A Truly Wonderous Magazine To Behold - to Wit, "Chippy Chat"

Oh my goodness, young Eric bought home a doozy of a magazine for our perusal after collecting our kebab tea from Rainbow Chippy the other night ......

......... well, it would have been rude not to!

Who would have thought that behind the scenes of the humble fish and chip shop it's all going on .......

....... judging by the riveting article headlines ......

...... to finding out that there are estate agents who specialise solely in the sale of said fried comestible establishments, with prices ranging from £65,000, up to £320,000, who knew?

I have to admit that Darrell and I were held in abject thrall as we studied each and every page, from Pukka pies, being the nations No. 1 pie brand to the launch of a new curry dip from Goldfish.

There are chip shop award ceremonies, grand, star studded balls, exhibitions and shows and don't even get Darrell started on the range of oils, containers and vinegar substitutes advertised!

Let's just say our eyes and minds were well and truly opened to the erstwhile unknown.  Trust us when we say, to quote Disney's Aladdin,  it's "......a whole new world", about which we were absolutely total strangers to until now, except for the eating of that is! 

We wouldn't exactly describe it as a truly romantic sphere of work, the fatty aroma with a sprinkling of vinegar sort of let's it down, but we're now tres au fait with a McWhinney's Sausage and Friars Pride, not to mention the world of possibilities of a Lady Jane potato ........ and 5th June this year being National Fish and Chip Day ...... of which, now thoroughly enlightened, we intend to fully celebrate.  What are we like?

Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday 2026

How can it be Pancake Day already, it was only Valentines Day at the weekend while it still felt as if we'd only just got over Christmas, even though Easter eggs have been in the shops since Boxing Day!

This year there has been a little debate as to which way we should go pancake wise, the good old tradition pancake, Scotch pancakes like last year, American buttermilk, crepes or the smaller, dumpy, Dutch pancake bite type variety ......

In the end we opted for buttermilk with maple syrup, but strictly no bacon, in homage to Eric and Alice's American Adventure before Christmas  ...........

 

...... with Darrell once more at the helm, just about keeping up with the demand, as we seemed to eat them faster than he could make them. 

However, he took it all in good grace, saying that it was a wonderful sign of appreciation, but begged us to leave at least three or four for the chef before the batter ran out!

Happy, tum filled days.  Happy Pancake Day!

A Day of Love, Gratitude And Appreciation - Valentines Day 2026 ...... And Eric As You've Never Seen Him Before!!!!

Well, we had a very lovely and generally understated Valentines Day on Saturday, a day chez Les Towers, when we showed our love and appreciation for those we live with, but without all the slushy, red roses, mushy stuff! 

However, there were naturally flowers for the ever fragrant Alice, as she is our very own precious, little flower, who we all love very much as the sister none of us ever had.

For Eric who fills our lives with so much laughter, musings and of course love, there were obviously a few choice packets of Love Hearts, the undisputed national sweet of the foresaid day and confectionary de jour! 

As always, there was much appreciation, gratitude and love shown to our beloved Darrel, who never fails to keep us organised, not to mention extremely well fed .....

..... for him there was an evening off from the kitchen, as Eric and Alice had got some pizzas in, adding that they would also "prepare and cook them", well, unwrap and pop them in the oven, but still a wonderful treat and very lovely they were too (meat feast, ham and pineapple, sweet chilli chicken and hot dog), crisped to perfection.

As for me? I'm just happy when everyone else is happy, but bless them, there was a mug of my favourite Kruger chai latte accompanied with packet of my biscuits of choice, to wit chocolate covered Malted Milk to dunk for my elevenses on the side. 

It was all very emotional as you might imagine, but the undoubted highlight just had to be Eric having fun with a toy he found, left over from our Christmas festivities .....

...... you've never seen Eric like this before ....... it's an absolute first for our blog after all these years of posting all of our adventures!!!!  It's a game changer, although we can only do 5 seconds at the moment!

At the end of the day, blowpipe and ball safely put away, we gathered on the sofa with a variety of seasonal confectionary befitting the day, to watch Gladiators and Masked Singer ............. and it just don't get any better than that!  Happy days!

THANK YOU Jan The Fan

To quote the song, "Love is" definitely "all around us" on the very cusp of Valentines Day .......

.....and no more so than Chez Towers when we received the most beautiful seasonal package and thought from our beloved No. 1 Fan, Jan the Fan .......

I don't think I even have to say that it was emotional!!

On opening the box a beautifully wrapped confection of Valentines delicacies to make what we would call a "hug in a mug" was revealed, from a company called Mamma Miah (link at the bottom of this post) 

What more could we want to start the festivities than a sachet of hot chocolate along with mini marshmallows, chocolate buttons, chocolate fairings and a heart shaped lollipop, to help brighten and make a very welcome, warming hot drink especially in this current dull and gloomy weather.

The excitement of it all truly elevated what was, until then, just an ordinary morning and rest assured, we will be partaking in it as our "boisson du jour" on the big day .......

..... although Eric has already taken a fancy to the stirrer lollipop and in the spirit of the season, I think we'll let him have it, a spoon will suffice!

Thank you so much Jan the Fan for this totally and wonderful, unexpected present, we LOVE it soooooooooooo much ......

...... it's made us come over all AI!  What are we like? 

And thank you Mamma Miah's - www.facebook.com/mammamiahs

Love Is All Around Us .......

"We're feeling it in our fingers, we're feeling it in our toes .......

Love is all around us and so the feeling grows" ..............

Yes, you just cant miss it dans Evesham High Street, l'amour is very definitely in the air.

Naturally, we will also be celebrating love and affection on Saturday, to wit Valentine's Day, if a little more subtly, as we're not people of a red rose or helium filled balloon type nature or overly enthused by the thought of being totally surrounded by pink and red red hearts (which doesn't really fit in well with Darrell's carefully curated interior decor), let alone flaunting our seasonal pyjamas for all and sundry ...... each to their own .......

So however, you chose to celebrate, have a lovely, love filled day, hopefully with cards, chocolate and perhaps even flowers akimbo ....... xxxxx

Ok, We Relented...... Well, It Would Have Been Rude Not Too

Let's just say with Eric popping in and out of Lidl for us after the school run, it's been pretty hard to keep him from perusing the seasonal comestible aisle ......

...... and although, as I said last week, Darrell already has plans for Valentines Day, it would have been a bit rude not to avail ourselves of one or two extra bits and pieces to further enhance and elevate the day wouldn't it, especially when it's only one such day out of 365!

So, we bowed to the inevitable pester power and told the little fella he could go a little wild in the aisles, especially as we have our beloved niece and nephew over for the half term holidays, a perfect time to spread the love even further! 

So after much musing and consideration, Valentine pasta, heart shaped pretzels, pizza, cupcakes and marshmallows were duly purchased........ 

.......... along with a chocolate rose to put away for the ever fragrant one ......

......  and for a review at a later date, well, it just had to be a box of the rose ice cream cones, although we are a tad dubious they appear to have a green cone, of which we aren't too sure! 

But, what are we like ........

........  if not truly loving and immediately drawn to anything of a heart shape type nature and romantic undertones ........!!!

A Dose of The Pareidolias

Darrell was just having a quick flick round with his Black and Decker hand vac when he stopped dead (metaphorically speaking of course)!

It's usually Eric who has the propensity to see faces in every day things (a dose of the pareidolias as we like to call it), as he just goes about his ordinary business, but this time, it was obviously Darrell's turn ........

Can you see it?

It's just toooooooo uncanny for words, as it's unmistakably Zippy from Rainbow on the wooden floor in our kitchen area. 

And ......... now we've seen it, we can never unsee it!  What are we like?