Local Market Day

On the last Thursday of every month a small market is held in a local hall within walking distance of where I live. It's been running for a couple of years and I have been meaning to go and have a look. So at the end of April I took my mother, and she managed to walk there using her new walking aid. I was trying to encourage her to get out a bit and she was as keen as me to see what was on offer.
The first visit was quite disappointing for me because there were no organic vegetables and the few things on sale were a bit tired looking. However there was some lovely meat and cheeses, home made pies and pasties, local jam, honey, pickle, and a chocolate stall (they looked wonderful but were not giving samples worst luck and I did steer clear (mum didn't). There were also a few plants for sale.
March 07- is she going to be tempted by a quiche...
Selection of pies, pasties and meat.
Mum got a little carried away!!!!!!
I did buy a couple of venison and red wine pies, pasties and cheese scones (for Embee) and a blueberry muffin for me (very disappointing so won't make that mistake again). The locally produced horseradish was tasty and I don't think Embee has tried the piccalilli yet. The faggots were alright. I remember, as a child, collecting hot faggots and peas, (you took your own bowl). They were made by an old lady and sold from her shop in our small country town (an early take away).

Mum enjoyed it and wanted to go again and I felt it was worth another trip. So last Thursday on a sunny afternoon off we trundled. It was much better this month. .
April 07
There was plenty of produce grown in Cheltenham, about 30 miles away, but it was not organic. I had a long chat to the guy and he had some old variety of strawberries (can't remember the name should have written it down) and they were delicious. With more fruit and veg coming into season he's going to be there every month through the summer and he tells me he has masses of blueberry bushes so can't wait but he is quite expensive.

This pasty was hot and I had to get one for Embee......

and yes he did enjoy it!!


As you can see I didn't buy very much, the eggs are double yolked but I haven't used them yet. My mother came back with quite a lot but I did manage to steer her past the jewelery stall which had some very pretty necklaces that she quite fancied.
She's already talking about going next month so I think this will become a regular trip.

Postscript:
You may not be familiar with 'Faggots' (type of meatball)!!

this is the wikipedia version which is about right (it also details the American version of the word nothing to do with food).

("A faggot is a kind of meatball, a traditional dish in the UK, especially the southwest of England, Wales, and the Black Country. It is made from meat off-cuts and offal, especially pork. A faggot is traditionally made from pig heart, liver and fatty belly meat or bacon minced together, with herbs added for flavouring and sometimes breadcrumbs. The mixture is shaped in the hand into balls, wrapped round with "caul" (a membrane from the pig's abdomen), and baked. A similar dish, almôndega, is traditional in Portugal.
The first use in print cited in the OED is in 1851, from Thomas Mayhew, although this appears to be a calzone- or pasty-like dish, with an outer wrapper of caul, covering a filling of mixed pork offal. This was in London.
The dish saw its greatest popularity with the rationing during World War II but has become less popular in recent years. Faggots are usually homemade and are to be found in traditional butchers' shops and market stalls.
A popular dish is "faggots and peas," which is often served with gravy. The faggot and pea batch is a common post-pub snack in the West Midlands. Faggots are also known as "ducks" in Yorkshire and Lancashire, often as "savoury ducks". "In Leigh market in 1905 you could buy a savoury duck rolled up in an oatmeal cake.")

Internet marketing

You may (or may not) wonder why I didn't manage to write a post yesterday. Mainly because I was too tired after attending an internet marketing conference. It wasn't something I particularly wanted to invest in (either time or money) as I don't have a business I want to promote but when a friend invited me I decided it would be a day out and lunch was thrown in so that was a good enticement.

I left home to drive to my friend's house at 7:15 am where I left my car so that we could travel by bus to the venue (hotel in the centre of Bristol). I don't normally do buses and now I remember why, it was crowded and we had to stand until the last two stops. We were jammed like sardines forced to listen to other people's conversations on mobiles (e.g one young girl wanted the person on the other end of the phone to make an excuse for her being late, reason sounded far too complicated to me why didn't she just say heavy traffic and bus was late but then she's probably used that one in the past but it was true and a bus full of people could vouch for it). Trying to avoid all the coughing and spluttering was impossible and I am keeping my fingers crossed I haven't picked up any germs, so far this winter 'touch wood' I've managed to avoid colds and flu.

It was quite an interesting day very American (no disrespect intended) but the company promoting this technology is American 'SO' (I decided to delete the full name I don't want to sued for my opinions) and the success stories are all from America. I won't go into detail but there must have been over 200 people present and a huge number of these were parting with quite a lot of money without even being certain of success. From my very limited knowledge the 'if you follow this verbatum' you will likely succeed (very cleverly making sure the bit about everyone will be different was added but not dwelt upon) and watch the cash come rolling in seemed a little too good to be true.
Don't get me wrong I have no doubt that some people make a lot of money selling on the internet and I agree you need to get your product at the top of all the search engines to even stand a chance. Yes they told you how this is achieved and in theory could work. However as there are only about 10 entries on the first page of each search engine and this company must have signed up thousands of people (they operate all over the world apparently) there must be a lot of people out there who follow the advice and still can't get their web sites seen or visited from searches (hope this makes sense). So the cynic in me listened and enjoyed the hospitality but said 'no thank you'. Afterall I felt caution was needed about anyone showing how to use 'sitemaster' to track traffic trends etc as though the system was theirs (is this not a free service anyway).

The day ended at 18:00 and we left those who had parted with money to have a little more tuition. I sincerely hope they come out on top but I suspect, for most, it will prove otherwise. If you are prepared to gamble over £3,000 and then spend an ongoing £120 a month then I would say go for it but I was thinking of the holiday destinations I could visit for this money. Plus the odds of success from buying the odd £1 lottery ticket would probably be similar and far less work.

PS we then had to wait over half an hour for the bus and I finally arrived home after 19:30 so you can see why I didn't have the energy or inclination to write a post after a 12 hour ++ day it was like being back at work- maybe retirement is not so bad after all!!