Sunday 6th September 2009

I've been thinking about things we can't get any more.  Some things maybe we can but I haven't seen them for years.

Cheez Whizz used to be a big favourite of mine when I was a kid.  Between 2 slices of fresh white bread - the quickest sandwich ever!  Thickly spread on hot buttered (yes,  buttered ) toast - heavenly.  Then all of a sudden it was gone, sunk without trace.  A few years ago it resurfaced but, as with most things, was not quite how I remembered.  Still, I bought it though, only to find it snatched away again.  Maybe you can still get it but I don't know where.  Supermarkets do have their own brands but to lovers of the real thing these are pale imitations.  BRING BACK CHEEZ WHIZZ.

Mimuther also used to get a product called Frizettes.  They were a powder that you mixed with water to form a batter, then you dropped spoonsful into hot fat to make little fritters.  Oh, wow!  A breakfast fry-up was not complete in our house without them.  Actually we didn't often have fry-ups (or should that be frys-up?) at breakfast time but we did every Thursday tea time.   Thursday was pay day on the steelworks so tea was always a lavish affair with fried bacon, sausages, eggs, baked beans, black pudding (yeuk!), fried bread .....and Frizettes.  Can't you just hear our arteries furring up!  But did we care?  We did not.  BRING BACK FRIZETTES.

 In continuation of the Thursday pay day celebrations one of us kids was sent down to the shop for 5 assorted cream cakes.  I was always first volunteer for this job!  The reason was that the 'cream' cakes I chose.........weren't.  They used to keep them, uncovered, in the shop window and they contained Confectioners' Cream and I loved it.  I would love it today too if I could get any.  There used to be a bakery in town where you could buy it in bucket-loads but they closed down years ago and now...............!  I do like fresh cream cakes but I love confectioners' cream ones.  BRING BACK CONFECTIONERS' CREAM.

Mimuther was ever a creature of habit,  She has always had certain days for doing certain things, even now.  She didn't go to Church and Sunday morning was devoted to doing the washing.  The roast would be in the oven and there would be heaps of meticulously sorted washing ready for doing.  On Monday she spent the day getting it all dried and ironed - no mean feat when the weather was bad and there were no electric dryers.  So Mondays we would have banana sandwiches for tea.  Tuesdays she usually still had ironing to do and greeting us when we got home from school would be boiled eggs and bread soldiers, thickly buttered.  White Shelled Eggs.  We always had white shelled eggs.  Brown ones, when they were to be had, cost more but just occasionally there would be the odd brown one among the white.  Mimuther had to have that one because it didn't have a 'proper' shell.  So she said anyway!  It's the white ones that are rare now and all we get are brown.  They don't really taste any different, I think it all depends how the hens are fed or something, but there was something about white eggs that brown ones can't replicate.  BRING BACK WHITE EGGS. 

Finally for now, who can remember Double Diamond beer?  Hands up.  "##...a Double Diamond works wonders, works wonders, works wonders...##" to the tune of "There's a Hole in my Bucket" (very apt when you think of the shape of a beer glass).  It's all Keith used to drink in the 70's.  "Pint of DD please..".  I haven't seen any for years and the poor man is having to make do with Carling.  So for his sake, please BRING BACK DOUBLE DIAMOND .

Keith wishes it to be known that he took this picture from our side door and he thinks the silhouettes against the sky are superb.  There, now you know!  Actually, I think it's quite a good photo too.

Well, the roast is done, veggies almost, roasties just want turning and gravy making and it'll be lunchtime.  Guess whose name is down for those jobs?

See you soon,

xxxx