MacMillan Coffee Morning

25 September 2021 billpaterson1@me.com 2 Comments

Back in 2019 Pat ran a MacMillan Coffee Morning and raised over £500 which we thought was absolutely tremendous. Last year, of course, it was cancelled because of COVID. This year she thought she would try again. It’s easy to agreed to run one of these events in April when September is still almost six months away. Suddenly, however, it’s September and you realise that there is a lot involved in getting such an event off the ground …. aaaargghh!

The MacMillan organisation has given our family much appreciated support over the years. So, no matter how much is involved, we feel almost duty bound to try and repay in some small way. The MacMillan Coffee Mornings are a very pleasurable way of doing exactly that.

Lion poo

invitations were distributed round the neighbourhood over a fortnight ago but would anybody come … that was the question? Of course they did and yesterday our house was packed to bursting.

One of the nice things about these events is that fact that people are so happy to help in any way they can. Cakes galore appeared as if by magic as did biscuits, tarts and all sorts of other goodies. Folk also brought plants and things to sell or use as raffle prizes … amazing! We even had a box of lion poo to raffle!

And guess what, one guest even brought a whole tray of homebaked scones … yeah! The house was stuffed with people and while Pat and I mingled our friends worked themselves to te bone making sure everything went like clockwork We are so lucky! I even had time to sample the scones. They all looked great, just the right size and soft with just a hint of crustiness on the exterior. Together with apple jelly and whipped cream they would have been an easy topscone had it not been for the fact that none of our readers will ever be able to sample them. That’s not a whole lot of use so we’ve had to leave them as ‘uncategorised’. Fab sconesthough

Generosity

We’ve left out carping about politicians in this post because this is much more important … they can wait for our disgruntlement. At the moment we are very happy, because it was a wonderful couple of hours. To us it reaffirmed just how wonderful people are! Either by helping in all sorts of ways but also by their extraordinary generosity. MacMillan Coffee Mornings were going being held all over the world at the same time as ours. If you consider that our relatively modest event has raised the amazing amount £1,250 so far there must have been a lot of money donated to MacMillan yesterday. And quite right too! If any readers feel like contributing even more you can use this QR code.The winner of the lion poo just cannot believe his luck!

Many thanks to everyone concerned but particularly to Henry’s Coffee Company and Cafe Corvina for their very generous support.

Ordinary, Scones

Dunelm Coffee House

14 September 2021 billpaterson1@me.com 4 Comments

This is a distressing tale of misconception misfortune. More than a little harrowing so readers of a delicate disposition should consider carefully whether to read further. It starts scarily by me going into a shop … something I haven’t done in a long time. I’ve found Jeff Bezos is perfectly capable of looking after all my worldly needs … except scones, of course. We were actually heading to Frankie and Benny’s for some lunch when we came on this sign as we passed the Dunelm homewares store which houses the Dunelm Coffee House.

We don’t want you to think that we are cheapskates but a scone for £1 just cannot be ignored. As soon as you go in you are confronted by masses of stuff … everything from a needle to an anchor. Admittedly we didn’t ask for either but if we had, they would probably have directed us to the appropriate section. “Anchors are over there sir between the kettles and the made-to-measure curtains!”

Thawing out?

The cafe is on the first floor so up we went. We took our seats and Pat went to the self service counter to order some lunch and a scone to share. Sacre bleu, they had a big basket of scones but we were told they were all frozen and hadn’t thawed out … what? There was no choice but to simply settle for a ham and cheese toastie.

As we were finishing however I noticed a lady going past and what did she have … a scone! I called over to the girl behind the counter “how come we didn’t get a scone” to which she answered “because they weren’t ready but they are now“. It had to be done so Pat went up and waited in the queue again to get one. Turned out it was only the scone for £1, if you wanted jam and cream it was £2.70. Mon Dieu, is there no end?

Well no there wasn’t! They may have been ‘ready’ in somebody’s eyes but definitely not in ours. Okay it wasn’t frozen but it had just bearly got above zero degrees. Refreshing you might think on a hot day like this but no, it was just hard and cold. To top it all it came with cream from Cornwall and jam from Tiptree in Essex and you all know what we think of that. Told you it was harrowing. We did get a nice bath mat though!

Pride

So the Council of Europe has found Britain to be the most unequal country in Europe with the highest poverty rates.lowest pensions and the least democracy. Wow, that’s not something to be proud of! All is not lost, however, Emma Raduncanu has just won the US tennis championship without dropping a single set in the entire tournament. Remarkable for anyone but for an 18 year old it’s quite astounding. She came through with nothing expected of her. Even she had her return flights to London booked two weeks before the final. We just hope she can withstand the media pressure she will find herself under in future championships. Adding the pressure of being virtually the only thing the UK can be proud of won’t help either. Good luck Emma.

FK1 1LW tel: 01324 460020 Dunelm

The Pedant has sent pictures of a couple of Falkirk made K6s in Broadway in Essex. Also some black K6s near Piccadilly Circus in London. Frozen scones and black telephone boxes … the world has gone to pot!

Ordinary, Scones

Tudor Coffee House

8 September 2021 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

In our previous post from Nithbank House we mentioned the extraordinary love between Lord and Lady Nithsdale. That was back in the 18th century but the place we are in today is dedicated to love. It’s their secret ingredient! We are at the Tudor Coffee House in Strathaven (pronounced Stray-ven).

External view of Tudor House Coffee Shop — Three metre long side on the side of the building

Love is all you need

They even give advice on how to achieve it. In 1362, Archibald the Grim became the first Baron of Strathaven. He did it through marriage to Joanna de Moravia . This is a small miracle in itself because, by all accounts, Archie was of unrefined stature and pot ugly. We can only think that he must have visited the Tudor Coffee House and took some lessons in the art of love. Pedantic readers need not write to point out problems with this timeline.

The cafe’s not very big so we decided to sit outside in the sunshine so that we could watch Strathaven in action. We’ve passed through the town before but never noticed how pretty it is. The large square in the centre is a car park now but it used to be common pasture and is still called ‘The Green’. The surrounding buildings are harled in a variety of colours that give it an overall pleasing effect in the sunshine. It used to have a thriving weaving industry but the number of passing tractors seemed to indicate something more agricultural these days.

We wanted a fruit scone but they only had plain left. The lovely girl who was looking after us offered to toast it and seemed, judging by the knowing wink, to think that was a good idea. Who were we to argue? Turned out to be sound advice because we thoroughly enjoyed it. Eventually though we thought it was just slightly short of a topscone … shame.

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Crash landing

Strathaven was also home during WWII to music hall and vaudeville hero, Sir Harry Lauder. He was responsible for such classics as Roamin’ in the Gloamin’ and Keep Right On To The End of The Road. Lots of love. At the same time Hitlers deputy Rudolf Hess was supposed to land his plane at the Duke of Hamilton’s residence, Dungavel House on the outskirts of Strathaven. At the time the Duke was thought to be a Nazi sympathiser. In foul weather he missed Dungavel and crash-landed in a farm a bit further north. That was the end of his freedom . He died, 46 years later, as the sole inmate of Spandau prison in Berlin.

Dungavel house is still there but now it’s an Immigration Removal Centre for folks awaiting deportation. Some of the poor sods floating across the English Channel in rubber dinghies will probably end up there. Not a lot of love. Maybe they should close Dungavel and use the Tudor Coffee House?

ML10 6AH. tel: 01357 529487 Tudor Coffee

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Scones, history and a dollop of politics

Monthly Archives: September 2021