Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow

Silly me, got completely mixed up with the days of the week.  Thought yesterday was Monday, but it wasn't,  so somehow have missed having Tuesday altogether as today is Wednesday.  I thought I had given myself more time to cook for the Foodbank 'do' on Thursday (which is now tomorrow instead of the day after...), so sorry folks, will have to cut short today's 'chat' to allow me to to carry on cooking.

Thanks Les for your comment.  It really doesn't matter what books B reads, he has several cookbooks bought especially for him where he has marked all the recipes that he said he's going to make, then never bothers.  Anyway his idea of 'making' is for me to prepare all the ingredients ready for him so that all he has to do is just throw them in the pan (if stir-frying), or pop in the oven (if cooking oven chips - which will already have been put on the baking sheet...).  By then I might just as well finish the job myself. 

Not sure what weather we will get today, a few minutes ago the sky was a lovely pale blue streaked across with pretty pink clouds in the west. Looked more like a sunset than dawn.  But within a very few minutes all the colour has gone and the sky is now grey with even greyer clouds. 

Quite a lot of the country had snow yesterday, as much as 4 inches, Wow!  Of course much of the transport: planes, trains, buses.... ground to a halt.  We seem incapable of dealing with snow these days, yet - I remember - as a teenager, walking to school through snow that was almost waist height (was able to walk as people had cleared the pavements in front of their houses, leaving even higher piles either side).  Think this must have been the winter of 1946/7 give or take a year.

We didn't hear much about transport problems then, but as it was soon after the war we'd sort of got used to coping with much worse, so 'struggled through'.  Now we seem to fall to bits at the sight of the first snow-flake.  Also in those days there weren't nearly as many cars on the road, and those that were drove at a slower speed than those of today.  They also put chains on their wheels to prevent slipping -  something that doesn't seem to be done these days.

Another thing I remember from those times was that in the summer, on very hot days, people were asked to put muzzles on their dogs when taking them out as the heat made them bad-tempered.  Perhaps something we should still do, not that we get many very hot days anymore.

Read in the paper yesterday that our 'austerity/recession' (call it what you will) is expected to last at least ten more years before there is any light at the end of this particular tunnel.   I was born just around the time of a recession, think another happened a few decades later, and now it seems I'll be ending my days stuck in the middle of another.

Sometimes I wonder if we should concentrate so much on reducing our food budget, and try to consider ways of reducing other types of expenditure.  Perhaps we do.  B certainly doesn't as when I came in here this morning discovered he had left the computer on and also the gas fire when he left the room for his supper (5.00 last night), and didn't return.   At least it was nice and warm for me, and the comp worked more speedily.  But at a cost.

Forgive me if I now leave you, as really do have to get on and catch up with cooking that I should have done already, and haven't!  Will be back tomorrow (once I've cooked the scones....) so see you then.