Holiday Snaps

A 2CV parked at a crazy angle in Douarnenez.

Here's a few holiday snaps from my recent trip to France. Of mild interest to those of my friends and family who visit here. For my other visitors, I'll get back to the flights of fancy shortly.

Breakfast time in France.

Breakfast usually consisted of a croissant and a bowl of cereals. The cereals shown above were Miel Pops (France's answer to Golden Nuggets) and Smacks (they'd be Sugar Puffs).

A lizard.

Lots of lizards in France. In fact, Brittany was just like Cornwall, but with extra lizards.

Our Lady of Shipwrecked Sailors, Pointe du Raz.

Large statue at Pointe du Raz, France's equivalent of Land's End. I coloured her in so that she looks like she could join in the fun on New Order's Technique album cover.

Coming home.

Nice sunset approaching the Isle of Wight on Saturday night. You can just about see the island on the horizon if you look very carefully.

The (Reappeared) 1976 Breakfast Diaries

Here it is for the last time, the 1976 diary.

The diary turned up then. Hidden beneath a book of non-league football statistics and a large brown teddy bear. I should have known.

So, for the final time, I shall reproduce some of my 1976 diary entries. It's the final day of the school Christmas holidays, followed by a couple of football-themed entries from later in the month:

Monday 5th January 1976

Last day of freedom before going back to school. Boring day in a sort of way. Paddington Bear started today on BBC1. Helped mum de-ice the freezer.
Breakfast: Rice Krispies
Lunch: Mushrooms on toast
Dinner: Beefburgers, mash, spaghetti and roast potatoes

Saturday 24th January 1976

The tele man came today and put up a new ariel. He said "We can't get London ITV on our set". Pompey drew 1-1 in the F.A. Cup against Charlton (away).
Breakfast: Golden Nuggets
Lunch: Noodle Doodles
Dinner: Cod and chips

Tuesday 27th January 1976

Dad and I have got a bone to pick with Uncle Den. He was the one who persuaded us to go to see Pompey v Charlton replay. It was one of the most rubbishiest games I've ever seen.
Breakfast: Rice Krispies
Lunch: Toast Toppers
Dinner: Beef

Ah, the ennui of the dog days of the school holidays, post-Christmas, perfectly captured in the phrase "helped mum to de-ice the freezer". When that's the main event of the day, then it's probably time to go back to school. At least Paddington Bear had started again (on BBC1, of course).

I can really hear my dad talking in the second and third entries. It would never have occurred to me that we could get London ITV in our house in Havant, 70 miles from the capital, so asking for that would have been his idea. I presume London ITV had more sport than Southern.

As for the Charlton match, I remember an enormous crowd at Fratton Park, and I think Pompey lost 3-0. At this point, I hadn't yet seen Pompey draw 0-0 with Newport County in the Third Division. Now, that really was the most rubbishiest game ever.

And just look at all that mouth-watering food I was eating in 1976...Noodle Doodles! Toast Toppers! Beefburgers, mash, spaghetti and roast potatoes - or, in other words, leftovers. Surely?.

The (Mysteriously Disappeared) 1976 Breakfast Diaries

Oh, it's that diary again.

Sometimes, things just go missing. You put a pen down, you find you need it again five minutes later, but can you find it? Not until you've found another one. There it is, in your empty tea mug - you'd used it to fish out a crisp and left it there.

Other times, things go missing, and the only explanation is that outside forces have been at work. There's a conspiracy at play. So it is with my 1976 diary. I can't find it anywhere. As The Higsons once said in their song named Conspiracy: "Howard Hughes...did HE steal my bongos?"

Luckily, before it disappeared, I wrote down all my January 1976 breakfasts in a little chart. And here it is:

1. Rice Krispies (eaten 23 times)
2. Golden Nuggets (9)
3. Grapefruit (7)
4=. Marmite on toast and Honey on toast (2 each)

The best part of the Rice Krispies packet is the bottom, where they've gone all powdery. You can almost drink the powdered krispies when milk is added, like a cold Rice Krispie porridge. A big attraction in 1976 would have been that my sister hated the bottom of the packet, and thus I would have liked it even more. Racing to the bottom of the packet to annoy her would have been fun at that age too.

Golden Nuggets were sweeter and more expensive, and thus more of a treat. I'm sure there must have been plastic Klondike Pete figurine giveaways in the box at the time, but I don't have any now. I miss plastic toys in cereal packets. Bring them back now!

Grapefruit sprinkled with sugar (but not too much sugar) will always be delicious. Tangy and wet; half-drink, half-food. Would usually have been served at weekends and followed by cereals...

...or toast! Marmite was spread with dripping (pork fat); honey with margarine. Always on white bread. Always delicious.

Lunches and dinners had much more variety than breakfasts. The most common lunch was fried egg sandwiches (my favourite!); beefburgers and tinned spaghetti was the most often-served dinner.

That's enough 1976 diary (unless it turns up again). I'm currently noting down all my July 2011 breakfasts. I shall post the results in August! Compare and contrast, compare and contrast, that's what I shall do.

Tommy's Fur Ball Kitten

A kitten, made out of Tommy's browning fur, last week.

Whenever Tommy or Minty are combed, they produce a lot of spare fur (and dandruff, in Tommy's case). This is especially true during the warmer months. Well, last week, Tommy was lazing around doing nothing, as is his habit. It was time for him to be combed, and as usual, a large amount of spare fur was salvaged from the lazy lump.

When kitty fur is wrestled off of a cat comb, it is traditional around these parts to say "Look! Tommy's had a kitten!", to which everyone replies "Awww!" This 'kitten' is invariably just a lump of formless dandruffy fur (which gets thrown in the bushes for birds to make a nest with). However, this time, my daughter created an actual real-life kitten out of the fur. If you inspect the photo very carefully, you can just make out two ears!

All together now: "Awww!"

The (Not Very) Notorious 1976 Breakfast Diaries

Hey! Didn't you use the same picture last time?

Some more, ahem, "highlights" from my 1976 diary...

At the beginning of the diary were a few pages dedicated to personal statistics - a mixture of indisputable fact, e.g. name of school - and opinion. It's the lines of opinion which are most interesting now. From the School Statistics page come the following titbits:

Favourite subject: Games
Most ghastly subject: English
Proudest moment: Being in the football team for the first time
Worst disaster: Losing 6-3 at home against Cowplain*

* This is still my worst disaster, 35 years on.

Some more daily entries:

Tuesday 20th January

Queen are still number 1 after 9 weeks.We had no games today because Mr Perkins must've thought that it's too wet. I don't think so.
Brekky: Rice Krispies
Lunch: Bacon & egg sandwiches
Dinner: Lamb stew

Well, I certainly liked Games. Also a spark of rebelliousness showing in the year that punk first appeared, disagreeing with the teacher. He just didn't want us to catch a chill, I suppose.

Wednesday 21st January


Today we had Pottery for the first time this year. I made 5 little Whimsy figures - 2 snails, 1 rabbit, 1 mouse & 1 either pig or hippopotamus.
Brekky: Grapefruit & Golden Nuggets
Lunch: Marmite sandwiches
Dins: Salad & chips

Five Whimsy figures in less than an hour? That was good going, even if I wasn't sure if I'd made a pig or a hippo. These would have ended up as grandparents' Christmas or birthday presents later in the year.

Right, does anyone want to know my most popular meals from early 1976? I've made a top ten table...