The Midweek Hop - Bake Me A Cake

The other half's guest post - three music videos on a theme...
(inspired by Desmond Carrington's 'The Music Goes Round')

 

'Wurlitzer 1500' 1952 Jukebox

This weeks theme is...Bake Me A Cake

 

Inspired by last night's Great British Bake Off final.

Congratulations Frances!

 

 

 

1. If I Knew You Were Coming I'd Have Baked A Cake by Sesame Street


This was originally made a hit by Eileen Barton in 1950 but this version is much better methinks!
'If I Knew You Were Coming I'd Have Baked A Cake' Ernie and Cookie Monster style appeared on the first series of Sesame Street back in 1969.

2. Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty


Named after the street of the same name in London  - which I'm obviously imagining has just a line of bakeries and cake shops...
'Baker Street' entered the charts on 18th February 1978 reaching Number 3.

3. Hey Good Lookin' by Hank Williams


When blues met country and western, rock and roll was born...
'Hey Good Lookin'' entered the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in June 1951 reaching Number 1. 



Happy listening!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Last week was a week where I was literally out every night - if you include the weekends, I was busy every day for 9 days. It's not that it's planned that way, it's just that things seem to crop up all at the same time!

 

 

 

Here's a rundown of what my week contained...

 

 

Saturday 12th October - eating a cream tea and watching the procession at Castle Cary Carnival

 

 

Sunday 13th October - riding on vintage buses at Warminster's Vintage Bus Day and in the evening, our monthly Carnival club meeting

 

 

Monday 14th October - the Uni I work at hosts social evenings once a semester for each of our postgrad programmes. Tonight's was the turn of the Accounting and Finance students who had an evening meal at a restaurant in Bath called Aqua. Stupidly I forgot to take any pictures of the food but I had a very tasty Chicken and Spring Onion Mash and a not-so-tasty (but still just about okay) Lemon Drizzle Cake.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 15th October - another work social, this time for the students studying International Management and hosted at a Greek meze restaurant in Bath called Opa. This time the only reason I couldn't get any pictures of the food is that the pesky students had eaten most of it before we got there!

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 16th October - me and Andrew used a 40% off student discount card to visit Gourmet Burger Kitchen where I had a Cheese and Bacon Burger, Sweet Potato Fries (with bacon aioli, yum!) and Sicilian Lemonade to drink. Andrew had never been there before and when they brought his burger out, his first thought was Man vs. Food!

 

 

Then we headed to the Rondo Theatre in Bath to watch the very funny Josie Long, Robin Ince and Grace Petrie in 'Robin and Josie's Shambles'

 

 

 

 

Thursday 17th October - me and Andrew went to Pizza Express with a 25% off voucher because we were staying in town again, to see another show at the Rondo Theatre (it's just pure coincidence that the two shows we wanted to see were on consecutive nights!). At Pizza Express I tried to be healthy with a Pollo ad Astra Leggera pizza but really we ruined it from the start because they tempted us with their new-recipe sharing doughballs...

 

 

At the theatre we saw Alex Horne with his Edinburgh show, 'Lies' - he's very random but it was a really funny show!

 

 

 

 

Friday 18th October - lots of offices had cake sales to raise money for our local hospital with their 'Ted's Big Day Out' fundraisers. I ate far too much cake but the calories don't count if it's for charity, right?

 

 

In the evening me and my lovely friend M "swished" - more to come on that tomorrow!

 

 

Saturday 19th October - I did lots of shopping and watched Taunton Carnival procession

 

 

Sunday 20th October - I took my friends M and C for a day out at Wells Food Festival and a Vintage Tea Party - again, more to come on that later in the week!

 

 

 

 So this week consists of sitting in the chair, watching TV and reading some books....oh, except for Wednesday when we're seeing Adam Hills at the theatre...ooh and Friday when we're taking my brother to Salisbury Carnival....and, yup, Saturday when I'm off to the Pretty Nostalgic Gathering and then in the evening, watching Warminster Carnival.

 

Um...I'm not sure I actually ever have a week when I'm not doing something!

 

 

What about you, do you like being a busy busy bee or are you happy to sit back and relax?

 

 

This Weekend at the Duckpond

We have mostly been...

 

Feasting - at a Vintage Tea Party (hosted by Pearl Lowe) as part of the first ever Wells Food Festival.
Lots of tasty cakes but definitely sugar overload!

Swishing - at a clothes-swapping event in Warminster, Wiltshire organised by the lovely Jen from My Make Do and Mend Year. Me and my friend M went along (we left Andrew in the pub with a couple of pints!) and both donated and gained lots of new clothes, bags and accessories.

Shopping - in Taunton, Somerset before the Carnival procession. It mainly involved me buying lots of little chocolate Christmas goodies for my office's Christmas Secret Santa, Christmas Coin Hunt, Christmas Quiz and Festive Pass the Parcel (more to come on them closer to December).
Yes, we are quite sad when it comes to Christmas in my workplace...




Watching - Taunton Carnival procession.
Less than two weeks to go til the big parade in Bridgwater on 2nd November!

Sampling - lots of free food and drink at Wells Food Festival.
It was packed with people and sometimes we were lucky to get a sample!

Celebrating - my brother's birthday. He was actually 28 on the 8th October but hadn't had a birthday cake yet.
It sounds awful to say it but he has Down's Syndrome so I don't think he really knows (or cares) what day he has his cake in relation to his actual birthday. He had great fun though blowing out the candles; I think we had to relight them about 5 times!

 

What did you get up to at the weekend?

 

 

A Very Unseasonal Cream Tea for Two

We're very lucky that only a couple of miles from where we live is an award-winning farm shop with a lovely little cafe serving all sorts of delicious food - Farringtons Farm Shop. 

 

They do a mean breakfast fry up, specials thoughout the year and Thurday nights are always 'Steak Night'. They also do cream teas all year round and a Cream Tea for Two voucher makes a great birthday or Christmas present. We've bought several for various parents and friends but never actually had one there ourselves.

 

So last year, I hinted rather a lot that it would make sense for Andrew to get me one as a Christmas present, which he duly did and then it took us til last weekend to actually find the time to use it!

 

It was worth the wait though; the cream tea was very tasty. One voucher provides you with a pot of tea for two (which makes four and a bit cups), four large scones (with a choice of plain, fruit or cherry), two pots of strawberry jam and two pots of clotted cream - all for £9.80.

 

 

 

We had fruit scones and cherry scones and smothered them with jam and cream. We tend to be in the 'jam first, cream second' camp; I know Devon and Cornwall have a rivalry over the 'correct' way to do it but I can never remember which county prefers which method!

 

The cream teas at Farringtons (along with all their other food) are highly recommended, definitely worth a visit if you're ever passing. The shop is just off the A37 Bristol to Wells road, in a delightfully named village called Farrington Gurney - look for the cow-print signs and directions!

 

 

You Wait For Ages, Then Three Come Along At Once...

Last Sunday we popped over to Warminster in Wiltshire for their annual Vintage Bus Running Day. As I mentioned in 'This Weekend at the Duckpond' it's basically a load of people who own old buses who like getting together for a day to take passengers free of charge around the towns and villages of West Wiltshire.

 

 

 

We almost didn't go, the weather forecast was so bad, but in the morning it looked fairly bright so we thought we'd chance it. Big mistake though as halfway over there (about a half an hour car drive away) the heavens opened and it just stayed like that all day with grey skies and pouring rain.

 

 

 

We were amazed that so many vintage buses had still turned up despite the rain; we had a quick look round the car park and then jumped on one of the buses leaving right then - along with most of the other waiting passengers, all desperate to get out of the wet.

 

 

 

The first one we had a ride on was a 1940's Bristol bus which was travelling to Mere in south Wiltshire, about 20 minutes by car but about 45 minutes by a slow old jumpy bus.

At Mere we changed onto a 1970's Bristol bus for a ride back to Warminster in a slightly faster, but still bumpy old bus. However, a load of cold damp passengers, steamy breath and a rainy day made the view from the window somewhat blurry!

 

 

 

I'd love to say we had several more rides on various different coaches, but the truth is our journey ended back in Warminster as someone (Andrew, I'm looking at you!) started to feel travel sick on the second journey. So we had another quick look round at the buses and then scooted back to the car and the nearest coffee shop (a Little Chef, oh the glamour...) to get a stiff drink. Luckily he felt better after a coffee but it was still chucking it down with rain so we headed on home and got on with some decorating!

 

 

 

 

The Midweek Hop - Black History Month

The other half's guest post - three music videos on a theme...
(inspired by Desmond Carrington's 'The Music Goes Round')

 

 

'Rockola Tempo' 1959 Jukebox

 

This weeks theme is...Black History Month

 

 

Inspired by this month's Black History Month, which takes place throughout the whole of October.
To celebrate it, here's three famous black artists...

 

 

 

 

1. Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino


Apparently this is where Fats found his thrill (and was still singing about it many years later!)
'Blueberry Hill' entered the chart on 21st December 1956 reaching Number 6.

2. River Deep, Mountain High by Ike and Tina Turner


Tina right at the start of her career!
'River Deep, Mountain High' entered the chart on 9th June 1966 reaching Number 3.

3. What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong


One of Old Satchmo's finest tunes...
'What A Wonderful World' entered the chart on 7th February 1968 reaching Number 1.



Happy listening!

Pretty Nostalgic Gathering

In less than 2 weeks time the fabulous team from Pretty Nostalgic magazine are holding their very first vintage gathering - all in the newly restored Kings Weston House in Bristol.

The day takes place on Saturday 26th October with an amazing celebration of all things vintage and British. The timetable for the day already looks pretty packed with all sorts of stalls, speakers and performers. I'm particularly looking forward to hearing the lovely Jen from My Make Do and Mend Year talk about her experience of making do and mending, and also Susie Parr doing a talk all about the history of swimming.

 

Source: Pretty Nostalgic

 

 

In addition to all the really cool stuff going on in the house, the team at Pretty Nostalgic have added 'Bloggers Networking Hour' in the yurt between 12pm and 1pm. With myself only being a relative newbie to the blogging world, I think it'll be a great chance to meet other bloggers, exchange ideas and tips and learn from each other - all in beautiful surroundings.

I'm really looking forward to the day - if you fancy coming along, hop on over to the Pretty Nostalgic site to book your place at the bloggers networking event or just pop along on the day to have a look round!