RESULT!

Ask me who got to be Slimmer of the Week on Thursday at Slimming World? Ask me who got a star to put on her record book for attaining a grand loss of 8 lbs over the 5 weeks since I joined? And won a basket of fruit for her efforts? Me me me!! The class leader, of course, was a bit OTT with her praise but then, she always is. She's a nice woman. No, honestly she is. But d'you know what? I feel inordinately smug, just sad that I didn't win the raffle as well.

You know when I told you about our first disastrous flirt with camping? I forgot to mention that the day after we got home (after the police found our car, joyridden into some woodland) the kitchen ceiling fell in! Yep, true! It had rained so much for so long that water had come through the flat roof. We set buckets and basins to catch the multitude of drips and went off to bed. Next morning there was the ceiling - all over the floor! We didn't know that you're supposed to make a nice big hole for the water to get through so it doesn't have to force its way in.

Isn't it funny the things that were low on the list of priorities even as recently (what???) the 60's and 70's. Mum didn't have a fridge, she had a meat safe. This was a wooden cupboard with a mesh screen in the door which let the air in but kept the flies out. Anything perishable went in ours: cold meat, raw meat, cheese, milk, butter. It would be a hygienist's nightmare today.

We lived in a council house and the council built into every house a large walk-in pantry with stone shelves. Mimuther always kept our sweetie tin on the top shelf where little hands couldn't reach and sweets were doled out each morning at 10 o'clock to us and such sundry friends as had come to play. I have to assume this was only a weekends and school holidays arrangement because I don't recall getting sweets in any other way. Oh come now, we MUST have!

A fridge finally arrived about 1961 when mimuther decided she couldn't afford to keep throwing meat away. What she did throw away was the meat safe, I think dad burnt it; it always smelled foul anyway. Of course all us kids could think of was iced lollies wall-to-wall!

You'll see I remembered to take my camera out with me once or twice, although the photos are a propos of nothing in particular. The lovely blue hedge is at the front of our house and is spectacular when in bloom. Passers by stop to admire it and ask what it is - but can we tell them? We cannot! Any offers?

Tomorow we're going to a craft and food fair near Ripon and I will remember my camera for that too and hope to have some good photos for you.

Until next time............