Chicken Pie

Mum with Penny

Me as a baby with Penny

Me, James and Val

Well it's Friday and I'm making a chicken pie tonight from last night's leftover roast chicken and some sausage meat balls which I have made by removing the skins from some chipolatas I bought from Colin the butcher (he's the one who knows everyone by name). I like shopping at our small local shops...it reminds me of how shopping was when I was a child....there were no large out-of-town supermarkets then.    I would walk by my mother's side, holding on to my brother's pram, one of those large cumbersome prams that have now become popular with quirky/trendy mums. We would always follow a similar route.  We would go to the top end of town first where, if it was a Friday, we would buy fish from the fishmongers...my mum would always choose plaice which she would dip in egg and breadcrumbs and cook with big fat homemade chips. I was always totally captivated if we needed to go to the haberdashery shop...they had this strangest contraption for taking your money...a lady would place your money inside a cylindrical container which she would then attach to a wire above her head and then the cylinder would whizz down the entire length of the shop as if it were on it's own mini ski lift until it reached its destination which was a gentleman sitting inside what resembled a phone box. I really cant remember what happened if you needed change but suffice to say I found it all intriguing.