Saturday 14 February 2015

On this day.

Did you know that it is thirty-one years tomorrow since Jane Torville and Christopher Dean performed their absolutely perfect ice dance at  the Olympic Games and earned a Gold Medal to 'Bolero'.   I'm sure that none of us who watched that performance will ever forget its perfection - but by golly, thirty-one years ago - that makes me feel old.

The Register columns in the Times are always full of pretty useless information and the piece that interested me this morning is this:
In 1838 Margaret Knight - the inventor of the SQUARE BOTTOMED PAPER BAG - was born in the US.   I must say that that is one of the things that I thought had just evolved (folding the bottom of a bit of brown paper up and glueing it down) rather than having to be invented.   I wonder how many more 'inventions' fit into this category.

The weather here on the farm is what the farmer calls 'claggy' - best explained by the fact that he noticed this morning that the farmer who farms a little further down the lane must have got his tractor and plough stuck in one of his low fields sometime yesterday - it is well and truly 'clagged down' and will need hauling out at some point.

Also, the sun is very capricious at the moment.   If you had been up and around when it rose this morning just before eight o'clock, you would have seen the landscape bathed in sunlight.   But not so since nine o'clock, when a mist rolled in and the sky became cloudy.   Since then it is not a particularly nice day.   In fact it meant that friend W and I had to sit in a market square cafe this morning drinking coffee and eating toasted teacake (we are trying out these at all the cafes in town and giving them marks out of ten (today's got around 9) and watching the world go by from the comfort of our chairs.

Other news is that I have bought a new non-stick pan as my previous one had recently decided to retire from nonstickness and stick like billyoh.   After all, it is Pancake Day on Tuesday and who wants to be creating Pancakes at speed with a pan that sticks?  I tried it out at lunch time with a Frittata (using up a courgette, a red pepper, some mushrooms, two slices of dry cure bacon and a red onion) and it worked perfectly, sliding the finished article out on to the plate without a hitch.

15 comments:

Heather said...

I remember the moment when Torville and Dean's row of marks went up and we knew they had won the gold medal - wonderful. It's claggy in our garden after 2 or 3 nights of heavy showers. What a perfect way to spend a dull morning, sampling the delights of local cafes with a good friend.
Enjoy sliding your pancakes out of that new pan on Tuesday.

Elizabeth said...

I ould welcome 'claggy' about now!
Good non-stick story. A friend's cook in Morocco greeted her one day with her face beaming with delight. Madame! Madame! Look I've got your saucepan quite clean at last!...

MorningAJ said...

Thirty one years????!!!!
That's not possible, is it? I mean. That would have made me.... considerably younger. Or rather - it makes me sort of old now. Not sure I can handle that.
They were good though.

Gwil W said...

I had no idea the square bottomed brown paper bag had to be invented. I only knew that the tetrapak was invented by somebody in Sweden who made millions through the patent. Can't imagine a paper bag having a patent but maybe I'm wrong. A farmer at our local market uses triangular shaped brown paper bags for packing produce, like tomatoes and rucola . I love reading your odd bits of useless information. Keep 'em coming.

Gwil W said...

I had no idea the square bottomed brown paper bag had to be invented. I only knew that the tetrapak was invented by somebody in Sweden who made millions through the patent. Can't imagine a paper bag having a patent but maybe I'm wrong. A farmer at our local market uses triangular shaped brown paper bags for packing produce, like tomatoes and rucola . I love reading your odd bits of useless information. Keep 'em coming.

Cranberry Morning said...

Yes, BitAboutBritain blog also mentioned Torville and Dean in his post last week. I couldn't believe it had been that long! I remember it clearly and loved their performance. Hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day.

Joanne Noragon said...

We have the next six inches of slaggy falling down. That's s for snow replacing c for claggy. Sigh; it must end, mustn't?
Margaret received her patent for a machine that produced flat bottom paper bags. I vote with you, anyone who needed a flat bottom anything could figure it out.

Gerry Snape said...

I noticed that in the Times too, Pat... time proverbially flies...also love your dedication to the coffee houses...we did that one year in Cornwall..marking the pasties out of ten...can't remember which won now!!

angryparsnip said...

I too remember Torville and Dean.
I think having coffee and toasted teacake on a foggy day at a market square coffee shop, with a friend sounds perfect to me.
I just read where Eva Valicsek(Hungary) had invented a new egg carton. It looks fabulous !

It is sunny here but we could use some clouds and rain !

cheers, parsnip

Rachel Phillips said...

In that case I will be 90 in next to no time. It is scuddy here.

ChrisJ said...

What a moment that was! I still have a video of that routine. It brought tears to my eyes.

Hildred said...

I love ice skating, - the dance in particular. Torville and Dean were absolutely magnificent...

Penny said...

Can't believe it was so long ago. They came to South Australia on tour a year or so later and we're in R M Williams buying boots and John was there too he chatted but always regretted he didn't get them to sign my ski's he had them on the car and were called Dream ski and he maintained they would have danced down the slopes even better. A long time ago, the best and most exciting ice skaters.

Cro Magnon said...

'Claggy' to me is when I return to the house with mud sticking to the sides of my wellies.

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

I've long had the feeling that if I see Torvill and Dean's performance many more times I'll be able to do it myself!