We Try Nairn's Marmite and Cheese Oatcakes.

It's been quite a while since we've had anything of a Marmite (our savoury spread of choice) type nature to review, however the other day, after Darrell had been "posh" mooching in our local Waitrose, he returned to The Towers in a state of  unmitigated flux ......

....... brandishing a box of Nairn's Marmite and Cheese Oatcakes. OMG, let's just say that the Towers positively thronged with a mahooooosive palpable and tangible expectation! 

Being totally obsessed by Marmite and very partial to a good, strong Cheddar these biscuits promised much.......

..... and we have to say they did not disappoint.  We absolutely LOVED them! 

With four pouches of six biscuits, we didn't have the worry of them going stale as we would a single packet and therefore didn't feel the pressure to eat the whole packet in just a day or two (although it was very tempting) in order to avoid such an unfortunate, past their best scenario! 

Plus, one pouch divided between three makes two biscuits each, which at 39 calories per biscuit, is very acceptable and well do-able within our allotted daily calorie intake, especially when you know that there are 93 calories in a single chocolate Hob Nob!

But, I hear you ask, how did they taste? Absolutely, blooming wonderful, par excellence in fact. The meld of Marmite and cheese together is perfect and the biscuits themselves are beautifully oaty, crisp and well on the veritable side of thinness.  They are glorious eaten on their own, to quote Mary Poppins "enough is as good as a feast" or with a gentle spread of real salted butter and an extra slither of a good strong Cheddar .........  out of this world!  Mamma Mia

So, for the above reasons, we have no hesitation in awarding these Nairn Marmite and Cheese Oatcakes an unequivocal and robust 10 posh Waitrose supermarket trollies out of 10 on our world famous Richter Scale of Noms. It goes without saying that they are now firmly on Darrell's monthly shopping list and our evening televisual snack routine probably changed forever! Non, nom, nom ........

Nowt So Blind ……..

It might be the sheer bareness of winter, but for a couple of days now Nigel has said that he'd noticed a very beautiful tree, way out in the distance, as he leaves our estate to go on the school run.

He had visions of said tree standing proud in a large and romantic field in the vale, surrounded by other trees that could only admire "his" beauty, and only hope that one day they too would grow as tall and proud as "he".  What on earth is he like?

As he walked further down the road the tree got nearer and just as lovely, especially when zoomed in on with our new camera.

So, as it appeared to the right of St Peter’s Church steeple, Nigel reasoned that it must be somewhere a little up the road from there ........

.... but probably some way off from his normal beaten track.…

….. and then didn't give it much more thought for a day or so.

Until a couple of days later, as he was walking past said church to get to school, when the majesty of the tree slipped back into his mind, as he simultaneously gazed across the road to Lidl …….

……. and there it flipping was, his magnificent tree, not unfettered and proud in a distant field, but inhibited by the less than salubrious Lidl car park, somewhere he must have walked past a million times without even noticing it!!!

Proof, he told us later that ".... there's nowt so blind as them what can see" (not sure if he's got that exactly right, but still), including himself, who until then, had always prided himself on noticing the interesting, lovely, unusual and untoward on his travels and thus, from now on, he was going to be even more vigilant, especially when it came to things of such a shapely and captivationg nature, bless his little cotton socks.

A Wonderful Surprise Gift For Nigel.

Oh my, on Friday, Rob the Postmam knocked on pur door with a mysterious and totally unexpected package for Nigel, from our lovely friend and follower Heather ....

...... inside, was the most wonderful collection of stickers, along with a very simple note from the aforementioned lovely Heather that said it all  .........

......... they were for Nigel's beloved readers and needless to say, it got a tad emotional for the little fella ........

....... but once recovered ..........  

 ........ he couldn't wait to get to school .........

 ....... to start sticking them in said little ones reading record books ........

........ alongside his encouraging comments.

Again, it was an emotional experience for Nigel as the little ones mulled over which stickers they wanted to either stick on their sweatshirts or tie or in their books, wishing Heather could see what they meant to each and every one. 

There are enough stickers to last until at least the end of the school year and most probably beyond, when Nigel could quite possibly be working with new classes too   ..........  so goodness only knows how memories are there to be made. 

So, thank you soooooooo much Heather, you've made so many small people (including Nigel) very happy with your thoughtful gift, that will continue to keep on giving for an awful long time to come  ......... THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!  

HappyNews To Impart .......

If you pop back to our old blog, you will see that all our pictures have been restored, with very grateful thanks to nelsonkodama, one of the commenters on github.com who came with a work around ........ however, we're still going to continue with this "new" blog, as we can't really afford to have any more issues like this, should Google inevitably decide to change things up again. 

Although we will always have the memories of the past adventures very much safe in our minds, it's still lovely to now have the pictures back again to look back on as well .........

Nigel Considers and Ponders

Heaven help us all ……. 

I must say it every year, but despite Christmas only just being over, it seems Valentines Day has now hit the choice emporiums of Evesham ………

….. leaving the little fella to ponder as to whether a vigorous and robust fragrant showering, followed by a cheeky squirt or two of Lynx Africa (for just £3.99), might increase his potency to the fairer sex ……

…… or, if wearing a set of new underwear under his jeans, might help of a confidence type nature and thus his “manly” swagger!  What on earth is he like?

How do I tell him, that in the eyes of the ladies he knows, I think he’s more of a cute and cosy pyjama sort of guy, rather than the raging he-man he’ll never be, bless his little cotton socks!

Darrell Sorts Out Next Weeks Shopping List.

I feel that a comestible review may be in the offing ..........

...... after Nigel nipped into Lidl on the way back from the school run to pick up the latest store flyer for Darrell.

It seems that next week is Central and Eastern European week and as such, it would be rude not to avail ourselves of something of an exotic type nature to broaden our comestible horizons, although, it has to be said, that Kata, our lovely neighbour across the hall, has always ensured that our Hungarian epicurean education has never been found wanting, especially on high days and holidays! 

 So far Darrell has put a poppy seed crumble cake on his list for Nigel to pick up .......

...... as well as a bottle of honey beer and perhaps some potato and quark dumplings, if the little fella can manage it all.

On another, unrelated, page they both noticed that cherries were also on offer, at £1.69 per 200g, a little too expensive for our rigorous budgetary limits   ..........

...... but they still brought back wonderful memories of our last Greek Oddity (in June 2023, but no photos to refer back to thanks to flipping Google) when we were able to feast upon a whole carrier bag full of said fruit, fresh from the tree, bought for about 5 euros from the back of the pick up truck that used to call at our beach every day.  

So, I think we'll steel our pennies and appetites for later this year and our next Oddity, when we'll get a much bigger bang (or bag) for our buck, as they say. What are we like, if not a little parsimonious now and again!

Parma Violets

So, Mr D ……

…….. with belated reference to your missing, but since retrieved comment/query (that somehow found it’s way into our spam box), as to whether Parma Violets are still a thing in the UK and as such, readily available in the shops  ……

.… well, yes, they very much are! In fact, Young Master Bertie is quite partial to the odd packet or two from Nigel’s “treat bag” on the way home from school, so the little fella tends to buy them in a bulk bag from our local Home Bargains store at the start of every month.

However, accepting the aforementioned Bertie, they still remain, for a lot of people, an acquired taste ………

….. so please except our wholehearted apology  if this  childhood memory triggers you, especially, as we strongly suspect, said fragrant confectionary is not available in Mexico, sometimes, unfortunately, that’s the price you have to pay for living somewhere soooooooo impossibly and romantically exotic …….. but just for you, we’ll break open and share a pack, completely unfettered, for you re-live and imagine past pleasures!

More Sad News To Impart .........

Oh dear, seems to be two words that we are a little oft to be saying in this the first month of 2024 .......

 ..... and yesterday it was Nigel and our beloved niece and nephew's turn to utter said words on the last leg of the school run, a run that had started like any other, but ended in not a few tears.

All was well until they rounded the corner of the small green, when suddenly Iris and Bertie let out the almost simultaneous cry that their treasured and cherished "Magic Faraway Tree", as they liked to call it ............  had gone! 

At first Nigel thought they were just teasing him, but as he too rounded the corner ........

..... he saw that it was indeed true, well, almost 95% of it was gone ........... leaving them to stand and stare in bereft silence, knowing that their Autumns would never, ever be the same again .......

....... after at least five years of Iris filling her pockets with so many of it's fruits (to keep the spiders away at home) that her skirt or coat would have to be unceremoniously hoisted up every five minutes for the rest the their journey.

The tree was indeed a truly magnificent beast, that had watched over them every  September and October, providing them so many happy memories with each gem it dropped, for Iris, in particular, to break open the spiky shells to marvel in turn at the size and shininess of every conker revealed.

Goodness only knows how old the tree was, it must have been two hundred years (???) at the very least ......... what wonderous things must it have witnessed in all that time?

And now, all that was left was it's majestic and beautiful gnarled and twisted trunk .......

....... still standing proud.

When they finally got home, crestfallen from their discovery, they found that "their" tree had made the news ....... perhaps its ancient branches had just given up, causing them to become a hazard on the road where it had grown, way before any road had even been there ............

There is another horse chestnut tree on the green, but not half as spectacular and that doesn't usually yield the calibre of conkers as the Faraway Tree did of yore .........

........ but perhaps it's now up to Nigel to create new memories and traditions for Iris and Bertie to take into the future, a responsibility he is currently feeling and pondering very deeply, bless him.