I'm not sure if I've shown this picture before; if I have I apologise.
I was recently sent this photo which brings back great memories. I think I must have been going through my Strachey period.
I had not long moved to France (Sept 1973) and had met an NZ woman who was living nearby; she later became a very good friend, and still is. She asked me if I would help to build a small wall, with flower bed, in one corner of her terrace. It was to be built of stone with a tiled top; an easy enough job which she wanted to be in keeping with the surrounding walls (i.e. rustic).
At one stage the daughter of the house brought me some Tea and Carrot cake. I had never even heard of Carrot cake, and found it as inedible as it sounded. I took a large lump and built it into the wall. My action was not appreciated.
I don't know if that's why I'm looking so miserable. I would have been about 25 at the time.
Too bad you didn't taste the cake. Carrot cake can be very tasty.
ReplyDeleteI did taste it, it was ghastly.
DeleteA sulky young man ....
ReplyDeleteNot like me at all, I'm usually all sweetness and light.
DeleteBlimey, you do look a right ol' misery!
ReplyDeleteSomething must have got to me!
DeleteIt certainly doesn't look like one of your 'Happy Days'. And carrot cake can be VERY good.
ReplyDeleteThe words Carrot and Cake don't seem like happy bedfellows to me, and the taste said I was right. Maybe it was simply a bad one.
DeleteIn the US we have a carrot cake which has all kinds of good things in it, and by nature it is never dry and hard. In fact, it is a layer cake filled and frosted with cream cheese frosting and so moist as to be sometimes breaking apart when cut.
DeletePretty handsome in a rustic, arty kind of way - certainly my kind of chap. especially if he csn build walls too)
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't my usual standard of building; she wanted it 'rustic'. That's what she got.
DeleteI suspect ones taste in cake depends what one was brought up with. My mother made the lightest of light sponge cakes. When I arrived in England someone gave me some Victoria 'sponge'. What a vile thing! I quietly binned it. Sponge it definitely is not, but English people love it.
ReplyDeleteMy mother made lovely chocolate sponge cakes. I judge all other cakes by hers.
DeleteI have heard Victoria Sponges called "Jam Sandwiches" since there is often a layer of jam through the middle and that always confused the heck out of me who grew up knowing a jam sandwich was two slices of bread with jam filling.
DeleteI've had some very nice carrot cake in N.Z. Maybe it was the aftertaste of the cake that made you look so grumpy!
ReplyDeleteFrankly I think it was the very idea of making a cake with CARROTS.
Delete1973 was a moody era.
ReplyDeleteI'm not normally moody.
DeleteYou look pensive and not particularly thrilled with the wall building project. Not all carrot cake is equal. You either love it or hate it. It is not my favorite.
ReplyDeleteMy wife makes a wonderful Lemon Drizzle Cake; I'll stick with that!
DeleteYou should have quietly binned your piece of cake or very quietly crumbled it into the wall, left a few crumbs on the plate and told her it was delicious. Though you would probably have been given more the next day
ReplyDeleteI left it showing like a small stone. I imagine the mice ate it very quickly.
DeleteSounds to me that you should've been having a laugh to put the cake in the wall. Did you smoke?
ReplyDeleteYes, non-tipped Gauloises. I gave-up about 25 years ago.
DeleteI do not believe that that is a picture of you at 25 for it is surely Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (1869-1916).
ReplyDeleteIt does have a slightly Rasputin-esque look about it. I might develop the look.
DeleteThe habits too? You may need to take an evening class in the art of seducing and bedding members of the aristocracy.
DeleteI might not have appreciated that either, did you dig it out again? I have tried carrot cake over the years and some are good and some are dry enough to make you gasp for water.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's still there; either rotten or eaten by brave mice.
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