Pancakes For Supper!

To celebrate Shrove Tuesday, we had savoury pancakes for supper... given my rather shoddy culinary skills and half-arsed excuse of a stove, I worried the evening may end in tears, house fires, divorce and some hungry bellies, but it was a surprisingly successful cookathon!

I made curried mince filling (you can use lamb or beef) but you could try any other savoury filling, like cheese, tuna, cajun chicken, whatever takes your fancy.

I cheated a little, using a batter mix from a well known British supermarket... just have to add one egg and 250 mL water.

Best served with Mrs Balls' chutney... one of South Africa's greatest exports, luckily easily available in most British supermarkets.

Are you having pancakes today?

Mind Your Head!

This past weekend, I was up in Yorkshire, and had the chance to visit the White Scar Cave, part of a network of caves under Ingleborough hill in the Chapel-le-Dale valley of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Discovered in August, 1923 by two amateur geologists, Christopher Long and J.H. Churchill, White Scar Cave is the longest show cave in Britain. Visitors to the caves walk through an artificially enlarged fissure to meet a natural stream passage - containing underground waterfalls, stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones and other natural limestone formations.

Underground waterfall

Copper deposits

Limestone formations

The curious cave formations include the Devil's Tongue....

The Witch's Fingers.....

The Squeeze.... the narrowest part of the cave...

Not to mention this....er... rather phallic symbol....

The tour culminates in the impressive Battlefield Cavern, which is a huge boulder-strewn cavern that was formed by glacial flood waters during the last Ice Age, and is decorated with thousands of straw stalactites. Battlefield Cavern is one of the largest known caverns in Britain with a length of over 330 feet (100 metres) and a roof soaring in places to 100 feet (30 metres).

Unfortunately, photography is no longer permitted in the Battlefield Cavern, so I don’t have any of my own photographs to show, but here is someone else’s...

Photo of Battlefield Cavern from here

We were kitted out in flattering (not!) red hardhats... a very necessary accessory I discovered, as I must have hit my head at least 20 times on the low sections of the cave... places where it became necessary to explore Evolution In Reverse (walking like a gorilla!).
 
The low roof was not such a problem for this little visitor...

 
Hope you all had interesting weekends!

My Family And Other Animals

Whilst going through some of my dad's things recently, I came across some vintage photographs of several family members, including my grandparents. I find them fascinating as they are of a generation that has now passed. Yet they remain forever captured in these photographs, these people who are a large part of my ancestry....

My paternal grandmother, Mary Eileen (left) and her sister,
circa 1919. I didn't inherit her blonde, curly hair but apparently I have her thumbs...I'll never really know as she died from cancer aged 56 before I was born.

My maternal grandmother, Anna Dorothy, circa 1922. She looks so sweet and innocent here, but my gran had a wicked side...she once told me that as a little girl she would stick pins through the end of her shoes and kick a little boy she hated (he the adopted son of her favourite aunt).

Anna and her father (my great-grandfather), circa 1929. He passed away when my gran was only 14, and, as the eldest child, she had to leave school and start work to help support a large family.

Two Likely Lads... my maternal grandfather, Cornelius (left) and one of his brothers. Both joined the South African Army at the outbreak of WWII. My grandfather (an engineer) never left the shores of South Africa but my great-uncle was sent to Egypt, where he claimed to have single-handedly defeated Rommel's Afrika Korps.

Another photo of my grandfather, with my mom as a little girl, circa 1942. My grandfather was quite a character... always the joker, and sadly a bit of an alcoholic. He lost his leg in a hunting accident when I was very small, and never really recovered. He died when I was 9 years old, and my gran came to live with us until she passed away in 1999, aged 80.

I don't have any early photos of my paternal grandfather, George (right) - this one is taken with my dad (left) on my brother's Christening Day, 1970. I only saw my grandfather a handful of times, as by the time I was born, he had emigrated to Australia and remarried. He lived there until his death aged 92 in 2003.

Both sets of grandparents on my brother's Christening Day, 1970

Do you know much about your grandparents or even your great grandparents?

Notes From Nat

Dear Colonel Gaddafi
The job market’s a bit flooded with disposed despots at the moment…might I suggest a career change? There’s an opening for ‘A Walking Advertisement for the Perils of Too Much Plastic Surgery’, but you’ll have to act fast… apparently Mickey Rourke and Tom Jones are already vying for the role.

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Dear Water Pipes in my House
Haha! Yes, very funny...but the “Waking Me Up At 2 am Squealing Like A Banshee” joke is wearing a bit thin. If I wanted night after night of disrupted sleep, I’d get myself a baby....maybe one of Brangelina or Madonna’s rejects. Anyway, if you try a stunt like that one more night, I’m left with no option but to get a big, strong plumber in to attend to my waterworks....

Well, we needed something to erase that image of the old Colonel

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Dear Travel Insurance Brokers
Yeah, you and me go way back...we have a lot of water under the bridge, so to speak. We’ve already established that you are nothing but common thieves and vagabonds, happy to steal my hard earned money in exchange for stress and aggravation. But how do you justify charging me four times my annual policy fees to add my perfectly fit and healthy mom on our trip to South Africa, just because she’s over 65? I hope you sleep comfortably at night...

Yours
Nat

20:50

While I was in London, I had the chance to see Richard Wilson's installation 20:50, a permanent fixture at the Saatchi Gallery.

20:50’s effects begin as you enter the building — a smell of petroleum hits you which, by the time you’re in the basement room which the work occupies, is almost intoxicating.

You enter the room on a platform and are confronted by a bright space whose walls, ceiling, windows and views outside are mirrored in an tranquil pool of recycled engine oil (which gives 20:50 its name).

Unfortunately the walkway into the heart of the installation was closed, otherwise it would have been possible to survey the room with oil surrounding me at waist height.

I found the piece spellbinding, and more than a little disorientating. One of the most memorable pieces of art I have ever seen...

Monumental Love

On a recent trip to London, I ended up walking through Kensington Gardens, and past the awe-inspiring Albert Memorial, created by the heartbroken Queen Victoria when her beloved Albert died (aged 42) from typhoid in 1861.

The romance between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert ranks with the greatest in history. I thought it quite fitting to share my photos of the Albert Memorial with you all today, a day devoted to love and romance...

The 176 feet (54 m) memorial was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the Gothic Revival style, took over ten years to complete, and cost £120,000 (the equivalent of about £10,000,000 in 2010).

On the four diagonal corners, are representations of the continents Europe, Asia, Africa and America. These recall the four corners of the world which came together at the Great Exhibition of 1851 that was Prince Albert’s incredibly successful idea to showcase culture and industry. 

Europe Group

Asia Group

America Group

Africa Group

The gilded Prince Albert sits at the centre, surveying London from his throne....

“Queen Victoria and Her People

to the memory of Albert Prince Consort

as a tribute of their gratitude

for a life devoted to the public good”

Happy Valentine's Day!

My Dad

In the early hours of last Sunday morning (January 30th, 2011) my dad finally lost his long battle with cancer.

He was a brilliant, inspiring, funny and brave man who will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him.

My dad as a young man - circa 1960



A devoted husband, a loving father, and a loyal friend of many.

Wedding Day - 6th July 1963



A man with a positive outlook, who yelled "Bring it on!" at whatever life threw at him.

A hard-working man who wanted his family to have the best life possible.

My dad teaching me to swim - 1974

A perfectionist, who could repair anything and would not rest until he found a solution to a problem.

A man with a great thirst for knowledge, who read voraciously, graduated with a university degree in history aged 47, and taught himself how to program a computer back in the days when only a handful of people had even seen one.

An accomplished musician, and a talented golfer, rugby player and swimmer.

My dad playing his beloved violin - circa 1970

An eloquent man, with a great sense of humour and a love of political satire.

A man who laughed long and loud, and was not afraid to laugh at himself.

A man who packed a lot of living into his 75 years.

I am priveleged to have had him for my dad, and I am going to miss him more than I ever thought was possible.