newspaper in mushroom boxes but the season was peculiar last year and we lost a lot of fruit because of the draught.

That's why she's hoping that we will have snow, I know it sounds daft but snow is the only way to get water back into the ground. 

Rain isn't useful at all, it creates floods and it hammers the earth, whilst snow, sits on the earth acting as an excellent insulator. It also kills a lot of bugs and then, when it melts, it takes moisture deep into the soil. It releases nitrogen in the form of NH2 along with Sulphur and other trace elements

Without snow, very cold temperatures can freeze the soil deeper and deeper, this can and does kill the root systems of trees and plants.

Our weather forecast says snow and icy conditions are on their way, considering we are half way through Winter, we reckon we have got away with it lightly!

The USA is currently experiencing a deadly storm which has killed people and caused chaos with transport, it's now turning on the Northeastern part of the country and then will head out over the Atlantic.

If we are lucky, very lucky, it will blow itself out before it reaches our mainland, but if it doesn't, and we have those winds coming down from the East, we're in for an extremely cold and snowy February, that's for sure.

This coming week, she'll replenish our stock of dried food. Having to go out for food, when you could have saved yourself being exposed to bitter icy conditions with a little bit of forethought, is stupid.

Yum.. time for her to think about putting our lunch together, we had scrambled eggs for our breakfast this morning but that was many hours ago.

She will have a mug of duck stock, then we will finish the chilli con carne she defrosted over night, together with a big bowl of carrots, onions and greens, then we will settle down and read a book or look at the papers on line. 

Stay safe wherever you are.

GeeGee Parrot.

January 20th, 2019.     

THERE AIN'T NOTHING MORE FRUSTRATING THAN A CLIFF HANGER END TO A BOOK..

HUH.. well, that wasn't a great end to the thriller she finished late last night, it was 'The Crooked Staircase' by Dean Koontz. The end certainly wasn't the end of the story and then there was a small piece of the next book.

So, she has to read the diptych. That's presuming it is not a trilogy and she can find it at the library.

I know, that's a very strange and unusual word but it is the name for a two part story, a trilogy being a three part story. You can't say you never learn anything from reading my blog!

She's going to the library to exchange books and buy vegetables from the market but I guarantee she won't be out there very long and she'll be wearing her shearling coat whilst she is. 

Mr.Frost's here, with his icy stuff and bitter winds. She's doing everything possible to keep our home warm, the thick curtain is drawn across the front door, the blinds are down and the curtains drawn, these stop the cold coming in so our home is as comfortable as it can be. 

However, the bathroom is a trifle chilly.. brr.. and of course, you can't wash or take a shower fully clothed, we birdies can, we're clever in this way.

Ok, she's off and I am heading for my shelf in the linen cupboard, it's a snug place and I've got friends up there, Daffy Duck, Mr.Wallaby and Frosty Tiger, with whom I'll pass the next couple of hours.

Shivver my timbers.. young Max Leary won't wear gloves or a hat and his dad says he can't take him out at the moment because he gets too cold. Mind you, he's only 2 and a 1/2 years old.

She goes out fully covered from top to toe but she's going to be 69 this year, I'll be 15, how did we get to be so old! 

Now I have a stick to beak and you, most certainly have things to do, I'll be back later. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 19th, 2019.

SPROUTING BEANS, BROCCOLI & TWO DIFFERENT VARITIES OF CHICKPEAS

She didn't mean to do it, she had put the beans and chickpeas into soak as she was going to make hummus.

Yumyum hq is very small and she put the bowl to the side of the stove and somehow, a saucepan lid ended up covering it.

It was this morning that she picked up the lid and found a bowl of sprouts!

Who knew, well, she certainly should have! 

My hummus doesn't always taste like regular hummus because sometimes she adds beans to make it more nutricious and several cloves of garlic are always added together with a small amount of Palm Nut oil.

We African Greys eat these nuts in the wild, their oil keeps our feathers in good condition and they're extremely crunchy. Beaky lurves Palm Nuts! They're a big treat when she gets them for me. 

She soaks bigger vegetable seeds before she puts them into potting compost and the propogators, this 'hurries' up a lot of seeds.

But sprouting seeds is not just for gardeners, there are all manner of seeds that you can sprout at home which are incredibly good for humans to eat.

Broccoli sprouts being one of them. These tiny little sprouts are packed with powerful goodies for you. Use warm filtered water and away you go!

There are numerous places to find seeds to sprout.. she gets ours from www.justwholefoods.co.uk. But you can get them from a good health food store or online almost everywhere in the world.

What staggers her is the determination of seeds / beans and peas to live! 

Several weeks ago, she came across a packet of Indian chickpeas, which are smaller and have a dark skin, whose use by date was more than a few years ago, 'Hmm' she thought and put them into the sprouter.

Within a few days, these little brown chickpeas had burst their seams and sprouted! They made my hummus look different but they were not an iota less tasty!  

Raw sprouts are really crunchy and considering how good they are for you, it would be silly not to have a go at doing this and putting a few of them onto your steamed vegetables or a salad.

We'll have sprouted black beans and Indian chickpeas on our steamed vegetables with garlic, chilli and olive oil for supper.

Slurp.. crunch.. snap crackle and pop!

GeeGee Parrot.
January 18th, 2019.

JOHN GRISHOLM'S 'THE RECKONING' TOGETHER WITH BED REST IS THE ORDER OF TODAY.

Nothing of anything that could possibly be called a great amount of activity is happening here. She cooked our lunch at 1.30pm, a tasty duck breast with purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.

For pudding she had a dish of dried black mulberries and barberries with a small piece of dark chocolate washed down with hot ginger 'tea'.

Apart from eating, we've been extremely idle.

She went to the library on Wednesday, so beside her bed there's a stash of books. She dives in and out of the two biographies that she is reading but they are so full of 19th century historical data that she finds them both a bit overwhelming!

So her book of choice to read today was John Grisholm's 'The Reckoning', published last year.

She isn't going to tell you the plot, suffice to say.. chaos, death, deceit, lies, misery, sadness, tragedy and unhappiness are all brought about by one person and remember that I said this when you read it, for the tale is skillfully told.

Outside, here in deepest Knightsbridge, it's cold, the sky is the colour of beige mixed with grey, she is very glad she doesn't have to go out and, in fact, has just refused an invitation to go to tea with friends, she has no desire to get dressed, put her face on, go out, get warm and cosy and then have to walk home afterwards in freezing icy wind. 

Wimp.. but then again, I shook my head when I heard about the invitation, I made it quite clear I didn't want to go out either.

So yes, we are two wimps but warm wimps. I've got plans, rather nasty plans to do something to that new cardboard box she brought home for me yesterday.. yes, it needs a good beaking. 

Our drawbridge is pulled up, blinds are down, curtains are drawn, she's left the boiler on but it's on low just to take the chill out of the flat, neither of us like to be very hot and like this it is snug but not too hot, we only like to be hot in the Summer when we like to roast in sunlight!

How do you spend your days, if you are not working, on a day like today?

GeeGee Parrot.
January 18th, 2019.

THE BUILDER'S ARMS - A PUB IN BRITTEN STREET, LONDON SW3.

She smiled as she walked into the pub yesterday, for the first thing she saw was a pretty and well made lampshade! Fabric laminated onto card.

And you would have to be a new reader if you don't know how fussy she is about lighting!

What a very pleasant afternoon they had, the part where they sat was quieter than the bar side and they sat for many hours talking and eating and generally having a good natter, as friends can and should do.

The food was good, the service excellent, all in all a good place to go.

And now comes the 'funny' thing, she walks past this pub every time she comes back from the library but yesterday was the first time she's ever been inside.

It won't be the last. Because with the closure of the three pubs that used to be in her neighbourhood: 
The Australian and the Shugborough Arms both on Milner Street and the Moore Arms on Moore Street, she had no cosy and local place to meet friends for a pub lunch.

The Admiral Codrington used to be a splendid place when Mel ran it but it is now completely soulless and very different. So to find a pleasant pub with good food is a real find.

She then went down to the market to get meat, fruit and vegetables.. and it was a good thing she did, for the temperature plummeted last night and it is bitterly cold.

It is so cold that she actually turned the boiler on! Despite the flats above and besides us keeping our home warm and toasty, it was very chilly when we woke up this morning. 

But the allotment vegetable beds are tucked up under at least a foot of manure and compost, we've clean water, a gas boiler for heat and hot water, electricity at the flick of a switch and food in yumyum hq.

Which is more than thousands of people around the world, we are extremely fortunate and.. we know it.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 18th, 2019.

ARTHRITIS.. IN HER HAND & KNEE..

Ooh and ouch aren't words she says very often these days, she has worked out what triggers the knuckles in the fingers of her right hand to swell and some of the triggers will surprise you greatly!

Corn, dairy and wheat are generally accepted to be culprits and the members of the Nightshade family certainly aren't 'kind' to her hands at all.

The Nightshade family consist of Aubergines aka Eggplant, Peppers of all colours, Potatoes but not Sweet Potatoes (thank goodness) and Tomatoes (boohoo).

However, Debbie the goaty mum told and showed her something the weekend before last that really shocked her.

She presented her hands to mama and said "Take a look at my fingers, I am off caffeine and look at the difference" and the difference was shocking!

From having fingers that were swollen, looked very sore and almost blue, her hands have shrunk and yes, they are still pink but the blue look has gone and she can bend them, which is very useful when you work with goats.

So she has now cut caffeine out, sadly, there's caffeine in chocolate, that meant her lovely hot chocolate with ginger every morning had to go as well.

Twelve days later, the knuckles on her right hand are beginning to shrink, they're stiff today but she knows why that is, she ate a few oat biscuits with her supper last night and one of the arthritis book that she is reading says to cut out ALL oats as they cannot be guaranteed to be gluten free and gluten is a MAJOR trigger of arthritis.

If you have arthritis, be careful about what you drink. All beers have Barley in it, Barley contains gluten and Vodka and Whisky are both made from fermented grains which all contain gluten.

Brandy, Cider and Wines are gluten free.. phew!

She's reading the two arthritis books that she received for Christmas and has made several of the recipes from 'Deliciously Ella - Every Day' which she was given as well.

There's a lot you can do to help yourself without resorting to drugs which have evil nasty side effects, she takes a small teaspoonful of powdered ginger stirred into a small glass of water, followed by another small glass of water, if she has any pain.. in her back, right knee or her hand or a headache.

Powdered ginger of this quantity has the same pain killing effect as 400g of Ibuprofen. It has no side effects and can be given to both children and elderly people. It works within 15 minutes and it can be taken as often as you want.

Now she is off to the library to change books and hunt for a book called:

           'Swallow This' by Joanna Blythman.

Go on line and see what this book is about.. one little thing that will chill your blood is this fact: that commercial cooking oil is kept 'fresh' for up to 12 days by a cocktail of antifreeze and varnish. It doesn't appear on the label of your chicken kiev because it is classed as a processing aid rather that an additive.

Did you wonder why she never buys ready cooked meals and always buys her meat from a proper butcher.. Dickinson's in the North End Road, London SW6.

She off and I've a new cardboard box to destroy.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 16th, 2019.

TOE NAIL FUNGUS - HYDROGEN PEROXIDE IS THE ANSWER.

Hugo, her father, was mighty careful with his feet, an ex-soldier who had been up on the North West frontier of India for most of WW2, he knew the health of your feet tobe vital.

Come Winter, we cast off our comfortable sandals and shoes and push our poor feet into socks, tights, boots and heavy shoes. And they complain, quite rightly so too! 

Last Spring, which was pretty dismal and very wet after a cold Winter, she noticed that her toe nails looked a 'bit weird', they seemed to have grown thicker and were difficult to cut.

And that was when she remembered her father using Hydrogen Peroxide. She had seen him working on his feet with cotton wool and a bottle of liquid and had asked him what he was doing.


He replied "Feet don't like being shoved into close fitting shoes and being made to be hot and sweaty, toe nails can grow an infectious thing that can be nasty, so I swab them with this once a day for a week a couple of times a year and it means I never have a problem, remember this when you get older, as it really works very well".

So that is what she did, she took her oblong shaped plastic bowl that she uses when she gives herself a proper pedicure, filled it with warm water, put in a good squeeze of Marseille soap, a splash of sterilisation fluid and sitting on her comfy bathroom stool, she put both her feet into soak.  

I flew into help.. don't laugh, she might have needed something, but she had everything so I was told to stand on the edge of the bath and watch.

What a process, feet soaked, she then took various instruments out of a small bag and did things to her toes and toe nails, when she was working on one foot, the other soaked in the water, then she turned her feet upside down and worked on the soles of both feet.

She had put a clean towel on the floor and stood on this whilst she emptied the bowl and refilled it with clean water and another splash of sterilisation fluid.

Then she really set to work on her toe nails.

Working a small metal instrument under the nail and around the cuticle, she cleaned each nail thoroughly, dried it with another towel and dabbed the entire nail, top and bottom with a cotton wool ball soaked in Hydrogen Peroxide. She used a different ball for each nail and disinfected the instrument before starting on the next one.

Every day for a week, she dried her toes after her shower and applied the Hydrogen Peroxide.

And yesterday, she gave herself a pedicure and smiled as she looked at her toes.. for it is now Winter and her feet are constantly locked up in leather and rubber work boots but there isn't anything wrong with her toe nails.

It did the trick last Spring and she will be doing it for maybe a couple of days again this Spring.. just incase 'it' thinks she has forgotten about it!

Fat chance.. 

If you have a problem with toe nail fungus or anything doesn't look quite right, I BEG of you, do not use those over the counter anti-fungal cream.

You may be fine with them but there have been one too many cases of serious health issues with a couple of the drugs that are used to kill the fungus that have caused severe liver damage.

Keep your feet clean, use low strength Hydrogen Peroxide, Tea Tree Oil or pure Cider Vinegar on cotton wool balls. 

That's it folks.. we are off to do more shredding and sorting of stuff.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 15th, 2019.

LEMON ICE BOX PIE.. FROM MOLEY BOXING DAY 2004.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the sitting room door and was surprised to find that the hideous mess wasn't quite as hideous as she was expecting.

No sadly, decluttering fairies haven't paid us a visit, she did actually do some work in here last week.

She picked up a shopping bag full of goodness knows what, one of those large reinforced jobs, hauled it into the bedroom, found two others of a similar size and switched on the shredder.

Ooh, lots of interesting stuff! She put the stuff she wanted into one of the bags, examined papers as she went along and those that were out of date, she shredded and trash went into one bag.

Well, that was fairly painless, she thought and went off to collect another lot of stuff.

And that was where she found the piece of paper. It is a copy of an email written to her on Boxing Day 2004 from Suzan Brewster Sams.

They were great buddies, they had met some ten years previously when Suzan and her husband Lewis had been in London. She had stayed with them in Pine Bluff and Hot Springs and they always had a lot of good times together.

They talked and emailed each other frequently and newspaper cuttings and information they knew the other would be interested in were sent regularly across the Atlantic.

They were fanatical Scrabble players and always had a game going back and forth on-line, they had a huge amount of similar interests, animals, books, films, music, history, travel and food! 

And this was what she found today. 

                   "LEMON ICE BOX PIE

3 eggs separated.
1 can of Eagle Brand condensed (not evaporated milk).
1/2 cup of lemon or lime juice.
If using lime, add 1-2 drops of green food colouring.
1 8-9" graham cracker or vanilla wafer pie crust.
Or shortbread makes a good one. Buy or make it!

Mix eggs, condensed milk and juice together.
Beat the white of one (or two, wouldn't hurt) into eggs and fold into mixture. Pour into pie shell and chill. Top with meringue or, I prefer whipped cream. 
Divine, but must be eaten before you go on a diet.

Now, this is the way we have always made it in the South--always! But, now with the worry about salmonella etc, the recipe calls for you to bake it at 350* for 25 minutes. The lime or lemon cooks the eggs well enough so don't bother. However, if you want to do this, it will not affect the taste.
*****************************************
Rest of the day was good, church was small--no one goes after Christmas. But have rested and read a good murder, also have Flora Fraser's book on Lady Hamilton to read and will watch a film tonight. Hope you have a wonderful week and a safe New Year. Think we have a booorrring party to go to (you know how cocktail parties are!) but will manage. I'm really getting serious after the first about finding a calling card for England. I love talking to you.

Much love from ALL of us--that's a lot of 'people'. Moley." 

She died on October 30th, 2012. 

We miss her friendship more than we could ever possibly say.

This piece of paper will be used as a book mark. She could not in a million years put it into a trash bin.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 14th, 2019.

HOUSELESS IN ALASKA & KENT.. PEOPLE LIVE THEIR LIVES IN DIFFERENT WAYS..

Mr. Joe Ford lives somewhere in Alaska, as it says in the article in today's Guardian, he is vague about the area in which he lives but the story struck such a bell with her this morning.

For when she was young there was an man who was probably the same age as her parents but appeared much older. He lived in a large wooded area which was not far from where her family lived in the early '60s.

He made green wood furniture and sticks. He had a horse which, if he went anywhere, would go to a friend of her mother and this is how her family met Thomas. 

Incredibly shy and well spoken, he had obviously experienced something that had made him walk away from a conventional way of life but what it was, her family never knew.

His work was extraordinarily beautiful, she wishes that she had the two seats and the table that he made for Constance but they were sold with the house when the family moved to East Kent. They would be absolutely perfect on the allotment.

She knows that his end was peaceful. The family that took care of his horse made him a home in a stable, apparently he refused, very politely, to live in the house. 

He became unable to work because of arthritis in one of his hands and spent the last two years of his life on their farm being 'manny' to baby animals.

He was buried, with the owners permission, in the woods which he had loved.

Not everyone wants to live with 'stuff' and now it's about time she sorted out hers!

GeeGee Parrot.
January 14th , 2019.

MAKE DO AND MEND.. AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN TODAY.

She has volunteered in charity shops for over 12 years now and has always been 'gob smacked', to put it not so politely, at the amount and quality of stuff that people give away.

Children's toys and clothing, ok, children grow out of them. Books too, but why not go to the children's library and read for free.

Yes, of course, the charities gain from the sales of all these items but in the present shop where she works, she knows a couple of these donators are well known for keeping their clothes only for a couple of months.

Goodness me.. she's got clothes that still fit and are in great shape that are over twenty years old.

A particular favourite is her tartan Donnybrook Duffle coat, with its deep pockets and proper closures, she knows that she bought it in the Autumn of '93, because she had it with her when she went on the long trip to Sweden, Russia, Poland, Germany and Denmark in 1994.

This lovely coat is over 25 years old and because it has always lived in a proper coat bag on a coat hanger, it looks new. And a friend complimented her on it when she wore it out to lunch last Friday with him to Sheekey's Fish restaurant.

She has a pair of exquisite leather shoes made by Swan, which she bought in the autumn of '66 when she worked the Easter and Summer holidays in the department store called Ricemans of Canterbury - now part of the Fenwick group - she paid £15.00 for them, they're 53 years old this Easter. 

She keeps wooden shoe trees in them and has always applied neutral shoe polish to the inside and to their leather soles.

She took them recently into Crockett & Jones and the members of staff 'oohed and aahed' over them and said they were marvellous. Sadly Swan don't make this quality of shoe any longer. 

Electrical goods.. her washing machine is a Hoover Washer Dryer, she has had it for over ten years and it was second hand when she bought it.

She maintains it carefully, the filter is cleaned regularly and she does a descaling wash on the 1st of every second month.

Sadly her very good Zanussi dishwasher has a problem, the actual machine is still good, it is the rubber seal that has perished and which leaks water BUT.. she's learnt that it is possible to replace this seal for the sum of £10.00 which is certainly better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick or than buying a new one for over £250!

Shoe menders abound! In London in every area there are Timpsons, then for her very good shoes she goes up to George, he is a wondrous cobbler up behind Euston station and he is the only man in London who can repair a high steel heel. She was told about him by the manager of Chanel shoes.

Tailors.. she is fortunate enough to have two brilliant men who work out of a small dry cleaners on the North End Road.

She has a much beloved and favourite gardening jacket, it is an old tweed Barbour jacket whose corduroy collar was worn.

So she brought, for very little money, just enough tweed from the company who run her great grandfather's company Wain Shiell in Saville Row, they recovered the collar and whilst they were doing that, they added an inside pocket with a zip large enough to take her mobile.

Goodness knows what that jacket now costs at Barbour, several hundred pounds that's for sure.

There is a very, very old cashmere cardigan that she uses as a bed jacket, in fact, she's wearing it now. It belonged to Bill, it stayed here with other clothes for when he flew in for a short visit and didn't want to bring a case. 

It's old, it's lived here since '75 and he had had it for a few years before that, it is darned and much beloved, sadly, of course, it no longer smells of Bill but she keeps it because of sentiment and because it is the snugliest, most deliciously warm thing to wear when the weather is chilly.

His raincoat also lived here but she gave that to Debbie the goaty mum, it was far too long for her but fits Debbie perfectly as it slides on over the multiple layers of fleece that she wears at Farmer's Markets and is long enough to come well below her knees to the tops of her long boots.

Make do and mend. Learn to sew, or at least darn, find a good shoe mender, most good dry cleaners employ someone with a sewing machine to replace a broken zip, you can certainly sew on a button.

The newspaper article is primarily about the electrical appliances that appear to self-destruct after a certain length of time, there is a particular brand of mobile / cell phone which are famous for seeming to slow down as soon as the new version comes out.

Our iPad is older than my blog and that's saying something! Yes, it is a bit crunchy sometimes but she is vigilant in cleaning out the history and looking for updates, not opening emails from people she doesn't know and her email providers are good at chucking things into spam that they don't like the look of.  

You don't have to have new stuff all the time. Be selective of what you buy in the first place and if you do want to get rid of stuff.. have a think if there's anyone you may know who would either like or need it.

We were given a bag of children's toy this week, she took them down to Fulham and walked into see her hairdresser. Why? Well, Anissa has a grand daughter and a child's Scrabble game is just what a granny needs for when her munchkin comes to stay!

The rest went onto the charity shop. Someone will love and use them.

The water is still off and there's lots of noise being made, several men are working on this problem, some working on the main junction / connection up on the pavement and a couple of them down in the vault. What a good thing she filled those jugs and buckets full of water yesterday!

Hey ho.. off I go.. it's time for a snacket of fruit.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 11th, 2019.

KIPPERS. WONDROUS KIPPER FILLETS FROM BUB FROM THE ISLE OF MAN.

No, sorry folks, he is OUR cousin, not yours! 

Let me tell you about this morning, now if you are of a hungry or jealous nature, I recommend you fast tracking further down this post as I am about to describe how we broke our nights fast.

She rose early this morning and we had a cuddle but it was pretty short and before long she got out of bed and headed off to yumyum hq.. aka kitchen.

Of course I followed her, I knew she was up to something, for why would we be out of her cosy bed so early? 

She had filled pans with water last night, Thames Water are having a dreadful time repairing the mains pipe that comes into our basement vaults, the pipe and the stop cock have been leaking for many months, yes, of course, she's told the managing agents but no one from the office came to look.

So she showed it to the surveyor who was here recently for another reason and he said "Crikey, that's a bad leak, haven't you reported it to them" and luckily she, being who she is, always keeps the emails to and from the managing agents and was able to show him the emails and the date they were sent.

So there is no water in the pipes today.. there are a lot of Bartek buckets full of it in the bath though! For no water = no water for the lavatory as well!

But back to the kippers, they arrived yesterday from the Isle of Man, which is where BUB lives. For those of you who are new readers of my blog, BUB stands for Big Uncle Bruce.

He is mama's first cousin, but out of respect for the fact he is bigger than I am, I call him Uncle.

She had filled a deep pan with water last night, NOT the usual pan for boiled eggs and I was more than slightly concerned, how was she going to boil my egg?

Out of chilly white larder she took a packet and when the water was at a fast boil, she put the packet into the water. Before too long she used a slotted spoon to remove the packet, then she broke open two eggs into the still boiling water.

I had never seen her do this before, what was she doing? "I'm poaching GeeGee, we're having poached eggs this morning."

They were lifted out of the water with the slotted spoon and back we went to bed.. MY OH MY! This 'new' egg was delicious! YubbaBubba.

I probably had the same look on my face as she had on hers.. she certainly enjoyed those kippers and is mighty pleased to know that there are two more packages that she put into frosty white larder, aka the freezer, last night.

The two kipper fillets come in vacuum packs of two. They are smoked by a well known company called Geo. Devereau & Son Ltd.

You can find them on-line at:

www.isleofmankippers.com 

e-mail: enquiries@isleofmankippers.com

Now she has work of some nature to do and I have the kipper box to destroy.. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 11th, 2019.

DAIRY FARMS IN WISCONSIN.. AND OTHER FARMS THROUGHOUT THE USA.

This Federal shutdown doesn't just affect the paper pushers or the people who work in parks.

It affects all manner of farmers as well, because the programmes that pay the grain and dairy farmers are not being paid the money that is owed to them by the federal government under its trade bailout.

Nor are they paying the conservation programme for farmers who taking steps to reduce soil erosion and water runoff from fields.

The state of Wisconsin is particularly vulnerable, it saw the loss of 638 dairy farms last year.. yes, you read that correctly, over 638 dairy herds were slaughtered last year.

This represents breeding stock as well. Cows don't just give milk, they breed calves which represent the new milk cows or beef cattle, the bull cattle will have also been slaughtered.

Once they are dead.. that's it. The blood lines of this livestock which these dairy farmers natured and bred so carefully are gone.. forever.

Milk equals butter, cheese, cream, icecream, kefir and yoghurt so don't be surprised to see a dramatic increase in all milk based products this year.

And now onto grain farmers, many of them who are also affected. Federal crop payments have stopped, farmers cannot get federally backed loans to buy seed for planting or feed for their livestock. Because all of the agricultural department offices are closed.

They cannot look up data about beef prices, or soybean yields.

It's a big fat mess.. there is a lot more but this is enough unhappy news for one post.. read all about the state of farming in The New York Times today.

Think of the loss of jobs that these farms closing, through no fault of their own, has generated. 

Think of the depression and mental problems that has been caused.

They are not happy thoughts.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 11th, 2019. 

DELICIOUSLY ELLA - EVERY DAY.. YOU KNOW WE LOVE GOOD BOOKS & BLOGS

YubbaDubbaDoo.. she received another Christmas gift today! 

In the package were three books, yes, of course they were sent by a friend but a friend who a. knows how much she loves reading and b. someone who is aware of her arthritis and food allergies.

They both share the same reaction to wheat and all other things that contain gluten. It makes mama's arthritis really kick off and the knuckles of her right hand swell alarmingly and with Debbie goaty mum it makes her hands swell and it affects her in a couple of other ways as well.

She has over the last couple of years cast an eye over Ella Woodward's blog 'Deliciously Ella' and tried a couple of her recipes, they were delicious and free from anything that she reacts to, so to find the book in the package was a wonderful surprise.

Especially as on page 137 is the recipe for the roasted cauliflower that young Debbie, she's still in her early 50's, raved about last weekend.

The other two books are on Arthritis.. that may sound quite a boring subject to you but then you, if you find it boring, quite obviously do not have it!

For if you did, you would bite your foot off to be given such clever books.

The first is 'Eat to Beat Arthritis' by the author of many a great cookbook Margueritte Patten OBE together with Jeannette Ewin Ph.D. ISBN # 978-0-00-716966-5


They take you very sensibly through what you can eat without triggering your symptoms and a self-treatment plan to help you life pain free.

The third book is 'What Doctors Don't Tell You' 
Arthritis. Drug-Free Alternatives To Prevent and Reverse Arthritis', the editor is Lynne McTaggart. 
ISBN # 978-1-78180-338-7

It is thanks to another book called 'The Case Against Sugar' that she knows that a small teaspoonful of powdered ginger stirred into a small glass of cold water - which you throw down your throat following it swiftly by another glass of water to wash it down - has the same pain killing effect as 400mg of Ibuprofen without any evil side effects and you can take as much as you like and as often as you wish.

Oh happy days.. three books, all very readable and extremely well worth reading.

And tomorrow.. there's another Christmas gift flying in from the Isle of Man.. BUB's sent her some delicious Kipper Fillets! YubbaDubbaDoo.. which is back where I started! 

Toodle Pip.. we've books to read.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 9th, 2019.

THE SOCIAL HOUSING IN DUBLIN & LONDON. THE LACK OF IT IS A DISGRACE.

Here in the UK, it started with Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government giving the local councils the authority to sell flats and houses that had been known as Council flats and houses.

The rents for these properties were always kept at a fair level and here in London as in other cities through the country they were situated all over the city.

There are blocks of flats situated here in deepest Knightsbridge, well maintained blocks which nestle on streets alongside the small two or three storey houses typical of this area's architecture.

But then the chaos started. Residents were allowed to purchase their homes which was all well and good but and here are the BIG buts, there were no stipulations put into place.

So tens of thousands of social housing homes were sold to their occupants, many of whom promptly sold them. And they went off to rent another cheap property having gained a significant amount of money.

Thereby removing the home from the jurisdiction of the local authority who now had many fewer homes to house the people who needed them.

Why the government didn't put certain guide lines into place is beyond us, we think they should have said yes, you can sell it after so many years but 50% of the profit comes back to us if and when you sell.

That would at least have put money back into the pot for building new social housing.. which all of the councils have been extremely negligent in doing.

There is a video article on the Guardian website today about a woman in Dublin who was made homeless through no fault of her own. 

Her landlord said he had sold the house, she and her 19 year old daughter were put up in hostels for two weeks, they are now living in a hotel which the council pays for. 

The Irish housing minister was interviewed and it was disclosed that since the new Irish government was elected in 2016, only 500 houses throughout the whole of Ireland have been built.

But all over Ireland as in England, you see blocks of flats and houses boarded up.. an Irish estate agent from Dublin was interviewed and he said that rents have rocketed, a property that had rented for 1,200euro would now be costing 2,000euro.

That's worse than the 40% increase which we wrote about yesterday in Seattle! 

He described the situation as due to a chronic lack of affordable housing.

Which brings me to the scandal of Earls Court.

She was talking to a friend last night about the blocks of flats which are situated on the North End Road between Lillie Road and Talgarth Road, she knows that his sister in law lives in one of these flats.

They back onto land which used to hold the exhibitions halls known as Earls Court, the blocks  were due to be demolished and the tenants moved into new accommodation that was going to be built on the old exhibition site. 

Then new blocks would have been built on the site of their old homes.

Unbeknownst to most people, us included, the entire plot of land, which is enormous, was owned by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea & Hammersmith & Fulham.*

The exhibition halls were demolished a few years ago now and the plot was sold to a building company on the proviso that a percentage of the housing built would be for social housing for the boroughs.*

That sounds ok, doesn't it? 

Except that the two companies involved, Berkeley and Capco, who bought the land at a reduced rate, have gone back on their word and are not building the social housing.

Now.. most of you are aware that it takes a lot to make her speechless.. but this did.

And so watch this space.. 

For apart from the new Lillie Square.. which is being touted as a high-profile residential development transforming a 7.4 acre car park into a 808 high-end new homes offering modern garden square living.

Which is being built as a joint venture between Capco and KFI - which represents certain members of the Kwok family. They are a Hong Kong Chinese family. 

Nothing in the way of social housing is being built and like the massive development over on the Walworth Road at Elephant & Castle called Elephant Park, whose properties are being advertised for sale in China, India and Russia, I doubt that anything will happen in a hurry.

In the meantime, the residents of the old flats on the North End Road are having to live in properties that need serious renovation works that the council will have to do and..

Yes, of course, our Council Taxes went up. 

GeeGee Parrots.
January 9th, 2019.