I saw an exhibition of quilts designed by the textile designer, Kaffe Fassett, in London recently; as a result I accidentally fell in love with quilting. Yes, quilting – who knew? Where you spend hours stitching tedious tiny bits of fabric together to make a strange patterned bedspread, that your family hides keeps really safe in the back of a cupboard, to stop it being damaged by daylight.  How did this random thing come into my life? Asked nobody.  Well I found out Kaffe Fassett was a). Still alive (he’s in his 80s, as of 2022).  And b) that he had a whole world tour about qui ..read more

Special Ancient Egyptian Edition I’ve had the most fantastic few days, completely lost in a website called, Trusted Pet Sitters.  This website is literally the answer to my every need in my (future) life, when my own pets (aka da kids) leave me yay very sad, alone and empty nested.  At that point, I’m going to jump online and become a “Trusted Pet Sitter” and have lots of temporary pets without being tied down by any of them.  Here’s the gig; it’s basically like Airbnb, but people leave their pets behind, so you take care of them.  How amazing is that?  You also get t ..read more

With the boring divorce of Alimony-Amber Heard and Johnny No-Finger Depp, I thought an article on divorce, might be helpful.  Soothing the souls of the soon-to-be single; giving the miserably married, motivation.  And other alliterations, that I frankly, can’t be bothered to think about.  I’ve noticed a negative stigma attached to divorce, which began historically with Henry the VIII.  All the medieval feminists thought his divorce was really horrendous, until he stopped divorcing and started beheading.  At which point they back-tracked and decided divorce was in fact ..read more

In the spirit of Mother Theresa, selflessly helping the disadvantaged, it was a mere month ago I set up my (online) food kitchen.  An updated twist on traditional food kitchens for the poor.  My modern approach, harnesses all the benefit of technology and brings it straight to the needy.  Exactly the same as the old fashioned types, focussing on bulky, nutritious, low cost foods, with one notable exception – there is no need to traipse to a city centre location to collect it.  You simply buy the ingredients (instead of heroin) and cook it yourself (instead of crack).  ..read more

With Special Guest Darrly Kennedy, HMP* I was daydreaming across t’internet today, when I came across an article written in The Sun newspaper, by a profession burglar called Darrly Kennedy.  He gives us his top tips on how to protect our homes from theft.  Explaining to The it-must-be-true Sun, that he has seen the (security) lights go on inside his mind and he is helpfully (trying to win himself a place on parole) handing out anti-burglary top tips, like Santa hands out presents.  The Sun says Darrly, “had a long career breaking into homes all over the world.” And, “The father ..read more

Again this year, I try to use our flights to Italy.   Thwarted by both Covid and Brexit delays, now there’s a new block interrupting my sunny horizon, my Mother doesn’t like me leaving her.   It’s hard going away when you have an elderly relative dependent on you.  When I got back from my last trip, mum had clearly taken a turn for the worse.  She’d become depressed, the loneliness of old age hitting her hard, just me not being “around” for all that time.  That’s how she was, when I returned from a one-night stay in Birmingham.  God only knows what’s going to happ ..read more

The day began wholesomely, with a walk up Dragon Hill, at Uffington (where King Arthur actually slayed the dragon).  We climbed further up to White Horse Hill, a neolithic landmark a chalky-white horse at the top.  El-kiddo (14 years) insisted on going under the barrier (bit of old string), so he could touch the eye of the tiger horse.  As a (not) very-law-abiding parent, I loudly told him not to do this, incase anyone was listening.  Then quietly said, “If you’ve really got to touch it, just be quick”.  Do I care if he breached the defences of the English Heritage?&nb ..read more

I was lying in bed, this morning, wondering about the electricity hike.  I’d gone to sleep with my electric blanket on, again.  HRT has happily rebalanced me to my natural state – completely freezing, so it wasn’t a problem.  Sometimes I crawl into my electric blanket during the day, just to warm up, like a reptile under a sun lamp. Occasionally, I even get on a sun bed, not for the tan, but warm my bones – otherwise, they chill me from the inside.   The problemo is, I’m not sure how much my electric blanket costs and I’ve noticed everyone is posting about their electric bi ..read more

Yesterday, I finally bit-the-bullet and started a thang I’ve been wanting to do for ages,  I call it, “Daily Dhal”. It’s a Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/377889374204243) where we post dhal recipes as we make them, which for me, is most days.  You can buy dhal at the Indian takeaway (Tadka dhal or Channa dhal). If you’ve not familiar with it, it’s  a lentil or bean based soup, with spices and vegetables. It has different names in different countries, cheap, nutritious and easy to store.  That’s how 43% of the world, living in poverty, manage to eat.  T ..read more

Normally when we think of eating out locally, my first response is to say, “there’s nowhere to eat in Witney”.  Having brainstormed a list of all the places, (not including fast-food or takeaways); I came up with 42 places to have dinner, in this small market town, so maybe I’m being a little unfair. I’m going to run through them for you, right here, on this informative (now) local blog.  Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. Today, we’re doing Gastro-pubs, I’ll be doing Asian, regular pubs, coffee shops etc all in good time – when I can be bothered. The best of the Gast ..read more