Getting ready

It’s time to go through the fridge & find out what needs to be used up before we go away. I often do a prawn stir-fry just before we go away as it uses up so many veg. However, this time we seem to have a lot of root veg – parsnips, swedes – not quite the thing for a stir fry. A casserole perhaps? That would leave the pepper, spring onions, celery for the stir-fry. I’ve much to think about. The main thing is not to buy yet more stuff that won’t be completely used up. It’s one thing buying tinned & frozen food – that will be useful for our return – but not fresh or opening half tins.

Meanwhile I’ve rung about my cousin Ann. She remains in hospital. Midweek, they thought they’d cleared the fluid from her lungs & were going to remove the drain the next day. By the next day she’s started to fill up once more. She remains in hospital. The outlook does not look good. We continue to think of her, and her husband, & pray for them both. I'll ring again next week to see how she's doing.

Images of the 1950s

I’m in the midst of doing yet another jigsaw, another compendium one. This time the subject is the 1950s.

Central to the picture is the image of a petrol ration book, dated March 1957. That surprised me as I understood rationing finished in 1954. But was that only food rationing? Or was petrol still in short supply so rationed? Or even was it re-introduced with the Suez crisis in 1956? I certainly don’t remember my father having a ration book although as long as I can remember he did drive. Admittedly we didn’t come back to live in England until autumn/winter 1957 so maybe the rationing had ceased by then. I do, however, remember ration books being issued in the early 1970s when the OPEC crisis occurred and there was a risk of petrol becoming in short supply. However, I don’t think the rationing ever began.

Needless to say the highlight of the 1950s portrayed in this jigsaw is the coronation of the queen. I supposed for us Brits that has to be the abiding memory of the time. For many years I had a handkerchief of the coronation with the royal coach going around the edge. My mother & brother were in England at the time & watched the ceremony on early TV. At that time I was a glint in my mother’s eye. She discovered on that trip that she was pregnant with me.

I was surprised to discover I could still recognise the young Stirling Moss, in a hand-tinted photo, in his racing car. I was a big fan of his in the 1950s – my brother backed Jim Clark.

I boggled even more at the image of people sitting on sands with Tower Bridge in the background. Apparently an artificial beach was put on the Thames in London. I would have thought the water of the Thames was so filthy those days nobody would want to go swimming in it.

I find myself smiling at a little girl in what was obviously a home knitted swimsuit. I can’t help giggling a bit over the Fox’s description of the pair of trunks his mother made for him that stretched all over the place as they got wet. His was clearly not the only mother that knitted swimwear in those days.

I’ve just been doing a bit on Anthony Eden. It had never struck me before what a natty dresser he was. The smart, well-fitted, double-breasted suit just had to him, so much smarter than the suit on Winston Churchill stood next to him, or the one on John Foster Dulles, the American Secretary of State, visiting Downing Street.

How times have changed!

Carnival time

Morecambe carnival did well. Over 30,000 people came & stood to watch the parade go by, undeterred by the gentle rain that fell.

When Linda, our home help, came on Tuesday, she was full of it. Her girls had really enjoyed it. They thought it one of the most exciting things they’d ever experienced in their life.

Linda herself is already getting excited about next year’s carnival. Her sister is a cub leader & the cubs have already decided to put a float in then. Linda, an artistic soul, is going to lend a hand with the decorating of the float.

After hearing all her enthusiasm, I showed her some of the pictures we took of magnificent Bloemencorso, the Aalsmeer flower festival as its colourful floral floats passed through the outskirts of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. 

Here's a few for you to see....
 

Even the police get into the mood

What an eel!

It's getting hard to drive!

Even the dead are getting into the act!

And the not so dead

Linda was really wowed! She’s even beginning to wonder if she could afford to take her girls for a weekend away to see it. Her particular love was the “Swan Lake” float.

"Swan Lake"

and its dancers

Bank Holiday festivities

This weekend has been carnival time in Morecambe – the first this century. It used to be a regular event but, like so many things, it fell out of favour. Unfortunately yesterday, the day of the carnival parade, was also a wet day.

It made little difference to us. Out attitude with Bank Holidays is to lock up the doors & wait for it to pass. Wheelchairs & crowds don’t mix.

It has to be admitted I’m not in a very celebratory mood. Last night Derek, Ann’s husband rang with yet more bad news.

Still I do hope the carnival went well. I know Linda, our home help, was really looking forward to going. She was taking her whole family for a day out to see it. She has fond memories of the year when, as a young teenager, she was on one of the floats. She wants her children to experience a carnival.

Certainly Morecambe, like so many seaside towns, needs something to attract the visitors in. Our local economy couldn’t survive without the tourists. It’s just such a pity the rain may have made the event into a damp squib. At least it was dry for the Saturday events.

Today, too, is dry. My washing is drying rapidly on the line. Today is the day for the ending fair at the Wray Scarecrow festival, not so far away from us. Things are happening everywhere this holiday.

And we stay at home & wait for it to pass & life to get back to normal.