Povey Prattle

I woke up this morning with an intense desire to eat meatloaf for dinner. Here is my recipe (adapted from  the Betty Crocker cookbook) 3/4 lbs ground beef 3/4 lbs ground pork 1/2 cup bread crumbs (shop bought). 1/2 cup thick, chunky and hot salsa. 1 teaspoon hot sauce (I used  "Tabasco") 2 oz mushrooms - any kind, chopped finely. 1 raw egg. I mixed the ingredients in a bowl with my hands (the only way to do it!); shaped it into a loaf, and baked it on a flat baking tray (rather than in a loaf pan) for 45 minutes at 360 degrees. Early taste tests say "superb". Good! So this evening for my supper  I will eat: Cold meatloaf, with a chopped tomato and spring onion mix, and five bean salad (courtesy Sam's Club), and roasted red peppers, together with a couple of hard boiled eggs.

An older couple finally learned how to send and receive texts on their cell phones. The wife, being a romantic at heart, decided one day that she'd send her husband a text while she was out of the house having coffee with a friend. She texted: If you are sleeping, send me your dreams. If you are laughing, send me your smile. If you are eating, send me a bite. If you are drinking, send me a sip. If you are crying, send me your tears. I love you. The husband, being a no-nonsense sort of guy,  texted back:   I'm on the toilet.    Please advise.

I was at the Barber Shop yesterday. It's owned by a cheerful and funny guy named Patrick. Many of us choose to wait and have Patrick work on our pates even if some of the other barbers have empty chairs.  I did some quick math/s yesterday and figured that I'd have to wait about 45 minutes for Pat, so I leap-frogged over three other customers (with their assent), to take a chair with another barber. He is a chatty fellow who works with enormous energy, but never uses scissors - only electric clippers. Nonetheless his work is good. He started to tell me about his upcoming surgery for a hernia (Lord above how exciting!).  I asked him if he had registered at our local hospital, which uses palm recognition. (The point of this system is wise, for should I be admitted to the hospital without identification, and unconscious or unable to speak, my records could be so very easy accessed). He recoiled, saying that he would never do that because it would be the "mark of t...

As one who became an American Citizen by naturalisation (in 1984) I try to read the declaration every year. It's a noble document -  until  the part which I have highlighted below. The designation of the original inhabitants as "savages" has had a profound and deleterious effect on our national psyche. We have, from this beginning, been deeply suspicious of "the other" - and have been utterly cruel to those who are "not like us"   www.archives.gov July 3, 2013  The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankin...

Psalm 55 v 11 and 12 (From the Episcopal Church 1979 Prayer Book version) 11.         Day and night the watchmen make their rounds                         upon her walls, * (national security?)   --------------------------------------------------      but trouble and misery are in the midst of her. 12. There is corruption at her heart; *      her streets are never free of oppression and deceit. (national insecurity?)  

(via my niece Leah)

My Bristol, U.K.  pal Jeff Davies sent me some more photo's from "way back when".  They were taken in the back garden of his home, on the other side of our home from  the old London, Midland and Scottish Railway line which went from Bristol to Birmingham. You will see me in one of the pics, together with my twin sister Elizabeth, and our "cousin" Ann from Lowestoft, U.K. Jeff joins us in the other pic. My guess is that Elizabeth and I were aged 12 or 13.  Certainly my twin had her "growth spurt" before I. Jeff was one year younger. It took a bit of detective work to identify Ann, who was from Lowestoft, Suffolk. I remembered her visit to Bristol but I could not remember her name, and how we were related. My first cousin Janet did the detective work which identified Ann. Ann (now Ann Hunter) is the daughter of my mother's first cousin "Audrey" - (Aunt Audrey to me). Mum had taken some of us Povey kids to Lowestoft (her birt...