Christmas Day 2008

Extract from an email:

"Gosh you'd have loved to have been here for Christmas chez les W* en masse ... loud noisy crowded arguing shouting chattering adults tripping over children small and large losing the dog who went for a walk to escape the mayhem brightly coloured wrapping paper all over the floor exclamations over the super presents peanut butter for T*(son) mulled wine and champagne and beer and that was before we even started lunch ...."

And now (Boxing Day) I've been making enormous (bought, not home-made) chicken casseroles, salmon in cheese sauce, chicken soup, chicken stock, and leftover vegetables fried with home-made fried eggs, and now off to eat trifle for brunch!

Happy Christmas to all my readers!

Aaah . . Arent they cute

Whatever next . . .

Who let the dog in?

Im going to have to blog this

Did someone say lunch?

Stuffing the christmas chicken

Arsonist!!

The other day I decided to cook. We'd run out of suitable cooking oil, so I mixed walnut oil and sesame oil in the wok and turned the heat on.

And sort of drifted back to the laptop to order indoor fireworks for Christmas.

And looked up five minutes later to see flames reaching towards the little cupboard over the cooker ...

The irony isn't lost on me....

Contemplating the flames and a possible a solution, I decided against the smother with a teatowel trick as I didn't want to burn myself. This was just as well, as I'd forgotten the teatowel should be first soaked in water - flinging a dry cloth over flames ... dear oh dear...

Eventually, I carefully carried the blazing wok through the sitting room and out of the back door, coughing with the choking fumes from the pyrolising non-stick, but at least the flames were reducing pretty quickly. I dumped the wok upside down outside, and the last of the flames went out. I was reminded later that opening the back door could have fanned the flames back on to me... The whole of downstairs was full of gray smoke.

I have no heat or smoke alarm, no fire blanket and no extinguisher.

Although this ended ok - apart from cleaning the greasy blackened area behind the cooker, and the wall cupboards above - a ghastly, as-yet unfinished job which smears further and further as I try to scrub it - it's horribly easy to see how this can happen, and get out of hand.

Please don't try this at home.

Beat this one, NHS!

seen outside a doc shop in Khayelitsha township, Cape Town

I promise, I promise

I'll finish the S African trip .. but in the meantime, before I forget it:

The title of a book recently seen:

Northumberland - Strange, but True.

I'll vouch for that.