National Chip Week

This is National Chip Week.

I love chips and often cook them, so I thought I`d share some with you today.

 And, here`s the piece of haddock I battered and fried with them .......

Delicious!!

Single Difficulties

At times it`s difficult being single.  

For instance, the other evening on hearing that a colleague was going to be on his own at the weekend, I said to him, "would you like to have Sunday dinner with me as you`re on your own that day".  

He declined.

Thinking about it afterwards, I realised how it could have seemed - a single woman asking a married man to lunch when his wife was away!

In no way was it meant like that, it was just an automatic friendly gesture, to help.  And, although throroughly enjoying living on my own, it is nice sometimes to share a meal with someone and have someone to cook for.

It made me realise as I thought about things, just how much everything seems to be geared up for couples or families, and how difficult it is for a single person to make friends or socialise.

Closing Down

No, although I`ve got out of the habit of writing posts as regularly as I used to, it`s not the Blog which is closing down, its sadder than that.

I`ve got some sad news here,  it`s something I`ve know about since before Christmas but had to keep it to myself, but now it`s come out in a way that we didn`t want.  

Because of the way things have been going for the store where I`ve worked and we`ve been losing money for a long, long time, J (the owner,) reluctantly decided that he`d have to sell the store here.   He intended telling the staff once things were finalised and he could tell them definitely what was happening, as he was trying to find jobs for some of them in another store.   He`d got a buyer in the process of buying it (a totally different multiple store, not grocery), so all was going ok.   Then one day this week the staff found out through someone, we don`t know who, leaving purposely for the staff to find, one of the Estate agents business for sale leaflets on the premises early one morning.    It was the worst way for the news to have got out.  

I`m lucky in that it doesn`t affect my job, as I now do the office work for all his stores, but I feel so sorry for the girls as the shop, especially those who have been there many, many years, and I also feel very sorry for J, because he is so caring for his staff and he didn`t want them to find out like this, he wanted to tell them properly once things were certain.  

It`s also sad for the town, in that it`s always, as far back as I can remember as a child, been a grocery store in the middle of the town, and having worked for them 41 years it will be sad to see it no longer exist.

So its sadness here today.

Waiting for chips?

The sun shone the other afternoon, so, a ride along the coast brought me to this spot.  Normally there is a whole row of cars parked and lots of people walking about, but at this time of year, despite it being a nice day, we were the only ones there.    I think these seagulls were all sitting wondering where the people were as they areno doubt used to being fed with chips as people stand by the sea wall eating them.

It was just us and the birds, the sea was a beautiful shade of blue, it was quiet and calm and perfect.