Rupert2251

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

Found this .. a nice little short film with even Robbie's dad making an appearance !

 

Oh wow thats my Hole in the Wall! Glenn never did get his new build and the old shop was demolished to make way for new houses, such a shame. Thank you Presto2, brings back a lot of memories.

Here you go a good old Staffordshire oatcake with bacon and cheese......mmmm

12 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Highland Oatcakes are the best we think though the ones opposite Central Forest Park from 'Six Towns' are good too - though rather on the large side. (ie not thick but large!) 

Yes they are massive!

22 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Anything like Welshcakes?When we went to Cardiff last year there was a queue for them stretching outside.Bought a few but found them a bit soft, and sweet.Now,my OHs bread pud is another story,lovely jubbly.

No nothing like. Oatcakes you can fill like a wrap with anything you want really, my favourite is bacon, cheese and mushroom. Yum!

3 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

It's strange isn't it how we all like our different oatcakes.  My grandma had an oatcake shop in Joiners Square and I have never found any as nice hers were.  I don't like Aunty Sarah's Oatcakes we have had them occasionally because they are in Normacot so fairly close to us, we are in Lightwood.  We usually get ours from Oatcuisine in Dresden which are the closest that I have got to my grandma's but today I got them from Foley Oatcakes, they are slightly thicker so not quite as nice but a friend of ours swears that they are the best that he has ever had.

What a small world it is. Oatcakes seem to run in families dont they. Our local one was The Hole in the Wall on Waterloo Street when I was a kid, nobody to beat them including my uncle who was just up the road. We have also tried Poveys which you can get from Bridgemere and Trentham.

3 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

It's a horrible morning here, plenty of sleet and snow.  I usually go to the oatcake shop on Thursdays because DH likes to have a cooked breakfast once a week  but when I got there the shop was closed. 

DH has just told me that they live at Leek so it is possible that they are having problems on the roads.  I didn’t try the other oatcake shop which is near to us because their oatcakes are thick and nasty like the supermarket ones.

The children and their dad usually have oatcakes too when I get ours so they are going to be disappointed today.

Oatcakes should be nice and thin. My uncle had an oatcake shop in Hanley and his oatcakes were thick but very popular, not for me! Our favourite shop has now been demolished but we have managed to find Aunty Sarah's Oatcakes in our local shop which are the closest to our original.

2 hours ago, Purdey16 said:

Well after watching the Traitors again this year which was brilliant again, we decided to watch the Australian traitors series 1 last night and got addicted to that and binge watched all until 4 o’clock this morning and having ham rolls at 2.30 we felt like naughty children staying up all night 😂 now been up since 8.30 and watching the Australian men’s tennis final, so next on our list is to watch the second series of Traitors but this time we will do it during the day or over two evenings.

A simple dinner today sausage ,beans & mash which we haven’t had for many moons 

Have a lovely day everyone what ever you’re doing 🌞

Love The Traitors. Half way through Australian series 2, don't forget US series 1 is on iplayer and series 2 coming soon. Enjoy! 😁

1 hour ago, grapau27 said:

Cheddar is lovely.

She is an absolute darling but full of mischief.

For those of you who know Trentham Gardens this was the lake this morning around 10ish, and of course one of our gorgeous little girlie Cheddar, 5 months old now and growing fast!

4 hours ago, zap99 said:

Lunch out for us. We had a break from all the faff this year, but still have more food than morrisons.

Zaps Christmas quiz. Which pic is the Britannia Glasshouse and which is Miller and Carter.

 

Miller & Carter photo 1. The onion loaf gives it away!!

1 hour ago, Angel57 said:

Talking of sprouts….. Freddie has been given one. At least there shouldn’t be any of the usual repercussions from this one 🤣

Snap

Cheddar took herself off to bed early tonight in her den waiting for Santa. We are now watching A Christmas Carol Disneys version with Jim Carrey, the best one IMO.

1 hour ago, Angel57 said:

Merry Christmas to all.
Freddie is waiting patiently for Santa and promises he hasn’t eaten the carrot left out for the reindeer…🙄

Looks a bit guilty to me😁

We took Cheddar to Trentham Gardens this morning thinking we would have a nice quiet walk as everyone would be food shopping. Forgot that every Saturday they have a Parkrun and today was a special fun run with most of the runners in fancy dress. Of course she wanted to run with them. Arrived back home absolutely shattered after chasing a snowman by the lake. 

Thats it, we're finished no more supermarkets until after Christmas now, all shopping done, presents wrapped but not under the tree. No tree for us this year as there is too much temptation for Cheddar, all the other decs are up though.

1 hour ago, sandancer said:

So you didn’t actually experience the noise yourself?  We didn’t have any problem and didn’t speak to anyone who did. I hope the OP won’t be put off. We really enjoyed the aft cabin and spend a lot of time on our balcony. 

Maybe he wasn't on your cruise coming back from Barbados. On the Med cruise in Sept it was horrendous. By the way Arvia sold out of paracetamol.

1 hour ago, Josy1953 said:

You could buy a present from Santa at Bridgemere and they do a "Breakfast with Santa" but we didn't partake so I don't know what it was like.

Yes I've seen the Breakfast with Santa advertised ar Bridgemere, they cordon off part of the restaurant on the left last time we went. 

3 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

My sister and I often moan about the loss of BHS.  Lewis's was our favorite place for getting coffee when we were in Hanley. 

We were always taken to see Santa in Lewis's as children and loved the walk through the grotto.

We used to take my niece's children to see Santa at Bridgemere when they were small but when DH and I took my god-daughter's son there last year we were very disappointed it was more grotty than grotto.

I think that children are missing out on so much these days, not allowed to sit on Santa's knee anymore, no lovely grotto and do they get any present when visiting him? It used to take weeks to build the grotto in Lewis's (I worked there as well) the window displays, everything was so different and innocent then, how times have changed and not for the best.

19 hours ago, kalos said:

We were saying that we wish we could go back to when we had our stores like Woolies, C&A  and good old British Home stores . Do you have any shops that you miss ?

I worked at BHS for 20 plus years and miss it terribly. It was a really friendly place to be, shame greedy green sold it to an absolute idiot!! I also miss our Lewis's  with their lovely food Hall, the smell of freshly ground coffee. Visiting Santa in his grotto at Christmas was just magical. 

11 hours ago, doog442 said:

I've just seen a recent video review which specifically says 'if you don't like thumping music don't book an aft cabin'. They then mention a DJ and loud music at the Sunset bar during the day. Anyone had any experience of this ? We've been on numerous ships with sunset bars but never had a DJ with thumping music on what we were hoping would be a peaceful part of the ship, clearly not in this case.

We had a corner suite on deck 15 in Sept. It was like being at a 90's rave.....boom boom boom! He dose an afternoon, then sailaway then back on 7-10. He finishes at 10pm. The music in the Sunset Bar is fine, its not loud until he comes on. 

1 hour ago, Josy1953 said:

Yes it was at Wolstanton.  I am getting tired of shops that are changing to to self serve tills.  Tesco and Sainsbury both seem to have switched to having mostly self serve tills and there is invariably someone having problems though I seem to be lucky in both Longton and Meir Park Tescos and Stoke Sainsburys, up to now I have had no problems in any of those stores.

DH says that they are obviously saving a lot on pay if they are prepared to alienate a fair  proportion if their customers.

Another experience again today in M&S food. Two ladies in front of us on the self serve conveyor belt, clearly over 25 bought some wine. When the assistant came to authorise she asked the lady who was paying for ID, the lady said it was in the car, so the assistant asked her to go and get it holding up the rest of the queue. It turns out they were mother and daughter (daughter who was paying was in her 30ies). The mother was so embarrassed and kept apologising to us. I wonder if it was the same one who you had (no brains or common sense).

14 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

 We went to M&S food shopping this morning and there wad only 1 human till open.  We joined the queue because I foolishly used one of the self service tills last week and I had to ask the young lady to come and sort it out when it wouldn't accept my debit card, I was annoyed when she said that that particular till only accepted cash and I didn't have enough cash so she told me to go to the human till.  The same young lady was walking along the the human till queue today asking people to go and use the self service tills when I declined she said that she understood that "elderly people" were reluctant to use technology but that she thinks that our M&S will switch to all self service tills in the new year.

I did point out that I had no problem with technology but M&S's technology is very poor and that I didn't think that she should be insulting people simply because they were over 60.

Hi Josy was this at Wolstanton? We were in there yesterday and even in the main store they are now asking how you are paying. If you are paying by card you are directed to a bank of self serve tills,no explanation how to use, we had to call for someone to come because we wanted a gift receipt so an assistant came and did the transaction for us.

13 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

Lovely dog.

Yes butter wouldn't melt!!

Cheddar enjoyed her afternoon snack.

12 hours ago, pete14 said:

You can always tell if somebody is from the fine city of Stoke on Trent, because whenever they have a plate put in front of them, they always look underneath it to see whether it is of sufficient quality to be made in the Potteries, or at least for a company based there. 

I laughed out loud when I read this because it is so true 🤪