More stalls.

The bag stall, and the bird feed/ dried pulses & seeds stall.
The stallholder on the latter noticed me taking the pic and insisted on posing. He asked me what I wanted the photo for and I lied. Why do I do that? I said, "Oh just for an assignment" hoping he would think I was taking evening classes or something. It just seemed easier than saying, "Oh I log onto a website where most of the participants have never been to England and I like to share photos with them".

Still, at least I didn't lie and tell him he was going to be famous...

Flowers and clothes.

The bread stall, where you would expect to find yummy mummies, but in fact it gets it's share of old giffers because there is no bakery in Aylesbury now. There were at least three when I was growing up.

And a travel agent's window - with reflections.
We're at the top of the High Street now.

Shops at the top of the High Street.
And the Jacket Potato trailer (potatoes baked in their jackets ie skins)
Smells divine.
Although it's called Just Jackets, like any potato outlet there are a variety of fillings available. Standard classics are baked beans and/ or cheese, tuna mayo, coleslaw (at least in Leicester) and chilli.

mrs. and I had jacket potato's with chili a couple of nights ago ! ( and then last night I had the leftover chili the proper way.. with rice and cornbread :P )

My introduction to cornbread came from Ass Kickin Corn Bread packet mix.
I'd read lots of American fiction, but not been there, so I was delighted to find an American mail-order store in England (in pre-internet days this was pure chance) that supplied things which puzzled me.

I made it, I loved it, I craved it.

More recently I got a recipe from the Cellar and have used it more than once.
The first time was just too bland, I forgot that the one I was used to was highly flavoured.
I've adapted the recipe to my taste since.

Turns out my fave is Aunt Jemima's Easy Mix, which surely makes me hellbound. I either have to travel 20 miles or pay postage for it. It's cheaper to make it, but only if I already have polenta in the house.

I do love me some cornbread!

try mixing it up abit... finely chop some red peppers into the batter ( jalapenos' if your of that persuasion )

or abit of maple syrup

Oh I always jazz it up if I make it now.
My fave is cheese & Italian herbs, but that hardly makes it a low fat side.
Mostly because the 'rents aren't convinced by cornbread, so I have to eat most of it myself!

I 've made cornbread mini-muffins for the staffroom and they've gone down a treat.
Well, not as quickly as anything chocolate. Nothing is ever eaten as quickly as something with chocolate in, at my school.

Still, anything edible rasises my profile :yum:

I was just with some friends who had put banana peppers in some cornbread and some jalapenos in another batch. I don't like peppers, but they really enjoyed them.

I like corn in my cornbread. And cornbread casserole is the YUM.

OK... I know you're on a diet now but how do you feel about deep fried?

corn fritters............ pretty much the same mix as cornbread... little more flour, bit of baking powder and a tin of corn ... tablespoon at a time into the chip pan.. drizzle with honey.

ohhhh... .... thats got me going now... *L*

Infi, I know banana peppers have nothing to do with bananas, but I still cringe reading it :) Jalapenos in cornbread - esp with herbs and cheese - YUM!

I have no facility to deep fry anything, and I can't say it really appeals to me either.
I has 2 x doughnuts when we were in Great Yarmouth. Yumyum, hot doughnuts from a bag. But that's about it.

Mexican cornbread is da bomb. Try it sometime. BTW, I love the pics.

Thanks darling.

I thought I was the only person on earth who put baked beans on his baked potato. Not too hip on the tuna mayo (whatever that may be, never heard of it, prolly explains itself, tho), but might try cole slaw on mah tater.

99% of baked beans here come in tins.

All supermarkets and many other companies have their own take on it; they are ubiquitous. Heinz is seen as the British staple, and if you holiday in coastal Spain you will often see cafes stating that they only serve Heinz beans.

I refuse to have cold toppings on my hot potato.
It's a personal issue.
But yes, tuna mayo is tinned tuna with mayonnaise. Sometimes with sweetcorn, sometimes with onion, mostly just tuna & mayo.

Looked at their site for thirty minutes, couldn't find that story.

But, I did find this one. I lol'd. Twice.

BTW, how do I get the gov't to buy weed for me?

Also...a friend used to have a Staffordshire Terrier/Pit Bull mix named Razz. When he chased cars, he caught 'em. And ate 'em.

I was thinking tuna-flavored mayo. :lol2:

The self-stabbing story will be archived by now.

In any newspaper article where the "villian" is identified, any benefits received are usually exaggerated.
Typical rent in this town is £600 per month.
So an additional £200 per month has to pay for Council Tax, water rates, gas & electricity, TV licence even BEFORE food & cleaning products.
True, if he spends £70 on weed then something's got to give, but that's his choice.

No-one on benefits lives the hi-life.
Alcohol and drugs help ignore bills that need to be paid and things that need to be faced.

ANYWAY.
This is a photo thread and I want you all to ooooh and aaaaah and love me.
Sunshine and lollipos and rainbows etc etc......

(yeah, good points)

We are, and, we do.


Don't ferget puppy dog tails!!!

Yikes. Yes. Best wait.

Great pics Sundae. Thanks.

Drumroll please...
I would like to introduce you to Messrs Tiger and Tennant!

I had permission to take photos of the children I saw at the Family Fun Day in Vale Park today.
After all, the organisers had their own photographers, and the Bucks Herald was there. But I was polite and checked with the parents anyway.

I went with Tennant's Mum, both Tiger's parents and his little sister (who we will call Kitty, because she's a kitten compared to him but it sounds a bit stripper-ish). We saw plenty of other people there - some children from our school (Tiger-Mum told a lot of people about it yesterday apparently) and my Grandad's ex-next-door-neighbour, who is Tiger's Grandmother. And one of Grandad's nurses, who is the mother of Tennant's mother's BFF from school.

I forget how many connections people make when they have children. This was pretty much my first exposure to it. Also it turns out Tiger-Grandmother used to live next door to my sister & family (not that side for those who remember) and Tiger-Dad came to do some repair plastering when the 'rents' bathroom flooded the downstairs toilet. Long before I moved back.

Small town. Never experienced that before either.

Anyway.
The parents parked at mine and we walked down to the Vale Park. Even with kids it's only about a 20 minute walk. The day was a joint event funded by a church coalition and the Council. Everything was free. There were some queues, but it was very well done.

Face painting, two bouncy castles, balloon modelling, sumo wrestling, BBQ (well, sausages and burgers on a grill) tea, coffee and cake, organised games. It was like being at Butlins in the 70s.

Tennant and Mum "making" a biscuit. Rich Tea biscuits (very plain cookies) with a shedload of icing, sweets, sprinkles etc to be lobbed on top. T gave me the "hair" which in my honour was a strawberry lace.

Tiger taking part in a sponge race. Run to the bucket, dunk your sponge, come back and squeeze it out in the bucket at the other end. Team with the most water wins, boys vs girls.

Kitty with her painted face. That was the longest queue by far.
But the Lady wanted it, so the Lady got it! Good for her.

Tiger doesn't need face paint, he can growl at me anyway.

The doughnut on a string game.
Tiger was taking tiny nibbles, as he does when eating anything. But we were all so pleased that he was trying it at all.

AND he ate most of his hot-dog. Tennant only had the sausage, and he doesn't have any eating issues. Although he ate more of the doughnut :)

Bouncy castle!

The park has a small playground. It's better than it looks just walking past - lots of swingy and shakey things.
No slide though. I used to adore slides - the higher the better and the best were bumpy ones. Being small and skinny I would actually get airtime going over the bumps.

Still, I would have wrecked this place (figuratively speaking) if it had been around in my time.

By this time we had met up with AL and her dad and brother. Mum is Brazilian, but she was working. I actually thought she was step-Mum when I saw her at the school fete, because she is really quite dark-skinned and AL is blonde. I've looked more closely since and can see the resemblance - she has dark brown eyes and makes me look 100% Irish when it comes to a tan.

Here she is surfing on a tilting board (she's surfed for real on extended holidays to Brazil) and proving her pirate chops while Tiger and Kitty look on. Seconds later, Tiger was climbing the rigging too, of course. That "seat" is about 6 feet off the ground - Tiger is already stood on a climbing frame there.

Last one of Tennant.
Apparently he is Christmas-mad.
He got a dog from the balloon modeller, and promptly decided it was a reindeer called Check (shrug). Sadly, Check was blown away and caught too often, and checked in his lucky reindeer chips. One of his legs popped.

I offered to queue up again, which we did, and this time got a burgundy coloured one that had the balloon nozzle on his schnozzle. What else could he call him but Rudolph?

I staged an intervention and took Rudolph into custody after a little while in the playground, fearing he might meet Check's fate. Tennant found a piece of foil ribbon and fashioned him a lead. All the way home I either held Rudolph or I held the end of the lead.

All the children behaved beautifully - although like children of course, not complete models of deportment! I had such a wonderful afternoon. And it was cool to be able to do things like tickle them and turn them upside down and all that, which isn't appropriate at school.

Oh, and it does feel a little odd letting you see them and still giving them code names. But code names can't be Googled. Unless you know them. And by then it's too late.

Sundae these are wonderful. I really love the pics of your kids!! Really a great post

I know some pretty great kids.

How totally awesome.

Awwww.

Just going back a bit ... 70 quid of weed per week? Jebus. Or is weed really expensive over there?

Everything is expensive there. Except tea and bread and butter. And riots. It's like a fire sale on riots.

It's great to see the kids of your days Sundae.

They are adorable, Sundae! I can see why you love your job.

As a side note, how is Tennant's mom doing?

No bad news back at least.
I know she has a number of follow up appointments, but I assume they have all gone as hoped so far.

She's taking Tennant over to Lapland in December!
They weren't able to get away over the summer, so that's his special holiday.
He's never said anything about this Christmas-fixation at school, it might be a recent thing. I imagine it's because he's had such an unsettling year and Christmas last year was bright and happy and Mum didn't have cancer and Grandad was still alive and they weren't moving house.

Still, it made me laugh. Tiger is chatting away and he says he is going to be a builder just like Daddy. I'd heard that before. And J is going to be a fireman like his Daddy - which I already know - everyone in the school knows too!
"I'm going to be a builder and J is going to be a fireman and Tennant is going to be Father Christmas." Said in a very matter of fact tone.

Thank you for the pix of the kids. They are great! I was wondering about your day and had hoped you would post pictures and tell us about your day. It turns out you already did but I didn't go through enough threads to see everything that's happening.

Walking to school, Aylesbury to Bierton.
I took these knowing they would contrast.
We woke up to mist on Tuesday, but the weather reports said it would clear by mid-morning to give us a brief Indian summer.

So I knew it would be fine today. And so it was.
Roll on foggy November and crisp December I say.
And snow.
Snow, snow, snow-snow-snow.

Back to September.

Looking up Aylesbury Road.
Technically in Bierton (as Bierton Road is in Aylesbury). It makes sense, roads are named for their destination.
Tried to take them in the same place. Forgot that I had the camera vertical!

Tuesday morning.
Wednesday morning.

A view acroos the fields on my way to work.
Tuesday then Wednesday.

And then this afternoon, just for another contrast.

Fungus. I would never pick and cook wild mushrooms myself.
I'd love to go on a mushroom hunt with a real expert though.

I like them both. I'm always amazed at how narrow the roads are there.

Two more Tues & Weds shots.
See how the aliens leave their laser death ray in full view in the second photo!

And now just some of the walk during the sunshine.
St James the Greater as posted before.

"My" graveyard

Nature's Bounty

This thread gives me a smile. :)

Yea!!! Thanks Sundae! I love your pics!

I was very surprised on Thursday afternoon when Mum said they were going to take me for lunch on Friday. She said (more than once) that we could go wherever I wanted, it was my choice.

Well I assumed this pretty much meant Wetherspoons, as it had to be town centre and we would be on a budget. In fact, even if not on a budget it would have to be a pub as we all have overlapping food tastes and need a wide selection of dishes.

Given my lack of answer (aside from a genuine thanks) Mum decided for us. We went to the new Italian restaurant in Kingsbury. More expensive than I would have considered, because it's an independent, and is owned and managed and run by the same people, so not a chain.

We had a great time!
Mum said it was the last of Grandad's money, and he would have wanted them to treat me.
No arguments from me :)

I bought us a bottle of Prosecco to kickstart the party.

Dads didn't fancy a starter, but when Mum & I saw sardines on the menu we decided to share.
Then, so Dad didn't feel left out we ordered Garlic and Cheese Pizza bread.

Both were yummy, and we even persuaded Dad to have a piece of sardine.
In fact I wonder if this was a standard portion or whether they cooked three because we were a table of three...?

Have since learned the name of the restaurant and should therefore include it - La Salute, Kingsbury, Aylesbury. Excellent Italian restaurant.

Dad had ravioli (I think). He seemed to enjoy it anyway - he was the only person able to finish his dish, and his appetite has shrunk so much over the last few years that it's a real compliment. He is waiting for black pepper in the photo, hence his slight look of wary trepidation.

Mum had Penne Salmona, which I remember having vodka in it!

Following my experience in Sapporo Teppanyaki, I asked about doggy bags early on. Once I knew we could take away the remains I just settled on enjoying what I wanted there and then.

And I had Pizza Americano, which was huge and lovely.
It's real Italian style pizza, so the toppings are limited. Not a complaint, but ideally I'd have liked onions as well. And probably pineapple. I am such a philistine.

It was great as it was though, and I'm glad I didn't mess with it.

So here we are, en famille.
We had a lovely meal - the staff were attentive and kind. The final picture was obviously taken by our waitress.
We had Limoncello afterwards, and she poured with a liberal hand. I also ordered another Limoncello (when we were settling the bill and Mum was in the toilet) and it came gratis. What a lovely gesture when we were first time customers!

I would like to go back. Now I'm off to have pizza for breakfast. Nom nom nom.

Just as I was uploading the last photos, Mum called up the stairs.
"Can I bin that pasta and pizza now? Only it's stinking my fridge out."
Sigh.

I responded cheerily, to say that I would be down to eat it shortly (I always wait for them to eat first on a non-school day). I also added jovially that it couldn't be worse than the BBQ chicken they had last week, which left me reeling at 06.45 when I opened the fridge. Garlic and anise and all the rest.

She really just wants it gone because I didn't have it for tea last night and she worries she won't be able to start loading the fridge with Christmas food. I'm going to decant the pasta into a different container as my SIL, E will love it - they're coming round tonight. The pizza might be mine alone to tackle though.

You look more happy as a family in those pics than you have described in previous posts. Well done. Looks like everyone was in a cheery mood and it was drama free. Nice pics and thanks for sharing. :thumb:

Looks like a Nice time !!
Tell Dadz to eat up !!!!!

Merc, I am probably the most sensitive member of the family.
I try not to be, and I try to get over perceived slights and insults.
I don't always do very well.

This Christmas we are all making an effort to get on and enjoy eachother's company, because of Grandad's death. We raised two toasts to him yesterday - the first came from me. I could see Mum was equally upset and grateful. She needs to know we remember him too, and loved him, but the fact of losing her father hurts of course. She raised the second over the Limoncello.

And here's another one:
To Jim Doyle - a hard working family man who adored spectacle, but was happiest watching it from the wings.

Mum can be a cow sometimes. It's true. It might be that her friends think I am insensitive to her needs too - I do catch myself out sometimes and realise it is the case. But we are a family. I can live with my parents and that has to credit all three of us (mostly them).

I'm glad we look happy. We were. And it was completely drama-free.
It was a good meal and I did have pizza for brunch and it was good.

Everything and everyone looks great!
hhhmmm Pizza..... ;)

Pizza for breakfast, classic, just classic. You and your family look wonderful, and a delicious drama free family meal is hard to beat. I raise my glass with you!

That pizza Americano looks fab. I'm glad they named it after us. :)

Isn't that weird, though? A truly authentic pizza made by Italians and they call it Americano? Looks absolutely yummy, though. :yum:

That was a preeety good-looking pizza.

The Italian pizza my family makes is square, I think the round is Americano.