I’ll put it all together in a jumble of words, or story, as some people have so generously called them.
But here are some more morsels for you.
Pressed into action
On potatoes, in your weekly food column Hungry and Thursday.
But now I’m on the subject of columns, where is our weekly cruise feature Cruiseday Tuesday I hear your scream?
Put off until this weekend because I was halfway up a volcano.
But it will be worth waiting for.
As I will give you the lowdown on the Viking Sun which stopped off in Dublin for day 5 of the Ultimate World Cruise.
Here’s where the magic happens
But back to potatoes, and more specifically the wrinkly variety.
Now the Canadians love their wrinklies (which might be why they took to me).
These are small new potatoes which are unpeeled and boiled (originally in sea water but these days in salt).
When they are boiled the potatoes are briefly removed before being left on the pot.
To dry off until they become wrinkled with a fine salt crust.
I have a variation on that theme, my very own burnt potatoes.
It’s all in the olive oil
The Tinerfeni have their boiling technique down to a fine art.
You’ll be encouraged to dip the potatoes in a sauce called mojo rojo.
Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit
I was sure they were a Stock, Aitken and Waterman act of the 1980s but it is actually a child pepper garlic sauce, either green or red.
The Papas Arugadas (wrinkly potatoes) are an accompaniment to meat dishes, usually rabbit stew.
And you’ll never run out of either the wrinklies or the wrabbits (there are 30,000 of them on the island, one for every three people although they are seen as pests.
Don’t call us, we’ll call you
We were enlisted into the secret society of Elaboration mojo rojo (red sauce) and mojo verde (green sauce) makers in Santiago del Teide.
Being let loose with a chopping knife, a pestle and a board.
How to make the sauces
Now it couldn’t be easier – the mojo rojo is a couple of pinchfuls of palm tree paper, garlic, oregano, salt, spicy pepper and olive oil.
While the mojo verde is even easier, coriander, garlic, salt and olive oil.
So why did it all look like a slurpy mess while my esteemed Travel colleague Tom Sweeney www.tomsweeneytravels.blogspot.com and his team looked as if they had made a produce worthy of Dragons Den?
Of course, you’re not going to see my finished product.
I don’t want you suing me for bringing on nausea and sickness!
For more information on how to get to Tenerife, Aer Lingus http://www.aerlingus.com flies seven times a week from Dublin and up to two flights a week from Cork during their winter schedule.
Aer Lingus http://www.aerlingus.com has seven flights a week from Dublin to Tenerife and up to two flights a week from Cork during the winter schedule.
I’m here in Tenerife this week roadtesting the new CaminoWays frontier the Canaries. With flights from Dublin with Aer Lingus seven times a week and twice a week from Cork.
Fares start from €69.99.
And I’ll uncover, and share more, as I go.
And to get into the spirit if walking in Spain and what CaminoWays does here’s my Camino to Santiago
Back to Ms Ellen though and the Unity Bar which she calls ‘confectionary activism.’
As if that’s wrong.
Back in the Boer War the pacifist Joseph Cadbury had a stand-off with Queen Victoria.
She had wanted to send out a bar of his chocolate to the troops but he didn’t want to be seen to endorse the fighting.
A compromise was found where he stated his war objections as part of the gesture.
Cadbury was a titan of his times, the chocolate, initially hot chocolate, a means to get the poor off alcohol.
While Bourneville Village was built for his employers with schools, health facilities, playing fields and pension arrangements all part of the package.
It was a Quaker thing and modern-day businesses could take heed.
I’m reminded here too of my walking guide in Barbados who railed against white liberalism.
A blackboard was a blackboard to her while she was cool with Admiral Nelson’s statue in Bridgetown. ‘It’s all part of our history.’
She had as much need of white people talking for her as the Indians munching their Unity bar do.
And just like their founder Joseph, I reckon Cadbury are ‘aware of the segregation problems in parts of India or oppression in Kashmir.’
It was another layer of poignancy to the death of Princess Diana that she should have lost her life in another country.
Because the Princess of Wales was an avid traveller, obviously in her official capacity, but as a wide-eyed adventurer.
The images of the royal on Dodi Fayed’s yacht off the French Riviera are reminders of that late summer of 1997, her last.
Our own summer holidays with The Son and Heir had been planned for Bulgaria for that first week in September.
A Diana fan: Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Pexels.com
In truth, I was glad to get away from the mass hysteria and national meltdown following her death.
I, of course, never knew the woman or met her. But the Irrepressible Miss F did have cause to take her picture and that of the other royals.
It was part of her job as a photo-journalist and with us working in the Royal County of Berkshire they were on our doorstep.
Winning smile: The Queen
And so it wasn’t an atypical day for Sarah to find herself photographing the Queen or Prince Philip while I might be covering the courts, council or a fete opening.
But she always approached these jobs with respect, the ways of the paparazzi were not then nor ever have been her modus operandi.
And she proved that she could capture the royals at their most relaxed and respect distances at the same time.
A different side: To Prince Philip
Of course these pictures taken from our scrapbook can never do justice to the real prints, but then that’s a hard screen and a blog for you.
Just a big kid
The pictures, of course that Diana most enjoyed were when she was with her beloved boys, Prince William and Harry.
It is usual to promote Edinburgh ahead of Glasgow, my home city, but both should have equal billing in my mind.
Which reminds me of the two Glaswegians who had a poke at their Edinburgh ‘friends’ when they turned up in the Scottish capital’s main street, Princes Street, in 1990.
They were wearing sandwich boards with arrows saying: ‘You are only 46 miles from the European City of Culture’.
Iconic sight: Yes, the Duke of Wellington statue, but mostly Mum and I
Glasgow and Edinburgh are €9.99 one-way. I guess you have to do the math for the overall package otherwise they’d be literally paying you to travel!
