Ho ho ho!

Yesterday I made some Christmas Pudding Cookies as my entry to the “Matthew Walker Pudding Challenge”. They went down really well with my friends at work, and I will definitely be making these again come Christmas :-D

Ingredients (makes 12)
3 oz flour
3 oz caster sugar
3 oz rolled oats
3 oz butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp milk
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g Mathew Walker Christmas Pudding

Recipe
Pre-heat oven to Gas Mark 6.
Prepare an oven tray with greaseproof paper.
Mix together the flour, caster sugar and rolled oats in a large mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt.
Melt the butter and syrup in a pan.
Stir the melted butter and syrup into the flour, sugar and oats.
Mix the milk and bicarbonate of soda together, and add this to the mixing bowl.
Add the Christmas Pudding chunks to the cookie mix.

The cookie mix is done!

Place golf-ball sized chunks of the cookie mix evenly spaced onto the tray (about 10cm apart).
Cook in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
Remove and cool.

Enjoy!

Matthew Walker is the World’s Oldest Christmas Pudding Maker, creating puddings in the heart of Derbyshire since 1899. Matthew Walker ‘The Pudding’ - made to "Recipe 13, "The Perfect Christmas Pudding Recipe" - contains the 13 core ingredients that were used to represent Jesus and his 12 Apostles. They are: sultanas, raisins, demerara sugar, currants, glacé cherries, Thornbridge stout, breadcrumbs, sherry, vegetable suet, almonds, orange and lemon peel, cognac and mixed spice).

Here is a list of my top five favourite foods;

1. Christmas Pudding
2. Mince Pies
3. Christmas Dinner
4. Christmas Cake
5. Grapefruit with a cherry in the middle.

Name: Don Crown AKA "Budgieman"
Location: South Bank, Saturday 22nd July 2007, 4pm.
Description: The Famous Budgie Entertainer

• Skill - 5/5 (He can play a number of instruments and composes all of his work in his head)
• Style - 1/5 (Maybe he should dress as a budgie?)
• Danger - 0/5 (Budgieman frowns upon those who smoke near his budgies!)
• Context - 5/5 (This is weird, even for the South Bank)
• Overall - 2.75/5

As a young man Don realised he had budgie power. Following this discovery is an amazing tale of a sign painter turned entertainer, whose popularity is growing by using the internet to promote himself and his music. However, with great power comes great responsibility; Budgieman does not squander his gift, as he sings about the monarchy in "Queen Mothers Love" and tackles the heavy weight issue of the smoking ban in "I Don't Like Smoke". By standing up for what he believes in he stands out from the rest of the "performers" on the South Bank, who mostly just stand still painted silver asking for money! Here's some advice: get some animals, train 'em up and write some tunes which not only entertain but make people think! Yeah!

I know what you're thinking now though. Is Budgieman all that weird? Afterall, other acts have incorporated our feathered friends before. Where would Keith Harris be without Orville? And Rod Hull without Emu? And all this got me thinking; what other bird themed entertainment would I like to see?

Perhaps;

• A team of stunt peregrine falcons (who can dive at 200mph!)
• A pair of penguins that can make cocktails to music
• A woodpecker that tells knock-knock jokes :)
  

It has been one whole year since this blog started life! Hooray! See how he's grown:


And to think it started life as just one of those little cyber-blobs :)

I'm rather proud :P

Today I visited the Concorde laid to rest at Filton Airfeild, the very last one to fly (#216-AF). Instead of tickets we had cute little boarding passes, and there were airport style announcements to let visitors know what was going on. The people who run the museum are really passionate about Concorde because they used to work on the original project and know literally everything about it and have some funny stories to tell;

Once, one of the chaps, went in the airtake whilst hydraulic power was on, despite the sign advising the contrary! Oh how we laughed.


Also, there was a short mini-bus tour of the airfield itself, taking in the sites. Infact, Filton Airfield is the Europe's Second Largest site for the number of portakabins.

And as if that's not enough, here's the biggy - it hosts Europes Largest Portakabin! It can only be described as gargantuan! I think the rule is; if two (or more) portakabins are touching it counts as one. I can't begin to imagine how big the Worlds Largest Portakabin is... but I know I want to see it :D

Name: Trevor (real name unknown)
Location: Trafalgar Square, Saturday 12th May 2007, 3pm.
Description: An unholy hybrid between horse and man like something out of The Wicker Man.

• Skill - 4/5 (Fun horse antics and interaction with the crowd)
• Style - 3/5 (For attention to detail on the head, and a cape)
• Danger - 0/5 (Mischief was the name of the game for this chap!)
• Context - 2.5/5 (It's a man in a horse costume, although this is a Morris Dancing tradition...)
• Overall - 2.375/5

On a rainy Trafalgar Square was the annual Day of Dance held by the Westminster Morris Men. I got chatting to one of the dancers and it turned out he was from Ormskirk, which is where I grew up! I feel the heavy hand of destiny upon me, perhaps I should become a Morris Man myself... but what job would I have? After some research I have narrowed it down to these three;

• The Ragman, who looks after the costumes.
• The Musicians, who make the noises on squeezeboxes.
• The Hobby Horse, who entertains the crowd and collects money, which he then gives to the bagman.

Apparently there isn't a minimum age limit, but when I'm older I reckon I might give it a go. I love the eccentricity of Morris Dancers and the odd traditions that they have, especially this one called Red Leicester :P

So the moral of the story goes, Morris dancing isn't actually that weird, because if its tradition you get away with it.