Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
As I write this, I am sat on the bedroom floor of our rented accommodation - the new house doesn’t have broadband yet, thus making it difficult for me to visit your blogs at the moment, so please bear with me.
I wished I could have taken more photos of the lovely white beauty created by the snow in the last couple of days, but I was busy cruising along on our 3.5T van transporting our worldly possessions to our new home.
But I thought this view of the park from where we used to live was still worth snapping. I was so excited, like a child on Christmas morning, when I saw the snow falling because it simply transformed everything! Perhaps the excitement was mostly to do with moving house 
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
I couldn’t believe it! Yesterday was the day we moved to our newly owned home and it was snowing hard. Everything was covered in white flakes and it was pretty!
I have been told that in the UK, it is statistically more likely to snow on Easter Sunday than Christmas. In a way there’s logic to this - Christmas being only at the beginning of winter. Snow didn’t deter us from running to and fro the Luton Van and our house to move boxes and furniture. Hey, it’s not everyday one gets to move to their very first owned home.
It was really a beautiful day. And of course, I was wearing flip-flops!
(Note: Please accept my sincerest apologies for having been remiss in not visiting your blogs lately. Moving house they say is one of the top 3 most stressful things in the UK - apart from divorce and bereavement. And since I have been working non-stop on decorating the house, packing and managing work at the same time, I haven’t had the time really to do anything else. Once we have broadband at the new place, and I am more settled, I shall resume blog hopping. Until then, it shall have to be intermittent visits, my dear friends.)
Monday, March 24th, 2008
I haven’t been to this shop before and I got really excited! Look at all the lovely things I can buy to make really delicious food. They’ve got spices of all sorts. I should find out if they have chipotle - coz that’s something I really need to make that yummy Southwest Chipotle sauce.
Are you into spices or cooking?
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
Before anything else - Happy Easter lovely people!
While walking around the market looking for interesting shots, I found a long queue and wondered what the heck was going on. Was someone dishing out grub for free?
Lo and behold it was lunchtime and people were in the mood for fish and chips! Ugh! All that grease. I haven’t eaten anything fried for over a month now and I can’t say that I miss it.
But I suppose people love their lard so here they are. It is very popular over here in the UK, though I have been told on numerous occasions that fish and chips was something the Brits picked up in India, or was it that Indians brought fish and chips to the UK?
Either way, how often do you have fish and chips?
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
Ok. So yesterday was about sweeties and today we’re having faggots! This one says that it’s a traditional English recipe. Before people start accusing me of being offensive, politically incorrect or something worse, let me explain.
From Wiki:
A faggot is a kind of meatball, a traditional dish in the UK, especially the southwest of England, Wales, and the Black Country. It is made from meat off-cuts and offal, especially pork. A faggot is traditionally made from pig heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes breadcrumbs. The mixture is shaped in the hand into balls, wrapped round with caul (a membrane from the pig’s abdomen), and baked. A similar dish, almôndega, is traditional in Portugal.
The first use in print cited in the OED is in 1851, from Thomas Mayhew, although this appears to be a calzone- or pasty-like dish, with an outer wrapper of caul, covering a filling of mixed pork offal. This was in London.
The dish saw its greatest popularity with the rationing during World War II but has become less popular in recent years. Faggots are usually homemade and are to be found in traditional butchers’ shops and market stalls.
A popular dish is “faggots and peas,” which is often served with gravy. The faggot and pea batch is a common post-pub snack in the West Midlands. Faggots are also known as “ducks” in Yorkshire and Lancashire, often as “savoury ducks”. “In Leigh market in 1905 you could buy a savoury duck rolled up in an oatmeal cake.”
Mr Brain’s faggots
Mr Brain’s faggots
The best-known commercial brand is Mr Brain’s Faggots, a frozen food product available in Britain and Ireland, which is made of liver and onions rolled into meatballs and served in a sauce. These faggots differ significantly from the traditional recipe.
Pictures of the product are a popular joke in some Western countries due to additional meanings of the name. Faggots were used as the subject of an infamous 2004 radio advert by the UK supermarket chain Somerfield[1]. The commercial featured a husband challenging his wife’s repetitive routine of a set meal for each day of the week. While he wanted lasagne, he was told that, as it was Friday, he was to have faggots. He responded: “I’ve nothing against faggots, I just don’t fancy them.” This advert was subsequently deemed to have breached the rules on Good Taste, Decency and Offence to Public Feeling of the Advertising and Sponsorship Code, and was banned from future re-broadcast by the industry regulator, Ofcom.
Obviously, being pescotarian, I don’t purchase anything from this shop.
Have you had any faggot lately?
I am many things - a life coach, a diversity champion, a freelance writer and translator, a dog lover, a citizen of the world, etc - but never thought of myself as a photographer. Norwich inspires me to capture snapshots of this fine Norman city. Take a trip down Norwich lanes or enjoy a walk in the park with me.