Granny

I've blogged before about how I ended up buying the house that my paternal Grandmother was born in without knowing it, (those of you who haven't read about it can do so here) so it's probably about time I blogged a bit about her, my Grandmother.
A tall, elegant eighty nine year old lady with a hearty laugh and a razor sharp wit that not even a couple of recent strokes could dull, she has visited the house of her birth on a few occasions and I loved listening to her reminisce about my great grandparents as she pointed to the various locations around the house where each humourous incident occurred.
One of the hardest things that I ever saw my Granny having to cope with was the death of her eldest son nine years ago, my uncle Podger, a very acomplished musician who, during the course of his long musical career played with many famous bands including The Rolling Stones and Gladys Knight and the Pips but was probably most famous for his years on the Showband scene in Las Vegas in the 1960s and 70s.
The respect that was afforded to my Grandmother at Podger's funeral by people such as the Dubliners and Paddy Cole was astounding and it was as I was helping her into the funeral car and Joe Dolan came over to help me with her that I realised that this lady was very special.
Always fond of family get togethers, sing songs and what not, her favourite singer was Pavorotti, who passed away yesterday 6th Sept at 4am. I'd love to kow how she felt about that but I never will because forty two minutes later she too passed away. At least she had good company for her onward journey.

Curiosity Killed the Cat?

Not this time, it was a mad Australian woman! The aptly named Kat Kessing (honest to Jaysus, you couldn't make this stuff up), a childrens author from near Alice Springs (beware of what you let your kids read folks) has been roaming the Outback catching, killing, cooking and eating feral cats and has now produced a recipe book stuffed full of moggy masterpieces.
However, her plans to introduce the feline cuisine at an Outback food contest turned into a bit of a cat-astrophe when the tasting judges couldn't keep the cat meat down. Pussies!!
For anyone interested in experimenting, her recipe for a Stewed Cat-erole is:
Chop and Brown 2 small feral cats on a pan. Add a couple of dashes of LemonGrass, Salt, Pepper, Wild Peach, Spinach Leaves and Mistletoe berries and water. Cook on a high heat for 5 hours. Now if that don't get the taste buds goin' I don't know what will. Here puss, puss, puss!!