Weekend?

[MaryPoppins]

"Eating Cats in West Bromwich"

[chef]

5hr train tonight to east germany followed by

gf's brother's leaving party tonight (moving across the country)
gf's brother's wedding tomorrow
gf's brother's child's christening sunday

lot's of family to meet
lot's of german speaking to practise
lot's of partying to help get me through it

3.5hr drive back to cologne sunday evening
flight back to munich monday morning

[Lockhouse]

I'm off to the Brighton Festival with friends tonight to see The Persuasions in concert. They're an American acapella group that have been going for decades. We're staying in a hotel there overnight and wandering round the town tomorrow. Sunday I'm working on Wilma (one of my old cars) and might pop down to the pub in the evening.

[voodooflux]

Fixing the in-laws' printer this afternoon, then taking the kids to see Iron Man 2, then off to the pub for a quick pint with a client to discuss some potential work.

Tomorrow, retracing the steps of James May and Oz on that train pub crawl from Leeds station.

Sunday, as little as possible.

[Paddy]

I do like Kittens, but I'm always hungry again half an hour later.

In England in the Middle Ages, it was considered lucky to roast a cat alive on a spit before a slow fire prior to eating the first meal in a new house. Whether the cat formed part of the meal was uncertain as cat-torture was rife at the time. However, the cat was also used in medicine. An old recipe "for hym that haves the squyhansy [quinsy" begins "tak a fatte katte, flae hot wele and clene." The cat is then stuffed with hedgehog fat, resin, fenugreek, wax and other ingredients before being roast. After roasting, it's not the flesh that is consumed, but the grease that is used to anoint the patient. While not eating a cat, it certainly demonstrates a willingness to roast one.

During Britain's Industrial Revolution (late 18th to early 19th century), the Livestock Journal and Fancier's Gazette published and article called "Eating Cats in West Bromwich" (a West Midlands town close to Birmingham). Cat has also been eaten in Britain. During wartime rationing, cats found their way into "rabbit" stews/pies and hence earned themselves the nickname "roof-rabbit". With so many city strays and pets abandoned by bombed out families, cats were a substitute for rabbit. A former colleague whose father was in the butchery trade during that time told me that butchers sometimes kept cats as ratters; the cat later ended up being sold as "rabbit". The rationale was simple - a surplus of homeless cats living off of vermin, plus the fact that the supply of wild rabbit from the countryside had been suspended. The following rhyme summed up the keeping of cats in peace-time and the eating of them in times of hardship.

CATS - FRIEND OR FOOD

[FiveTimes]

take away tonight
Saturday will be taking kids swimming, going to get feet measured, shopping etc...
Sunday going to mother in laws then home for roast dinner

[Mr Crosby]

Saturday - Fishing
Sunday - Football, Bolton away.

[Churchill]

fluffy kittens

this weekend - tonight takeaway, tomorrow - chores & house stuff then having friends over for tea, sunday - wii and tv catch-up.

wss

[DaveB]

I do like Kittens, but I'm always hungry again half an hour later.

Tonight : Early night because
Tomorrow : Early start to drive to Cardiff for 11:00 am as son has been offered a place at Uni there, so we are off to see what the place is like.
Sunday : Bike ride, possibley up round the Derbyshire Dales again.

[cailin maith]

I dunno about all this election malarky, but I do like kittens.

What are we all up to this weekend?

Fluffy kittens

This weekend - Tonight takeaway, Tomorrow - chores & house stuff then having friends over for tea, Sunday - wii and tv catch-up.

[MaryPoppins]

I dunno about all this election malarky, but I do like kittens.

What are we all up to this weekend?