I read with some excitement and no small volume of saliva that Wirral's 'food sector' will be celebrating the successes and achievements of Wirral’s food and tourism industry in 2010 with a 'Year of Food.' http://www.wirral.gov.uk/News/news_0001270.html
It got me thinking - what has Wirral brought the world in terms of tasty comestibles? I don't mean what do we grow (parsnips are big, kale is curly, blackberries sit in the woods, and I've heard rumours of enormous under-cover rhubarb fields around Meols) - I mean what do we make?
There's a clue in the picture. Cadbury Typhoo. Come to Wirral! - home of the cheap-skate afternoon tea. We're not going to rise to a bun, we can't even squeeze out an eclair but we might rustle up a digestive if you don't mess up the antimacassar. I think there's a sausage factory in Birkenhead, so on special occasions you might a sausages on stick. It's afternoon tea with an elderly aunt - something I'm sure you'll agree we should all be celebrating.
It certainly looks like somebody in this picture enjoys their food - and some of it paid by the tax-payer I'll wager! But then, that's what he's paid for.
The Angel of the North it ain't. New Brighton's 'iconic' statue has never been popular locally. Universally derided since it's unexpected installation during the reign of New Wallasey Regeneration, it was not the result of extensive consultation or linked in any way to a proud local history. This is how it probably happened: there was some SRB money around, maybe even earmarked for arts, and there was a deadine. One of the last desperate acts of a declining regime (correct me if I'm wrong).
I didn't start to like it until I saw THIS picture. I stole it from the http://www.writeoutloud.net/ webiste and don't know who took it, but I'd never looked at it from this angle before. And suddenly it isn't a pathetic, two-dimensional irrelevance - it's an ironic post-modern Citizen Smith raising his metal fist to the Mersey skies. It's poetry. And it's Burns Night. So there has to be a poem. Here's an 'affectionate' tribue from local poet and comedian Jason Richardson. Enjoy!
So Wirral is in the grip of two inches of snow. They somehow manage with feet of the stuff in Canada, Patagonia and other farflung, and hence imaginary, places. But here civilisation grinds to a rather satisfying halt. Schools are closed, women are giving birth on motorways, gritters go ice-skating on frozen roads, the infrastructure creeks like boots in snow.
Grit is the big story. And if this is the beginning of the end, we'll need more of it than you might imagine - and not just on the roads.
But I'm alright, dear reader. It hasn't brought me to a standstill. I was already at a standstill. And thanks to that plethora of '£7 off £70' Tesco vouchers in the run up to Xmas, the larder is groaning. I could survive for years. I might chip in if the neighbours come begging but I'll be choosy which ones - I see Cllr Geoff Green is ranting on about the money spent on sandwiches at Wirral Council but methinks he's had one too many £50 dinner at the taxpayers' expense so he'll just get lentils from me.
When the tinned goods run out there'll be seeds to plant, berries from the garden, cockles from the shore - and squirrels galore (one interrupts fence-hurdling now to look at me accusingly, but it can't possibly understand - can it?)
Once the power goes I'll miss the typing and the telly - but there's an awful lot of un-read books under this roof too thanks to Borders closing down. I'm almost looking forward to it.
I read with some excitement and no small volume of saliva that Wirral's 'food sector' will be celebrating the successes and achievements of Wirral’s food and tourism industry in 2010 with a 'Year of Food.' http://www.wirral.gov.uk/News/news_0001270.html
