A little bit of faddle does you good!

I SUPPOSE I’ve read hundreds of millions of words in my lifetime, but I came across a new one at a local farm.

Faddle has a sort of rural ring to it and the only reason I didn’t make the mistake of assuming it was some derivative of “fiddle faddle” - meaning something trivial - was because I was reading it on a menu and so assumed quite rightly that it must be something to do with food.

Americans know it as a form of popcorn or even another name for a hotdog, but this was Dorset and I’d never come across the word being used before.

Neither had my father who, at the age of 92 and with more than 60 years in journalism behind him, was equally intrigued by this word - so we asked what it meant.

The reply we got took the form of a finger pointed at a tray containing some type of meat dish. That, we were told, was faddle, a mix of minced pork seasoned with herbs pressed into a rough roll shape with a slice of streaky bacon wrapped round it.

In all honesty I can’t say it is likely to crop up very often in my conversation - but it is going to crop up in my kitchen, perhaps as a pre-Christmas treat.

It’ll all turn out all right in the end

POWER bills stir up powerful emotions or they did for at least one Weymouth resident.

He was valiantly trying to get his head round solar this, solar that and solar the other and the figures just didn’t jell because he liked the idea but couldn’t really afford to buy panels outright.

So the offer of free installation and the strong likelihood of free electricity for life based on a company footing the bill but getting his roof as a site seemed pretty good and he signed up. Then came the installation.

A date was set and he waited with interest... only to get a call saying could they switch to the end of the following week? No problem, he said.

In the meantime he was contacted about scaffolding being installed and duly informed them about their office moving the date. That’s all right then.

The only problem was communications were, to say the least, a little bit inconsistent. The result was that the scaffolders still turned up early and were promptly told by the man that he didn’t want scaffolding all over his house for a week not least because he was frightened of heights and didn’t fancy having to deal with any burglar when he was at a disadvantage. That’s all right then.

Sadly there was also confusion with the installers who also turned up but that was ironed out and a dual mutually agreeable date to cater for both scaffolders and installers was agreed. Just one problem.

The scaffolders were coming from Southampton and the fitters from Brighton!

So if all this extra expense was just casually being written off, the man wondered how hard he could have pushed the margins before the company said it was not profitable for them... clearly at least £1,000 based on wasted petrol and man hours!

A roof raising comment

LOCAL knowledge can be a very soothing thing but a house buyer found themselves a bit on edge when their new home attracted comment from a neighbour.

They hadn’t long been there when an elderly man living opposite their new home hailed them and said they’d made a good buy.

Gratified they smiled their thanks, but they weren’t smiling quite so much at his next remark.

He said: “Beautiful homes those and very well built. A German bomb landed nearby during the war and it blew the roof right up in the air but it landed right back on again!”

Can’t beat that, but I did produce memories of an even earlier time when I unearthed a Royal Flying Corps cap badge while digging our garden for the first when we bought our current home.

Working in two places at once

SOME councillors are busier and more hard-working than others, but surely no member on the Weymouth and Portland authority can come close to Councillor Robbie Dunster - at least according to the council.

A recent planning committee meeting had barely started when Robbie dived in to correct a mistake in the minutes of an earlier meeting.

Some might say it was only a minor discrepancy and perhaps didn’t need pointing out but the issue at stake meant everything to Robbie.

You see, the minutes recorded that he attended the meeting but also that he gave his apologies and wasn’t there!

It goes a long way towards explaining how councillors convince us that they work so hard they sometimes feel they’re in two places at the same time.

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