We Review Seaside Karen's Portuguese Regina Chocolate

On a slow news day and with everyone else out and about, Derek and I decided to review the chocolate bars our beloved Seaside Karen gave us during our Southport Meet Up, from her half way around the world cruise earlier in the year .....

...... it was a tough task, but we felt we were well up for the job! 

Coming in three flavours, orange, strawberry and pineapple what wasn't there to like?

We went for the orange flavour first, being, we thought, the most familiar .......

We liked it, Portuguese chocolate isn't as creamy as we're used to, but the flavour was there in quite a delicate infusion, we liked it.

On to the strawberry, which again was very subtly balanced. The chocolate tasted "darker" if you know what we mean and if we hadn't known otherwise, we'd definitely have thought there was something of an alcoholic persuasion about them, perfect with a festive hot chocolate perhaps?

And finally to the pineapple, something we were totally unfamiliar with dans chocolate, BUT, we loved it, it was, by a long way, our flavour of choice, really unusual and seemed sweeter than the other bars.  A clear winner.

And no, we didn't snaffle all the chocolate ourselves, although tempting, we only sampled one piece between us and then kept the rest for Darrell, Alice and Eric when they get home.

It'll be interesting to see if they agree with us.  Anyway, thank you Seaside Karen for breaking up a long, nothing to do sort of afternoon, if not emotional, it was a very bonding experience for Derek and I.

Derek Does A Double Take

Obviously, Derek has quickly become aware of Eric's spooky "affinity" for finding hedgehogs or perhaps that should actually read as the other way around, they find him, but yesterday Derek, for a second, had a moment of his own ........

...... when he spotted something on top of a hedge that made him do a serious double take, was that a hedgehog, maybe injured slightly, put there for it's own safety, out of harms way???????

Let's just say, Derek approached said "creature" with some trepidation, wondering if he needed to call Vale Wildlife to come help rescue it.

However, on closer inspection, his little heart stopped pounding, it was, thank goodness not a hedgehog in distress ........

........ but a very realistic looking clump of that sort of moss that grows on roofs and drops off now and again  ......... phew, panic over!!!

The Scrapyard Is No More

We thought it had been very quiet of late ......... 

..... no loud rumblings or banging's from beyond the railway bridge .......

........ and come to think of it, no passage of very large, metal laden, lorries trundling up and down the road leading to our estate, allowing the hedgerow to flourish a little wilder than we're used to! 

Then there's the gate to said yard, now with hindsight, it's been bolted every time we've gone past .......

We'd obviously missed something of a major type nature!

Sooooooooo, a cheeky message on our local Facebook page brought us the answer ......

...... said scrapyard is no more!  Il est mort or to be more precise, presumed sold.

Ever curious, naturally Eric went to explore some more ........

Goodness only knows how such a development went under our usually very acute radar, it must have been some undertaking, but, yes, it has all gone.

The site completely empty, bereft of all scrap metal, not even a rouge nut or bolt has been left behind, as far as Eric could see.

The next question (perhaps, at this stage, one not for Parliament), what's coming next?

As and when we get the tiniest inkling, you of course will be the very first to know.

Wrestling's Gone Up A Notch?

It's been a while, but Eric's beloved wrestling posters are back and plastered over every conceivable blank surface in Evesham.

That being said, Eric thinks that perhaps the event may have gone up a notch or two during their time of absence. To start with said posters seem to be of a much glossier appearance, obviously using of a better quality of paper.

Then, after a more forensic inspection, he reckons that it might not actually even be the same organisers of yore, for one, he doesn't recognise any of the wrestlers (or their much swapped about costumes) ...... and they look a little more fragrant, shall we say, in a wrestler type way.

He's also, to the best of his knowledge, has never seen such events advertised as "professional"????  The venue too seems to have got a little classier, from the usual school hall or social club to the all encompassing and, dare I say, upmarket Leisure Centre and all this for £12 of the Kings shilling?  Still a bargain.

Despite missing this "battle" the little fella's interest was definitely piqued, if it comes round again perhaps he can persuade his beloved niece and world wrestling aficionado Iris (she who goes to AEW at Wembley Stadium every year with Tom the Scientist and knows all about making a supporters banner) to accompany him, for erm, research purposes ......... we shall see...........

Well I Never .......

Remember those nuts Alice spotted the other day and we've been merrily trampling, willy nilly, making a satisfying crunch whenever we've walked past?

Well, it would seem as if we've been looking a mahoooooosive gift horse in the mouth so's to speak .....

...... as they are in fact cobnuts .........

........ and currently on sale by the pound (?) at our local green grocers, famed at times for it's more exotic products.  We hang our heads in shame as we've probably crushed a small, flipping fortune! 

After due research we've found that they can be eaten raw in salads, sprinkled with salt, roasted, turned into pesto and put in all manner of baked items etc. We've been very seriously remiss and found embarrassingly wanting, what are we like?

We Couldn't Leave Without ......

Our long weekend in Dawlish Warren has been full-on to say the least, so much so that, to be honest, there really wasn't time for any proper leisurely beachcombing ......

.... we were almost going to go home without having time for look for and find a holey stone .......

.... until Darrell had one of his thoughts of an intrusive type nature.......

.... what if not finding one somehow put a jinx on our returning, same time next year?  The thought was toooooooo awful for words ........

..... so we then absolutely made time and went and found two, well, it's always best to have a spare, especially where wistful, wishful returns are concerned. They were put safe and sound and Darrell's positive mood quickly restored

Eric also managed to find a couple of stones with faces a la The Chinsekikan Museum in Japan ........... one a dolphin or possibly ichtheysaur (?????) .......

....... and the other something haunting, which he wisely decided might be best left in its "natural habitat".

Then, it was time to take one last, deep lung full of sea air .........

...... and bid a fond farewell to the sea, until Christchurch at Christmas, at least  .......

...... before piling in the car for a somewhat muted start to our journey home, each lost in our own memories  .......

...... until Eric finally buoyed us up by getting us to play that golden oldie memory game "I went to Geralds (our Dawlish Warren supermarket of choice) and I bought ....." going through and remembering the whole alphabet of purchases from a rosy red apple to a zesty lemon drizzle cake!  What is he like?

Geralds Supermarket in Dawlish Warren – Dawlish

An Old, Beloved Favourite ......... Gone!

Derek has very quickly embraced another of our Dawlish Warren family holiday traditions, to wit, the amusements where tickets very definitely mean prizes! However, there was one mahooooosive and unbelievable catastrophe we all had to get to grips with as soon as we arrived, only the disappearance of our beloved "Ball Dropper", the first and very last machine we ever play at the beginning and end of our long Dawlish Warren weekends. 

As soon as we walked in, we made a beeline to where it's stood loud and proud for the past four years at least, but it wasn't there and despite all our walking round in every direction it wasn't to be found and we had to accept the inevitable, it was gone.  It was, I have to say, emotional, very, very, VERY emotional.  If we had only realised last year (pictures above) was our last time playing, those balls would have been grabbed, like balls have never been grabbed before!

However, tears and sighs aside, the show had to go on and a substitute, which also included the handling of spherical objects was found, if in a much more sedate and unfrenzied fashion, ten pin bowling ........

...... of which Young Master Bertie excelled ........ 

...... consistently winning tickets equal, if not greater, to any we've previously won on the much mentioned and much lamented Ball Dropper ...... wherever it is now.

I think, with having Derek on board, we ended up with more tickets than ever before, earning enough for a small Nerf gun for Bertie and a replica dance machine in brick form for Iris, not to mention the obligatory tubes of Parma Violets and single chews to use up the remaining tickets, oh, joy upon joy!!!

Then, with all our arcade budget resources depleted .......

...... it was off for an ice-cream, where, to be honest, there was almost too much choice .......

 ..... especially when flakes, sprinkles and sauces are also thrown into the equation.

...... but, in the end, for me, it had to be a straight pistachio ..... bliss! 

Mr D, do you remember Mr Hargreaves always dashing off to spend a week or so in Dawlish Warren the moment the school bell rang on the last day of the school year? I think he'd gone for the same week, same hotel, same everything for at least thirty odd years, bless his soul.