On Friday I had a good time out with friends. They’d been to this pub before, with quite a few guide dogs however they had asked and forewarned the manager about the dogs. He Okayed it. As we walked in on Friday, one of our group heard the barman utter ‘Oh no, not again.’ When asked to repeat what he’d said, he ignored us all. Apart from that, we had a good time. We only had 2 guide dogs and they were quiet and didn’t bother anyone. The same can’t be said for the kids there who were running around screaming, and after a fall or two, sitting crying. The dogs sat under the table, behaved very well, and the barman prefers screaming kids? Go figure. Unknown to the barman one of our group knows the manager well and I guess there will be words said. Next time we meet though, I might suggest another venue where we will be more welcome. If the white barman had said the same about a group of black people, or Asians, or whatever, he would have been in big trouble...

Afterwards 3 of us went back to my friend’s house where we carried on talking, laughing and drinking. We went to bed around 11pm; he has spare bedrooms and a sofa and it was comfy enough but one of his friends kept us all awake most of the night coughing. Last night, I started coughing :(

On Sunday my son and I had bacon for breakfast. He’s very fussy about his bacon so he now cooks his own. I’d done all the preparation, made the toast, and had put a pot of coffee on the stove. It’s an espresso pot which I’d bought recently and have only used it once before. Anyway, I obviously put too much water in it, or didn’t screw it together tightly enough, or both! It started to ooze thick dark coffee on to the stove. I turned the stove off and carefully removed it to a heat proof surface. My son then announced that my bacon was burning. Sure enough, the pan was black and the bacon slightly blackened on one side. I switched that off too. He then yelped and jumped backwards and I could see that the kitchen roll sheets I’d left near the stove to drain the bacon on had caught fire. Quick as a flash I picked them up and dropped them in to the nearby sink and ran some water on them. What a disaster! The coffee was thick and strong so I boiled the kettle, added some more water, milk and a little sugar and it was surprisingly good. My bacon was slathered in brown sauce to hide the burnt bits and that also was pretty good. His bacon sandwich was fine, and cooked just how he likes it. You have to laugh.

My Mum always used to say a good cook isn’t someone who can turn out a good meal every time, but someone who can salvage a meal from potential disaster. I well remember making some shortbread one time that turned out to be very crumbly and not at all like shortbread so it ended up as crumble topping for an apple crumble. It was so good, that I now make something similar each time I make apple crumble.

These days, in the UK, food is far too expensive and disasters have to be saved if at all possible. I read recently that food prices have risen by 12% since 2007, whilst wages, in real terms, have gone down 7.6% and that hospitals have seen a 19% increase, in the past year, of people being admitted for malnutrition. (Figures taken from the BBC Health website). Food banks are on the rise, and food poverty is a real issue in the UK. I hope our politicians are proud of what they are doing to this country...

My first day off, it’s bank holiday Monday, and here at least it’s raining a lot. Oh well, at least I’m off work :)