We've Just Been on a Summer Holiday

Hi Everyone

It was interesting to read a couple of weeks ago that one of the effects of climate change was that people were beginning to reevaluate their holiday arrangements. Many people have probably spent the last sixty years planning holidays in the sun in countries like Spain. Portugal, Greece and Turkey to get the warmest and best value for money holidays. Now many are questioning whether they want to spend their hard earned money trying to cope with temperatures so high that they are unable to enjoy the experience. Now, cooler northern European countries are becoming a more attractive destination until travellers realise that prices are much higher than in most southern European destinations. For those of us approaching middle age, the problem gets easier. Airports and security become less attractive, travel insurance for just a few days away from home is eye watering, and high temperatures soak up whatever energy we have left. Now, of course, we can take a holiday anytime we wish, except that our preferred accommodation will be booked up unless we book in advance. That means, as last year, we on holiday at home, this time less that 2 hours from home in the Derbyshire Peak District National Park with the English weather plus climate change to contend with. If we had booked our holiday for last week, we would have had better weather and the forecast says that we will probably have better weather next week. The good news is that it reminded us is what a beautiful country we live in even though on one day, it rained fifteen times, and that was before 3 o’clock in the afternoon. Let us hope that it will all be preserved for future generations.

Back in the days of the Fruit, Vegetable, Flower, Game and Lolly shop, the food that we ate was very basic -root vegetables like potatoes, carrots and parsnips and if you could afford the little extra, peas, beans and cabbage, much different to the enormous choice we have today. One thing that many families had, however, was a bacon, sausage and fried egg breakfast swimming in fat. All this Rubbish is leading to the time when I was about eight years old, when I would walk about 400 yards early every Sunday morning to a small brick building in someone's garden where the window was open to the smell of fresh North Staffordshire oatcakes being cooked. Eighty years on, that small brick building is still making and selling oatcakes and there are still about forty producers in the relatively small area all with their own ‘secret’ recipe, even though the ingredients are basically the same. Now, if you have not experienced the North Staffordshire oatcake, you have a serious hole in life's experiences. They have been part of North Staffordshire life since the late 1800’s, are full of fibre and a better alternative to bread. Now they have been described as the perfect food for the microwave oven, especially when they are wrapped with bacon, cheese, mushrooms and tomatoes. That’s it, with my taste buds twitching, I am off to the microwave and my twice weekly fix.

As you know, the bricklayer of dubious ability with his seven children if you include the one left by the front door at two days old, was the owner of a quite large building company with about seventy employees. I worked there for almost four years and, as a twenty two year old, I gained a lot of knowledge and experience. On one occasion, we needed a plasterer, so we advertised the vacancy in the local newspaper. A young man looking for a job decided to go to the home of the bricklayer of dubious ability as he lived nearby. He was invited in and sat on the settee in the lounge. What he did not know was that the settee had one leg missing, so he found himself in a heap on the floor. A job interview with a difference.   

Just a Thought:

My suitcase overheard me saying that I could not afford a holiday this year. Now I have emotional baggage.

My friend tried making oatcakes but failed every time. I was a Stoke of bad luck.

Now I get a six month holiday, twice a year.

Brian