Break Out The Jammie Dodgers ......

What more wonderful way to celebrate being on the very cusp of the festive season than Nigel being told, on collecting  Bertie from school, that Bertie is to play Joseph in the Nativity play. Let’s just say Nigel got a little emotional and there were muffled sobbing when Nigel got home!

Bertie is taking it all in his stride and just wanted to get on with his colouring, but will be a perfect Joseph, being, in all three of his proud uncles eye,  gentle, kind and protective. Nigel, has insisted on taking Bertie under his wing and despite Hugh, Darrell’s best friend and mentor, with all his showbiz connections offering to call up one or two of his seriously thespian associates to help Bertie with his motivation and projection, Nigel has insisted that Bertie’s performance will come from the au naturelle school of acting  ……..

Though very thoughtful, the young master doesn’t really need Sir Ian McKellen or Sir Patrick Stewart to advise him on the art of “rocking” a tea towel headdress or how to take a cuddly toy sheep from a similarly clad shepherd or a box made to look like Frankenstein from one of the Three Kings ……. as it is a role he was born to play!   What is he like? Nigel not Bertie!

And …… what more fitting way to celebrate such festive news…..

….. than by breaking open a brand new, jumbo pack of Jammy Dodgers! It’s November 30th and already it’s beginning to feel a lot like a very exciting Christmas!

Nigel Finds …….. Breakfast!

On his way to collect Iris and Bertie from school yesterday afternoon Nigel nipped into the Europa Food Store (still open for essential shopping) to get some chocolate to enjoy on the slow dawdle back to their house, when he spied ……….

……. a trolley of free bread!  Well, it would have looked rude not to, wouldn’t it?

So, after paying for said chocolate, Nigel also availed himself of a small (in date) Slonecznikowy wheat and rye with sunflower seed loaf thinking of Darrell’s and my epicurean reaction at the prospect of an exotic (and free) breakfast this morning.

Let’s just say it did not disappoint, it was nomtastic, especially as we are all very partial to a sunflower seed.

As The Reverend Timms once said to Postman Pat “Seek and thou shall find” ………… of which Nigel is indeed a true master, bless his little cotton socks!

Shrouded In Mystery

As per usual this morning, as soon as he was up, Nigel went straight to the kitchen window to see what was occurring on “his” bridge …..

……. let’s just say he did several double takes and then another because, goodness only knows when they did it, but the island section of said bridge is now mysteriously shrouded under a huge sheet. It must have gone up in the middle of the night, as there is no way Nigel would have missed such an exciting and dramatic event if it had had been done in the day.

Well, forget Darrell’s most excellent full English, with beans served in a ramekin,  the little fella was down there before you could say “huge tarpaulin” to get a closer look.

From the looks of it we now have a new, currently sandbagged path leading under the bridge and the fields beyond, but it was the middle of the bridge, in all it’s constructional glory that had really captured Nigel’s imagination.

What wonderful secrets lay beneath those taut sheets?  How romantic would it be to be under there, doing what had to be done, away from prying eyes, in the middle of the river, where your only means of leaving was via Gordon or the ever flashing patrol boat moored in the marina. 

What does it feel like when the frequent trains to and from London go thundering over you, do you have to stop and cling to the scaffolding while they pass over and how do they erm…… take a leak break?

And that, believe me, are just a few of his many, many ponderings.

He’s not left the window since he came back up, his full English reheated and served on a tray. He’s desperate to see who or what  is going in and out of the erection  ……. hoping, perhaps, with Christmas fast approaching, there’s at least an inflatable Santa, snowman or Christmas tree as a festive thank you to all the neighbours for their patience and understanding ….. what planet is he on?

The Mind Boggles ……..

Poor Nigel, he spotted this bag in the window of Pets at Home while out on his daily meltdown walk and it just blew his mind, there were so many questions going around in his head but no real answers ……..

Is sensitive duck a term of endearment I.e “ Awwww you sensitive little duck!”? Could it be referring to a 10kg duck who might be a touch sensitive about their weight? Or, if said duck is happy with their weight, what else might they be sensitive about?

I’ll just leave it there with you to ponder too, all “helpful” suggestions gratefully received on a postcard, addressed to “Ducking Puzzled Of Evesham”.  Thank you!

A Festive Duty To Perform

With our most favourite time of the year approaching Darrell declared that there was one thing that he didn’t particularly relish or enjoy but had to be done before we could even think about donning any gay apparel …….

…… to wit, the rigorous and robust biennial cleaning of our oven! It was a job that he’d put on his festive preparation spreadsheet under “pre Advent chore”  and he’d had the foresight to buy all the stuff he needed before meltdown, the days when non-essential shopping was allowed ….

…… and today was finally the day, as there was no way he could even think about putting our Christmas dinner in it until he’d given it a good going over …….

……. but, he added, he needed be in a primed and optimum frame of mind to get it done.

So, Nigel and I were duly advised to get from under his feet and go for our daily meltdown walk and he would text us later when it was safe for us to return …….

…… leaving Darrell to “cook” the shelves and grill pan in the bath for as long as he could for maximum cleanage ……

……. while he tackled the door and innards  ……….

Darrell text us about two hours later, so you can imagine that Nigel and I were well and truly exercised by this point, but his little face when we returned was a picture and said it all  ……. we now had an oven fit for his glorious turkey crown, roasts, stuffing, pigs in blankets and Yorkshires, alleluia!

Next job? The copper mirror in the bathroom, but that, thankfully, can wait just a little while longer.

Tender Cow–A Milka Cake Review

Well, come on …….. who wouldn’t be intrigued by a box of cakes called  “Tender Cow”?

Found by Darrell in the Europa Superstore, he realised that despite their rather odd name …….

……. coming from a company like Milka, they would undoubtedly be a quality comestible and so, worthy, he thought, of one of our in depth reviews.

On opening the box we were greeted by five substantial looking silver packets ……..

…… and in each of said silver packets was what we immediately  recognised as a  “tender cow” …….

……. with it’s plain cake back and chocolate flavoured front, filled with chocolate chips. Let’s just say we were not disappointed, it doesn’t get much better than two flavours of cake and an ample sufficiency of chocolate chips in the shape of an affable looking cow …….. however, we would prefer to describe the cake cow as soft, moist and satisfying, rather than tender, but that’s us being picky.

Without a single crumb left on the plate we were all in agreement in awarding Milka Tender Cows an unhesitant 7.95 barn gallons out of a possible 8 in a churn on our world famous Richter Scale of Noms and we shall definitely be making more considered purchases in the future.  Nom nom nom!

The MAD Museum, Stratford Upon Avon

Blooming, blooming meltdown ........ although Stratford Upon Avon has many historical and intellectual pleasures of a Shakespearean type nature ………

……. before said second meltdown it’s was The MAD Museum that Nigel would always head to first, when we  popped over, with all its weird and amazing displays of interactive and mechanical art.

It’s the wonderfully complicated marble runs (or rolling ball sculptures as they call them) that would have Nigel virtually hypnotised ……… which is never a bad thing, if only for a short while!

It’s a place of awe and wonder for the little fella, with so many buttons for one soooooooo curious to press without the fear of having his wrist slapped…….. 

…… where he can embrace and connect to, as he puts it, his “leanings towards the kinetic” and penchant for the odd sprocket or two  …….

…….not to mention stretching his robustly and highly tuned methodical brain … 

……. well, who am I to argue with that?  Bless him, what is he?

Much Action Sur La River.

Things on our bridge and on the river have gone up another notch over the past couple of days, which has kept Nigel more than occupied, which is never a bad thing!

We can’t really make out, at the moment, what they are actually constructing on the centre island of the bridge, except that it’s all very interesting …….

……. with boat action knowing no bounds and Nigel left wondering just how many men can fit on one boat in a standing position, he’s now up to eight (sorry no pictures).

He has also ascertained, via his ocular, that the extremely busy patrol boat is called Gordon, not perhaps the most romantic of names, but according to the little fella,  it does have a reassuring ring of strength and dependability about it,  what is he like?

Nigel is also of the mind that all the mysterious, distant rumblings and bangs we have been hearing over the past couple of months have just been the preparation work, stabilising stuff he reckons ……

……. but now ……. the real action is about to begin ……..

I know he has set his heart on seeing some dramatic abseiling and suspended cradle swinging, as well as the bridge being floodlight at night. I think he may be being a tad over ambitious for his spectator viewing hopes,  but, as long as he continues to be spellbound and otherwise occupied who am I to rock the boat?

Word Salad …….

I have a prediction to make ……….

…….. I have the distinct feeling that the new “must use buzz word” during any radio or television interview is about to become “behemoth”.

It’s a word you just don’t hear every day, except, I heard it twice this morning, within an hour, in two completely unconnected interviews on two different programmes on Radio 4. 

The first one made me sit up and take note as it’s quite a word ……

……  and then to hear it again a little later ……. I shall begin to keep a tally to back up my theory!