Eat Like A Horse

I just found these details about Royal Ascot, happening this week

Royal Ascot is probably the world’s most famous race meeting with an extraordinary history and tradition which dates back to 1711. This traditional and exciting horse racing event offers the perfect platform for entertaining guests or treating a loved one!

The Parade Ring Restaurant – Prices from: £1,200pp + VAT, your package includes:

• Royal Enclosure Guest Badge
• Reserved race view area adjacent to the Royal Box
• Petit déjeuner canapés and champagne reception
• Five course á la carte luncheon
• Selection of fine wines paired by an independent sommelier
• Selection of liqueurs, including vintage port
• Full afternoon tea
• Complimentary bar throughout the day including champagne and cocktails (until 30 minutes after the last race)
• One car park label per couple
• Racecard
• Racing newspapers
• Printed event documentation

£1200 + VAT for one day?? That is roughly the same as my food shopping bill for a whole year.

I wonder how much food is left uneaten at the end of the day? and is it discarded?

Or maybe they take it to a Foodbank? [yeah, right, I wish]

Friendship Blossoms

Our fuchsia bush is really looking stunning this summer. It was a gift, in 2000, from a lovely lady, Ellen Newbold. Ellen died at the weekend, whilst I was in Austria. Although she’d lived around Leicester all her life, at one point her Pastor was Rev Ivan Milstead who came here from Essex- the same man who baptised my Mum, and conducted my parent’s wedding. That link made a very special bond between us.

Ellen loved the old hymns, and often used to come and help when Bob and I conducted services in the Care Homes. Latterly she has been in a home herself, and not in good health. Now she is released from pain, and is rejoicing and singing in heaven.

RIP Ellen – my fuchsias will always remind me of you

Lost In Translation

Back home again, and well rested. Now to putting things straight! I did not bother with checking emails in Salzburg – in the brief minutes I did manage online, I had better things to do. So this morning, sorting out all that, doing lots of washing, checking food cupboards and fridge and going out to buy milk and fruit etc. Bob has kept things ticking over beautifully but stocks are running low.

The journey back only had one little hitch. We got to Salzburg airport, and checked in. I went through the security arch OK – my colleague set off the alarm. She had this in her pocket

We cleared the bedroom before breakfast, put the keys in our pockets and took our cases downstairs. She had forgotten to hand in her room key, and the large, heavy, metal fob set off the alarm. Ooops! Then I felt in my pocket. Yes, mine was there too! Two questions

1. Why didn’t anyone ask us for the key as we left the hotel?
2. Why didn’t my key trigger the alarm at the airport?

The St Virgil leaflet had the wrong phone number on it, so we could not call them. The airport security woman said she lived near St V and would drop them off on her way home [how kind] I emailed St V late last night to explain and apologise. This morning they replied – but said no keys handed in yet!!

During the week I spent a lot of time listening to gifted woman translating German into English. Most ladies were not ‘professionals’ so there were some wonderful moments of misunderstanding. On our Sunday afternoon coach trip up to the Cloisters where the monks live

“This is a lake where many people from Salzburg come for a bath” [she later explained that she meant ‘for a swim’]

“This is the mountain for defaecation” [OK, that was a Mondegreen – she actually said ‘for the vacation’ I misheard]

“This lake is 104 metres deep, so you cannot walk in it” [!]

Announcement at the airport “Please go the door,  because your plane is parked outside” [do they park many inside?]

Two other signs that baffled me, and now I am home, I have found the translations – Gifte is the exact opposite – it is poisons. And those dayglo orange posters pinned to many of the trees in Salzburg which said Erotik Messe. I was worried it was some bizarre Catholic Eucharistic Event. In fact it was advertising a Trade Fair for the Sex Industry.

Now I feel I really ought to make an effort to learn more German beyond DanKe and Bitte – but Fraise, Floss and Fat Dormouse, you would have been proud of me – en route, I treated myself to a copy of Marie Claire Idées magazine at Frankfurt Airport, to help improve my French, and also asked Emmanuelle and Laurence, the two French women, to speak in French whenever we were chatting. J'ai essayé très fort!

Have you ever had any mistranslations which caused amusement or confusion ?

I Am So Grateful

• to Lufthansa - I am back home safe and sound, and I enjoyed the flights [oh those cute little biscuits shaped like planes and clouds!]
• to Maggie, for being a lovely travelling companion this week, and for having a great sense of humour
• to Bob for keeping the home fires burning [and making us a lovely meal when we returned]
• to everyone who has sent such kind wishes to Steph and Mark. YES, she is my younger daughter, and NO, there is no date fixed as yet for the wedding
• to all those lovely European ladies of the WWDP who have become such good friends in such a few days together
• to the good Lord who has sustained me, and brought such love and joy into my life. I am so blessed

this list could go on and on…but I am rather tired right now. I leave you with some pictures of the happy couple

SOMETHING GOOD

Something bad - I have been trying for twelve hours to get an internet connection!
Something good -
I am utterly thrilled to announce the engagement of my daughter Stephanie Almond to Mark Killey
God bless them both!!
Many waters cannot quench love...but the mountains seem to get in the way of connection to the Net!

Do not expect any more blogposts till I am safe home with my own PC in Leicestershire tomorrow night!!!

Don’t Forget!

I have no idea whether I will be able to post blogs whilst in Salzburg – so this one has been set up in advance for Sunday morning.

This is the review of the book which I read on my recent ‘retreat’

Lucy’s website is here, and details for purchasing the book here.

I have known Lucy Mills, the author of this book, for some time. Like me, she’s a blogger, and the wife of a Baptist Pastor. I took the book with me when I went on a retreat recently – and was so pleased I had done so, as I found it incredibly helpful. Lucy looks at the importance of remembering God in a world where there are so many other things clamouring for our attention. She is a gifted wordsmith, and the book is easy to read. The four sections look at different aspects of remembering, and the many helpful scriptural references are balanced by contemporary anecdotes – Lucy is honest about her own struggles, and full of encouragements [she says she doesn’t want to leave the reader ‘awash with guilt’!] Each chapter ends with an optional ‘reflection exercise’ – I opted to do those ‘properly’ with a pen, Bible and notebook. They did not take too long, and I felt they really enabled me to assimilate the lessons I was learning. Mind you, I think Bob was concerned, when he phoned to see how I was getting on, and I told him I had just written my obituary!

In an age where so much is on screen, information is conveyed in txt spk, with emoticons, and where relationships often seem based on trivial facebook comments, this book reminds us that in the beginning was The Word, Logos. Lucy brings us back to the awesome creator God who made us and loves us. She shows how He always remembers us – and gives many ways to help us truly remember Him. Her ideas are manageable, workable ones, born out of her own experience, and worth trying out. I was fortunate to have space to read this right through in three days – but most people won’t have that. Please don’t say “I am too busy” – read a chapter [or half] each day and you will soon find that you want to be making more space for remembering Him. This book made me smile, pray, weep and laugh out loud – but best of all, it deepened my relationship with God. Go buy it!!

My Ears Hurt!

Four hours of listening to translation through headphones this morning. All very intense. Plus the headsets are uncomfortable, the front unit hangs down and pulls on your ears. Some women are balancing them in the top of their heads like little hats. Maggie and I tried but they fell off again, and we giggled. The heat and much walking has left me with very swollen ankles.

But these are trivial things. Morning prayers were led by the Ukrainian ladies, all very upset about the plane incident. Many of us wept with them as they shared their distress - language was unnecessary then.

Surprisingly homesick today, thinking about Messy Church this afternoon and the service tomorrow morning (fathers day) must go to a craft workshop now.

Not Thunderbirds, .But Thunderstorms

So incredibly hot yesterday, I was wilting. We have worked very hard in the Conference sessions, sorting out WWDP stuff. Last night was the cultural evening (#1) The Scottish Delegates taught everyone to dance Gay Gordon's, then Maggie and I did Circassian Circle, and then the Serbs had us all doing one of their dances. I felt very dizzy and retired to bed. 2 late night phonecalls, and blissful sleep. Off to breakfast, prayers, and session 1 now. There were thunderstorms last night, it is mercifully cooler now

NOT The One from Thunderbirds

At St Virgil Conference Centre in Salzburg. Typing on unfamiliar tablet with very dodgy internet access. Do not expect proper punctuation or pictures. Storms over Frankfurt meant plane delay, 4 hours late arriving. All better after good night's sleep. Food, conference sessions and friendship good. Missing my nearest and dearest, Radio 4 and availability of teapot. Weather very hot. I could never be a missionary in a hot place¡ Virgil on the other hand was a wandering Irish monk, who built the cathedral here and argued with the Pope in the 8th C that the earth was round and we should evangelize the Antipodes. No sign of von Trapps, but the Centre is filled with sound of music.

Nicht Rauchen

I do know this German phrase – it says No Smoking Please

However I think Bob may be ignoring this instruction in my absence.

I blame Jon, and also the man in our fine village who left an unwanted filing cabinet on the pavement with a sign saying “Free” stuck on the side.

I shall have to wait till I get home to find out what has been going on in the garage.

Should I be expecting the wurst?

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye!

When you read this, I should be at the airport checking in! I have no idea if I shall be able to post from Salzburg. Bob is lending me his tablet in case I do have easy Internet Access, but we shall have to see. I understand in between all the Conference Sessions, we have a bit of time for sight-seeing [so have put ‘holiday’ as one of the categories for this post, in the hope that is true] My friend Betty C has lent me her lovely Salzburg guides to whet my appetite. Elisabeth tells me her husband was at a conference in Salzburg last week, and it was damp and not too warm. I’m packing my rainjacket in its little bag, and a lightweight cami for an extra layer of warmth. So please do not panic if you do not hear from me for a few days.

Doh–Re- Mi?

Except right now, everything is going a little askew, and it is more of a case of this…

All will be fine before take-off tomorrow, I am sure. Nothing seriously wrong, just lots of minor niggles to sort out…

Test Case!

Because I rarely go anywhere by plane, the large suitcase stays in the loft most of the time – our holidays in the last few years have been to Cornerstones [Sainsburys boxes in the back of the car] or on the bike [minimal luggage].  Austria is different, so I have fetched down the big navy blue case. This bag had a tiny tricolor ribbon on it, so I can spot it on the carousel. But last time we actually missed it – the lighting made the case look black and it went round twice before I was sure it was mine! But over the weekend I had an idea. I removed the ribbon.

I have dozens of lanyards, from different events I have been to – and this one from Robe [who make very cool stage lighting gear] came from PLASA – I repurposed its metal clip ages ago.

I liked the little ‘green’ slogans on the tape, so cut some out, and sewed the labels round the handles, on the front and on the top

Nobody will have markings like this on their case – and the labels should be visible however the bag comes round on the conveyor belt. And the slogans will remind me that air travel is not very good for the planet, and I should limit the amount that I do!

At least one member of my family collected the wrong case from an airport once – and got home before they realised. Bearing in mind that I am stressed enough about flying, and will not have other family members alongside, it is important that I can confidently identify my case!

Has anyone else got any bright ideas for lanyard-recycling?

Bells And Pomegranates

I am leading an all age service this morning, and it is Pentecost Sunday. Part of what I will be saying is about the connection between the Jewish festival of Pentecost/Shavuot, and the Christian Pentecost/Whit Sunday.

If you look at the instructions in Exodus 28 about the robes for the High Priest, you will find that they were to be embroidered round the hem with a design alternating bells and pomegranates [I imagine the bells were little metal ones which jingled as he walked]

Whit Sunday is when Christians remember God’s Holy Spirit descending on the disciples- the birthday of the Church. Scripture talks about God bequeathing the gifts of the Spirit, and the fruits of the Spirit.

The former – gifts – are given to the whole Church, not everyone has all the gifts [lists of these in Corinthians and Romans] Often they are ‘out of the ordinary’, and attract attention and can bring people to an awareness of God in wonderful and miraculous ways.

The fruits are listed in Galatians, and as Lucy Mills says in her book, we should not pick and choose just one, but rather go for ‘the whole fruit salad’. The gifts nourish and bless people, and help them to grow closer to God.

Bells jingle and make people aware of their presence – declaration. Pomegranates nourish and contain seeds for life and growth – provision. They are symbols of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. I’ll be taking these with me to church today as an object lesson!

Improving The Little Willies

Everybody else yesterday seemed to be remembering D-Day, but I was busy thinking back to WW1, and building tanks! The first WW1 tanks were named ‘Little Willie’ after the German crown prince

The holiday club theme this year is ‘Megamakers’ so there will be lots of construction type crafts. The Scripture Union programme book suggests for one morning that you buy a load of remote control vehicles [yeah, right – what kind of budget do they think I’m operating with???] I decided rather than that, we would go back to the sort of construction toys and vehicles made a by children century ago…and by children after WW2 as well. Before battery operated toys became the norm – when toys were constructed using stuff that was lying around the house.

My [pacifist] dad taught me to make these tanks. The important thing about them was that they could traverse different terrain and climb over things. I have spent a while playing about with cotton reels, matchsticks, elastic bands, pencil stubs and candles.  Bob The Engineer felt obliged to put in his two penn’orth, talking about the integrity of the elastic band, and the importance of the wax washer!

This one kept settling into the grouting between the tiles, and happily ran round the octagon shape a few times before the elastic band unwound itself.

I decorated a strip of ‘funky foam’ and added it to Prototype #2

You can find tank instructions here, here and here. Above is a picture of my two tanks doing battle [one tipped the other over after this shot was taken!] When the instructions say ‘thread the band through the hole’ they mostly omit the helpful tip “use a  paperclip straightened out, with a hook bend at the end”

Ones made with pencils are easier to wind than ones with two matchsticks, and I think they climb better too!

Here’s the original Little Willie – his Dad was ‘Kaiser Bill’ and his greatgrandmama was Queen Victoria.

[Wooden cotton reels are available to buy, at a price – but plastic ones from educational suppliers are very cheap – less than 3p each]

Historic Journey

Sitting in the Maxillofacial Unit at Leicester Royal Infirmary on Wednesday I was watching TV as I waited to see the consultant [medical update; he looked at X-rays, took sharp intake of breath, and the Op is scheduled for July 10th. You do not need the gory details!]

Anyway, my mind was distracted as I waited by watching the Stat Opening of Parliament. I am utterly overwhelmed by the new State Coach, it ticks all my boxes for historical wonderment.

Above you see Aussie Jim Frecklington and his artist Paula Church – they have constructed this “Coach Britannia” in which the Queen rode down the Mall this week. Only the second royal coach to be built in the last 100 years – and boy, has he worked hard on the details

Frecklington said: "I wanted to create something very special to mark the Queen's reign. Our present Queen will go down in history as one of the greatest monarchs that's ever lived and I thought something very special – a tangible item – should be produced. The crown on the roof features wood from Lord Nelson's ship; in British history he will go down as one of the great heroes of this nation. In 1922 there was a major refit of the ship and I learnt the admiralty had put some of that timber away. I learned who was in possession of that timber, I approached them and asked if they would donate that piece of timber."

You can read the whole story here – but do mute your sound first, or you will may get irritated by all the Very British Music!! TheCoach has an aluminium body finished in black painted with the Royal insignia, set with gold-plated brass coach lamps incorporating Edinburgh crystal lenses engraved with the Royal Arms. The interior features Australian cedar inlaid with over 100 parquetry panels from historic British sites. Interior linings and upholstery are light gold Sudbury silk [from Suffolk] woven with roses, thistles, flax and leeks and with the Royal Arms. The roof is surmounted the National Plant symbols around a crown carved in wood from HMS Victory. The crown holds a tiny capsule containing gold, frankincense and myrrh. The coach body is hung from a carved and gilt Australian spotted gum curved perch. The vehicle is 18ft long overall, 7ft 2in wide and 10ft 8in high.

The bit about ‘historic sites’ is fascinating, because inside, there are tiny squares of wood from all sorts of locations [list here] A bit of Newton’s apple tree, timber from the Mary Rose…some of them are of particular interest to me because of family links, e.g.

• SS Great Eastern [great grandfather sailed on her]
• Bletchley Park [Mum the codebreaker]
• Oxford University [Bob’s MA, my PGCE]
• Rugby School [niece a student,  and SIL on staff]
• Coventry Cathedral [my degree ceremony here]

There is a fragment of musketball from Waterloo, a bolt from a Spitfire, a piece of bronze from the cannon which is used to make all the Victoria Cross medals, a piece of the Stone of Scone, and much more. I am impressed at the breadth of Jim’s imagination, and artful acquisition of all these little artefacts. He has combined Australian and British craftsmanship to create this amazing vehicle – which incorporates many modern comforts. As well as riding in a dazzling ‘museum’ he has used a 360-degree ‘coachcam’ offering a monarch’s-eye view of the procession, gold-plated hydraulics, and motor-racing technology.

I do hope that there will be opportunities for ‘Joe Public’ to get to see this properly. I’d queue up for a chance to look at the details!

Her Majesty looks fairly cheerful anyway. It is good for a lady in her eighties to go out for a nice ride through London occasionally. Or does her trip from Buck House to The Palace of Westminster make her “A commuter en route to work”?

I am just as happy in my little Daewoo Matiz.

Raindrops On Roses…

…and whiskers on kittens

It occurred to me that I might need a lightweight packaway rainproof jacket for Austria. At the rather pathetic boot fair we visited last Bank Holiday Monday [just ten cars – and no little van selling tea or bacon cobs either] the only purchase made was this Gelert jacket, for just £1. I wore it for the rest of the day, and yes, it is definitely waterproof! “I shall have to make a little bag to pack it in” I said.

Then disaster struck for Steph as we visited the Botanic Gardens – her umbrella collapsed. It was a child’s brolly she’d got for less than a quid, when caught in a shower in Dublin – and she had certainly had her money's worth from it. She was about to bin it, when I yelled “Stop! That fabric is too cute!” [spot the bewhiskered kitten!]

Bob deftly stripped the ruined frame away and I rolled up the cover and stowed it in my pocket. Back home I dug out a bundle of elastic cord and some stoppers, and made myself a little bag for the jacket. I rolled the jacket up first into a sensible sized bundle and measured it carefully. Then stitched a cylinder with casing round the top – threaded the cord through – and it is ready to pack in my suitcase

Somewhere I have a little purse frame – I shall have to make myself a matching purse.

But not this week – I am aware that purse making is an exact science. I have read Jenny @ The Custards blog, and know the bottom must be perfect. Right now I do not have the time for such skilled needlework.

Let Us Spray?

Thankyou to Abi, our lovely**  Church Youth Worker for spotting this one! Is it because Leicester locals never seem to know what to do with their aitches? [**she is just as lovely as Hayley - who left us when she got married recently]

Merrythought

Did you know that merrythought is the old English name for a wishbone? Do children still pull wishbones after eating roast chicken dinners– or has that custom vanished?

Bob’s cousin had a vast collection of wishbones [furculae is the Latin term, I believe] from dozens of different sorts of birds, all stored in a specially made wooden case. In fact, when he died, this collection even got mentioned in his obituary in The Times!  I don’t think he’d eaten all the birds himself [some wishbones were quite exotic, and came from the local wildlife park] – but there was certainly at least one chicken bone in the case.

We had chicken at the weekend. I’d picked up this book in a CS in Dereham, for just £1, and there was a recipe for Chicken Pot Roast. I’d tried Delia’s Chicken In The Pot from her cookery course, a few years ago [that one included mushrooms and chorizo] This frugal version was just as good – although my chicken had no giblets, and I couldn’t find my bayleaves [I used some homegrown sage instead]

Ingredients [serves 4]

• A 1.6kg roasting chicken
• Butter
• 1 large-ish onion, peeled and stuck with 3 cloves
• 4 leeks, trimmed and washed
• 4 carrots, scraped
• 4 sticks of celery, halved
• A few parsley stalks
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• Seasoning
• 2tbsp chopped parsley

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 230ºC/450ºF/gas mark 8.
2. First rub the inside of the chicken with seasoning and a little butter. Then place the onion stuck with cloves inside the chicken and rub some butter and seasoning over the outside.
3. Now put the chicken in a roasting tin and bake in the top half of the oven for about 30 minutes, by which time it should have developed a nice golden brown skin.
4. Then remove it from the oven and transfer it, together with any juices, to a deep pot. Surround the chicken with the vegetables, herbs and garlic, and pour over sufficient water to not quite cover the bird, adding the giblets as well.
5. Bring to boiling point and simmer very gently with the lid on for about 1 hour, or until the chicken is tender, then remove the chicken and vegetables and keep warm.
6. Now discard the giblets and boil the remaining stock briskly until it has reduced and the flavour has concentrated. Carve the chicken on to a serving dish, add the vegetables, spoon some of the juices over, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve. Any stock left over can be used for soup.

Sorry – we had eaten it before I remembered to take a picture. Mine did look very like this one though [except my Le Creuset Casserole is orange] Bob felt there was a little too much celery for his liking. Otherwise he pronounced it very tasty!

Are There Many Wild Animals In Salzburg?

If there are, I may need this useful chart [larger version here]