And even earlier, in 1751.....

So there you have it.....good accommodation for travellers, it's official!

Haltwistle as it was

This is an extract from a National Gazetteer dated 1862, found it (and loads of other stuff) at Archive.org. Click on the image for a more readable version. Strange fact, all of the northern related stuff is held and been digitised by the University of Toronto of all places. Anyway it's a gold mine for local history stuff, I'll be going back!

Vintage fodder for your ipods

Now me, I'm a sucker for vintage radio (currently listening to "Omar, the Wizard of Persia", that's him up above. Verdict.....bloody brilliant example of high-camp american acting circa mid 30's last century. Favourite quote, "Quiet Jerry, it's the bells....the mystic bells of Omar") Thought you guys might be interested in some of my sources for 'stuff to snooze on the metro to' (all free AND legal)....and not just vintage radio shows!

There's lots of old-time-radio (OTR) downloads available here (including "Omar" should you feel like setting up a discussion group talk about its literary merits in depth!)

Science fiction your bag? Try "The Seeing Ear Theatre"....even though they're American they've made an effort to spell theatre right and they do a damned good drama! Then of course there's that old classic "The War of the Worlds" with Orson Welles

Moving swiftly along to the weird and wonderful (usually vintage jumble sale type material)...and you can't do better than the "365 days project". As suggested by the name a new gem is posted each day this year. The parent site is worth a look too.

Look, there's loads more and not just audio......but I'll wait to see whether anyone is interested before I post the links

Test posting by email

Will it work I wonder?

Showing Sarah how to Blog

This is a test mssage.....ignore

This looks more like it!

The 'Jerry', as Ma calls it (reasons for which she either never knew or, more likely, has long since forgotten!) is more forthcoming in the menu department, short sample of which reads

Homemade Soup; served with crusty bread £2.50, Deep Fried Breaded Garlic Mushrooms; with garlic mayonnaise £3.95 Game Pate; served with wholemeal toast £3.95 Prawn Cocktail; served with wholemeal bread & butter £4.25 Hot & Spicy Chicken Wings; with a sweet chilli dip £3.95

Full menu here if you're interested. They're open for lunch 12.00 - 3.00

Twice Brewed

Eating on the way to Ma's birthday bash....had a look at the Twice Brewed website and have to say they're decidedly coy when it comes to the lunchtime sandwich menu department! Still....they advertise they do food even if their website leaves a lot to be desired...ANY OTHER HOT SUGGESTIONS?

Alls fair at the fair....

Haven't even watched this myself yet.....but I'm sure it'll be good!

Re previous posting....they're wrong!

Re previous posting....I had to look, didn't I....just couldn't resist! Now, is that cool or what? (though I believe the blonde in the first row behind is still waiting for settlement on her small claims court action for 'intentional blinding with a microphone stand'!)

It's billed as the worst music video ever.....

And they could be right!! Of course I haven't seen any of the latest David Essex contributions to the genre recently so I'm willing to stand corrected.....

Optical illusion

Believe it or not, squares A and B are the same colour......check out the proof here!

Problems with posting and commenting

Confession.....I updated the blog template and I think I may have locked you all out (except John)...see Chris' comment in the chat box The new template needs a gmail identifier to log in properly. It's easy to do, just go to the sign-up page and invent an address, use that to log into blogger (left hand box at the blogger sign-in page) and that SHOULD work!

Cat litter

Just checked the comments on the puddytat video. So Syrah and Merlot can't be arsed to master a simple wind instrument?.....Maybe this is what they need instead. Check out the full range of catty goodies at http://www.catsplay.com/ .....hey, it's not expensive, the contraption above only costs $444.95 (+ US postage $79.99....the UK might be marginally more I guess) and it's a positive design statement for any modern home. I've ordered two!

Chicken tagine Recipe

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Chicken Breasts
Olive Oil
2 Medium onions (sliced)
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Tsp Cumin Seeds
1 Tsp Ground Coriander
1 Tsp Ground Ginger
1 Tsp Turmeric
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Chilli Powder
1/4 Tsp Ground Nutmeg
375 ml Chicken Stock
250 ml Water
85g Seedless Dates halved
60ml Honey
80g Blanched Almonds Toasted
1 Tbsp Chopped Coriander

Recipe

Cut Chicken into chunks and brown in oil in Skillet/Tagine then remove.

Add a little more oil add onions, garlic. spices and cook stirring until onions are soft.

Return chicken to the pan with stock and water simmer covered for one hour.

Remove lid simmer for about 30 minutes or until mixture slightly thickens and chicken is tender.

Stir in dates, honey and nuts and sprinkle with fresh coriander.

This one's for Anne

I vote Anne and John should buy Merlot and Syrah a tuba and a saxaphone (I'm side-stepping the possibility of 'strings'...the catgut choice maybe not a a good one!)....for info, Moocah just got his grade 3 French Horn!

An experiment gone wrong

I promised Chris I'd post this...it's a science teacher thing, apparently, to mock ones peers. Personally I think it's all down to him wearing that outrageous rainbow coloured smock!Instructions/explanation for the gizmo on the right in the post below.

A couple of new additions to the blog

Over on your right ladies and gentlemen, you'll spot a new addition, it's a sort of 'Instant Messenger' affair. So, given the vague possibility that more than one of us happens to be viewing the blog at any one time (OK, probably VERY vague!) we can chat away in real time and with abandon. Being realistic, it's probably just a temporary visitor....I was just trying the idea out for work! If you want to give it a whirl just type your name in the 'name' box so everyone else knows who's talking (duh!), then type your message in the message box (am I boring you?) and click on the 'tag' button. The newest messages appear at the top. WARNING....if you want to add something more lasting and meaningful use the 'comments' option at the bottom of individual posts....there's no way of saving the tagbox content without paying out hard cash!
I'm also going to try adding 'labels' to posts, it's a way of sorting and searching for particular posts in a blog, more often used in ones that have a much larger volume of posts than this one. Just click on one of the labels at the end of the post and you'll get a full list, at least of the ones I remember to add labels to in future of course, there's also a handy list of labels on the right hand side under the archives....lecture over boys and girls, class dismissed!