Hi Everyone
Those of us who are approaching middle age have experienced a number of wars from WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Falklands, and many more. Thankfully most of us have only experienced them from afar through TV and the media. All those wars have now ended, Europe has recovered and thrived, South Korea at least has progressed, Vietnam is now a beautiful country and one of the places many tourists want to visit, and life in the Falklands is much the same as it was before the conflict. All suffered horrific damage and loss of life. Now two wars are dominating our world in Ukraine and now in Gaza. Looking at the situation now there seems little prospect of either of them ending anytime soon, even though in both wars there seems little prospect of one side beating the other. Winter is approaching in Ukraine and there are apparently about 300 miles of tunnels under Gaza. If that is so the only solution appears to be compromise and in the background, there are good people working very hard to achieve a solution. In the case of Ukraine, I said right from the beginning that we must do whatever it takes to preserve the integrity and freedom of the Ukrainian people. In the case of Gaza, it is a bit like me trying to solve a Rubik cube in that it will probably not happen in my lifetime.
I read this week that what we are given to eat as children will remain a favourite food for the rest of our lives. As I was born at a Fruit, Vegetable, Flower, Game, and Lolly shop it is obvious that fruit and vegetables have remained a fovourite. The real eating legacy however is my best food of all, fish. If you are a long time Rubbish reader you will know that next door was Betty's fish shop, the lady with the trousers, a trilby hat and a full range of swear words with a work shy husband, and a strange man who lived with them who at least was not afraid of work. Every week we had fish for dinner on Tuesday and Friday with fresh hake or plaice a particular favourite. Now the Senior Partner had a limited cooking repertoire with the cake choices restricted mainly to scones and orange sponge cake so while scones are still OK, the orange sponge cake is way down my list. The other thing to remember is that when I was a child food choice was far more restricted with pasta, pizza, burgers, Chinese and Indian meals, and many other exotic foods not part of our lives. While obviously, our early favourites remain favourites it is great that we now have so many food alternatives to enjoy.
Back in Hollywood's golden age of film, we would settle down with my lovely mother in law in front of the TV for an evening of entertainment both on and off the screen. The films had no bad language, hardly any kissing, and definitely no blood. It was impossible to follow the plot in the first 15 minutes of the film while mother in law named all the stars and which other films she had seen them in. In later years the films became a little more graphic and if a film contained anything risque or violent, she would get out of her chair, adjust her skirt which somehow had migrated up towards her waist before making a hasty retreat through the kitchen door to make a cup of tea. I was reminded of that memory when every TV news report at the moment warns the audience of graphic scenes which some viewers might find upsetting. If my mother in law was with us now she would not be able to escape from our open plan living, we would all be addicted to tea and her skirt would constantly be on the move.
Just a Thought:
My friend used to walk his local beach every day looking for shellfish until one day he pulled a mussel.
The Indians have a great way of resolving conflicts, they throw bread at each other.
It's called a naan aggression pact.
My mother in law thought that she was a good cook, but her smoke detector thought otherwise.
Brian
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