tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:48:07 +0000A to Z ChallengeCheryl ColeValentine's DayWongaaccentsageingdogsdrinkinggardeningmiddle classpay day loanspubsAdrenaline Rush DeprivationAlesha DixonAmazonAnne CleevesAnne WiddecombeAppleArlene PhillipsBenBernard JordanBidefordBotoxBritain's Got TalentBruno TonioliBuckingham PalaceCheryl TweedyCraig Revel HorwoodD-DayDamien HirstEnglandEnglish languageExeter St DavidExpress and EchoExtreme SportsFacebookFrench and SaundersFun Boy ThreeGloria PritchettGregg WallaceGwyneth PaltrowHeston BlumenthalID cardsJamie OliverJeremy ClarksonJohn TorodeJose MourinhoKate MiddletonLeedsLen GoodmanLiz JonesMPs expensesMaltesersMasterchefMastermindMeg RyanMitfordModern FamilyMorecambe and WiseNicole KidmanNigella LawsonNormandyOprah WinfreyPaul RossPiers MorganPippa MiddletonPoundstretcherPrince PhilipPrince WilliamPrincess BeatricePrincess EugenieRaymond BriggsRebecca AdlingtonSainsburySimon CowellSofia VergaraStanley BaxterStrictly Come DancingSylvester StalloneTargeted AdvertisingTescoThe SnowmanTiverton ParkwayTurner PrizeTwitterWest CountryWestern TimesX FactorYul BrynnerZeng Fanzhiadoboadvertisementsageismanimal picturesapologiesartastrologybooksboxingbracesbreakfastbroadbandcatschainsawchipotlecleaningcondomscookerycottage piedietdumpstereBayeggsevening peopleeye testfoodgenesglobal warming; seasons; barbecuesgrumpy old womanhairhoroscopehotelsiPad 2ice bucket challengein-comerskitchenskittenslaptoplicensing lawslistslittle old ladiesmorning peoplenight outplantsplastic surgeryprisonpuppiesrabbitsrhubarbroyal garden partyroyal weddingsexsex educationshankssheetsshoppingsingingskipslave tradesnail porridgesocksstationerysupermarketteenagersthe Queentimetrainstypingunderage drinkingzodiacThe secret of happiness: be nice and have a laugh - and in the words of Miss Piggy, never eat more than you can lifthttp://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/noreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)Blogger242125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-498366899173932910Mon, 28 Apr 2025 10:19:00 +00002025-04-28T11:19:01.870+01:00 Oh dear, the weather is getting better here in the UK. You might think this is a cause for celebration, which it is to a certain extent. For me, though, it heralds PDAs (Public Displays of Affection). I don't mind people holding hands. In fact, the better half and I have been known to hold hands in public. Admittedly, only when we go on the Tube in London and I hang on to him http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2025/04/public-displays.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-8999458709141310178Thu, 27 Mar 2025 12:01:00 +00002025-03-27T12:01:47.642+00:00 If you spend very long on social media people will soon start sending you motivational quotes. I don't mind most of them - a metaphorical kick up the backside is sometimes appropriate. If Einstein has a bit of advice for you, it would be churlish not to at least cast an eye over it. (Although, a good 90 per cent of quotes attributed to Einstein were never uttered by him, although it seems http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2025/03/motivational-quotes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-4757722626828510252Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:30:00 +00002025-02-19T10:30:03.808+00:00Left to my own devices without the steadying hand of my better half I would rapidly turn into one of those mad women who live on their own in a tumbledown cottage on the edge of the village, surrounded by books and animals.I can imagine it now. I will be the one about whom mothers warn their children. "Don't hit your brother or Mad Woman will come and get you. If you carry on eating so much http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2025/02/future-perfect.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-7731017512138884560Wed, 15 Jan 2025 09:58:00 +00002025-01-15T09:58:24.306+00:00My friends who are not from the UK may never heard of our supermarket Waitrose. It’s a great store with high quality goods but it does have the reputation of being, shall we say, the supermarket of choice for the middle and upper classes who don’t mind paying more for products if it means not having to rub shoulders with us common people! It’s the antithesis of Walmarts.So when Waitrose http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2025/01/the-waitrose-experience.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-7059404683995424830Fri, 22 Nov 2024 08:00:00 +00002024-11-22T08:25:40.441+00:00I shared this a couple of years ago and, guess what?, we've only gone and had a load more snow this week! We Brits just can't cope. Please don't laugh at us, the rest of the world!Shit, It's Snow!I EXPECT all my friends who live outside the UK know that we Brits are obsessed by the weather. It's our primary topic of conversation and especially at this time of year. Although snow is not unusual inhttp://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2018/02/shit-its-snow.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-8498665631386156629Mon, 11 Nov 2024 12:19:00 +00002024-11-11T12:27:07.053+00:00 Well, it made ME laugh! Then again, I was once accused of having "a misplaced sense of humour"! It was written in one of my school reports. My parents laughed, obviously they also had a misplaced sense of humour. Christmas is coming so here's a present for a cat lover! Such a naughty book from the irrepressible Toffee!Here's her other book: Not So Sweet Toffee You can follow me on: http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2024/11/identify.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-5883901663962452646Mon, 14 Oct 2024 09:00:00 +00002024-10-14T10:18:11.860+01:00 The only careers advice I received as a teenager was to be a teacher or a nurse. “But I can’t stand the sight of blood!” I squealed. “Well, you can still be a teacher,” said the bored careers woman. And that was that. I was tempted to suggest that maybe she would have been better suited to being a cleaner, cook or cockle-gatherer, anything rather than a careers advisor but, http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2019/10/careering-along.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-3975424175532405999Mon, 20 May 2024 10:31:00 +00002024-05-20T11:31:59.627+01:00 It's not often official portraits cause controversy. No, they can be quite boring but King Charles III's latest picture has made many see red.Why is that?Um, well it IS very red. Very, very red, which prompted one critic to wonder if  the King's "grandkids helped colour it in with crayons". If it's not been painted by one of his grandchildren, who did paint it?It was created by http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2024/05/seeing-red-with-king-charles.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-2340476259506324631Wed, 15 May 2024 09:31:00 +00002024-05-15T10:31:34.513+01:00 Wally the alligator who has gone missing. Why are telling me about Joie Henney's pet called Wally?Wally is an emotional support pet and he's gone missing.Very sad but why is it big news?Wally is an alligator.Ah, wouldn't be my choice but each to their own.Joie says Wally has helped relieve his depression for a nearly a decade.So what happened?Joie took Wally with him to his holiday home in http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2024/05/see-you-later-alligator.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-6058197661865118341Mon, 13 May 2024 09:58:00 +00002024-05-13T10:58:07.241+01:00Why is everyone talking about a lobster diver called Mike Packard?He was swallowed by a whale.Very Biblical. So what happened?Mike  was diving for lobsters at Herring Cove Beach in Massachusetts and, like I said, he got swallowed whole by a humpback whale.Yikes! Yikes and ouch!Indeed. He was completely inside the whale and thought he was a goner.He's here to tell the tale so presumably he http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2024/05/mikes-whale-of-time.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-5062007415316207577Mon, 15 Apr 2024 10:42:00 +00002024-04-15T11:42:35.319+01:00Our Alan in those subversive jeans.Shock! Horror! Alan Titchmarsh has been banned by North Korean TV. Or, to be more precise, his JEANS have!My British friends will know how mind-boggling it is for our "national treasure" Alan to have courted controversy in that most authoritarian of dictatorships. My friends from foreign shores are probably saying,  'Alan who?'Let me enlighten youhttp://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2024/04/north-korea-doesnt-dig-alan-titchmarsh.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-8968886024096781597Mon, 15 Jan 2024 11:53:00 +00002024-01-15T11:53:18.469+00:00 Several of my Facebook  friends have been doing that exercise where you count three blessings a day for five days. It doesn't hurt to sit down and realise how blessed  you are. I know how lucky I am to have a great man (even if he's not perfect, see below) and a brilliant family (if slightly mad). I'm healthy (mostly), wealthy (compared to 90% of the world, if not to Bill Gates) and http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2024/01/counting-your-blessings.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-7401890775441617171Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:40:00 +00002023-11-30T09:40:35.699+00:00A post on one of my favourites blogs (The Misadventures of Widowhood) reminded me that Christmas is just around the corner. It has, just like every year, crept up on me and here I sit with not a card written, present wrapped or yule log baked. I don't know why - it's the same date this year it has been for the last 2,000 or so years so I can't pretend it has come as a surprise.  The man is http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/11/christmas-decorations.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-1342389008779788017Fri, 24 Nov 2023 11:51:00 +00002023-11-24T11:52:26.427+00:00Wouldn't mind sharing my car with this little dude!I have heard all the dire warnings about global warming so to complain about car sharing seems inappropriate.But I’m going to anyway.For a start, you can’t do any of those antisocial things like spit, fart and chew baccy. I don’t particularly want to spit, fart and chew baccy – but I want to feel I can if the mood takes me. And I’m never sure of http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/11/car-sharing-dilemma.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-1496256525678275893Wed, 22 Nov 2023 11:19:00 +00002023-11-22T12:00:03.800+00:00 I get very depressed when I start thinking about all those villains spread across the globe who only want to con me and part me from my cash.Recently I was contacted by a "police officer" telling me he had arrested a woman who had fraudulently tried to use a credit card registered to my address. He sounded very realistic - gave me his police number, contact details etc etc.Then he told http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/11/dont-fall-for-spammers-tricks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-4338662328886979008Mon, 09 Oct 2023 08:48:00 +00002023-10-09T09:50:03.939+01:00 I was reading one of my favourite blogs https://misadventuresofwidowhood.blogspot.com/ when the poster mentioned kale! It brought back memories of "my life with kale" which I posted about back in the year dot. So here's the post again, just in case you'd like to read it! I've shortened it slightly from the original - it seemed a bit wordy! My Life With Kale He doesn't say them often, but I http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/10/my-life-with-kale.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-7773425394800700208Mon, 25 Sep 2023 09:11:00 +00002023-09-25T10:11:49.501+01:00Michael Caine the day he was knighted, with his wife ShakiraI was reading an interview with the wonderful Michael Caine in the Sunday papers. Michael, who is an astonishing 90 years old, has just made a new film called The Great Escaper.It's about Bernard Jordan (played by Caine), an 89-year-old Navy veteran who absconded from a care home to go to the D-Day anniversary events in France in 2014.http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/09/michael-caines-new-film.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-6634827746281744361Tue, 19 Sep 2023 11:39:00 +00002023-09-19T12:39:58.801+01:00Today the old man put his work jeans into the laundry basket and then laughed as he handed me the card pictured above. He had just found it in the pocket of his new jeans after wearing them for a week. Glad to report that no "excess surface dye" had contaminated his body, other clothing or the furniture. It made me think about washing instructions, which I usually glance at before washing http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/09/the-saga-of-washing-instructions.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-3386300928491866675Tue, 12 Sep 2023 08:34:00 +00002023-09-12T09:34:38.219+01:00 Say hello to cycle karaoke.My older sister Peggy (aged 80) is fit as a butcher's dog. In fact, she is so fit is that she represents Great Britain for her age group in triathlons and aquathlons (yes, that is the correct spelling - not sure where the L came from but there you go). She recently became world champion in aquathlon and was on the last leg of becoming the triathlon world http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/09/getting-fit.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-8553489613230522485Thu, 07 Sep 2023 08:52:00 +00002023-09-07T09:52:29.621+01:00I hate supermarkets.  I hate the way they have made me feel guilty  because I fell for their Buy One Get One Free blandishments and neglected my village shop, which is now closed. Now it's too late, I realise I have bought into consumerism and sacrificed the local economy to big business led by people with small brains and big off-shore bank accounts.But no matter how much I wish http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/09/i-hate-supermarkets-but-still-shop-there.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-3036977563691426602Tue, 05 Sep 2023 09:15:00 +00002023-09-05T10:15:52.205+01:00While Europe has been sweltering in a blazing hot summer my part of England has barely reached 'take your coat off' weather.It's just as well. We Brits don't really handle hot weather well. We're not used to it so we are never prepared. We are fine abroad because we have packed our swimming cossies, the high factor sun cream and the floppy sun hats. In England, though, it's a different story.We http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/09/a-day-on-beach.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-977788656293348635Fri, 18 Aug 2023 09:08:00 +00002023-08-18T10:08:22.839+01:00Photo posed by model. I haven't yet stooped to humiliating young people in public!I'm in a right 'grumpy old woman' mood today (no change there, I hear you say).A neighbour called in for a brief visit yesterday to tell me about a local issue. She had sulky teenage daughter in tow. Teenage daughter spent the whole visit glued to her mobile phone from which issued bleeps, boops and buzzes http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/08/teenagers-and-phones.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-1503644461566096858Mon, 07 Aug 2023 10:13:00 +00002023-08-07T11:13:29.696+01:00 I know I am probably expecting too much from the computer generation and I know there are myriad technological things they can do that I can't. But why do they seem to have gone straight to interacting with MySQL databases (impressed, huh? No, I haven't a clue what it means) and the like without learning any of the basics? I have been thinking about this after being served in a http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/08/no-change-there.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-2283362076678827746Tue, 01 Aug 2023 12:58:00 +00002023-08-01T13:58:48.038+01:00 The good old "lollipop lady" at work. Once upon a time you knew near enough what someone did for a living by their job title. You knew what a dustman, a dinner lady, a lollipop lady and a restaurant dish-washer were up to all day (I'm sure there are some non-British readers who are scratching their heads over some of these titles. For example, in the US a lollipop lady is a school http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/08/high-falutin-job-titles.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2170423875365707527.post-4935936794012000830Sat, 06 May 2023 14:05:00 +00002023-05-06T15:15:06.706+01:00No, this is not my better half. I wish...Today is World Naked Gardening Day when, according to its website, "people across the globe are encouraged to tend their portion of the world’s garden unclothed as nature intended." It asks, why garden naked? Then tells us, "First of all, it's fun!" Mmm, I beg to differ. And, I'm told, it's a family-friendly activity. Not in my family it wouldn't be.&http://www.aroundmykitchentable.co.uk/2023/05/naked-gardening-day.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Around My Kitchen Table)4