What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why?
I got a job teaching English in Dhahran back in 2007. The job was based at a Royal Saudi Air Force base. It was incredibly well paid and extremely straightforward in terms of what I was teaching. The issue was splitting the family up, even temporarily. Now, some of my colleagues just loved being away from their wives and family, and if that suited them then fine! For me it was purgatory. The only light at the end of the tunnel was being told that my wife and children could join me after a year.
I figured that I could just about manage for a year at the type of money they were paying me, but I was in for a nasty shock. When I asked about it I was told that family accommodation was subject to a three year waiting list! This threw me into a tailspin. We were relying on the money to get us straight financially after going into debt when I studied for my Masters degree in Australia. However, there was no way we could cope as a family with a three year separation even with twelve weeks at home every year.
I spent day after day turning it over in my head, but it was only difficult because I hated being a failure at the job. From a personal perspective the decision was 100% cut and dried. I had to come home and stay home. From a financial perspective I was giving up the chance of security and from a career perspective I had already given up a full time job at university and they were rare even then! I was right in that my decision to chase the money made me a less attractive prospect for a good job for a long time and, for two years, I could only get summer work.
Anyway, once I gave in and accepted the inevitable I went to my line manager who understood completely and even helped out by telling me he hadn’t seen my resignation letter. If he had, I would have had to pay for my own flight back! I emailed him from England on Boxing Day, the day I was supposed to go back and told him that I would not be returning, enabling me to leave during the agreed probation period and therefore avoiding any contract issues.
When I had my discussion with the manager he said something that made me realise how badly I had been affected. He told me it was the first time I had smiled in the 6 months I had been over there! A difficult decision but unquestionably the correct one.
Do you or your family make any special dishes for the holidays?
Due to the occasionally repetitive nature of these prompts, I have already covered Christmas food, and I did so on a Blogmas post a couple of years back. So, settle in for a whistle stop tour of the history of our favourite, or perhaps not so favourite food.
The Christmas Bird
The turkey is a relatively recent addition to the Christmas table. In Dickens’ time it was more likely that you would find a goose in the oven at Christmas. One of the highlights of A Christmas Carol is the description of the Cratchit’s Christmas Dinner which featured a small goose, though no one would ever say it was small, mashed potato and apple sauce. The Cratchit family, like so many poor people at the time, did not have an oven, so they took the goose along to the Baker where, for a small fee, it was cooked in the big ovens that also cooked the bread. It gave poorer families a roast and bakers a useful little boost to their income.
The turkey, like many other elements of the festive table slowly worked its way from the Upper classes, when turkey was an incredibly expensive bird, to the rest of the population as turkey farms became more common and much bigger. The rules of economics meant that the bird became more affordable and therefore a fixture on many Christmas tables. It is interesting that it never became a year round bird, but instead remained inextricably linked with Christmas. I know many people, especially now, have moved away from turkeys at Christmas, but for me, it’s a non negotiable on the Christmas menu.
Christmas Pudding
Another part of the Christmas experience that is becoming less popular is the Christmas Pudding. It is very heavy, so we never have it straight after Christmas Dinner, but many people have done in their childhood and I think it has become synonymous with overeating and discomfort. This is a sad state of affairs because a Christmas Pudding, especially homemade, is an incredibly tasty dessert and, topped with Brandy, Rum or Whisky Butter, gives you a lovely warm feeling. It’s a pudding with a long history, from its medieval origin as Frumenty. Frumenty was a porridge, originally used as a fasting dish, but it became more of a centrepiece of our celebrations when spices and fruit were added to this previously unremarkable dish. We are very lucky in our house that my wife makes all the Christmas desserts but even if you buy the pudding, you really should consider giving it a space on your table.
Mincemeat
This is another medieval dish that has undergone a significant transformation. The original recipe did indeed include minced or shredded meat. It was designed to preserve the meat that couldn’t be used up, but which was much too valuable to throw away. The fruit and the sugars are the ingredients that prevent the bacteria that would spoil the meat from forming. In order to keep the texture of the dish, beef fat was used in times gone by, before being replaced by beef or, more recently, vegetable suet. Again, this is something best made at home if you have the facilities. My wife’s mincemeat is so good that I can never eat shop bought again. The best recipe is in the Delia Smith Christmas Book, which we have had pretty much throughout our married life, and can now be found online. If you are uncertain about it, reduce the recipe by half or three quarters according to how much you want to make. I pretty much guarantee you that you will not look at mincemeat in the same way ever again!
So, there you have it, three foods, three histories. I hope you have enjoyed the read and that I may have inspired you to try some of these for yourself.
If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?
If I didn’t need sleep, and making the assumption that I will be at full throttle, then I would definitely be doing more writing.
Over the last four months or so I have posted at least once every day and have built up more of an audience. It has been great for me to get into the habit of writing every day and responding to the prompts in a more spontaneous way, which seems to have freed up my writing style. However, I am finding that mental tiredness is making it more difficult to focus on more than one post a day. I have written two of my posts about Christmas Magazines, but I am finding the third hard going, not because the subject matter is uninteresting but because I seem to have a finite level of writing concentration. Also, of course, I have a lot to do around the house and that tends to make it more difficult to just sit down and do things purely for myself.
At present, I have the target of writing and scheduling 6 posts for the beginning of December to put myself ahead of the game. So, in the next five days I need to write 3 new posts as well as finishing off my current one. It’s a tough ask but it’s absolutely essential otherwise I will start to fall behind. My response to each daily prompt has given me levels of views and likes I could never have imagined so I will continue to do them. It is at this point that not needing sleep will come in handy! That said, I have seen films where people don’t need sleep or are using every single cell of their brain and it never ends well! So, I just have to build up my concentration bit by bit in the way I will build up my body in the New Year. Wish me luck for both!
With just a month to go until the big day, I am going to Re-Blog 10 of my favourite Christmas posts that deserve more of an audience. First up is a great book by Christmas fanatic and Romantic Comedy writing legend, Lindsey Kelk. The Christmas Wish is one of a select few books that I will reread every year, and it’s just as good every festive season. Read on to find out why it needs to go on to your own reading list.
Name your top three pet peeves.
I find prompts like this quite difficult. How can I reduce all the things in modern life that irritate me into three examples?! 🤣🤣 I could be here all day if I don’t focus!
Well, first of all the word peeves indicates minor irritations rather than anger inducing major issues. So, I can fortunately, for both me and my readers, ignore politics and the dreadful straits our world finds itself in. Secondly, I can concentrate on the more niche irritations that reveal more about me than the person or people carrying out the irritating behaviour. So, without further ado, here we go!
- Slow walking – although as my family and colleagues will tell you that can include pretty much 90% of the human population! When I am on my own, I am definitely trying to get somewhere as quickly as possible. If someone in front of me is going too slowly I will usually just overtake them, but if I can’t I get irritated and either mutter under my breath, stop to check my phone or find an opportunity to get out into the road (safely of course) and go past them at a jog!
- Next up is people who are loud on public transport or, worse, have their phones on with no earphones. In the last few months I have used public transport very infrequently, no longer being a commuter, but I still have a commuter mindset! When you travel at rush hour the people around you tend to be silent, especially in the morning, or if they are talking they do so quietly. I have spent many an hour long journey in a carriage where total silence has reigned and it’s marvellous. I am not saying you can’t make noise, just be as quiet as you possibly can.
- My final peeve is more of an attitude at large where people are ever less concerned with those around them. I suppose that the previous peeve comes from this approach, but this is much more all encompassing. It’s about a kind of blindness to the rest of the world. This comes from our increasingly atomised existence where we only worry about what we want rather than what effect it will have on other people. When I was in Salzburg last week, that was far less in evidence and I connected that to the far less widespread use of phones in public. Phones put us in a bubble and we forget about those around us. I know that I can fall prey to that so I am trying to reduce my usage, but for most people the phone is simply a physical extension of themselves at all times.
So there you have it. When it comes down to it, my main peeves all come from the same place, people being unaware of those around them. In many ways this is not a new phenomenon of course, but I definitely think it has got worse in the past decade particularly. So, if you see me, or anyone else, walking quickly towards you get out of the way! If you have earphones use them and if you want to talk, do so more quietly! Finally put that phone away and take account of the world around you.
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 