Jan Leeming - The Official Website

MOTHERS AND SONS

19th June 2010

MOTHERS AND SONS

I just wanted to share a small moment with you.  My son Jonathan is leaving the UK and taking a sort of delayed Adult  Gap Year - visiting America, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.  In one way I'm very happy for him but in another I shall miss him like crazy.  He lives in London and I live in Kent and, though we don't see each other often, when we do we have great times together.  He has accompanied me to First Nights, on Cruises and other functions where I needed a partner and what a wonderful partner he has been.

He came down yesterday evening so that we could have dinner and say our Au Revoirs.  I met him off the train and he came towards me with a fabulous bouquet in one hand and in the other a plastic bag full of his dirty laundry - so nothing ever really changes does it!

The laundry  is all washed and ironed and on its way back to London but I shall enjoy this gorgeous bouquet for many days.

Bye for now,  Jan 

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UNSOLICITED TELEPHONE CALLS

17th June 2010

UNSOLICITED TELEPHONE CALLS (and they are getting much more frequent)

I am absolutely sick and tired of unsolicited calls from people trying to sell me something especially as I have an Ex-Directory number with BT.  I have just received yet another offering me a Deaf Aid (what's that you say!!!) and when I asked how they got my number was given some Data address with whom I have never had dealings.  We are forced more and more to undertake transactions On-line and I ALWAYS tick the box which says I do not wish to receive any advertising etc. nor do I want my number shared with other organizations.

The other one is these Automated calls where you pick up - usually mid to late evening - and there is just a recorded message offering you credit or to sort out your debts etc.  Even when you punch Key Nine to stop the calls, they keep  on coming.  I've reached the stage where I rarely pick up the phone in the evening which means I sometimes miss out on calls from friends.  And even when I don't pick up, the jerks  have the cheek to leave messages on my Answer Machine.

How on earth does one stop these things - I think they should be made ILLEGAL.  It is an infringement of my rights that people should be given access to my telephone number.  I also get many calls for someone who has never lived at my address but obviously I was given a previously used number which is still registered to someone else.  In my last home for years  I was inundated with calls from Anglia Double Glazing because the previous owner had once asked for a quote.  No amount of pleading, threatening, begging could induce them to delete me from their Call list.  The calls only ceased when I left that address and I never asked the next owners if they too had been bombarded.

Sorry to be a grumble-guts but there's so much that angers me  about the intrusions of modern day living.  I remember the first time that I was shocked when I gave my name and was asked for my Postcode and up came my full address in a shop where I was purchasing a Washing Machine.  I've got used to that now but only because it goes on all the time.  You kind-of get worn down into accepting it all.  I reckon we must be the most spied upon country in Europe with far too many organizations having our personal details and passing them on.

 Alright, so I've found time to have a grumble, so why aren't I writing about Florence - I will, I will, I will ......................

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ECONOMY CAKE - FIRST WORLD WAR

16th June 2010

ECONOMY CAKE - FIRST WORLD WAR

OK OK - I know I promised you the run down on Florence but I've been busy and it really does take me ages to write the blog.

I've just downsized - for the umpteenth time - my books.  I've also been trying to put my remaining books in some kind of order.  I have a very old - falling apart - copy of Mrs. Beeton's  Everyday Cookery.  I bought it second hand, complete with the speckles of age and a spine falling apart.  It's now an antique because it was published in 1909.  So why am I excited - Well I was trying to repair the spine when I looked through and found some old newspaper cuttings - one of them had on the one side a photo of a woman in a Cloche hat (noting that the book was published in 1909 and seeing the title of the recipe on the other side of the cutting, I've placed the recipe at a time during the first World War)

So - I came across ECONOMY CAKE - A Much Prized Recipe!  I don't think I've baked a cake for over 30 years.  Don't think I even baked cakes for my treasured son maintaining that sweet things were not good for him and if I made them, I would eat them too and that was taboo.

I've lived in my flat here for 7 years and the other day my stepfather announced that he was going to bring my mother down for a visit.  They both like biscuits and sweet things so I decided to give the recipe a go!  It was heralded as a cross between a Victoria Sandwich and a sponge cake and apart from the fact that the mixture most definitely would not have spread to two tins it came out as a rather delicious offering.  I'm giving you the cutting below and the only ingredient I altered was the margarine (plastic by any other name) replacing it with unsalted butter.  I threw the whole lot into my Thermomix and then into the oven. The recipe calls for a quick oven - well mine is firmly anchored down and I don't know what is a quick oven so I cooked at 180 for about 15 minutes and it was delicious.  I served it with whipped cream and damson jam spread on top - only had one cake so couldn't make a sandwich but I'm chuffed to bits that I've made a cake from such an old recipe and I doubt it could be bettered today.

Happy Cooking!  Promise I'll get back to Florence and Rye soon.

I hope you will agree that It's such fun to see this old bit of newspaper.

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ITALY DAY - SACLA AND DALLAGLIO

3rd June 2010

Yesterday evening Jonathan and I attended what must rate as the best 'cocktail' party I've been to for decades.   It was Italy Day at the Italian Cultural Institute at Belgrave Square.

How did I come to get invited.  Well, last year when I took part in Celebrity Masterchef, I was totally foxed by the Mystery Box and then saw the ingredients to make Pesto - one of my specialities which I often give to friends in lieu of a Bottle of Wine.  The MD of Sacla saw me on the programme - got in touch with my agent and a box of goodies winged their way to me.  I do virtually all my cooking from scratch and am not one to buy sauces but the Sacla range is superb.

So that is how I got the invite.  However I nearly didn't go - thinking with dread yet again of the awful journey in to London.  I've virtually given up taking the car as traffic is appalling.  It takes just over an hour to get to the outskirts of London and anything from an hour to two to get into Central London.  Anyway, it was a gloriously sunny day and I decided to try the High Speed Train route.  Unfortunately the nearest station to me is Dover Priory where I got my car vandalised a few months ago so I decided to drive to Folkestone West and park there.  The High Speed Train was a delight - much cleaner than the normal trains and, of course, fast.  We were at St. Pancras in under an hour.  Mind you there was a ten minute walk to get on the underground and it was spiflicatingly hot.

Got to the Italian Cultural Institute in Belgrave Square and couldn't have received a warmer welcome.  I was greeted like a member of the family and the evening just got better and better.  My hosts were brilliant in that they kept introducing me to other guests.  I'm afraid, despite my career in broadcasting, I've never been very good at 'networking or doing a room as they say'. I've spent my professional life interviewing people and on a one-to-one basis, I'm totally happy but I can't walk up to someone, cold, and introduce myself. There were many interesting folk from all different walks of life, among them the father of Laurence Dallaglio - Vincenzo - a total Italian charmer.  He and his son are working with the Sacla family developing new products - both being passionate about food.

The Canapés were the best I've ever had - really bite-size and absolutely delicious.  How often have I stood at a Cocktail Party refusing the huge canapés because they don't go into the mouth in one and you're sure to be caught with half a mouthful when someone wants to talk to you.  The Sacla canapés were a gastronomic delight and as for the Rose Prosecco - delicious. 

Jonathan arrived much later and also commented on the wonderful food.  I have to congratulate the serving girls and boys - they were constantly circulating and made sure no one missed out on anything.  Again how often does one stand and see the last 'nibble' disappear along with the server and that's it - they never come back. 

Although Jonathan didn't play Rugby at school, he has become a devoted fan of the game.  I'd forgotten the fact and omitted to tell him that Dallaglio would be at the function.  He was bowled over at being introduced to him.  I must have been somewhere else and didn't meet the 'great man'.

We must have done something right for our hosts invited us to go on with them to Little Italy in Soho.  We had a fabulous time with loads of dancing and then to cap it all the lovely Dionne (P.A. to the very glamorous MD - Clare Blampied) organized a car to bring me all the way back to Kent.  Didn't get to bed till 4.00 - but that kind of wild night is a rarity these days, so it was trebly enjoyed.

I'm now fired up to continue my Blog on the Florence trip.  Meanwhile I leave you with this photo of Clare, Vincenzo Dallaglio and me taken by the delightful photographer - Matt Harrison

P.S.  The story of SACLA is fascinating - why don't you Google it and click on Sacla 1939 where you'll see the full story.

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