The place, the pie.

A bit of unexpected colour to counter the horrible greyness of January with its short days and long, cold nights - the photo above was taken by me a little while back, whilst visiting Faversham and the excellent Shepherd Neame brewery. The shot shows one of the very old fashioned shops which are scattered though the the quaint Medieval town - in this case, a traditional sweet shop, complete with a multitude of jars containing loose sweets - just as I remember as a child. Click on the photo for a larger version.

Here is a bit of a flashback - a rather dodgy transfer from a VHS recording of an article on Sky News from way back in August 1992. It features the World's first legally licenced radio ship - the aptly named Offshore Radio. I was heavily involved in the venture, though I was not on board when the camera crew from Sky filmed the feature - I came on board a couple of days later with then girlfriend, and still good mate Sandra in tow. You can see salty old sea dog Alex Pluck in the video - he's the one that bears an uncanny resemblance to Captain Birdseye. The ship - the M.V Galexy, was and is his, though it is now up for sale. You can see details with more photographs here. It was used in the original Michael Caine movie "Get Carter" in its' original role as a Tyne ferry.

Bearing in mind the extended holiday break, you may not have seen my recently penned Maggot Sandwich year end review - if not, just scroll down the page to read it.

Another slightly embarrassing confession - I have an unlikely addiction to Fray Bentos tinned pies. I don't eat them very often, as they are very bad for the health, but once every so often my resolve wanes and I bung one in the oven - after carefully removing the lid; failure to remove the lid before baking could possibly result in the destruction of an area equivalent to a football pitch - you can read about such a situation here. I blame my time on the Ross Revenge for my predilection. Apart from frozen food, which could be difficult to transport out to the ship, tinned goods were one way the crew could be kept fed with decent grub. I also believe the Caroline organisation had some kind of promotional tie up with the makers, as we always had loads on board. Incidentally, I discovered whilst researching this weeks' Blog entry that Fray Bentos is actually the name of a city in Uruguay, South America. I do these things so you don't have to.

In my opinion, the best food related Blog on the Interweb is the one you can find by clicking here. Your milage may vary of course.

The video below is a clip from comedienne Gina Yashere, who I saw a while back one afternoon whilst I was on the train from Cannon Street to Plumstead, on the way to visit my Dad. She got on at Deptford and off again at Greenwich. Anyway, she is very funny - watch for yourself.