Mrs Tara Plumbing

I am no domestic goddess. I don’t like cooking but I do like eating. My dinners might often look like a plate of red-brown-green slop but hopefully taste delicious. Most of the time that is OK but what about on my son’s 6th birthday?

Whilst the vast majority of parents (it seems) are happy to serve up a plate of chemically treated sugar as a so called ‘treat’ it is something I am simply not comfortable with. I really avoid food colouring, flavourings and artificial ingredients I just can not see these things as being a treat.

Every time he goes to another child’s birthday we come home with a bag of sweets and sponge cake covered in red & blue… We put them in the bin.

No I’m not being cruel, he doesn’t cry for them and want to eat them - because we have ALWAYS done this he takes it for granted. Once or twice he had tried a few shop bought sugary sweets - he doesn’t like them as they’re not part of our diet. As he is growing older I am encouraging him to make his own decisions, if he seems unsure about disposing of the cakes or sweets I tell him he can try them if he wants to. He is not tempted, he will ask me if I want them, I make it clear I would not dream of eating such a thing.

Having said all that - much as I strive for healthy perfection in our diets, in fact we do consume a fair amount of food that is ‘unhealthy’, biscuits, sugar, chocolate, chips, cakes, and even the occasional fizzy drink. These things, however, can all be free of chemicals, made with more healthy ingredients and eaten in moderation.

It was the young Tara Plumbing son’s birthday. I made chocolate cakes - lots of them. He loves Spongebob Square Pants who fortunately happens to be yellow and square-ish. It was very easy to make a marzipan figure with icing for big teeth and whites of his eyes and licorice for the black of his eyes and boots. I made his shirt and trousers out of paper. Our son loved taking his clothes of and seeing Spongebob naked! Didn’t want to eat him though - no artificial chemicals - but tasted far too sweet. Personally, I love the taste of marzipan.

Our son chose the menu for dinner - his choice - pizza (that’s home made just tomato and herbs), grapes, pancakes (with maple syrup), and the cake, of course.

All being well there will be many more birthday cakes to be made. 

There has been a good reason for my lack of blogging this year - the same reason that I look like humpty dumpty.  The double chins are because I’ve eaten too much chocolate.  Appart from that I’ve been feeling terribly ill as I am being the human incubator for twins.

Should you happen to have a lovely twin pram for sale, or infact most other baby items in good condition, please email me.

xxx xxx

I’m thoroughly enjoying the CH4 ‘Food Fight’ season:

www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/the-big-food-fight/the-big-food-fight.html

but I can’t help wondering who is watching? is it preaching to the converted…?

After all, in the T.P. household we eat loads of fruit, veggies, wholemeal bread and pulses - consequently we probably produce more poo than most east Africans (see - eat to change your life) and it is possible that we are causing global warming through our own excessive production of natural gas!

Ch4 say: “With the worst diet in Europe, two thirds of Britons are overweight, and treating obesity-related diseases costs the NHS more than £3 billion a year. Experts fear that today’s children could be the first generation to die younger than their parents if nothing is done.”It is a shocking fact that most people in the UK eat worse food than people who live in far more impoverished conditions in other parts of the world - that the obese folk around us are actually malnourished.

Especially as what we eat then affects not just our life span but our ability to function and enjoy our life.

Saint Jamie Oliver’s programme Eat to Save Your Life certainly made an impression on some of the labourers that we work with, they did watch it.   They laugh at our vegetarian diet, and like many people, they find it hard to believe that Mr Tara Plumbing usually eats vegan meals every day at home (doesn’t he miss his meat?).  The labourers’ diets are typical of those on the TV programme - refined, processed, convenience food, meat and potatoes, absolutely no fruit or vegetables.

The long term consequences of such a diet were graphically shown, it was hard hitting.  A shorter life and increased chance of getting all sorts of disabling diseases.

Most important - I thought - was the increased likelihood of male impotency.  I guess we all have different priorities!  

The message was clear - eat fruit and veggies; wholefoods; simple home cooked foods; the best quality you can afford and a little indulgence will probably not hurt.

If you get chance to watch repeats I recommend them, if you can watch only 1, see Eat to Save Your Life:

www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/the-big-food-fight/eat-to-save-your-life-07-12-18_p_1.html?intcmp=homepage_box2

I have very rarely left my home for new year’s eve celebrations. I’m not keen on crowds, inflated prices, or wondering how I’m going to get home when I’m tired, it’s cold and there are no taxis for hours.I lived in London for more than a decade and never joined the mad crowds in Trafalgar Square. Of course, it was a lot colder on 31 Dec in the 20th century. I did venture into the centre of London only once on New Year’s Eve (1999) - this was only because I had an exclusive invite to an apartment by the Thames, we were able to stand on the roof to watch the River of Fire, away from the crowds and with the warmth of the sitting room near by and no queue for the toilet.

Mr T.P. put on the chef’s hat, assisted by our son - Big Cook Little Cook. They locked themselves in the kitchen where they made vegan Chocolate Truffles - yummy.   It is very simple.

Regular readers will know I love all things toilet related so I was excited to read about Modern Toilet - a chain of 12 toilet themed eateries.

I have found these links which readers who share my festish might also enjoy - includes pics and you tube clips:

www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,22756557-27977,00.html

www.coolhunting.com/archives/2005/05/toilet_bowl_res.php

 www.theage.com.au/photogallery/2007/11/14/1194766765904.html

Pics of the food - http://gizmo2u.com/eating-on-toilet-bowls-in-modern-toilet

Here are some photos:

 is walking distance from my house. Based on my one visit on a mums’ night out I would highly recommend the restaurant and so does Mark Palmer in the Daily Telegraph.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/wine/2007/06/16/edtable116.xml

It is French, of course, the menu is for the dairy-loving carnivore. With just 2 hours notice they were able to come up with a delicious choice of vegan options for one guest, which is the sign of a good chef. Now, let me tell you, I don’t do food reviews. My vocabulary has no adjectives which can be applied to comestibles. The food was interesting delicious, portions sizes were generous. The food was excellent, fresh, tasty, interesting and well presented. Bon Appétit is expensive (relative to the area), but you get what you pay for (expect to pay £25-£40pp (depending on how much you like your puddings and alcohol), it is worth it. In an elevated position under the Royal Harbour Yacht Club it has a great view over the harbour.

Whenever a large group go to dinner, that tricky issue of the bill with inevitably arise. I hoped someone would say, “Don’t worry everyone, I’ll get this”! I ‘ve been for dinner with strangers many times. I remember once being most impressed by the local lawyer sitting next to me who suddenly produced a tiny note of everything he had, with the price. He had obviously written this, very discretely, through the evening. As a regular member of that group he told me the end of the evening was always chaotic as everyone paid for what they had eaten.

With another group that I regularly eat with we also pay for our own meal. I have no problem doing a quick mental tally of my own consumption, but I’ve always been impressed by the woman who brings her calculator and works it out to the penny (no rounding it up to the nearest pound) she then meticulously adds on 12.5%. Actually she multiplies by 1.125 as she is using a scientific machine. She’s a girl with a math’s degree on a budget!

The mum’s divided the bill equally, always a recipe for confrontation among strangers! Who didn’t have a pudding? Who only drank tap water? Not me - I ate and drank as much as I could! You don’t keep this wobbly tummy without working on it!  How much should we leave as a tip? At least 12.5% is a minimum guideline if you have had good food and good service.

I heard a very interesting programme on Radio 4 this week. Did you know that it is legal and common in the restaurant business to pay staff less than the minimum wage! It is expected that wages will be made up by tips AND income tax is paid on those tips. If you had a good night out, with good service and sat at a table for several hours, the least you can do is reward the low paid staff with the best tip you can afford! 10% is the absolute minimum, in my opinion, 15-20% is quite reasonable. I’m known for being thrifty, so if I don’t feel I can afford the tip then I would eat somewhere cheaper - Beano Cafe have a good reputation! 

I’m sure buffet, eat as much as you can type places thrive because of groups of strangers. At such places the food might be somewhere between awful to palatable. At least there is not much chance of arguing over the bill and a generous tip might not be required.

By the way, if you check out the review for Bon Appétit (link above) you will note Ramsgate is up and coming! The author mentions that we have a Waitrose and a Cafe Nero. Mr Tara Plumbing recalls the Waitrose opening in the early 1980’s and as an apprentice plumber he worked in there at one of its refits in the 1980’s. Apparently it was built on the site of a former brewery.

More : http://www.restaurant-guide.com/bon-appetit-5.htm

160 years ago Vegetarian Society was founded, in Ramsgate of all places. There is an event on Saturday 7th July organised by local Veggie folk, not the national society (I think).

See my page for more details and links:

http://mrstaraplumbing.wordpress.com/whats-on/

Some people imagine Vegetarians to be pale, weak, humourless characters, who live on state benefits and can not afford a proper collar for their dogs. Their responses are slow because their brains are trying to conserve energy.

Strange - I’ve met that man as well, he’s NOT veggie, he’s a druggie! I love the jokes about vegetarians, they tend to be surreal.

Does meat make you strong (virile, manly)? Well - it takes an awful long time for it to move through the intestines & digest.  There is a study which found meat-eaters’ poo takes 6 months to disintergrate, whereas a vegan’s poo decomposes in hours. Infact, it would seem likely that the person who eats only meat & wheat, with no fruit & veggies is more likely to be sloath-like in their behaviour.  I’m not sure about mental functioning but there is no reason for a planet based diet to be lacking in the omegas.

If you love eating, as I do, then it makes sence to eat a vegan diet: high fibre, based on fruit, vegetables and grains.

1. The food passes through you really quickly and sometimes still looks the same on the way out as when first consumed! So you can rapidly move on to your next meal.

2. Most vegetable foods are not so calory dense, which means you can get a lot more food on your plate at each meal time.

Not quite the weather for it, any where in the UK!

Such a shame as there will be a production of Peter Pan in the Gardens of Quex later this week. I hope the weather improves.  We saw Alice in Wonderland there last year, by the same theatre company, it was an excellent performance.

              Thursday 28th & Friday 29th June at 7.00pm
             THE GARDENS OF QUEX HOUSE
              Powell Cotton Museum, Birchington, Kent. CT7 0BH

Free community transport available from Margate and Ramsgate to and from Quex Park: please ask about this service when booking your tickets

              Box Office: (01843) 280077

We are going to see the Peter Pan performance later in the summer, as they are touring many local venues.  You can find out more by following the link from my Whar’s On page.

Also on the What’s On Page you can find out details of an event to cellebrate 160 years of the Vegetarian Society in Ramsgate!

I like good customer service but I don’t like those few loud arrogant people who are overly demanding of the staff, have unrealistic expectations and are just plain rude. It never hurts to be friendly and polite - that applies to customers as much as staff. If I’m not happy with the service in a shop, restaurant or other business I usually leave, I don’t return and I may tell every one I know about my poor experience.

Only the other day Mr Tare Plumbing left a shop because there were no shop assistants! Some people were complaining that they had been waiting ages. Mr T.P.’s view was that they must all be crazy, as there were plenty of other shops where they could go and spend their pennies. Obviously, this was not so much a problem of bad service as poor management.

Some people, however, probably receive a poor quality of service due to their own bad behaviour, such as the justice dealt out in the funny, fictional Hotel Babylon. If your complaint about the corked wine is justified it will be replaced. If you are just deliberately being annoying then Gino, the Latin Barman, may just dunk his Balls in your wine before returning it to you in a fresh glass!

I may have been on the receiving end of such treatment in a Beans & Chips Cafe once. I ordered black coffee, when the waiter bought out a mug of white coffee, I said:

“I asked for black coffee”.

My companion looked shocked and told me I was a bit harsh.

Apparently, it sounded as if I had shouted:

“You fool! How dare you come before me with such a beverage. When I demand Black coffee, no other substitute will suffice. Run back to your little kitchen and do not dare to show your face in this room again without bringing a delicious Mug of the finest Instant Black Coffee.” It is not what I intended but that is how it came across.Obviously, there would be no genitals dunking in my hot coffee, but I do remember a study finding ‘foreign bodies’ in restaurant food was very common, the most memorable being semen from a number of different men all in one curry. Yuk! I must add I think the study was in London, I’m sure such things do not happen in Kent.Mr Tara Plumbing says I’m always so abrupt, that’s why he’s scared to take me out in public! As for whether I prefer to swallow dairy products or semen? I never take milk in my coffee as I am vegan!

I’m sure many low paid shop assistants have wanted to say something to the effect of, “I really don’t like you, please leave the shop.”

The nice thing about being your own boss is that you do not have to chase every potential client and worry about being fired. So on more than one occasion I’ve had the pleasure of suggesting that someone may like to find a different company to do the work.

…as I’m sure you know.

Yesterday our son (age 5) fell as he climbed out the bath. He landed head first on the hard tiled floor, immediately next to the toilet.

I saw it all from the door way, you know how these things are in slow motion, but I was to far away to catch him.

He cried and screamed, “I need to go to hospital!”

I was so relieved, he was obviously OK.

There was no blood, so why did he think he needed the attention of A&E?

I am always telling him that bathrooms are dangerous, the floor gets slippery when wet and if he fell and banged his head on any of the hard surfaces he could die.

As he didn’t die, perhaps he will stop believing all my other warnings on subjects such as traffic and drowning.

My conclusion is that I now see there is good reason for all those fluffy bathroom accessories of olden times - like the toilet lid cover and the mat that sits around the toilet. They can help to soften the landing when you fall head first.

I’ve done a search but cannot find any toilet lid covers at all - aren’t they made any more, I am surprised.

I did find lots of links to those selling so called hygienic disposable paper seat covers, quite a different thing.

I also found a chocolate toilet 

which I thought I must share with you all!

http://www.creativechocolatesofvt.com/Products/Toilet_Basket.php3

Now, back to safety in the bathroom.

Why have we got hard, dangerous, slippy tiles? Well, they look really good; we have underfloor heating so they are warm under foot and water dries quickly; Mr Tara Plumbing chose them - it’s his fault.

I’d like to look into a bouncy rubber floor, as in the advert, you can watch it here if you are over 18:    http://www.budweiser.co.uk/budweiser.aspx

Finally, a little secret. In our area of the world, at Westwood, Margate we now have a

http://www.bathstore.com

Strangely, they must want to keep it a secret because it does not appear in the location by postcode finder on their website.

I suspect one of the secrets to a great enduring loving relationship is making each other feel loved and special. So, even after the briefest separation I greet Mr Tara Plumbing like a long lost something or other.

Kisses and cuddles as he steps over the threshold ALSO provides the opportunity for the test, before he goes for a shower. My nose can tell whether he has been to the pub, in a smoky atmosphere, drinking beer or embracing ladies who wear strong perfume.

We ladies like to know these things, without having to trust a man to tell us!

Things will change in July, of course. You will no longer be able to smell from 50 paces whether your partner has been for swift drink in a smoke-filled bar.

http://www.smokefreeengland.co.uk/

Personally, like the vast majority of people in this country, I am a non-smoker and I am delighted with the change in the law. Many publicans don’t seem to realise that many of us are currently put off going into pubs or some cafes, because we don’t want to smell like that for the rest of the day.

Only a few weeks ago, Mr T.P. and I decided to treat ourselves to elevenses at MILES’, which is one of our favourite local places: a Cafe/Bar which is open from 7am until late in the evening providing a great range of liquid refreshments and some food, with comfy seating and views across Ramsgate Harbour.

http://www.thebestof.co.uk/ramsgate/4296/1/1/the_best_of.aspx

All credit is due to its owner who has created a great venue with fantastic ambience at any time of day, and good music at night.

One of the reasons we like this cafe is because of the large open windows which give ventilation in the evening. On this particular morning, however, the wind was blowing a gale so it was strange to see some people sitting outside, holding their coats tightly, whilst the windows and doors were shut. We went inside and instantly realised why some people were braving the outdoor elements. The smoking inside determined that we would go elsewhere. We took our £25 and spent it near by on lunch at the Surin and coffee at cafe Nero - both are smoke free venues.

http://www.surinrestaurant.co.uk/