The Life of pie

Everyone in Lancashire has heard of Hollands pies and the best pies come from chip shops and not in your lardy da packaging like this one.

I was reading today in our local paper the Rossendale Free Press how one of these pies has just celebrated its 35th birthday. Mrs FLN likes these pies but even she would find a pie a few years older than she is a bit minging.

This venerable pie has been carbonised and travels all round the world with its owners and has just had a birthday party at its local pub. It has visited Germany, Sweden, Austria, Barbados, Iraq and Las Vegas where it made a notable win on the slot machines. Sometimes it has to don the disguise of a chocolate biscuit to avoid the customs men.

I can assure readers with sensitive stomachs that there are no 35 year old pies or crumbles travelling in the Tardis but you can never be sure if you are offered a muffin if it was baked last year or next year.

Mark Maybury for President?

Time I returned to the American Presidential election.

And how appropriate after the results in the Iowa caucus yesterday and with Mark Maybury preaching on Sunday evening at SCBC.

My picture of course is not one of Mark but rather one of Mike Huckabee the winner in Iowa for the Republican party. Mike is a man of many talents just like Mark. He is a Baptist preacher from the south. He plays bass guitar in a band called Capital Offense.

Yet unlike our guitar playing preaching Mark he is running for President of the USA.

Some of his ideas especially on tax (abolish income tax replace with a sales tax) may seem odd and even barking. But there is something vaguely whimsical and appealing about him.

He wrote a book called "Quit digging your grave with a knife and fork" after being diagnosed with diabetes. He then lost 110 pounds in weight and now regularly runs marathons. He is the son of a fireman, although I cannot say if his dad was called Sam. He hails from Hope in Arkansas, just like Bill Clinton.

So I shall listen even more carefully than usual on Sunday to our Mark. And at the first hint of advice on diet I shall begin to wonder if I am present at the birth pangs of a glorious political career.

Just Thieving or what?

I hear that the constabulary have arrested a man for allegedly stealing lead from the roof of the official residemce of the Archbishop of York. They continue to search for a second man.

Sources close to the boys in blue say that they have so far interviewed three suspects.

First an African gentleman who claimed diplomatic immunity as an emissary from the Government of Zimbabwe. Our noble spooks at MI5 think he was on a secret mission to fashion a new clerical collar for the Archbishop from lead and to ensure it fitted as tightly as possible round his neck.

Second a man with academic appearance and long whispy hair. When lead was found in his car he said it was only symbolic like the stable and the manger. He did not know how it came to be there anyway.

The third man confessed to taking the lead but said the Archbishop was asking for it. If he wanted to baptise people by immersion he should first take some of his own medicine by being immersed in a deluge of rainwater through his roof.

The last two have been released on police bail pending further enquiries.

Watch this space...and your church roof!

Goodbye 2007....

....and there were some top days in it. Here are the pick of them:-

Monday July 30 at the Test match with Teapot, Mrs FLN, the reindeers, Baddog, Mrs BD and Junior Baddog and not forgetting Doc Spoon. a Michael Vaughan 100 on the pitch and irrepressible wit and commentary off the pitch from the Doc!

Saturday 8 September and the great balloon race Sutton Park. Lots of friends came and ate lots of muffins after releasing our balloons. And this time there was no cheating from Mrs Baddog!

Thursday 13 September to Thursday 20 September at the Lizard with Teapot and every day different.

Saturday 17 November a canal trip and lunch on the Robber Button with EB and Mrs EB. The food the company the fresh air and the wood stove all combined to make it just such a special day.