Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Pick n Mix and the ancient Britain's

The canvas canopy erected for the family barbecue moved in the wind last night, not by much but I have just spent a little bit of time sorting it out to ensure it stays up. It has involved the use of a bit more hazel. It makes me wonder just how much hazel must have been growing back in the days of the early Brits when hazel was a staple building material. Add to that the fact there were no grey squirrels about means that there must have been a lot of hazel nuts, and this would then imply there must have been a lot of fruit and nut chocolate bars. I prefer yoghurt coated hazel nuts myself but I am not sure the ancient Britain’s would have eaten them because I think they tend to be available only in health shops, not something the ancient Britain’s had, they were restricted to Woolworths (I think).

  On the subject of Woolworths, what ever happened to pick n mix you just don’t see it these days, I suspect it is a health and safety issue after all you never know where people have been putting their hands. But it was no different in the glory days of pick n mix and not many people died as a result of eating strange disgusting jelly snakes and worms, I say jelly but I think it was some sort of indestructible rubber substance; and those weird pink shrimps were sort of quite nice (OK I lie).  The point is though things like this were the staple diet of pick n mix and without it they have vanished, much like Woolworths itself.

We all went into Montgomery this morning to do stuff and get things but Montgomery has a built in delay effect so after seeing loads of people and talking we finally escaped about two and a half hours later, rather than the fifteen minutes planned. But Manyana , it was OK we were all chilled about this.

Today has been another classic day in what is becoming the traditional summer in Britain these days slightly grey, slightly wet, and slightly warmish sort of, slightly windy and slightly uninteresting for weather. Although that has never stopped us Brits complaining about it, even the ancient Brits would often say “The hazel coppice is a bit late this year, it’s just too cold and I bet the price of fruit and nut chocolate bars goes up. And I’m convinced they are smaller than they used to be.” Followed by the little joke which was their final downfall “That new trendy iron will never catch on, you just cant beat a nice bit of flint.”  To which Isambard Kingdom Brunel would usually shout back IDIOTS…

It just goes to show that little has changed in the last ten thousand years or so except the grey squirrels get all the hazel nuts and we are not allowed pick n mix anymore, well I guess that is progress for you. 

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