Editor's Blog - Saturday, 9th August
| Author: Ken The Editor | Published: 9th August 2008 20:35 |
I have just realised that it has been as good couple of weeks since the last blog - sorry! My only excuse is that I have been busy - both with the Gaz and with other things.
The September edition of the Gaz is coming on a real treat. Indeed, too well - there's still over a week to go until the cut-off and I already have enough material to fill more than 40 pages. I tentatively suggested to the Committee at Wednesday's meeting that perhaps we could have a 44 page edition, but they were having none of it - they just don't like spending our money! We've got twenty grand in the bank and it looks like it's just going to stay there!
So, what's in store for the September Gaz? Well, there the usual assortment of news items; four pages of events (there's clearly a lot going on in Petts Wood in September); updates from the Men of Kent and Kentish Men, the Friends of Jubilee Park and the Orpington & District Caledonian Society; All Our Yesterdays from September 1948; the usual features including Joyce's Savings Scheme, Helayna's Teen Scene and Derek's Crime Scene; an update from Bill & Wanda in Uganda; and, at the latest count, six pages of letters! I'm going to have to do some pretty hard pruning to get it all in and someone's going to be disappointed!
We are also launching a new competition for the youngsters of Petts Wood to submit drawings for the font cover. Our usual cover artist, Colin Earl will be on the judging panel and every picture published will win a prize. Colin has also offered to give the winners some free coaching to help them improve their artistic skills - can't be bad!
Away from the Gaz, it's been a hectic couple of weeks. We did the quarterly shopping trip to France and Belgium and are now stocked up with cheap fags, booze, washing powder and all sorts of other necessities. We have also had a guy painting the outside of the house - when it's not been raining, that is. It's a full time job making him cups of coffee - he drinks more coffee than me! The weather has rather slowed down the painting operation, but it hasn't put the bloke over the road off doing his drive - he has been out there in all weathers shoveling away. God knows why he's in so much of a rush that he has to work in the pouring rain - the bloody drive had been a right mess for about three years ever since they built an ugly extension that completely destroyed the character of the lovely old property. Another couple of weeks would have made bugger all difference - he obviously likes being outside when it's pissing down!
I had a bit of an accident earlier in the week - I nearly sliced off the end of my finger with the electric carving knife. We bought a ‘crusty loaf' from Belgium and it was that sodding crusty the carving knife wouldn't touch it - it just slipped off and got my finger instead. There was blood everywhere - a little trail of red spots from the kitchen all the way through the dining room, the lounge and the hall to the bathroom. When I got to the bathroom, could I get a plaster onto my finger - could I buggery! Why do they insist on putting plasters in a plastic wrapper that you have to cut off with a pair of scissors? It's typical of a product designed by somebody who has clearly never tried to use it in a real life situation - ie with blood gushing from one of their fingers! By the time I had finished there was blood all over the bathroom cabinet, the box of plasters, the washbasin and two towels. She Who Must Be Fed was not impressed!
Talking of impractical designs, I think the woman who invented the duvet cover should be made to come round your house each week and change the bloody things! It's a right palaver trying to put the duvet inside the cover - I usually end up inside the bloody thing myself. Now if a bloke had invented the duvet cover he would have had an opening at each end so that you could simply pull the duvet through - too obvious I suppose!
Cooking-wise I had a bit of a disaster last week. She Who Must Be Fed found a recipe for Cherry and Almond Cake in one of the supplements that come with the Sunday papers and so I thought that I would have a bash. It all went rather well until we got to the cooking stage - and then disaster! The recipe said to cook it at 150 degrees for 50 minutes - so I did. However, after 50 minutes it didn't seem to be quite done so I gave it the full hour. But when I turned it out, whilst it was cooked on the outside it was a soggy mess in the middle - so the foxes ended up having it for their tea. I went back though the various cake recipes from my cookery lessons and they all had temperatures between 180 and 200 degrees. I reckon there was a cock-up in the recipe - it should have been 180 degrees, not 150. So, Lucy Hewitt from Park Farm Cherry Orchard, you owe me a few quid for the wasted ingredients - and you can shove your Cherry and Almond Cake where the sun doesn't shine!
Toodle pip.
PS I'm sitting here in my study on Saturday evening watching the rain pouring down outside and listening to Starpoint Radio. Now the lovely Claire Simone promised me a surprise on her show at 8.00pm. Well, I now know what the surprise is - she's not on! What's happened, Hon?
What do you think?
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