And so my long winter hibernation comes to an end. Yes, the blog is back. Next week I'll set about finishing off the Nanowrimo novel that petered out last November, but for now it's the usual nonsense.
Mind you, I was enjoying a long bath last night (you can tell when you're enjoying it, you don't notice the water's gone cold until your toes go numb) when Twitter led me to the wit and wisdom of The Bloggess (haven't figured how to make links on the phone app, you'll have to copy and paste - it's worth it (am now at home and have edited it so it becomes a link - yay!)). I believe the term is 'she's won the Internet'. I thought I can't even come close to that level of aceness, I might as well go back into hibernation.
Then I had some Norwegian cheese and got on with it.
I'm enjoying a brief sojourn in Scotland at the mo. I'm staying near Falkirk at a Travelodge near the motorway. Bit of a walk to get there - don't mind that - but unfortunately it's at one point of a triangle formed by it, Polmont town centre and the railway station. No cheap fried breakfast en route on my daily trips and no nearby shops. I wasn't going to pay Travelodge's obscene prices for UHT and a croissant so a visit to the Co-op (checking where the chippy was as we went) was called for.
Stocked up on the essentials: variety pack of cereal (it was Honey Shreddies this morning), bottle of proper milk (put on window sill to keep cool - see photo), Irn Bru, crisps, juice, gimmicky tubes of Heinz instant soup and cheese.
But which cheese?
Turns out the best offer was on Jarlsberg Norwegian cheese which is made to a secret recipe which is telepathed to a head cheesemaker ((insert Life of Brian joke here) they daren't write it down!) at fromageries around the world from the mind of of a preternaturally old Viking woman kept alive, lo, this past milennium by the cheese's life-giving properties.
At least I think that's what it said on the label. Tastes very nice, anyway.
This led me to investigate the links between Norway and Scotland. Famously, there's a strong Viking influence here. Also, the two nations went to war from 1262-1266 - over the Hebrides or cheese I can't remember which (I got all this off Wikipedia). There was a series of skirmishes, the most significant of which was The Battle of Largs, the conclusion of which was indecisive (although it favoured the Scots). This is commemorated in Largs by the daubing of Scots pickle on a life size cheese longboat every year, although a rise in lactose intolerance has seen this practice diminish in recent times.
Anyway, I'm off to Brodick on the Isle of Arran today. I'll be sailing from Ardrossan, not too far from Largs, but unfortunately I won't have time to pay a visit so further research is impossible.
On a happier note today's third photo is of a small leaflet left by some religious nut while I was eating my Quorn chilli the other night.
More soonliest (no, honestly (as sung by Lynsey de Paul, the theme to the sitcom with John Alderton (but not the sequel 'Yes, Honestly' starring Liza Goddard)))
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