Evidence that people can be admired for all kinds of feats


Yesterday, a woman on the train who had no teeth was noshing her way through a whole Scotch egg as if it were an apple. (For the uninitiated, a Scotch egg is a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat and breadcrumbs and fried.) If you'd given me the choice between watching her eat a Scotch egg and not watching her eat a Scotch egg, I'd have plumped for the latter. But she was directly opposite me, and I admired both her skill and her total lack of self-consciousness. I didn't take a photo (one can get thrown off trains) but to help you imagine, here's a picture of a woman with no teeth.




And here's a picture of a Scotch egg.




This egg is a world-record beater for the largest Scotch egg made in a restaurant. The one she ate wasn't quite that impressive, but, to her, it may well have seemed that way.

There are other tasks that could be compared with a woman with no teeth eating a whole Scotch egg.

a) Someone eating a whole joint of roast beef with a rubber fork.
b) A man climbing a mountain in slippers.
c) A woman knitting a scarf using spaghetti instead of needles.
d) Sportspeople playing tennis using fly swatters.
e) A farmer building a dry stone wall using bubble wrap.

Can you add any, followers?

I'd like to think that when she got home from her train journey, she thought, 'What shall I have for tea? I know. There's that bit of pork crackling in the fridge, then I'll have a bag of peanuts, and I'll finish with some nice treacle toffee.'

As long as I'm not there to watch, I'm pleased for her. I hope she has a lovely evening.

And, yes, I had a pleasant week away, thank you. I did do other things apart from go on trains and watch people eat Scotch eggs. Not that you'd know it from this rather narrowly-focused blog post.

Comments

  1. #1Nana11/4/15 10:11

    I had no idea what a Scotch egg was. Thanks for the picture (of the egg not the toothless woman) without which the drama of the entire event might have been lost on me!

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    Replies
    1. Fran Hill11/4/15 14:17

      Oooh, you haven't lived! A Scotch egg is a hard-boiled wrapped in sausagemeat, then breadcrumbs, and fried. It's lovely with a bit of pickle and salad, but I would use a knife and fork rather than adopting that lady's method ...

      Delete
  2. Anonymous11/4/15 14:31

    Scotch eggs are new to me, too!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill12/4/15 00:46

      You too? I just looked up their origin and there are forty thousand and three different explanations for where they came from. A lot of people are making the claim. I always thought they were Scotch as in Scotland but someone else says it's from 'scorch' and frankly I don't have time for that kind of messing about with truth. I just like the taste!

      Delete
  3. Linens and Royals12/4/15 00:38

    You would use a knife and fork to eat a scotch egg?? You are posh!! Scotch eggs are available in Australia but hard to find. As for the toothless woman, it was most likely the treacle toffee that caused her lack of teeth.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill12/4/15 00:47

      Aha! Yes - in fact, maybe for her Scotch eggs are EASY compared to the diet she's always lived on before.

      Delete
  4. Unknown12/4/15 00:54

    I once saw an old man climb a mountain in slippers - very slowly I might add. It was Ben Nevis. There was also a man climbing it in flip flops!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill12/4/15 15:25

      Some people have a death wish, surely!

      Delete
  5. SmitoniusAndSonata12/4/15 02:42

    You can always tell which people have no teeth before you see them , by their wheezy laugh .
    ( I probably join the wrong queues in the supermarket ... or go to the wrong supermarkets ... )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill12/4/15 15:26

      In future, I am going to ask anyone with a wheezy laugh to Open Wide so I can check. I am intrigued by your suggestion.

      Delete
  6. Steve12/4/15 03:54

    A man carving a statue using a play-do chisel...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Frances Garrood12/4/15 05:56

    I'd like to know who laid that egg? Whoever it was, it must have been painful.

    Apropos your question, how about trying to keep toddler grandson out of cupboards, away from sharp objects and switches, and, most importantly, alive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill12/4/15 15:26

      Yep, that pretty much beats knitting with spaghetti.

      Delete
  8. Coloring Outside the Lines12/4/15 13:28

    I'm just learning things all the time- have NEVER heard of a scotch egg! Kudos to you for not being obviously disgusted with her over eager masticulation. I have that most annoying "disease" called misophonia, so I would probably have been climbing out the window. I can hear the lip smacking right now!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fran Hill12/4/15 15:28

      I looked up misophonia because I didn't know about it. Yup, you're right. You would have had to move to a different carriage! Or maybe train. Or country.

      Delete
  9. River12/4/15 22:15

    I have missing teeth, not all of them, the gum in those areas has become quite hard with an edge to it, so that woman probably had no trouble at all biting into it.
    Years ago a neighbour friend of mine would take out her teeth to eat hard things like apples etc because biting with the false teeth pressing into the gum was uncomfortable. I guess it's just what people get used to.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Fran Hill13/4/15 14:01

    I never thought of the gums as being that capable! I guess that's nice to know, should I ever lose my teeth.

    ReplyDelete
  11. BadPenny16/4/15 00:58

    my mother with her 85 year old's teeth takes a hard boiled egg on train journeys. I have to pretend she is not with me.

    I think digging a hole for a new shrub might be a challenge with a child's plastic spade

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    Replies
    1. Fran Hill16/4/15 09:56

      Gah, no! The thing is with the hard-boiled egg, it's the SMELL! I bet that really cheers up her fellow passengers! Yes, you're right about the plastic spade. That sounds a bit like Sisyphus pushing a stone up a hill then watching it roll all the way back down again.

      Delete
  12. Debra She Who Seeks18/4/15 07:44

    It's rare these days to see a toothless person out and about. At least in Canada it is. Perhaps I just move in the wrong circles.

    ReplyDelete

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