Hectic.

As expected my Sisters came to see me yesterday, they arrived just before 10.30.am. and left a little after 4.30.pm. We had a great time reminiscing but before that the first thing I did was make a few mince pies so that when they arrived they had a coffee and mince pie.
 I told them that I had done a rhubarb crumble and also I was going to give them a demonstration with the Phillips Air Fryer. I had told them that we would have a meal of sausage and chips. Before that though we had a tour of the garden, in  particular my potatoes look fine, mind you they are not in the garden for the soil is very poor. I did ask the guy next door how he had got on with the pigeon racing and he told me he had finished 9th, but had only lost one bird. He then mentioned the new raised bed he had done, putting his pigeon manure on but he told me that with the heavy rain we have had the soil had set like concrete. I mentioned to him that mine was like that too.
 After taking my Sisters round the garden I then showed them the easy way to cook chips. I had previously peeled the potatoes, sliced and cut them into chip shape, soaked them in water to get rid of the starch. I then drained the chips and put them in a cloth to dry a little then I took the chips and placed them in a bowl, took out some oil(extra virgin rape seed oil) and took a teaspoon and poured some iol and filled the teaspoon then poured it on the chips and moved the chips with my hand to make sure all the chips were covered in a little oil. I opened the Fryer and placed the chips in the container and set the timer for 25 minutes. I got the sausages ready to put on the George Foreman  Grill and got the plates ready to warm. I also got everything ready for the meal, after 15 minutes or so I opened the fryer container and gave them a good shake, this is done to make sure that the chips are cooking evenly. I then put the grill on and started to cook the sausages. It didn't take long before all was ready, my Sisters were impressed but my youngest Sister noticed that it wouldn't do a fresh fish in batter. I told her that it was not a deep fat fryer but it cooked by circulating air Mind you they both said the chips were very nice and the Air Fryer looked neat.
 After the meal we went to the sitting room and talked about old times. I am sure I have told you that my Sister, the eldest one went on the Farm for 2 weeks in I think October starting in 1946  and went for a second year. It must be remembered that this was 1948 and 1947. Most of the men serving in the Armed Forces were not demobbed until late 1946 or early 1947 so labour was very scarce. She told me one of the jobs was beet singling back aching but she said it was better than school.
 I don't know if I told you this but she asked me if I remembered the Orange saga. I told her I certainly did. I would be towards the end of the War and a troop train was waiting to enter Grantham Station and it was stationary on the bridge above the main road. An American shouted down and threw an Orange, there was a rush with my Sister winning the race. It must be remembered that fresh Oranges were like hens teeth. The Government used to issue us children with concentrated Orange Juice. Cod liver oil was another thing they used to supply us youngsters with but nobody liked the cod liver oil, however we had to take it.The long and short of it my Sister took the Orange to school with her, guarded it carefully and when she came home we had a taste of fresh Orange. To be honest I could not remember tasting a fresh Orange Bananas were another fruit that I didn't see until about 1947.
 It was a ritual that we had either stewed rhubarb or prunes. They came from America and were dried and had to be soaked in hot water to reconstitute them. In fact they were nice. My Mother used to buy tinned prunes well into her late 80s.
 We had laughs and the time went all to quickly and then it was time for them to leave.  We enjoyed the time together but a thought went out to my other Sister in Scotland for she has dementia. More soon.