Saturday, October 11, 2025

Scones and Muffins

 Hi there

When I was a kid, I loved scones.  They had to be my Mum's scones, straight from the oven.  Every Saturday lunch-time, after a big roast dinner and the oven was still hot, my BFF Shirley and I would impatiently wait for those hot scones.  I mean, it was the ritual: Saturday roast, followed by buttered and jam-y scones, and then the Saturday afternoon movie in town, or down the road at the Rivoli or the Ascot picture theatres.  Mum always said that scones had to be eaten the same day, otherwise they would turn into bricks.  So ... we hoovered them up with alacrity!

Then ... scones went out of favour. They were considered too peasant-like.  I mean scones had to have been around for a few thousand years, right?  Newer ideas were on the New Zealand horizon.

Muffins were the next big thing.  Not British muffins, but more the American kind.

"Wow," Shirley pointed out authoritatively, "muffins are like that new yoghurt stuff; they're great, but an acquired taste."

Muffins are so entrenched now, it's like they've been around forever.  Forty years ago they certainly trumped scones.  

Until ...  scones made a resurgence.  Now, both scones and muffins are the under-glass options on any cafe counter.  A bit boring, perhaps, as often they're the only choices at hole-in-the-wall kiosks.

But, ahh, the variety of scones that are now around...  Love them all.


Above: scones, stock photo

 


Saturday, October 4, 2025

It's Not a Bucket List

 Hi there

Before that bucket list movie came out, I was mentally storing up a list engagingly entitled The Little Things I Can't Do and Wish That I Could. Or alternatively, My Genie Wishes, just in case I ever do meet a genie.

This list is sort of the lesser cousin of the bucket list.  There are still a few items that I have not been able to complete.  I don't think I ever will -

1    Play the piano.  To my regret, all I mastered - at age 12 - was "Home on the Range" and "God Save the Queen" before I threw a tantrum, swearing to run away from home if I ever had to go to one more piano lesson

2    Do up zips that are at the back of my dress.  Where's a lady's maid when I require one?

3    Be able to put in my pierced ear-rings without looking in a mirror.  I envy my friends.

4    Take on the lead role in a Broadway musical ...    I am totallly aware that I can't sing a note

5    Be able to hook up my bras without having to do them up in the front, then whirl the bra around to my back to finish the operation - I get so contorted. 

6   Using willpower to never put on weight...     Don't snigger.