Monstrous Fish and Chips
We have had a good couple of days. We aren’t fully moved in yet, but we have enough stuff in the new house to move in and spend the night.
We had, as you can see, fish and chips. They were actually a bit salty for me (we don’t have added salt but I think they add it to the batter). The portions are also monstrous, so we are going to have to cut down once we move in. One portion of chips and probably one fish will do for two of us.
Julia packed the Christmas duvet cover. Well, I think of it as the Christmas duvet cover. It’s tartan, which is associated with Christmas for me because it is often in Christmas colours and because it reminds me of the tins of shortbread that always come out at Christmas. It is, of course, also associated with Scotland, as is shortbread. I just looked up the legislation relating to tartan, as it was, I thought, made illegal after the 1745 Rebellion. In fact, as so often with these things, the truth is slightly different. It was restricted from 1747 until 1782, but it wasn’t actually made illegal. having said that, the punishment for a second offence was transportation, so it was probably wise to avoid wearing it.
That’s my book – not the one on the bed in the picture. not quite as spiritual as the one by Patrik Svensson, but neither am I.
Along with effective heating, the flannelette made for a warm night and by the early hours of the morning we were both too hot (despite the heating having gone off before midnight). It’s unseasonably warm at the moment, but will be going down to freezing at nights next week. Until then we have switched the heating down another notch.
It’s just another sign of old age. I have slept most of my life in unheated bedrooms, often with the windows open, but over the last few years I have started to look at heating, and we regularly use hot water bottles now.
On the way back to Nottingham we took a loop through Northamptonshire and went to Geddington to look at the Eleanor Cross. I think I’ve mentioned them before, which is another sign of increasing age . . .
Eleanor Cross at Geddington, Northants.
Have you checked the date on your hot water bottle? I never realised that they have the date in them, but having seen some recent publicity about this, I find that mine was made in 2011. I might have to think about splashing out on a new one.
I didn’t realise they had dates until a couple of months ago. I’m not actually sure how long they are supposed to last. It came up in conversation last week when I visited the shop – a customer mentioned that his daughter had been annoyed with him and his wife for using bottles that she thinks are too old. The replacements she sent are made in China, have no dates and seem less durable than the ones they are currently using. We did have one last year that started oozing water in minute droplets as it all appeared to have perished. Not sure if that one had a date on – it was very old. because we haven’t bought one for ages.
This reminds me of frost patterns inside bedroom windows. Your fish and chip portions look like our Mr Pink’s where we are now down to half a small portion between us
Is it us, or are portions getting bigger? Did Jackie get a friend confirmation via Facebook. I pressed the button but nothing seemed to happen at this end.
They probably are bigger – but even in the old days I would have found that with Mr. Pink’s. Unfortunately Jackie got loads of requests because she had been hacked – she put a note to that effect on her Facebook page
Ah, right. I actually got three requests from her, so that explains it. Tell her I send my regards. 🙂
“Aw”, she says
🙂
The twelve crosses are interesting. I would never have known they were so old and I guess that is why there is little sign of an actual cross. But a great story. Nice to read about a king being in love with his wife for all those year. A bit different from Henry viii.
Glad to hear the move is going well! The cats here think heating is a good thing, especially at night, but still tend to cluster around us in winter like tube worms at a deep sea hydrothermal vent. Sometimes it is hard to move. 🙂
An interesting history lesson in those links.
If cats could work the heating controls it would be interesting to see what happened. 🙂