'ESCAPING HITLER' by MONTY HALLS. IT MADE HER WONDER HOW MANY ALLIED AIRMEN & TROOPS WHO WERE SMUGGLED OUT OF ENEMY TERRITORY EVER CONTACTED THE PARTISANS OR RESISTANCE TO SAY "THANK YOU FOR SAVING MY LIFE" PART 1.

Hugo, her father, her mother's two brothers and her godfather, Sydney Butterell, all saw very active service during WW2 and were lucky that they remained out of the clutches of the Germans and the Japanese.

'Escaping Hitler' by Monty Halls is not the first book on the second world war that she has read but it is without doubt the first that made her think the following.

Just how many of the thousands of allied aircrew and troops, with the help of resistance and partisan fighters, ever made contact after their safe return with their saviours to express their gratitude?

In Part 2 of the book, Monty writes about the escape from Camp 78 in Italy of a man called Len Harley and I'm cutting this very short but Len and another man are cared for and sheltered from the Germans for six months by a family called Spinosa.

They are guided out of the German occupied part of Italy down into the south which was under the control of the Allied Forces.   

Upon Len's safe arrival back England, he writes to them and receives a letter back so both families know the other is safe. Both letters are copied in the book and you have to have a heart of stone not to be touched by them.

Len returned twice to the village of Sulmona to find the family but they weren't there, they had moved, like thousands of other Italian families, to America after the war and he was unable to find anyone who knew where they were.

And I quote "this deeply honourable man had never known in the 73 years since he had left the care of the Spinosa household, whether his eternal 
gratitude was truly understood or acknowledged". 

However, they did return to their village and then Monty returns to Sulmona in 2017 with a piece of technology and hopes it won't let him down.

He was greeted by Bruno, who had been his guide when they retraced the steps that the escapees had taken to evade the Germans, and introduced to Rosina Spinosa.

The laptop was put on a coffee table in front of Rosina and Monty commenced the call.

Yes.. you've got it! With a wireless connection and after 73 years, this 98 year old man, for whom this family had risked everything, was finally going to be able to say "thank you" in person.

The last page of this chapter is enchanting beyond belief.

My next post will about a famous man who went 'a little bit' beyond letting the French resistance know he was home safe!

She isn't going into work today, it would be deeply unkind to give anyone else this bug which she reckons she caught on Sunday, her glands are up and her throat is sore and swollen, she's got ginger 
powder to kill the pain, me to sit on her head to keep her warm and Debbie's brilliant hot water bottle snake to snuggle with.

Read this book and wonder at the bravery and courage of the people who lived in occupied countries who, despite risking their own and their families lives, joined the Partisan and Resistance movements in order to save the lives of allied aircrew and troops.

It was published September 2017.

Go to www.channel4.com/programmes/wwiis-great-escapes-the-freedom-trails/episode-guide 

These are programmes that retrace the original escape routes that Monty has done with the help with locals, some of whom were very young Partisans or members of the Resistance in WW2.  

GeeGee Parrot.

February 28th, 2018.

THE BEASTLY EASTERLY WIND MAY BE UPON US BUT IN WALES.. THEY'RE PICKING STRAWBERRIES!

No, I am not telling porky pies.. aka gross fibs. 

In Wales some industrious strawberry growers are using very advanced growing techniques in their greenhouses.

That and the fact that they've had a fairly mild couple of months, means that Aldi are selling them in their store in Bridgend and had planned to roll them out throughout the rest of the UK in the next couple of weeks.

Now.. that may well change because you would have to be living without any communication from the outside world not to know that the Eastern block and Europe are being subjected to severe weather conditions which are extending Winter by a couple of weeks.. at least.

So it's not 'The temperature's rising, it isn't surprising.. she certainly can cancan!' It's a case of face freezing cold temperatures.

Of duvet diving wearing a cotton nighty, leggings and bed socks or wearing thermal underwear under her cotton and wool clothes when she goes outside.  

Don't rely upon nylon clothing to keep you warm! It's a job for  fibres.. cotton, silk and wool and, of course, fleece made out of plastic bottles!

That always makes her laugh but when she was sorting out clothes, giving away things that were either too small or the wrong colour, she didn't get rid of a beige fleece she bought the last time she was skiing. Blackcomb, Whistler.. Easter 1998!

How can clothing be the wrong colour you ask?

Because having changed the colour from brown to blonde, then allowing her silver hair to grow through means that wearing camel, beige or mid brown on top makes her look like a washed out rag.

The best colours for her now are all the shades of blue, red, green, black and dark grey can be worn if she wears another vibrant colour, as well a 'good' red lipstick!

Yes, a red lippy.. the colour of a ripe strawberry or.. my tail!

Chirp.. she has to call Ann. Who is lucky enough to be escaping to Turkey and Cyprus for a week. She's also a gardener of flowers, fruits and vegetables and going to Cyprus means she could bring back seeds of those heavenly delights aka 'Turkish Cucumbers'! 

Gardeners, especially these two, spend a lot of time planning aka dreaming about what they're going to grow and eat!

How about these two dreams.. Crisp crunchy little green cucumbers with eaten with home grown tomatoes with labneh and stuffed courgettes with minced lamb with zatarr.

Newsflash.. more about snow!

Rome is covered in it and Roman Vilfand, the chief of the Russian Meteorological Office told the Interfax news agency that Muscovites should brace themselves for frosty weather in March and could only "count on the warmth of the soul", not higher temperatures outside.

Blimey and shiver my timbers.. that sounds dire, doesn't it!

Now, I wonder if I could persuade her to come back to bed so I can get in underneath the bed clothes? Well, it's certainly worth a try, isn't it.

GeeGee Parrot.

February 26th, 2018.

THE FOOL.

Ok folks! Who likes a fool? They're useful and they make you smile.. no, I haven't lost the plot, you'll see why later on. Read on Dear Readers and learn about fools.

HaHa, you think I mean sillybilly people, don't you? Well, I don't and if you're up to speed on my blog you would know what I mean.

I mean fool as in a fruit fool, they're incredibly easy and quick to make and are the perfect light dessert.

She had bought two ingredients in the market and the rest she had at home, for if you keep a stash of 'dry' stores, you can make all manner of delicious, savoury or sweet, things very quickly.

When she returned with her fruit and vegetables, she mixed a dessert spoon of dried coconut into a bowl of yoghurt, grated a small amount of fresh ginger root over it, stirred it well and put it into chilly white larder to soften.

Just before she cooked our supper, she peeled a mango, cut the flesh off the stone and pureed it with a small amount of icing sugar.

Cut a passion fruit in half, scooped out the flesh and added it to the mango puree giving it a good stir. Combined the coconut yoghurt mixture with the pureed fruit and put it to chill. 

The fool. Now you understand why they're useful, because they're quick to make and make you smile because their taste is delicious.

You can make fool out of most fruits, she loves the combination of rhubarb and ginger. What's your favourite fool?

It's cold, when we woke up and had done what you do in the bathroom in the morning, I was only too willing to get into her bed and be snuggly for an hour, then to eat hot eggs and slurp LapySang.

She had a grapefruit and hot ginger and honey tea. I think my eggies were better! 

What have you got planned to titillate your taste buds? She has diced kid meat that dearest Debbie goaty mum gave her last Sunday, it's marinating in all manner of hot and spicy things in chilly white larder, we'll probably cook and eat it on Monday.

Which sounds like a good idea as Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be extremely cold here in London with low temperatures and snow forecast.

Eat hot spicy food, spices help keep germs at bay and help to unblock stuffy noses thereby keeping your sinuses clean and open!

Now she's stuff to do. Many chirps to you all.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 24th, 2018.

FOUND IN FROSTY LARDER! A TASTY LUNCH.

No grapefruit for her this morning.. oh woe was she. She had to check on Myra and see if she needed or wanted anything apart from what mama had brewed for her, so decided to go down to the market and do the weekends' fruit and vegetable shopping today.

Gosh! Every thing was cheaper! When she asked her favourite stall holder why, he said that he was only staying open until 3.00pm and he wanted as much gone as possible before he closed.

Hence eleven avocadoes £2.00, four ruby grapefruits £1.00, two ripe mangoes £1.00, six ripe passion fruits £1.00, two dark green cabbages 50p each and a big bowl of fresh ginger root was £1.00.

She tipped everything in to WW and went down the street to our butcher for two trays of chicken carcasses, half a kilo of chicken breasts and pork fillet to replace the meat we ate yesterday.

Onto our favourite Middle Eastern food shop for three large pieces of turmeric root.

Home again, home again jiggedy jig! It was cold and the wind was icy.. brr! 

She sliced and thumped the pork fillet, packed it into greaseproof paper, then slid the package into a freezer bag. The same happened to the chicken breasts, all except for a small piece which we'll eat tonight.

When she was putting the packages into the frosty larder, she saw and pulled out three little packages of green vegetables."Oh, they would be delicious for lunch with chopped bacon and a couple of eggs" she said and this is what we've just eaten.

The three bags contained French beans, Runner Beans and Sugar Snap Peas. She sliced a large shallot and put it into a little fresh lemon juice, boiled three eggs so that they the whites were soft but not runny and shelled them. Fried two slices of bacon until they were crisp, lightly steamed the beans and peas, then tossed them in a mixture of lemon juice, olive oil and seasoning.

She put the vegetables on a plate, then the eggs, crunched the crispy bacon over the eggs, put the shallots over the eggs, then ground a mixture of sea salt, chilli flakes and schezwan pepper over the plate. Easy, quick, tasty.. doesn't that appeal to you? 

Poor Myra is ick-dick. She dropped off a diffuser, night light candles with which to heat it, a bottle of mixed essential oils to burn in her bedroom and lots of ginger root.

With our wonderful transport system she can go to that brilliant herbalists Baldwins on Walworth Road at the Elephant & Castle by a 360 bus which takes her almost all the way there.

She needs to stock up on her favourite essential oils: Cinnamon Bark, Clove Bud, Frankinsense, Lemon, Eucalyptus Radiata, Oregano, Peppermint for internal usage, Rosemary, Lavender and a new bottle of tincture of Myrrh. 

Catherine, a dear French friend, has told her of a Algerian place which serves delicious couscous but has to find the address. A lamb tagine with lemon and pomegranate couscous would be perfect on a cold day like today, would it not?

Indeedy it would, in fact, it's the sort of stuff you dream about!

GeeGee Parrot.

February 23rd, 2018.
PostScript: Tomorrow she'll give you a recipe for mango, ginger and passion fruit fool.. it's slurpy.

CHICKEN OR PORK.. TAKE YOUR PICK FOR A SPICY SESAME DISH! WHILST I HAD LANDED IN DEEP DUDU LAND..

When she's feeling mad and flush with dosh aka money, she buys things to put into frosty white larder.. aka freezer. Early yesterday morning she took out a small packet of pork fillet which she had bought a couple of weeks ago.

She had sliced it very finely before freezing it, so it was ready to go. She rootled in a cupboard for chilli oil, cornflour, sunflower oil and soy sauce, in the vegetable basket of garlic and in chilly larder where she keeps opened jars and found.. eureka, a jar of chilli bean sauce!

She mixed crushed garlic, chilli oil, cornflour and soy sauce together in a small dish, put in the slices of pork, mixed well with the sauce, they would sit, defrost and marinate whilst she went to work.

Now, that's a sad word in our home at the moment  for management have said I'm no longer to go to the shop when she does. 'Huh to that' I thought when she told me and I'm afraid to tell you that I did a simply disgraceful thing.

Whilst she was busy doing the pork, I flew onto WW's handle, turned around and, there's no other word for it so be prepared, crapped onto her  basket which was in WW.. aka Wicker Wheelie for new Dear Readers.

How was I to know her most favourite cashmere sweater was in her basket? She didn't find out until she was in the wool shop matching the colour to darn a tiny hole. She was not pleased.. in the slightest.. as you can well imagine.

Moving swiftly along.. as you do when you've done dire and dreadful things and been found out.

The shop was busy so she was glad she had done the vegetable shopping before going to work, she left the shop late after having washed up mugs and tidied the 'kitchen' area and her work station.

Bitterly cold, she wasn't surprised to see that a lot of the stall holders had packed up and left early, she was pleased to be coming home to a spicy hot supper!

Having greeted me and told me that I was simply a disgusting dudu maker.. she washed her hands, put in her evening eye drops and went to make our supper.

Now here's a very curious thing! White rice brings her out in hives, big scratchy blighters that stay around for at least three days. But she can eat black or red rice until she's full to the brim! Isn't that strange?

She decided to use red rice from the Camargue and drop in the sugar snaps for the last two minutes to cook.

Having taken the dish of pork slices out of the chilly white larder.. aka fridge, she heated up sunflower oil in a pan and cooked the pork for 4 minutes each side, then stirred in the chilli bean sauce with a little amount of water.

The dish simmered for about three minutes, she sprinkled some rough chilli flakes on top with a tablespoonful of sesame seeds.

The rice and sugar snaps had drained, she dished it up and off we went to have our quick tasty supper. Indeed, it's worthwhile keeping a few quick and easy things stored in that frosty larder! 

Now here's what you'll need to create this tasty dish.

What you need:

Finely sliced slices of pork fillet or chicken breast as many as you need.

A big fat clove of Garlic.

1 tsp. of Chilli Oil.

1 tbsp. of Cornflour.

2 tbsp. of Soy Sauce.

As much rice as you will need.

Sugar Snap Peas as many as you will need.

2 tbsp. of Sunflower Oil.

1-2 tbsp. of Chilli Bean Sauce.

1 tbsp. of Sesame Seeds.

2 tsp. of rough Chilli flakes.

It's a dish that we eat with chicken or pork, both are delicious. The slices should be thin, she thumps hers with a meat mallet.

Yum.. all this writing about food has made me Beakish, I wonder what she has for us tonight?

We've just had a distressing call from our beloved Myra, she's got a dreadfully sore throat and feels ghastly, mama will raid the market for cinnamon, lemons and ginger, for we can't have her ick-dick, can we?

Stay warm and dry. 

GeeGee Parrot.

February 22nd, 2018.

WHEN IT'S COLD OUTSIDE.. OUR THOUGHTS GO TO HOT FOOD.. HOT AS IN HOT & HOT AS IN CHILLI HOT!

She poked her nose out of the door, pulled it back very smartly and said "it's a good thing I bought yumyum yesterday, isn't it GeeGee?"

For the Beast from the East is a'blowing cold air our way. The sunny warm days of last Friday and Saturday are but a happy memory.

She has pruning to do but she isn't stupid, she'll wait for a week or two to do this, you should do it when it in Winter and although, officially, the first day of spring is on March 1st, it's cold and it's the cold that determines growth on trees, not a calendar!

Carrots, parsnips, mushrooms, a fat cabbage, a bowl of ginger root and a packet of rough chilli flakes were in WW when she came home last night.

Along with a Chinese porcelain bowl somebody donated, there's no 'chop' or mark on the bottom so it isn't priceless but pretty and she'll grow white hyacinth bulbs in it.

We went to bed late last night, for we watched, amongst other things on BBC4, a documentary on Queen Victoria and her nine children, what a simply monstrous mother she was! She had thought Constance was strict but she was a kitten compared to that old witch.

Another programme we watched was on the Iron Duke, aka the Duke of Wellington. An excellent programme with input from the current Duke and his sister, Lady Jane Wellesley and serious military historians. But his disastrous marriage to poor Kitty Pakenham.. oi vey!. was literally the stuff of nightmares.

So we woke up late and were hungry, I was very happy to eat my two eggs, she slurped hot ginger and honey tea and ate a ruby grapefruit. We then drank lots of LapySang to warm our throats and tummies.

We both fiddled about and before we knew it, it was lunch time. Usually she only eats twice a day, a grapefruit starts her day and we have a very early supper.

But on cold days, she eats soup.. no, that is not a typo, she eats soup because she takes a big pan of chicken broth, brings it to the boil, pours in black or red rice, adds chopped carrots, parsnip, ginger root, lowers the heat to simmer and cooks it for thirty minutes.

After twenty five minutes, she adds a handful of mangetout, sugarsnaps, a few sliced mushrooms. A vital ingredient is chilli.. oh yes, she was not born in Malaysia for nothing! A measure of rough chilli flakes make this a perfect lunch for cold day.

We'll be back to tell you what she cooked for us last night and my appalling behaviour when I learnt Head Office said that I'm not allowed to go to the shop any longer 'because someone might be allergic to birds'.. Sigh.

GeeGee Parrot.

February 22nd, 2018.  

I AM AFRAID TO SAY I SNIGGERED.. FOR WHAT DID SHE USED TO WORK WITH? ELECTRICITY & WHAT DID SHE ALWAYS TELL HER CLIENTS TO DO.. "CHECK THE PLUG & FUSE".

Thank goodness she looked at the plug before she took her 'ick-dick' laptop to Dr. Raja. Because there was nothing wrong with it, all that was wrong, was the plug had been pulled half way out of the socket and the battery had run out.

No power equals no laptop.. need I say more?

"Silly Billy mama" is what I said after I had stopped sniggering. Well, that helps this months budget considerably, doesn't it?

Now all she has to do is buy a new steam iron and she won't be going to Peter Jones for that!

No, she'll go to Wilko on Fulham Broadway, they sell all the things that Peter Jones and John Lewis used to before their buyers got too grand and stopped stocking things like washing soda and white vinegar.

They also sell an extremely good range of steam irons.. and you know how much I lurve a good iron, one that goes "whoosh".. the noise brings back memories of Gloria, she was our adorable, brilliant, wonderful housekeeper and my nanny when mama travelled.

Gloria ironed like an Angel and whilst she did so, she and I listened to Salsa music at full volume. "Whoosh" went steam iron whilst I flew around the sitting room at high speed screeching in delight!

God only knows what a neighbor would have said! It's certainly a good thing we don't have any.

Anyway, there we are.. ick-dick laptop wasn't. It's up and running and she is a'tapping on it as I dictate.

We will be back later with all our news that's fit to print.. pippip.

GeeGee Parrot.

February 21st, 2018.

LAPTOP IS BEYOND ICK-DICK! I THINK IT'S DIED!

She tapped my earlier post, made LapySang, washed, got dressed, put a load of dark laundry into the machine, read the gas and electric meters and submitted those on-line, washed up and then received a call which meant that she had to stay in for half an hour.

She booted up laptop and was reading the news on-line when it made the noise "blink" and the screen went black. Dear Readers, it crashed and will not turn on again.

So tomorrow morning it is going to Raja and if he cannot fix it, she is going to take it back to Peter Jones, from whence it came, and they are going to refund her the money back. It threw its' toys out of the pram last week and she is not putting up with a machine breaking down and having to be tweaked by Raja every week. Thank goodness her elderly iPad still works! Boring!

On a happier note.. her frugal ways have paid off! Our gas bill is remarkably small considering the last three months we have had and certainly her habit of switching off lights works.

We have had a very late lunch / early supper. Poached chicken wings with black Thai rice in a stock sauce with turmeric root together with lots of garlic, carrots and shallots that she dug up on Saturday. She is extraordinarily tolerant of my messy eating habits and put a large towel over her bed, because she knew I wouldn't chew bones over my dish but would drag them off to the other end of the bed!

After I had chewed the bones and wiped Beaky all over the towel, it went into the machine for a quick rinse and will dry overnight on a radiator. She does try to keep this home in some sort of order.. she also tried to do ironing today whilst waiting for this delivery, but the iron was so shocked at being made to work, it went "phut" and stopped as well! So now we need an new iron and a new laptop! The iron will be cheaper, that's for sure!

Ah well.. such is life! We hope your life is 'ok' today?

GeeGee Parrot.
February 20th, 2018.

HALF A LOAF OF RYE BREAD WENT DOWN HER GULLET.. NO WONDER HER KNUCKLES WERE SWOLLEN YESTERDAY!

Do you have a food that you really love? She, poor dear, loves rye bread and Oliver's, the bakers who have many stalls at our Farmer's Markets here in London, make an exceedingly fine rye loaf.  

However, if you're a regular reader of my blog, you will know that she is allergic to gluten, it triggers her arthritis and the joints in her fingers of her right hand swell alarmingly.

But, as you know, there is 'one born every minute' and old numb-skull thought she would just have a 'little bit' of the loaf she took to lunch on Sunday.

Huh.. she ate half of it! Getting the ring off that she had worn at the weekend was an extremely painful operation.

So no more bread, Johnny had given her the loaf but she passed it onto Pat yesterday morning when they met to discuss wools and patterns.

I should say..Wool, patterns and needles! For Pat's face, when she brought out the enormous bag of beautiful and unused wooden knitting needles, was a picture!

"They're £11.00 a pair for the thinner ones and who knows how much for the huge ones and are just what I need for your blue sweater with the red detail, isn't it just amazing what people donate?"

It was well after 1.00pm that they parted, Pat to go home taking the knitting swag and mama to do a bit of shopping in the market.

Poundland had the new Vanish Platinum gel in stock! For getting white cotton or linen to be brilliant white again without using bleach, which isn't kind to fabrics, this stuff is amazing! 

As is Surf Black.. for guess what? Yes, Black fabrics! The Co-Op had this, which she uses for black undies, t.shirts and jeans, on at a special offer of £2.93.

Four ruby red grapefruits, seven crunchy apples, beetroots, a box of eggs all went 'plop' into WW and they turned for home.

The fine and sunny weather that we had over the weekend is but a memory for it was cold and wet. And, it's cold and wet again today. At some point she going to see Sothebys and Christie's, the auction houses but that won't happen today.

She wants to see the collection of King Charles 1st art which is on show at the Royal Academy. And as Chinatown is but a five minute walk from there, she may well slide into a restaurant and eat Chinese yumyum, in order to celebrate their New Year. 

Now, I need LapySang tea and she needs to start her day.. pippip.

GeeGee Parrot.

February 20th, 2018.

IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE COLD & GLOOMY! IT WAS BRIGHT SUNSHINE, HOW MUCH DO WE PAY THESE WEATHER FORECASTERS!

It is Sunday, the day of rest I thought to myself, so I was somewhat alarmed when she slipped out of bed at some outrageously early hour and disappeared to do what mothers do early in the mornings.. who knows what they get up to.. however, she soon returned with a mug of hot ginger.

But then drew back the curtains.. 08.00 on a Sunday! Huh, I thought, either I'm mad or she's lost her marbles. Well it transpired that she's a bit dotty.. for she got dressed in pretty clothes, put her face on.. I know.. poor face, it lives in a small bag by the bathroom basin, sprayed smelly stuff on, put on a rain coat, wrapped a scarf around her head and left the house!

Don't fear folks.. she had made my eggs and tea and so, theoretically, I was 'ok' but it was a bit weird eating them by myself! And, my dears, she did not arrive home until.. 8.30pm!

Her activities apparently were as follows. She met a friend for coffee on the Kings' Road, searched in vain Waitrose for Dill Sauce, checked her library books back in, went to see dear Debbie Goat at Parson's Green Farmer's Market to catch up on all the gossip and news and.. oh boy, was there was a LOT of gossip and news!

At 2pm she walked up and over to Redcliffe Square to have a late and simply delicious lunch with Johnny with whom she used to do volunteer work. Yack a yack.. such a lot of catching up there was to do to!

The day started out sunny, for which she was pleased for all of the stall holders at the farmers markets throughout London but she was, secretly, pleased when it turned dark and colder in the afternoon. For if it had been like Saturday, which was a truly magical day of sunshine with a pleasant temperature, she would have felt guilty that she wasn't tree pruning.. a vital chore that has to done this week!

She's got a busy week ahead of her, all the apple and pear trees have to be pruned, the rest of the terrace has to be cleaned, the oregano has to cut back, dahlia, lily of the valley, gladioli, tulips, shallots, onions, spring onions have to be planted and who knows how hundred seeds have to be planted, thank goodness for those propagators!

Coffee and wool plus knitting to discuss with Pat tomorrow. Charity volunteer work to do at the shop on Wednesday. From the list of chores I mentioned in the paragraph above, she has at least three days work at the allotments, then whoops, we are nearly into March, whoosh! How February has flown by!

PipPip.. it's our bedtime.. early to bed and early to rise.. that busy week starts tomorrow!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 18th, 2018.