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Post by Patrick on Aug 30, 2009 16:08:08 GMT
Intresting article by Laurie TaylorS'funny though - We just used to have Bacon, Egg and Fried Bread 'cos it was gorgeous! Not for any particular social reasoning. To this day it would be my 'ultimate' meal - even above spagbol and other delicacies from home or abroad. It really deserves a knighthood for "services to tummies!" 
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Post by everso on Aug 30, 2009 16:37:48 GMT
Intresting article by Laurie TaylorS'funny though - We just used to have Bacon, Egg and Fried Bread 'cos it was gorgeous! Not for any particular social reasoning. To this day it would be my 'ultimate' meal - even above spagbol and other delicacies from home or abroad. It really deserves a knighthood for "services to tummies!" I did bacon, egg and fried bread last weekend when we had a relative to stay with us. We hadn't eaten it for a while and, my god, it was nectar. Fried bread is an essential part of the meal, together with Heinz tomato ketchup and HP sauce. Oh, and toast and marmalade for afterwards, together with a mug of hot sweet tea. Cor! |
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Post by Patrick on Aug 30, 2009 16:42:43 GMT
Yup! Hungry now! - and it's half past five too! ;D
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Post by everso on Aug 30, 2009 16:44:16 GMT
Yup! Hungry now! - and it's half past five too! ;D Me too! We're off up to Danbury this evening for a Hog Roast at The Griffin. That's if there's any hog left - it started at 12 noon. |
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Post by Patrick on Aug 30, 2009 17:06:24 GMT
Coo! Hog Roast and free flowing ale - you know how to have a good time!
I just whipped up some cheese on toast instead! 'Back to Basics' style, thinly sliced with a bit of sauce.
Now there's a dilemma - Grated vs Sliced? It's an 'effort' thing - I suppose, being cut up that the grated cheese probably cooks better - but there's something gloriously neanderthall about slabs of cheese - and in the end - the flavour isn't much different. A Sandwich of course has to have grated cheese to avoid comparison with the rubber stuff they still insist on sticking on sarnies in shops if you're unlucky.
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Post by everso on Aug 30, 2009 17:18:41 GMT
Ah now. Yesterday I did cheese on toast for our lunch. Usually I just slap on some sliced cheese and whip it under the grill. Yesterday I grated some Cheddar cheese and some Red Leicester and mixed it all with a couple of teaspoonsful of Dijon mustard. Then I spread it on the toast and popped it under the grill till it melted and started to turn brown.
My god it was delicious.
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Post by Patrick on Aug 30, 2009 17:49:06 GMT
.........and let's not even start on whether to egg it or not! Or whether Welsh Rarebit has beer in!
Such etiquette problems!
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Post by housesparrow on Aug 30, 2009 19:02:39 GMT
Sure, we sometimes have a great fry-up for breakfast. But the idea of egg and chips at five o'clock does seem "other worldish", as Laurie Taylor found.
I have memories of going home with children who lived somewhere betwen me and Stub Crouch - a middle class area, but probably more lower than upper! They (primary school age) had been left alone to get their own tea, with instructions on how to cook boil-in-the-bag kippers. I don't know why it stuck in my memory so much.
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Post by Patrick on Aug 30, 2009 22:42:31 GMT
Sure, we sometimes have a great fry-up for breakfast. But the idea of egg and chips at five o'clock does seem "other worldish", as Laurie Taylor found. I have memories of going home with children who lived somewhere betwen me and Stub Crouch - a middle class area, but probably more lower than upper! They (primary school age) had been left alone to get their own tea, with instructions on how to cook boil-in-the-bag kippers. I don't know why it stuck in my memory so much. Thinking more deeply about this - I would say yes - that we didn't necessarily have it for tea. Mum was a too good'er cook for that. Ironic that lately she'd just fallen in love with M&S ready meals! It has the same sort of disappointment for me as when I heard my favourite head teacher who encouraged me to read, only preferred "Condensed" versions of books. Still, If you've done too much of one thing you want a rest after a while! They weren't from the big 'ouses North of the Pilgrims's Way then Housey! ;D |
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Post by housesparrow on Aug 31, 2009 6:33:22 GMT
I can't remember there being any houses at all north of the Pilgrim's Way in Kemsing, though there were a few in Otford; the road marked the boundary between the villages and the North Downs.
The house would probably be considered big by modern standards. The only thing I really remember is going after school to the house of some children I barely knew (I was friendly with their neighbour) who then had to work out how to cook kippers. I may be wrong about them being boil-in-the-bag, but boiling them certainly came into the equation.
My mother would never have left children alone to fend for themselves but I probably would have just had some bread and cheese.
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Post by aubrey on Aug 31, 2009 9:02:45 GMT
Egg and chips (and maybe beans) is the classic tea for me (tea being the main evening meal). Actually, I can't think of anything I'd like more (though I'm not supposed to have chips now - too much potassium).
We were always left alone - me and my brother - certainly well before sec school - a good few years before. I suppose we got our own food. But we never thought anything of it.
Our parents didn't have much choice.
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Post by Patrick on Aug 31, 2009 11:09:27 GMT
I became a latch key kid too. Mum drove in the mornings and evenings for the "Private Car Hire" firm down the road - who had school contracts for the area. So invariably I'd come back before she dropped off all of hers.
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Post by housesparrow on Sept 1, 2009 7:40:51 GMT
Yes, my mum was a bit over protective! I often thought I would welcome a couple of hours in a quiet house after a tiring day at school. The grass is always greener.....
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Post by jean on Sept 1, 2009 13:10:04 GMT
It is an interesting article, but I think Laurie Taylor is as guilty of lazy stereotypes as those he criticises. There's nothing inherently working-class about terraced houses. Terraces are an excellent way of building high-density urban housing. I live in a Victorian terrace now, and the social mix in my street is as great as you could wish. And he seems to have got into a serious muddle when he writes: 'The Liverpool sculptor, Arthur Dooley, was talking on the radio about the destruction of even more Liverpool terraces. The architect who was responsible for this latest bout of demolition sought to justify his action by telling Dooley that not one of the residents had complained about being moved out to the new tower block estates on the edges of the city.'The latest proposed demolitions are of a different order from those of the 60s and 70s, and are more to do with offering developers cleared sites near the city centre than with attempts (however mistaken) to improve the living conditions of working-class people. The misconceived Pathfinder project has gone a bit quiet recently though, since developers can't quite see the quick profits now that they hoped for. www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve5/welsh_streets.htm |
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Post by housesparrow on Sept 1, 2009 13:31:40 GMT
Long terraces of houses on busy roads are brilliant. However noisy the traffic in the front, the back can be a haven of peace; the smallest yard or garden can provide an almost silent refuge.
That doesn't seem to happen with blocks of flats, because the noise works its way round the gaps. Besides, you'll be lucky to get a window box, let alone a balcony, in a lot of them.
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Post by Patrick on Sept 1, 2009 13:40:47 GMT
OOoooh! Don't get me started on the Pathfinder Project! Prescott's little con trick/cosy deal with the developers! There's not much quality left on ITV these days but the Tonight Programme special where they took a terrace house and "Upgraded" it for a fraction of what the Pathfinder idea is going to cost (per house), proved something that many of us knew all along - that Pathfinder is just a chance (as you say) to clear sites in the town centre in order to build inappropriate housing at a profit to the developer. Because the replacement properties would cost a hell of a lot more than the refurbished terrace. I think Old Laurie gets confused between trying to be the academic and trying to hang on to his roots! Can't fault his presentation style though - a bit like old Lionel Blue - they could read out the phone book and it would sound good! Though saying that - Laurie didn't do too well ad libbing it in the stand up comedy experiment he did with Libby Purves and Peter White. so perhaps LT is just good at reading a script  Talking of space though, did you know that if they tried to house all the people currently living in London in homes built to modern designs - they'd have to fill the area the size of the M25 to do it? Such was the brilliance of our forebears in building. Let's also give a hand (whilst we're at it) to the designers of the British, bay fronted, three bed semi. The ultimate Meccano Home for growing families. |
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Post by aubrey on Sept 1, 2009 16:19:43 GMT
The kind of flat that I live in - 4 story, two or three wings of 4 flats each - are really good - apart from not having a garden (though people on the ground floor do, now). They're the kind of flats you often see in Minder, and I suppose Hill Street Blues: the kind they're always going to knock people up at 6AM.
They're really nicely designed - very small, but every square foot used to the full. These are council flats from I think the 30s.
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Post by Patrick on Sept 1, 2009 16:35:44 GMT
I've a friend (and my brother) who live in Peabody Trust buildings in London - one had a flat near Victoria and although they look a bit grim on the outside and the rooms were a little small - the big hallway linking them together made the whole place very spacious feeling.
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Post by housesparrow on Sept 1, 2009 17:26:49 GMT
The kind of flat that I live in - 4 story, two or three wings of 4 flats each - are really good - apart from not having a garden (though people on the ground floor do, now). They're the kind of flats you often see in Minder, and I suppose Hill Street Blues: the kind they're always going to knock people up at 6AM. They're really nicely designed - very small, but every square foot used to the full. These are council flats from I think the 30s. Not the ones with the outside walkways on each floor, aubrey? They were heralded as the answer to all our urban planning problems in the late '60s; according to the TV cop dramas they now house ex-lifers and the mothers of drug dealers. |
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Post by everso on Sept 1, 2009 18:10:42 GMT
The kind of flat that I live in - 4 story, two or three wings of 4 flats each - are really good - apart from not having a garden (though people on the ground floor do, now). They're the kind of flats you often see in Minder, and I suppose Hill Street Blues: the kind they're always going to knock people up at 6AM. They're really nicely designed - very small, but every square foot used to the full. These are council flats from I think the 30s. They were heralded as the answer to all our urban planning problems in the late '60s; according to the TV cop dramas they now house ex-lifers and the mothers of drug dealers. My grandad used to live in one of those in Stepney (East End) after his Victorian terraced house was demolished in the late 1950s. It was grim. Mind you, the Victorian was even grimmer. |
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