I just KNEW it!

Remember I said our Kate's baby was called Erin but that might change? It did! She is now called Holly Mae Kerr. Tee-hee - I couldn't resist pointing out that makes 2 of us. I'm a holly ma-ker too when it comes time for Christmas cakes! My sister (her Grandma) sent me a photo of her and she is just so perfect - well I would say so wouldn't I.

I am going to treat us next weekend to some new saucepans and a slow cooker and maybe some other bits and pieces to make life easier. My pans have been in constant use for 35 years. There s nothing actually wrong with them except that the middle one no longer has a lid (long story but, of course, Keith's fault). I won't be throwing them out but they will be relegated to 'emergency top-up use'. They have withstood the ravages of time and still they sparkle like new. They've been boiled dry, set on fire, used with a wooden spoon as a drum kit and they don't owe me anything. They are by Prestige and were worth every penny of the £10 I paid for them all those years ago. If the new ones are half as good they will do for me!

Yes, yes, I have heard of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' but my disability now calls for me to make changes so that, in the kitchen at least, I am 'enabled'. I have to be or we shall starve!

Last Saturday evening Keith decided to make us a nice healthy stir fry. I couldn't tell you how much oil he used in the wok - he doesn't know either - but suffice to say it was all very very greasy. Though he promised to wash up, he didn't and I was appalled to find next morning grease all over the cooker, on the kettle and on the floor where it had splattered. And I had the nerve to complain about a sausage sandwich in a lay-by!

Oh Happy Day

I just had to share this little snippet with you: this morning at 7.45 we welcomed into the world little Erin (though the name may yet change!), a sister for Lewis and daughter for my neice Kate and her husband Jonny.

She was a little bit overdue but everything was 'shipshape and Bristol fashion' on the fingers and toes front so that's lovely. Kate has been a bit restless this last few days and Jonny must have wondered why she kept trying to climb in the airing cupboard. In the end it all came to pass in the delivery suite at the local hospital. Thank God for that and for a lovely sunny day to be born on. May all her birthdays be sunny like this.

A hotch potch

!!!21st September - it's never that long since I posted something surely? Well, hands up, no excuses. Caught bang to rights this time!

Dundee - City of Discovery; the Tay Bridge at Sunrise

We had a lovely weekend in Dundee 26-29 September. We were there for the Brittle Bones Conference which featured several interesting 'workshops' and an exremely interesting bar! We stayed at the Hilton Hotel, which wasn't as posh as I thought it would be. Never mind, at least somebody else did the washng up!

It was a 7 hour drive and as I am not able to drive the car at present Keith had to do it all. I was the navigator but snoozed most of the time while this guy called TomTom did all the work. I had thought we might stop somewhere really nice for lunch, take in some scenery, you know? Not a bit of it. We did stop twice: once for the loo and then for lunch. I realise you probably think we just starved but that's not quite true. Our second stop was in a lay-by on the A66 where we got a sausage sandwich and a cup of tea from a kill-you-quick greasy spoon caravan. Normally I wouldn't eat a thing from one of those places but I was so hungry I would have eaten a scabby dog!! Guess what? That sausage sandwich was probably the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. And the cup of tea - complete with resident teabag - scrumptilious! I feel much more tolerant of these roadside food vans since then. After all, I never heard of anyone who caught anything nasty or died from eating there. Did you?

The Discovery - Capt. Scott's ship on his journey to the Antarctic was built in Dundee. It returned there in 1988 and is now a major attrsction in the city.

Did you think this was Desperate Dan from the Beano? It is! Alive and well and in Dundee.

For those of you who don't live in UK, let me tell you the A66 is an incredible road. If there is any appreciable snow in winter it is usually among the first to become impassable. It cuts through vast swathes of open moorland with very little shelter from the elements and it climbs quite high. Although it was a lovely sunny day, it was also very cold and extremely windy and I could see what a bleak place it must be in the depths of winter. For mile upon mile you see nothing but road and moors and the only way is forward. I wouldn't like to be stuck up there with no petrol or in a snowstorm >.

The latest cookbook!

I came out of Tesco the other day to find a cookbook in my trolley. I swear it wsn't me who bought it, honest! Oh....er...is it Wednesday? I tell fibs on Wednesdays. It is supposed to have in it 1000 cake and bake recipes so I did 2 of them yesterday. It's a start. I would like to have Dorie Greenspan's 'My home to yours' but it's a bit expensive and this one was only a fiver, so there we are. I am, however, letting it be widely known among family and friends which one I really would like!!!

Anyway, these recipes I did: Chocolate Meringue shortbread and Fruit Flapjacks. The Shortbread ones lacked a certain je ne sais quoi. Well, I do know quoi, they were very bland. I think next time I'll try putting in an extra ounce of sugar and a little strong coffee where the recipe calls for vanilla essence. To be honest I couldn't really see why they wanted to use any vanilla with such an obviously strong chocolate taste. So thumbs down to that one - for the time being anyway. The Fruit Flapjacks were lovely but they are better today, having been in the tin overnight. The hardish edges have softened up. Flapjacks are a thing I rarely make so mine always seem to look messy - nay, home-made! When Keith had his own teeth he used to say flapjacks gunged his teeth up and he was chasing oats around all day. Nowadays "They get under me plate" but he eats them anyway.

So AOL is closing down its journals from end October eh? I feel I ought to be saying "Oh what a shame" but to tell the truth, I'm glad! I was with AOL but came over here before all this happened and I was afraid of losing touch with so many old friends. Now here they all are, setting up on Blogspot. I would love to commend loads of them to you but there are so many I wouldn't know where to start. One I will just mention is my dear friend Jasper who you can find at: http://jasper-thedogsblog.blogspot.com/. He doesn't get that many comments, though I think quite a few read him. He is so funny and well worth a visit, so if you have a minute............