Festive Panettoni

Mrs maytrees and maytrees min do not usually enjoy panettoni whereas I do or at least used to until  I appreciated that many of ingredients in the usual supermarket versions were, putting it politely, verging on the artificial.

My recent  reading a newspaper summary  of supermarket panettonis tended to support this view of the poor quality of supermarket versions. However the same newspaper, The Daily Telegraph I believe, gave 5* to a version from Sainsbury's. As we have a Sainsbury's locally within walking distance I decided to try the same.

The cost was comparatively high but as  there was only one of the comparatively pricey (£18) versions left on  the shelf I decided to go ahead with the purchase.

Upon bringing the panettone home we all tried samples. Delicious in my view, which view was shared by mrs maytrees and maytrees min, who was home with us accompanied by her new baby whilst her husband was working.

 Wimbledon Village Bayley & Sage has a decent panettone also which it describes helpfully as:

 Panettone is the most famous Italian treat for Christmas and New Year. Originally from Milan, this product has become a festive favourite in so many countries around the world.

The traditional recipe for this cake includes flour, butter, sugar, eggs, raisins and glazed orange peels. Many other variations are available such as plain, with chocolate, pistachio, limoncello and so on.

This version of Brera Milano Panettone is the traditional one with sweet raisins and delicate orange peels.

In 1930, two well-known confectionary masters, Mr. Agostino Panigada and Mr. Giovanni Cova came together to create their first workshop in Milan. That was how BreraMilano 1930 was born. Their Panettone, Pandoro and most recently Colomba are known as the undoubted symbols of Milanese confectionery art all over the world. For this company, remembering and respecting the past means keeping alive the ancient confectionary art traditions, respecting old recipes and checking every single ingredient for quality. Their aim is to keep alive the flavours of the past as time goes by.

I have not tasted the Bayley & Sage panettoni which I am sure is delicious  but at  £28.95 is  more expensive than that from Sainsbury's

 

HCPT Group 35 Leaders' Christmas Mass and Reunion

                                                 

Bernie Paul and I attended a packed low mass at Westminster Cathedral  this week followed by lunch together at the nearby Duke of York public house.

I wondered if the Duke of York is to be renamed given the ignominious re-titling of the human Duke of York following his affair with the then 17 year old American girl. The former Duke of York is not a man I actually like or even respect,  but given the girl was over the British age of consent and has been been paid  handsomely I am not sure why the Prince has been so vilified; perhaps her suicide years later?

The lunch together at the Duke of York public house was fun. The pub was surprisingly crowded though we were found a convenient window table on the 1st floor.

Despite the sadness of Bernie having  difficult news about her close friend who is very ill our  lunch was most enjoyable. Of course my family's news of the birth of baby atomic dot was very happy which to an extent counter-balanced Bernie's upsetting information about her friend.

                                            

Paul I believe attended HCPT pilgrimages to Lourdes for some 40 years with Bernie traveling with  Groups 35 and  729 for over 30 years - HCPT Group

Our lunch together finished all too soon. 

 

 

A Baby is Born

                                                                        Atomic Dot

First baby for youngest child and her husband;  new grandchild for mrs maytrees and myself. She is nick-named atomic dot  with her 12 year old cousin, well established as micro dot.

Mrs maytrees was called as dot years ago simply because I found her Irish Christian name difficult to recall.

Eyesight

 Probably as one becomes older health issues become more prominent in one's life.

This time for me eyesight is the issue. My eyesight was excellent until the onset of age 70+ which may better than average.  However a visit to Jimmy Fairly, opticians in Wimbledon Village was very impressive. 

The opticians took about an hour in checking my eyesight using what appeared to me to be very advanced equipment. When the eye testing session was finished  the results were thus:

Quite what the results mean is unclear to me hence there is little point in endeavouring to make the above slightly darker for ease of reading. However the helpful optician informed me that I had cataracts in one eye. She promised to send me an email detailing the problem so that I could pass this on to my GP with a view to her putting me on  list for a minor NHS  operation to eradicate the cataract.

Meanwhile she arranged for a lenses for my eyeglasses to be made in Paris. These would be then fitted in a couple of weeks, all for the princely sum of c.£120 which does not seem too bad. 

St Georges NHS Hospital - Resus Dept

Feeling poorly during the week I was given an appointment to see a local doctor within an hour. She spoke to me at length then telephoned the St Georges NHS Hospital on call heart doctor, for advice. He advised her that I attended the hospital's A&E department at once.

Knowing that one can wait hours in A&E before being seen, the doctor's advice for which she was very apologetic, was depressing but none the less with mrs maytrees, I traveled there by bus.

The triage system and  testing at  St George's A&E reception, surprisingly to me anyway, led to an immediate admission to the hospital's Resus department. There I was given blood tests and seen by some half dozen staff. A  modern room with a bed was provided. 

Low blood pressure, Af and an abnormal hear rate were the problems.  The medics advised that if a decent  heart rate was not restored asap, I would have to be admitted to ward.

Their  medical action  then included an injection for c. 25 minutes, of Digoxin which google describes as:

Digoxin belongs to the class of medicines called digitalis glycosides. It is used to improve the strength and efficiency of the heart, or to control the rate and rhythm of the heartbeat. This leads to better blood circulation and reduced swelling of the hands and ankles in patients with heart problems.

However  checking to see what the disadvantages of Digoxin are, I see again through Google  that these include:

Feeling dizzy: If digoxin makes you feel dizzy, lie down so that you do not faint, then sit until you feel better. 

• Feeling or being sick (nausea or vomiting) ...
• Diarrhoea. ...
• Changes in your vision (including blurred vision and not being able to look at bright light) ...
• Skin rashes. 

The disadvantages are helpful to know as some I have experienced but had believed to be part of the disadvantages of Covid-19 (for which I had been hospitalised some years back) and simply aging.

The Resus doctor told me that despite the sometimes frenetic activity, he reveled in working there, a point repeated by many of the staff I spoke with whilst in the Resus hospital room. 

Amazingly, while awaiting the effects of the digoxin injection, the hospital provided supper and tea for me all free of cost.

Autumn/Fall

An early morning walk two days ago in brilliant sunshine took me past some beautiful autumn scenery, see for example the scene above of   the garden of the local Catholic church, although my iPhone photograph  does not do it justice.

The road on our nearby home was covered in leaves, hence presumably the USA name of Fall  as distinct from the British Autumn..

Since the above picture was taken, there have been torrents of rain particularly  during last night and this morning, so that the autumnal views have largely dissipated to be replaced by wet leaves underfoot.

Perhaps the name autumn is  the more apt before many of the leaves fall, with the latter name (fall)  being apt when most of the leaves are swept down from the trees by the passage of time or weather.

Lord Nelson

 

 

The Nelson Hospital in Merton Park is named such I believe, because Lord Nelson who was born in East Anglia had a home in that part of the world.

A few days ago The times had an interesting article about Nelson in its weather report page: 

Britain’s most famous naval battle took place 220 years ago on Tuesday. In October 1805, a combined French and Spanish fleet was ready to sail out of Cadiz to the Mediterranean. Admiral Horatio Nelson raced to engage the enemy, although the French commander, Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, wanted to avoid a confrontation, despite his 33 warships outnumbering Nelson’s 27.

Reports that Villeneuve was about to be replaced as commander persuaded him to sail, in a heavy sea swell and strengthening winds, on October 20. Nelson realised a storm was brewing and that he needed to battle the enemy fleet urgently before conditions deteriorated. On October 21, however, the wind dropped, leaving both fleets wallowing in a heavy sea swell. Nelson was obliged to concoct an audacious battle plan — two columns of ships would sail into the enemy line for a head-on attack before launching broadsides at close quarters.

Villeneuve tried, and failed, to head back to Cadiz, but the two fleets met off Cape Trafalgar when Nelson launched his attack. His flagship, HMS Victory, bore down on the enemy and sustained heavy fire, before it ran under the stern of the French flagship, the Bucentaure, firing devastating broadsides that left the ship disabled.

The centre of the Franco-Spanish fleet was reduced to chaos, but the crew of the French ship Redoutable massed an attack on Victory that left Nelson mortally wounded, before HMS Temeraire crashed into Redoutable and caused mass casualties on the French crew.

As the battle raged on, the devastating British gunnery ground down the enemy ships until the Franco-Spanish force collapsed. Although many of the British ships were badly damaged, the allied fleet was devastated, with 20 of their ships captured and many of the crew killed, wounded or taken prisoner. The gathering storm now blew the ships towards a rocky shore, and by next morning, several of the captured ships sank while some of the Spanish ships ran for Cadiz. All told, 14 of the captured ships were destroyed, and the total loss of life in the storm was worse than during the battle. As a result of the engagement, the Battle of Trafalgar left Britain in command of the seas.

Today of course, the UK's Health and Safety Executive would doubtless not have permitted a man with one leg and blinded in one eye to work as an admiral on board a ship of the fleet.