This morning Shelly and Ron visited and we enjoyed our usual pleasant conversation.
Afterwards Jackie and I drove to Giles’s home in Milford on Sea where, with Jean, we enjoyed a splendid three course lunch, meaning we would need nothing further this evening. The starter was a choice of soups of which mine was Thai fish with lemon grass; followed by fish pie with an onion and peppers salad. Dessert was rhubarb crumble with cream and/or two different ice creams. I chose vanilla ice cream. We all drank Chardonnay, and talked well into the afternoon. One nostalgic topic of conversation was custard powder.
Wikipedia tells us that ‘Bird’s Custard is the brand name for the original powdered, egg-free imitation custard powder, now owned by Premier Foods. Custard powder and instant custard powder are the generic product names for similar and competing products. The product is a cornflour-based powder which thickens to form a custard-like sauce when mixed with milk and heated.’
‘In 1958, the company acquired Monk and Glass, a rival custard powder manufacturer based in London.’ It is this jolly custard that I remembered as my childhood favourite.
Later in the afternoon we sped over to Dibden Purlieu to New Forest Fabrics where Jackie bought some netting to fluff out a petticoat she is making for Poppy’s Christmas fairy dress. The traffic was brought to a halt outside Beaulieu by a group of ponies, two of whom, back to back, were kicking lumps out of each other. As they walked away in opposite directions I marvelled at how they could do that after such a pummelling.
Early this evening I scanned two more colour slides from April 2007. These were of Emily (327) running past Buckingham Palace representing the London Borough of Croydon in the mini London marathon. If my memory serves me rightly this was a distance of something over two miles taking place some time before the major event.