Walking Away

Walking Away

Wednesday 5 January 2022

12 months of Silence

Twelve months since I've last made a mark on here! I seem to have fallen out with the written word. Had a couple of short pieces on the National Flash Fiction Day prompt accepted and not much else. I'm so absorbed with Family History at the moment. I've just sent this to the Tutor as he asked us to write about our childhood food memories. Killing two birds with one stone as the saying goes. Family History and a bit of Creative Writing! 


                                                Food, Glorious Food   

    By Stella Turner                            

I remember coming home from school and asking my mum what was for pudding? She’d get a bit exasperated and exclaim don’t you want to know what’s for dinner. We always had our main meal at teatime. To be honest our main meals were a bit predictable Monday leftover cold meat from Sunday, Tuesday sausage, Wednesday pie, Thursday mince, and Friday fish. My mum did vary it with liver and onions and other dishes but all I wanted was the puddings especially her home made spotty dick and my favourite bread and butter pudding. As I got older and if we’d had an argument or my mum thought I needed cheering up there would be a bowl of bread and butter pudding waiting for me.

My best friend moved down from Scotland with her family in 1960. When I went to her house she and her big sister would be making tablet. It’s like a type of fudge made with condensed milk and sugar.  A real Scottish delicacy

Recipe   (taken from Nestle Carnation recipes)

Butter 55g

Semi skimmed milk 250ml

Cane or granulated sugar 900g

Carnation condensed milk 397g

You will also need 20cm square cake tin lined with baking parchment.

Method

In a large non-stick pan melt the butter with the milk, slowly add the sugar and boil briskly for 4 minutes. Gradually stir in the condensed milk making sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Bring back to the boil for approximately 20 minutes stirring regularly until the mixture is thick and a honey caramel colour. Take care while the mixture boils as the tablet will be VERY HOT!

To test if the tablet is ready drop a small amount into a bowl of ice cold water – if you can pick up some of the mixture and form a soft ball in your fingers it’s ready. Just be careful it will still be quite HOT. Remove the pan from the heat leave to cool for 5 minutes then beat until set. Pour into the tin and leave to set fully in the fridge for 2 or more hours. Then remove from the tin and cut into squares.

I can’t remember any adult being present when the two young girls prepared it. No health and safety in those days.

Another memory was being surprised when I had sausage for tea at their house. I was expecting the normal sausage when on my plate was a square slice of meat. My friend announced its Scotch sausage. The sausage I was accustomed to was held in casing whilst this had no casing to hold the meat into shape so served as slices from a block. I preferred our English sausages.

A memory from primary school was having to drink a bottle of milk at first playtime. I didn’t like milk and still can’t drink a glass of it unless it’s flavoured. We all had to collect a bottle and return an empty one or be forced to drink it. So I’d stand at the back and exchange my full bottle for an empty one from one of the boys. I was at primary school between 1958- 1964. In 1968 free milk was abolished in secondary schools and in 1971 Mrs Thatcher who was Education Secretary ended free school milk for children over the age of seven hence the nickname Thatcher the milk snatcher. I can’t remember milk in secondary school so I presume you were given the choice whether to drink it or not!

My dad was a baker and he’d come home with a bagful of cakes on a Saturday lunchtime. I would so look forward to the iced buns, doughnuts and cream cakes. My sister and I would be allowed one each providing my dad had his favourite an iced bun. My dad did not like “Foreign Food” saying he ate enough of that in his days in the army when he was in Egypt. So we never had pasta, curry nor rice unless it was served as rice pudding. I remember in my late teens telling my dad how lovely foreign food is but he never ever ate anything that wasn’t everyday plain food!

He would never eat corned beef again after the Typhoid epidemic in 1964 that occurred in Aberdeen. The outbreak was traced back to a single tin of Argentinean corned beef sold in a supermarket. 500 people had to be quarantined and fortunately no one died. Media attention helped to raise the importance of hygiene and cleanliness. I was eleven at the time and remember it well. After a few years my mum resumed buying corned beef. I still like corned beef to this day. My dad died in 2015, aged 89, and never ever ate it! I’m now wondering if he liked it pre 1964 or used the excuse of the epidemic to stop having to eat it or maybe yet again it reminded him of his army days! 

I have my own food idiosyncrasies like loving bacon and pork but hating ham and gammon. I dislike pineapple and cabbage, together sounds disgusting! I like sausage if it’s hot hate cold sausage!

Lots of food if I’m served it I’ll eat but out of choice I wouldn’t have it on my plate for example stuffing, Yorkshire pudding, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake! I’m not a lover of vegetables and my mum who loved vegetables would despair that I’d only eat peas and carrots. These days we probably have too much choice. In my childhood it would be eat it or go hungry although I can never remember being forced to eat anything or going hungry. Happy memories!   

   


Thursday 31 December 2020

New Years Eve already!

 Can't believe this year has passed so quickly! The year of the Covid 19 pandemic. 

23rd March 2020 we entered lock-down. Schools closed except for key workers children. People asked to work from home if possible and to only leave your homes for essential shopping, medical appointments and to exercise once a day. Holidays abroad were cancelled including ours to Spain in May. Hospitals were full of extremely ill patients in ITU on ventilators and the catch phrase was PROTECT THE NHS.  Routine hospital appointments and surgeries were cancelled. People were advised not to visit the A&E unless an emergency. Some GP practices appeared initially to close down now its telephone or zoom consultations and one to one. Luckily pharmacies kept open and continued to dispense prescriptions, take blood for diagnostic tests requested by GPs and give advice. Well done Pharmacists and their staff. 

We were told things would improve by the Government and their experts but they didn't. It appears Covid doesn't wane in warmer weather and also flourishes in the cold like flu! We were told to cover our faces with masks, keep 2 metres part and wash our hands frequently. HANDS FACE and SPACE.  We entered shops and banks masked up, stood on dots on the floor whilst queuing and followed arrows around the buildings. Most people I believe followed the rules with the exceptions of some well known names and groups of people that were exposed by the media.

We then entered Tiers and our area went into tier 2 on October 24th then we went into four week lock-down on 5th November. December 3rd entered tier 3 then today into tier 4. This is going to be reviewed in 2 weeks. 

Deaths and covid cases are rising! The rising cases I think are because more people are being tested and with a new variant many people are asymptomatic. If you die within 28 days of a positive covid test then you join the number of covid deaths. Hospitals are said to be under more pressure. This time of year we are always told of winter pressures with older people having flu and beds filling up. Hospitals are getting so much better at treating covid that patients are needing longer stays and not dying. Well done the NHS for innovative care and all your hard work over the months.

I'm wondering about the number of people who may have died through lack of early diagnosis of cancer, strokes etc. I'm sure we will look back in the future and say we should have done this and not that. Oh for the power of hindsight.  

Margret Keenan was given the first vaccination in the world after it had been approved for use in Britain on December 8th. An amazing first for Coventry! We are being told that a huge amount of our population should all be vaccinated by April. I'm not holding my breath! Up to now nothing is happening but it is holiday time so Monday 4th January I'm expecting centres to be ready for mass vaccination. A friend who has a 92 year old mother has yet to hear when she will have the jab. 

I appreciate the Oxford University/AstraZeneca Covid 19 vaccine is easier to store in fridges than the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine in below -70 freezers so I'll patiently wait and see. Once the vaccine is available I'm sure the GPs at the local practices will step up to the mark.  

 To be fair vaccinating all the population over 18 is a huge logistic operation. It can be done!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE. 



   

Wednesday 29 April 2020

Social distancing

Today we said goodbye to my brother in law. We thought it was going to be a surreal experience with only six mourners permitted at the funeral due to Covid-19 regulations. For Robin's funeral there were four of us. His brother, my husband, his sister, and a good friend of his. We had to go in our own cars, no posh funeral car for us to travel behind the hearse. We had to wait at the cemetery gates until a guy said we could enter. He was very respectful as he crossed us off a list. At the chapel we stood the required distance apart for the three households. The Vicar explained what would happen whilst we waited for the hearse to arrive. There were six chairs placed in the chapel six foot apart but if I wished I could put my chair next to my husband's. I said no it would be alright. When Robin arrived the Funeral director explained to us they would take the coffin into the chapel and then we could go in. He was wheeled in and I felt a pang of regret that they hadn't carried him in on their shoulders.  No hymns to be sung as singing isn't permitted but they played the music chosen for the service and the vicar read the eulogy. The worst thing was I couldn't comfort my sister in law as she shed tears. 

No wake of course. Robin died just before his 70th birthday and it would have been good to raise a glass and toast his life with family and friends. Things are supposed to be easing in the summer. We'll have to wait and see.
In memory of Robin.

Sunday 16 February 2020

Aim for 100 rejections in 2020

When I saw the Facebook group #Rejection100  I was intrigued. A challenge to get 100 rejections by the end of the year. I thought no way am I joining that group until I read some of the posts and realised it was turning a negative into a positive. People, tongue in cheek, were commiserating those who'd had their work accepted saying better luck next time and those that had been rejected were being told well done! I've never felt upset by a rejection because its all subjective. You can't have rejections unless you submit your work. That would be my challenge! I hardly ever send in a submission and this was what #Rejection100 was challenging everyone including me to do!

My tally at present stands at ONE REJECTION. Pretty poor considering its nearly two twelfths into the year. So I've sent off THREE entries to the National Flash Fiction Anthology, THREE to their micro fiction competition, ONE each  to the  Bath Flash Fiction and Fish competitions and ONE each to 101 Fiction and Paragraph Planet. A total of  TEN submissions and to be honest I'm expecting TEN rejections. I'm just pleased I've sent them on their way. If one is long listed I'll be ecstatic but I'm not holding my breath because I'll turn blue 😎

Thanks Submittable for starting this group, its spurred me on, not sure I'll get any where near the 100 mark but at least I've taken up the challenge!

Sunday 5 May 2019

Words and a bad Poem

Edit ONE

I look around the room I'm the only one using pen and paper, a tatty Biro to boot. The others tip- tapping away on their computers. If I'd bought my gigantic antique PC it would have taken up the entire table. The more I think about being a writer the more I realise the world is full of would be writers. One has just had her book publish on Amazon. I clap cautiously still not sure about self-publishing. I worry about lack of talent. One has a novel sent off to agents. She's excitedly waiting for replies. I want her to succeed because rejection however nicely written is a slap in your creative face. Another is writing a play I want to shake his hand and say well done for not wanting to write a novel like the rest are planning to do. When its my turn to say what I'm doing I say Flash Fiction. I like to write 500 words or less. Not sure if that genre appeals to me because of the lack of words. I murmur that I have written a few chapters of a novel, well I have but I'm don't think I'll ever finish it! It has no plot, it seems to be writing itself without any direction from me. Maybe I should chat to the playwright to get tips on direction.

Everyone is tip-tapping away. I am feeling the cold. Tip do not sit by a window in an old building. It's draughty and very cold. I'm wondering whether to put my jacket back on but then I won't feel the benefit of it when I leave. (I sound like my mum) Will I last another five hours probably not. Once lunch is over I might be off shopping in the city centre. 500 words forgotten for another day. I've paid good money to sit in a draughty room and write. No workshop, no tips on getting my mo-jo back . To be fair it was billed for procrastinators and I am writing so yes its achieved its aim.

Edit TWO

I'm planning my escape
What shall I say.
I've run out of words
My hand hurts.
I care no more
For any of you.
Write your stories
Novels and plays.
Be famous, be literary
But leave me out.
Or include me in your words
As the writer that ran away.

Wednesday 3 January 2018

Days 2 & 3 of the 64 Million Artists January Challenge

Whoa! the challenge for yesterday was draw 5 faces in 5 minutes. NOW I am no artist but its a challenge. No overthinking just do it!



They are like the Walking Dead and I've just noticed one is missing an ear!
Day 3: Blurb it Out

Imagine you've written a novel and the only thing missing is the blurb - you know, the couple of paragraphs on the back that provide a short description of the book. Write the blurb of your book, tell the story or say what it's about. You can even write reviews of your previous work! If you're stuck for story ideas, maybe write the blurb for your autobiography.

So this is My Blurb
Read the new Booker Prize Winner for 2019. The story that she thought would never be printed! Surviving the bleak, boring but safe world of mediocrity she could have plucked the tale straight from Hades. It captures the essence of her life before the event that sent the world spiralling. Be ready for shocks and revelations! It’s a masterpiece for readers of all genres and those seeking the truth of what really happened to Stella Turner.

I can't believe how much I am enjoying these challenges. Woke up this morning wondering what it would be today. Not looking forward to a Poetry challenge but then it can't be any worse than the 5 faces or can it? 😏

Monday 1 January 2018

Day 1 of the 64 Million Artists January Challenge

There are two things I'd like to do well that's sing and draw. My singing is terrible! My grandson has been know to say "No singing please Nana"  and my drawing is not much better. So when I read about the January creative challenge I signed up immediately. Small creative challenges for 31 days and I'm bound to amaze myself!

Day 1 challenge: Make a certificate or trophy to award your future self. What would you like to achieve in 2018? 

So I powered up the PC and as a self-confessed technophobe wondered how to make a certificate, easy find a template and off you go. The templates weren't inspiring at all. Probably some fantastic ones if I knew where to look! So I adapted one, added a photo and decided what was important for me to achieve in 2018. No resolutions that I churn out every single year! I did include moving more but decided not to mention eating less. Hopefully being active will make me more aware of what I'm scoffing down each day. The photo chosen was one from childhood to remind me that at 64 I still have lots more to learn. I'm still in awe that I managed to include the photo!

Here is the certificate

I'm learning that fear should not hold me back! Press a few keys on the PC experiment! What could go wrong! Skype call to Poland and my son will fix it remotely like he's done before ❤.


I'm so looking forward to the challenge tomorrow. I'll have less time but that's a challenge in itself. Oh I've already walked twice today and I'm up to 8,706 steps so I've definitely got off the settee and walked 💃 



   

Things I like

  • Writing
  • Wit
  • Voltaire's Candide
  • Theatre
  • Shoes
  • Reading
  • Music
  • Laughter
  • Coleslaw
  • Cheese