Day 43 - Christmas Pudding!

Have you found any spare change today? It's Lost Penny Day, a day to celebrate loose change. No, I don't get it either. I tried to find out whether there was a story behind it but all I could find was something about Abraham Lincoln which I didn't really follow. Anyway, in celebration I've been scouring the floor for pennies and have so far found nothing,  zip, diddly squat. I think that the best way to find lost money is to not look for it.

Clean Out Your Computer Day isn't something I can celebrate as we ditched the desktop years ago in favour of a laptop. I'm not sure that it's a good thing to open it up, it would probably do more harm than good. I might just give the screen a wipe instead.

I didn't have to try hard for Darwin Day. Living in Shrewsbury it's difficult to avoid the man. I took my picture next to his statue by the library, wore my evolution t-shirt and visited the wild animal statue parade in town. There are all sorts of Darwin themed activities going on this month. If you haven't come across the Darwin Awards then I would seek them out if I were you. They have little to do with the man himself other than using his name to honour people so stupid that they don't seem to have evolved. He also pops up in a film with Pirates. Hugh Grant was at his finest as the Pirate Captain.

I wonder whether Darwin was a fan of Plum Pudding. If so he'd have loved today (do you see what I did there?) for today is Plum Pudding Day.  Yep. Christmas Pudding, in February.  I had to double check this one but it really is Plum Pudding Day. The pudding was around before it became associated with Christmas.  I wasn't sure where I'd find one in February. You can't just make one either,  they take time to mature. Thankfully I made far too much mincemeat last year and found a recipe using mincemeat and marmalade.  They're supposed to steam for hours, or 25 mins in a microwave. I used the microwave option and instantly regretted it. The pudding came out really spongy with a solid centre.  It was seriously overcooked. Microwaves should be used for defrosting stuff and warming milk. Nothing else. The celebration turned into reminiscing about last year's Christmas Pudding which was moist, rich and flavoursome. Oh well.

Lastly today was Hot Tea Day. I didn't find out until this evening else I'd have switched my usual coffee for tea. Usually I just have tea with fish and chips, full English or when my mate Al stops by.  Any other time just seems wrong.

Oh, it was also Shrove Monday today. I didn't know there was such a thing. Neither did you?  Now you do. Look it up. It's mainly a European thing but I didn't have time to organise a carnival!