Saturday, February 20, 2016

Cooking with Baby

Today

Today, my Honduran cousin posted a picture of the cooker she used when she was first married. Pretty basic, as you can see,

In My Day

Many, if not most, of us started out our adults lives with a selection of hand-me downs and second hand purchases.

When we were married in 1971 and moved into our first flat at Belmont in Brighton I used a cooker with the deceptively cute title of a "Wee Baby Belling".

Cute it was not. It was a tiny electric stove, probably designed for bedsits (come to think of it, I had a version of one of these in my Bedsit in Christchurch Road in Worthing, on which I used to make onion omelettes and just about nothing else).The one I owned was certainly second-hand and actually boasted two hotplates and a little grill and tiny oven. 

It sat in our tiny kitchen and I used it daily. The hotplates took about ten minutes to get lukewarm and the grill was so slow you could take a bath while making toast.

I got used to it, as you do, and I certainly cooked our first Christmas dinner on it  - turkey, sprouts, roasties, red cabbage et al. I don't know how I managed to keep things hot while something else cooked and there was a fair bit of pan-sharing. But I did it and everything was done to a turn. I baked Lizzie's first birthday cake in the toy-sized oven and generally managed to provide culinary miracles with it.

I used it until our neighbour, Leslie Clay, became homeless and moved in with us together with her gas cooker, which was certainly larger than the Belling, if as ancient and clapped-out.

How uncomplaining we used to be about having to cope in this way; I think it may be because we were young and confident that life could only get better. Which it did.


Saturday, February 13, 2016

Bedizened and Bedecked

Today

In the local shopping centre yesterday,  Carmen was irresistibly drawn into Claire's accessories where we bought some hairclips and a cute little keyring. 

I noticed some packs of jewellery for children - bright pink and plastic.

In my day

From the age of about three the girls were given pocket money. Becky used to spend hers on her growing collection of Britain's farm animals, but Lizzie liked to buy jewellery. These sets were available in newsagents and toyshops and usually consisted of bracelets and necklaces of varying styles and lengths.

They were just as highly coloured as the ones I saw yesterday: bright pink being the favourite, but by no means the only one, lurid green, acid yellow and turquouse also being available,

Lizzie couldn't decide on her favourite so she would wear them all.  She would go about clanking and weighed down with plastic trinkets rather like a tribal woman whose jewellery indicated her value.

Her childminder used to say "do I have to take her out with her wearing all that lot?" "Well," I would reply " it's up to you, but you're on your own trying to get her to take it off!"

In later years Lizzie took to wearing bangles of all sorts, eventually totalling about fifty on both arms  until no more would fit on. These were not taken off for several years. She also sported an impressive collection of earrings, including, if I remember correctly, several skulls, lots of cats and a cute pair shaped like apple cores. Like the jewellery at Claire's, they could all be bought pretty cheaply so you could be well bedecked for about a fiver. And it was very easy for people deciding what to give her for a present.

Carmen hasn't asked for jewellery yet, but I think that the time can't be far away. Time to start the pocket money.

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Push Button

Today

Becky was telling me about her recent weekend in Spain and how, as they disembarked from the flight over and seeing the cockpit door open, she was allowed to take Carmen in to meet the captain. He was very charming, apparently, and let Carmen press a button on the dashboard. I bet she was excited.

In My Day

These days, cockpit doors are usually firmly locked during a flight, for fear of terrorists, but it wasn't always like that.

In 1980 we flew Freddie Laker to JFK as part of our great Canadian trip. Freddie Laker was the Ryanair of the '70s and '80s and buying tickets was almost like an auction, whereby you scanned the papers for availability and rushed to buy your tickets.

We managed to find seats together and settled down for a long flight. Becky was not quite three. Both the girls were excited about the very fact of going on a plane; in fact, I think it was a first for all of us. I'd brought provisions and blankets and thought of ways to keep the children happy. This wasn't too hard for seven-year old Lizzie who loved watching the cloudscapes out of the window.

Becky, being younger, needed more entertaining. She slept for some of the time and was allowed to run up and down the gangway when the cabin crew weren't busy. Like Carmen, she was a cute blonde toddler and she was soon invited to meet the Captain. This was while we were in flight, security being a lot less tight in 1980. I think it must have been Paul who took her into the cockpit as I don't remember going in and I also am not sure whether Lizzie went too. Becky loved it, though, and the event helped to break the appalling tedium of the journey. 

She even thinks she remembers this, which is wonderful. Air travel has become an everyday experience for many of us, so it's good to see some of that excitement and freshness being experienced by Carmen.

Monday, February 01, 2016

Grammar Geek

Today

There's been a resurgence of interest in correct English grammar lately, Facebook abounds with quizzes and tests to analyse how much you know. A fair number of grammar grumblers rail about their pet hates, and siblings and friends are unhibited about correcting others' posts ("your" you're" "could of" and could have" are especial favourites).

In My Day

The grammar of the English language is queer mixture of usage, foreign words and nonsensical rules. At some point someone tried to impose order and invented such rules as "i before e", the split infinitive (English is uncommon in that the infinitive is two words, not one which of course you can't split), never ending a sentence with a preposition. We were taught these at school and then given long lists of exceptions with the absurd statement "the exception proves the rule". 

Daddy was a master of English grammar and wouldn't allow the smallest error through in our speech, wilfully misunderstanding us until we'd said it correctly. Favourites were misplaced phrases (along the lines of "piano for sale, one owner, with carved legs..") and split infinitives.

It did focus the mind and I and my siblings are pretty sound on basic grammar. Becky said to me once, "it's just as easy to get it right as wrong." 

Of course there are absurdities; one of Mamma's favourites was this one: ...... "up with which I will not put."

When I was training to be a teacher there was a prevailing idea that too much insistence on good grammar stunted creativity and the emphasis moved away from accuracy. Personally, I think that a sound knowledge of basic rules can actually help creativity because you have a properly stocked workbox, so to speak. No-one suggests you do better in maths if you can't add up or that you are a better musician if you can't read music etc. This resulted, a generation down the line, in teachers who themselves had no grasp of the basics. 

At Flare we used to run a grammar quiz in our monthly staff newsletter. There was a small prize for the first correct answer. We only published the winner and the answers, so no-one was named and shamed, and it was very popular at all levels.

The question is how much does this matter?  I think there are lots of reasons, mainly to do with clarity, powerful use of language and fluency. "To go boldly" would have a very different ring from "To boldly go".

My own pet hates? Incorrect pronouns ("this was given to you and I"), "lay" and "lie" confusion ("lay down" and "lie the baby down") and everything thing to do with incorrect apostrophes. I also slightly regret the gradual disappearance of the subjunctive ("if I were you" "I suggest that you be careful").

I feel quite sure that readers of this blog will be very quick to point out all my errors....