As you know, we enjoyed Christmas with Nick, Lucy and Annabelle at their \u201cnew\u201d home in Bishops Tachbrook and a splendid Christmas it was too. Pen\u2019s folks came along with us and Lucy\u2019s dad Peter also joined us for Christmas dinner.<\/p>\n Nick, in spite of his personal vegetarian tendencies, prepared an excellent turkey breast crown which, I have to confess, I hadn\u2019t heard of before. I guess everyone else will know what it is but I didn’t. Once it was explained to me, however, it makes perfect sense. It is described on one of the cooking sites as a \u201cwingless, legless turkey.\u201d Now, call me an out-of-touch ignorant old fart but when did scientists start breeding turkeys without any wings or legs? I can understand why one would breed such a bird but how is the real question. How does it get around? Does it shuffle along on its backside to get from place to place? How do they mate to produce more little turkey crowns for next year\u2019s Christmas?<\/p>\n Actually, as Penny kindly pointed out, it\u2019s a \u201cnormal\u201d turkey from which they remove the legs and wings for use in turkey twizzlers and turkey burgers and all those processed turkey bits and pieces which are no good for anyone. So, we were left with just a turkey breast which was excellent. Easy to carve and very little waste \u2013 as Bernard Matthews used to say, \u201cBootiful!\u201d<\/p>\n Along with that we had several dozen different styles of stuffing\/dressing, my favourite of which was a spicy variety which had little chunks of spicy sausage. There were also thirty-seven varieties of vegetables including Brussels sprouts with cashew nuts \u2013 why did the good Lord invent Brussels sprouts? A less appealing vegetable one is hard-pressed to imagine, unless one remembers turnips or parsnips. Added to all this we had the sixteen dozen \u201cpigs in blankets\u201d of which there never seem to be enough.<\/p>\n For dessert Pen had made a bread and butter pudding which complimented the standard Christmas pudding in an excellent fashion. All topped off with my own home-made liquorice ice cream which was, if I say so myself, outstanding!<\/p>\n You\u2019ll be surprised to hear that we came away with enough food to feed a small sub-continent for the next week or so.<\/p>\n And, of course, the star of the show was Annabelle who kept everyone marvellously well amused and entertained especially when she emerged from one costume change in a rather fetching reindeer outfit.<\/p>\n [portfolio_slideshow id=2299]<\/p>\n A couple of Christmas stories caught my eye this week, both of which centre on the theme of peace and goodwill to all men. Firstly, we had the story of a fight at midnight mass<\/a><\/strong> at a Roman Catholic service in Southampton on Christmas Eve. Three men were arrested on charges of causing an affray.<\/p>\n Then, a day or so later I ran across the story of scuffles breaking out<\/a><\/strong> between rival groups of Greek Orthodox and Armenian clerics in a turf war at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity<\/a><\/strong> in the run-up to the Orthodox Christmas celebrations.<\/p>\n And finally, how’s this for an alliterative headline?<\/p>\n Peeved Penguins Poo on Panda Punters<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The story concerns the penguins at Edinburgh Zoo who are apparently somewhat disgruntled that their position as the most popular attraction has been supplanted by the two new panda bears the zoo recently received from China. There’s a short video of the Peeved Penguins Pooing on the Public here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n You couldn\u2019t make this stuff up!<\/p>\n Love to you all,<\/p>\n Greg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning to you all and a splendidly splendid Happy New Year. Once again, we saw the new year in by slumbering peacefully as the clock struck midnight. As usual, we didn\u2019t make it much past midnight in Cape Town, Sofia, Athens, Tallinn, Helsinki, Bucharest, Johannesburg, Istanbul, Kyiv, Harare, Cairo, Ankara, Jerusalem, Beirut or Amman … <\/p>\n![\"New](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/new_years_resolutions_large.jpg\" "\\"New")
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