THE BRITISH THREAD

I think I'm done here for now.....I shall go and walk the dog.

I was only joking

You can have a couple of the Thornton's toffees and fudges I've bought. (Sorry, but none of the truffels they gave me for free.)

I drove back up from London today, and decided to come via Derbyshire, the Chesterfield-Bakewell route. I would have bought a nice authentic Bakewell Pudding there (they're different from Bakewell tarts, much nicer) if I were not on a low-sugar regime. Pity- if you haven't sampled one of these, take my word for it that they're super-delovely.

Driving through the hills in indifferent weather (it was blowing a gale and raining too) I decided to detour through Eyam and lunch at the Barrel at Bretton, a nice pub on a hilltop.

Not a day for admiring the view, I nevertheless had a lovely lunch there before continuing my journey. I got home without colliding with anybody new.

Very nice too, despite the weather.

Eyam - is there anything there, now? Famous for its plague history only, I think.

My cousin's car in London was (slightly) smashed up by the tornado, how's that for dramatic?

That's bad luck, Clary, as it only affected a very small area.

I wasn't that far from Harlesden, and the crash of thunder (only one) that happened during the mini tornado, made everyone jump. Possibly the loudest thunder I've ever heard.

Loads of trees down in the surrounding area, but half a mile away, there's no sign of any damage at all.

Weird indeed.

I know.

well done

Appropos Mac's stylish description of his regal progress through the highways and byways of our lovely country I was reminded of when I used to drive quite long distances a few years ago.

Needless to say I have sloughed off that particular type of silliness in the maturity of my years but back then I used to meditate as I purred along and I wondered if Mac did too and, if he did, what he meditated about and whether any of us were part of that.

Did he have any insights, for example, on how to improve the layout of the roads or did he pass any juicy looking dames who caused a skittering process in his thoughts or see any unusual sights which might be more interesting than the rather insipid description of his journey he has seen fit to regale us with.

It is as if no other humans were deemed fit to be present on his passage through what must have been a few hours of his time and only those aspects of the experience which showed him in the best possible light were included.

This is a great shame as such a journey provides many interesting facets of the confused and ridiculous world in which we live and move.

The Yo has safely re-Yoed to its previous position.

Anything there? I should jolly well say so...the village is there. Nice spot, if that's not too insipid a description for our sad plonker literary critic.

http://www.cressbrook.co.uk/eyam.htm

McTag, I've not heard of a Bakewell pudding. Where does it differ from a Bakewell tart?

And folks, as for my cleaner being a guy with a feather, a pinny and not much else, I wish you could have met my previous cleaner. I'm convinced it was a man in drag - one who wore extremely short skirts, lots of gold jewellery and more make-up than I'd wear in a month. He/she had a large adam's apple and his/her hands were enormous. He/she used to bring the cat and the poor thing would sit in his cage while he/she worked.

Do you mean you can't tell a chap from a floozie anymore?

That's an interesting sociological observation. I can't imagine anyone writing that when I was a lad.

Is it a trend?

Am I being left behind?

Yes, spendius, the times are changing and the hermaphrodites are taking over.

Run for cover.

Evening, gusset...

x

Hey, smorgs. Have you found yourself any Christmas decorations yet?

London doesn't get that many tornados, does it?

I didn't realize Ticomaya ventured into The British Thread.

This is a bit of a surprise.

How am I supposed to carry on a conversation with smorgs with Tico hovering?

I have an artificial bush with various baubles hanging from it...

That passes for a winter festival tree -

Why do you ask mon petite gussette?

x

I was concerned for you after the trauma inflicted upon yourself with the shed incident.

I have recently added a new signature by Phoenix, but I am damned tempted to replace it with the above gem.