Ah we're not moving till the middle of June, but the 'rents and us are only really available together this weekend so they are taking all our "storage" stuff up to yorkshire to look after for us. Then we will hire a van or borrow the work one for the weekend if we can get the insurance sorted out.

From the sounds of it I'm sure the other allotment will be yours!

I did like home economics (cooking) at school - even though the first lesson was obviously showing girls how to cook breakfast for their husbands! Half a grapefruit followed by bacon and toast I seem to remember. Glad I'm single!!

I did learn how to do that stonking Russian fish pie - Koubliac, a swiss roll - from scratch, a rice pudding (half ended up in my bag!), a beautiful jam sponge pudding which ended up on the playground (not through bullying but from my own clumsiness!!!). I loved cooking!

For my brownie badge I had to fry some eggs and bacon and boil some potatoes. I managed fine cos I had been cooking at home anyway. Wish I stilll had the badge!!!! For those that are interested - I was a kelpie!

I was an imp in Brownies and a Chaffinch in Guides... I've got tons of badges. I am tempted to re-sew them onto a jacket or something.

I remember that breakfast! I remember thinking it was peculiar because there wasn't an egg with the bacon. Sounds pretty much like we were taught the same thing - except for that Koubliac ... I just looked it up and it sounds very yummy - is it the same as your recipe??? I might have a go at making it....

The only thing I was taught at school which I still make regularly (except for the basic stuff) is something called York Slice - puff pastry with cheese, bacon, onions and mustard sort of turned in over on itself and layered up. Nice hot, warm or cold - its one of DH's favourites.

I never went to Brownies... I don't think there was a pack near where I lived in South London - if there was then I never heard about it - but then again, I didn't have that kind of Mum. I did rebel and join the Guides but I got kicked out...

Kicked out the guides Sarah. You rebel what did you do?

I was in brownies and guides can't remember which patrol.

Favourite thing I made in home.ec was scotch eggs and a very nice shortbread. The chocolate pudding was disgusting.

We had a class called marriage and family, followed by child development. I failed. One of the project was to make a craft that would be "fit to hang in your home." Me=not crafty.

So I told my Mom, she said go next door and take something from the neighbors wall (she and my Mom were and still are best friends). So I go next door and grab some needle point thing and turn it in. This from a girl who really hasn't done any work in the class. So I get sent to the principal saying they don't believe I did it. Well thinking on my feet I said my Grandmother started it and I finished it. They said OK but the would check with my mother to make sure, so I run to the payphone, call her at work and tell her what happened. She get another call, it's the school and she backed my story!!!!

Hello everyone

I was useless at cooking at school although I did once make a fantastic christmas cake when I was 15. Apart from having my boys I'd say its one of my biggest achievments.

One time I made this mousse type thing at school it was the most insipid shade of purple you ever saw. Anyway I took it home but before I got there I dropped a big dollop of it on the pavement. It stained the pavement and was there for ages how awful must it have been. Oh and I once made a fruit plait and forgot to put the fruit in it. We did do woodwork in the second year and I think I made a wonky tray.

My big fella is like me completely useless but loves a book. The little fella is soooo creative he can cook and will try his hand at most things. He has however no real interest in books.

When we were at juniors we did lots of things with clay and I made lots of ashtrays and a hedgehog if I remember rightly which my grandmother kept on top of her t.v with my one and only bit of needlecraft that I ever did. We had this yellow bit of cloth with little holes that we did patterns on. God above only knows how but I managed to grasp the chain stitch and then stitch Nanny in the middle of this bit of cloth. My Aunty Doreen had this old sewing machine that had a foot peddle and she could make skirts which hugely impressed me.

My eating has been quite good since Monday but I have hummous breath.

Michele

Mmmmmmmmm Hummous!

Well my 'rents are here and DH is still out at the pub As long as he's happy!

I've made gingerbread and we're going to have it with cream. We've just had salmon gently pan-fried in lime juice with mange tout, green beans and sweet potato fries Yum scrum

Tomorrow Mum and I are off to M&S on Oxford Street and I am going to try and twist her arm into buying me some fabric in Berwick St. I'm after some jersey and some thick brown material because I want to make a skirt with a giraffe on it!

Gads, you gals got me again - 2Frus, I had to go look up mange tout (though I will say the first time I read it as trout ) only to find it's lovely sugar snap peas! Yum, I just love them.

Have to laugh at everyone's ineptitude at home economics (as ours was called). In sewing we started with all kinds of hand stitching, and moved onto clothing. I remember aprons, then pajamas and finally a skirt and blouse. I never wore any of them! Later on though I did sew a lot of clothing, but then I learned to quilt and haven't made clothes since. We did a year of sewing, then a year of cooking. I don't remember any of what we did in cooking, but I'd been making dinner for my family since I was 9 or 10, so I doubt I learned much new.

I thought mange tout and sugar snap peas are two different things.

I can't run today I need to go and pick up something that's come special delivery (no idea what), and go to the supermarket, and by then the bike shop might be open. I'll ride it home, but then I'm putting it away until next month, promise

well ladies, after a bit of a glitch, a stress, and a cake, i maintained weight for 2 months, and now have got down to my goal (under 200) and i weigh 198 WOHOO, so im having a celebration this weekend, and then im gonna spend rest of summer toning up and hopefully loosing bum and leg fat....off to the gym i thinks

I hope that sugar snap peas and mange tout are different from each other - if they aren't then I'm growing an awful lot of the same thing. I think sugar snaps (in the UK) are rounder with more of a pronounced pea flavour. I'm also growing something called 'asparagus peas' which sort of look like a cross between frilly sugar snaps and mange tout. (Can't you just tell I get carried away when I'm faced with a huge seed display??)

Talking about asparagus.... we bought two packs of seeds because we were told that they are difficult to germinate.... and the whole lot have come up. I've got about 150 baby asparagus plantletss - all of which need to be cared for indoors until next April.

I remember learning to knit at infants school. For some reason I decided (or was told) to knit my doll a yellow swimming costume. I picked up how to caste on okay and I even managed to learn how to do the plain knit stitch (I never learned how to purl until I was in my 30s) but I could not get to grips with how to caste off, which of course you need to use for shaping .... so I spent a full year casting on, knitting a couple of inches and then ripping it back and doing it all over again... and again... and again... the yellow wool was a sort of muddy khaki colour at the end of it.

CG - I got kicked out of the Guides because two months after I joined we went on a week long camping trip. The camp site was on the side of a hill and it was those big round tents. The girls were all supposed to sleep with their heads to the walls and their feet in the middle.... and as the newest and youngest everyone got to pick where they wanted to sleep - I got what was left - which turned out to be with my head at the lowest point of the tent with my feet up hill. I tried it the first night but it made me feel sick so I spun round and slept with my head in the middle of the tent.... Strike One. Strike Two was not wearing the Guides uniform (because my Mum refused to buy it for me) not my fault but the Leader behaved as if I had a choice. Stike Three was getting hysterical and scaring the wits out of everyone by screaming like a banshee when I got lost on a trip to the loo area (hole in the ground) on my own in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night. Strike Four was for complaining about the food - beans and bacon or sausages - at every meal! And it rained.... ALL the time.... we got there on a Thursday, on the following Sunday all the guides' parents were invited to visit ... and rather than suffer a further miserable four days I begged and pleaded to be allowed to go home - which, of course, completely vindicated my Mother's opinion about me joining the Guides.

weeeeeeeee

I've got my bike and rode it home. In hindsight starting at the top of a hill and setting off down it might not have been a good idea until I got a feel for the brakes... I was a bit wobbly at first (I haven't really been on one since I was at uni), and I haven't quite got the hang of the gears (my old one didn't have them, or not gears that worked anyway), but I think I've got the hang of it a bit more. I've brought it inside and propped it up in the hall, my lovely bike isn't going in the garage with the creepy crawlies just yet! I will try my best not to be tempted to go out on it during the week, if I do I think I'll take it down to the park so at least I'm not dealing with traffic. But the ride I just did is nearly half way to work, which gives me confidence that commuting will be so easy on it once I get the hang of things and a bit more confidence about my ability to stay on the thing.

Sarah Ann - I spose I can see your mum's point but it was hardly fair what you went through! We never did naything exciting like that in the brownies.

Re the Koubliac - no that is more fancy than the one I made - no semolina, no hollandaise, and a more economical mix of tinned slamon and some cod. I just loved the mixed of fish (in my pre-veggie days) with rice and egg and I always love pastry! We had that a fair few times at home.

SarahAnn- yes I think sugar snaps and mange tout are different (I am no expert though). Yes aparagus peas sound nice. Have you thought about land cress (an american style version of watercress).

Freethetoys - well done on your loss!

2frus - when you make your 'Giraffe' skirt you will have to post a piccie.

oh I just read somewhere online about a version of sugar snap whcih is mange tout like so it still seems they are different. I have seen a thai stir fry recipe that includes both so cannot be exactly the same then.

Miche - thank goodness we didn't go to the same school - imagine the cooking day disasters on the way home! They would have to tape off bits of the playground! "Warning Miche's mousse and Suzi's jam pudding - keep clear!!!"

That serves me right. I remembered that I hadn't bought a paper at the supermarket because they hadn't put them out when I got there, so I thought I'd go up to the local shop. And then I thought that as it's so close, going on the bike wouldn't hurt. And then I thought I could go the long way round just to make it worth it. Even though I wasn't meant to.

I got about 5 minutes down the road and it started raining so hard I was soaked within seconds. I turned round, went meekly the short way to the paper shop, and came home.

The weather wants me to take my taper seriously!