DELICIOUS BY FIONA CUMMINGS

Today is my Husbands birthday. He’s working of course. When our Son comes home, we will celebrate but, in the meanwhile, he has received my gifts to him. I think my brother in law and his wife, have sent a card but we will read it after Hub finishes work. We use Seeing a.i. on our iPhone sometimes it will read cards at least enough to get a rough idea who they  are from.

 

Waggatail has been such a good girl today. We went to the Nurse to get a blood test for me. Urg! Then we had to go to the Drs reception to book another appointment for Hub. So, in two and a half weeks he will go there. I ordered prescriptions and then went to the chemist and then the shop. Finally, back home and her work was perfect. Thankfully it stopped raining but my hair and face were soaked. How? Trees. Overhanging. My dog slows down sometimes stops, but unless we walk on the road, we can’t avoid them. And boy, they were really wet from the rain that fell during the night.

 

Yesterday I had a great afternoon with my beautiful friend my Footballers wife. Hahaha. Bless her I really should give her name. We met with her other two friends Jo and Sarah. We went to see Downton Abbey. Oh, it was lovely. I took my earphones and was so fortunate to get a tiny box that gives people who are blind audio description. Gosh, it’s almost so emotional to receive such a gift. To be able to hear the beautiful description of the magnificent scenery buildings and exquisite ornate interior of the queen Ann furniture, the gilded chairs and Victorian lamps and little things like descriptions of expressions on faces things that those who can see won’t even appreciate that they are able to see. If only you knew how lucky you are to be able to see things like expressions. Words are not used to see someone is angry, sad, sly, happy or shocked. Guilty or in love. May be the last two expressions together. Haha. What is it they say, guilty pleasure? I really miss that about seeing, but now we have a voice in our ears telling us what is going on and I am past the stage of grief of losing my sight and into the phase whereby I can except a description as when I first went blind, I didn’t want or wouldn’t want if it was available back then, a person telling me what was happening, I wanted to know myself.  And that was robbed from me. I was so angry. Now I am grateful to have audio as now I at least hear what people are wearing, and I know when someone is in a house for example in a movie hiding behind  a door something that is kept quiet in a film but people who can see will know about, we as people who are blind wouldn’t have a clue.  I can laugh when others laugh and be able to chat about the movie afterwards in fact sometimes being able to know more than my friends who are sighted. It’s the best feeling. Of course, nothing will give me more pleasure than actually being able to see, but for now at least I am thankful.

 

And now a blog spot I would like to talk about, something I was reading a couple of weeks ago. A lady who moved from New York in the USA to England. The differences between living in both countries. Firstly, she was amazed just how lovely the food is here and how inexpensive our groceries are, really? Gosh, the food I am not surprised about but our groceries are getting so expensive, but obviously not as much as in America.

 

She loves our news as she wrote we get much more information in England than she did in America news from all over the world.  Sadly, she wrote “The drinking culture is more pervasive in the UK compared to the USA. Drinking culture? Culture is something to be proud of, I wouldn’t link drinking alcohol with culture, though of course it’s a phrase. And sadly yes, I think my friend Trix and I are the only two women I know who don’t need to get drunk to enjoy themselves. All of our friends drink so much. Last night we went out with our two friends we go out with every week and she had eight brandy’s and a whisky. Oh, my word, her insides will be rotten.

 

95 per cent of the public in the UK, probably include a drink before going anywhere and in most places, you can eat, you can also drink. I’m so not sure how this crept up on us or has it always been around, just I never knew as my parents were tea totals.

 

This lady wrote she never gets sick of the cobbled stone streets and the seaside towns, the countryside and the villages as well as the architecture of old historical buildings like the vast amount of castles, cathedrals and so on. Because of course the USA is so much larger than England, so in England the lady found it more homely and accessible. I guess if you have a car and can drive, England is perfect as you can get to the seaside in a couple of hours max in some cases minutes. Fantastic shopping in our cities and peace all within minutes or as I said, a couple of hours. My American friends talk about going for a drive and it can be five six hours to their destination, gosh, that would get us from one side of the country to the other end.  We are a tiny country but with too many people on our little island.

 

Where the lady lived in America for her two-bedroom apartment cost her almost $1900 per month but in England to rent a two-bedroom house with a drive way and garden costs her quarter of that. Again, though it depends where she lives in England. If she lived in London, then I think her apartment in America would be less.

 

Though the UK is so much smaller than the US, the writer said she feels like she can get to more places in the world as we are a train journey from London to France, she can get to Italy in less than  a couple of hours, Germany is close and Iceland is only three hours away, and by ship places like Norway and more.

 

The lady wrote of how amusing she found our snacks that can’t be found in America, like Shrimps and bananas…. hahaha, I did smile when she wrote this. By the way, they are not what you may think they are. In fact, they are sweets. Candy. They taste like bananas and raspberries. And what we call crisps I think our cousins in America call potato chips, come in many flavours. Apparently one of the top favourite flavours is prawn cocktail. Oh, I really don’t like them but they are popular. Worcester sauce, pickled onion, roast beef and onion and marmite to name a few.

 

Scotch eggs. And you can buy vegetarian ones too in a very small version. So, what is a scotch egg? A hard-boiled egg, covered in spicy sausage meat then rolled in breadcrumbs and deep fried until the crumbs are crunchy.

 

A drink is Ribena made from blackcurrants oh and it’s lovely. Apparently, blackcurrants are not a popular fruit in America, wow, I love them. As well as this popular drink, we make jam from them.

 

Wine gums. A treat that children eat they are meant to resemble the aftertaste of a fruity wine. Personally, I don’t agree I do like them but I think like many treats across the world, they are made from animal bones like gelatine.

 

And some of our foods that are typical English are a full English breakfast. Normally includes Bacon, eggs, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes or baked beans, hash browns and black pudding. I when a child and I ate meat, loved black pudding but as soon as I learned what it was, oh my, I gave it a wide birth.

 

Bangers and mash. Sausages and I think England do the best sausages in the world, mash potatoes with gravy, our gravy isn’t what you guys in America call gravy.

 

Fish & Chips Cod or haddock wrapped in batter which is a mixture of flour, eggs and milk then deep fried with the chips you may call fries.

 

A must with your fish & chips is mushy peas. Or rather than fish just have what we call a chip butty, delicious hot chips sandwiched in between two slices of bread and butter. Yum absolutely delicious

 

We have Sunday lunch which is as many veg as you can cope with roast potatoes, mash potatoes with butter and Yorkshire puddings which are my favourite and if you eat meat, what ever you wish to have but the traditional meat to eat with your Sunday lunch is beef.

 

Toad in the hole is sausages cooked in the oven with the batter of Yorkshire puddings poured over the top and cooked again in the oven.

 

Steak and ale pie is beef stew, with a gravy made with ale and a flaky pastry.

 

Eton mess is normally raspberry or strawberries and crushed Meringue and thick cream.

 

So, I shall leave you with those thoughts, not sure about you, but I’m rather hungry.