Bovril, Marmite, Branston pickle, marmalade and gravestones

Two very contrasting stories this time. One is about English food the other about a cemetery.

You can see in the first photo a set of shelves in one of BP's Tescos that disproves our whinge about not being able to buy Branston pickle, marmalade and other such delights over here. Well, it is true, except in this particular Tesco the store's buyer obviously acquired by extra sensory perception the list of goodies we could not get so far, ordered them and when they arrived put all of them on the same shelving unit. It may just be a special treat for Christmas and they will disappear for another 12 months soon, but we were utterly shocked by the sight. Mind you, if you have a look at the price of some of them (exchange rate of 300=1) you might as well consider them not being available, as who would want to pay nearly 5 quid for a jar of peanut butter?

And now for the cemetery pictures. You may recall that recently we have visited the old Jewish Cemetery of BP where they have not buried anyone for at least 50 years. I have quite a few of my ancestors interred there and the last expedition revealed a very overgrown, neglected and ruinous memorial on top of a looted vault for the Posners as well as a fallen gravestone which we reckoned was that of my great great grand mother Czettel, although we weren't sure. Since then we checked in the burial register using one of the names that is visible next to it and were fairly sure that was it. The problem now was how to lift it to confirm that it was hers and then take pictures. I reckoned the stone was too heavy, but Roy had some great ideas with planks and ropes. Well, we did it. I couldn't believe it, considering that we both have arthritis and bad backs, not to mention Roy's hernia!! I suppose the recent rains helped to make the ground soft and the half ton stone gave way and allowed us to roll it 180 degrees.

As you can see the lettering is as sharp as the day they carved it into that piece of lovely, shiny, jet black, polished Swedish granite and Roy was very pleased with himself. He is now talking of getting someone to place it back on top of its plinth from which we reckon some anti-semite vandal pushed it off some 60 years ago. If it is not too expensive we might have it done, we'll see.