Smokin'

So, stuff I wrote about last night before Blogger decided to do some creative editing for me:

Watched The Big Lebowski with Mr WithaY the other weekend. He'd never seen it before, and thoroughly enjoyed it. That's just as well, means we can stay married.

When I got back from my trip to Sussex on Saturday evening, I was greeted by the melodious tones of "Blade" at full volume. It seems Mr WithaY decided to have an action-packed vampire movie-fest while I was out. There is nothing quite as relaxing after a long drive as a really loud vampire fight, I think.

We had some mates over for dinner on Sunday night. As it was a nice day, MrWithaY decided to get creative in the garden with his bargain smoker.

Did I tell you about the smoker already? If I did, feel free to skip this bit.

When we went to the States last time we decided to go up to Maine and visit the LL Bean store. I like their clothes (long-enough jeans for a tenner! T-shirts that keep their shape and colour after 3 washes! Shoes that are a bit odd!) and Mr WithaY is a huge fan of the various huntin' shootin' fishin' kit they stock. So, we left Cape Cod and drove up to Maine, having an adventure for a few days.

Well. We spent all day there. It was great fun. Like a theme park for shopping.

I bought some clothes, and some cookie cutters in the shape of a moose. Mr WithaY spent house and hours and hours looking at fishing tackle, eventually buying a selection of tiny rubber squiddy, jellyfishy things for luring unsuspecting fish to their doom. Lures, I think they're called.

All was going swimingly so far. Then we looked around the outdoor pursuits section. Tents, garden furniture, torches, sleeping bags, camping gadgets a-plenty. It was very interesting and entertaining*.

Anyhoo, as we were heading out towards the exit, Mr WithaY spots the "Bargains" area. Nestling in the middle of the bargains area was a smoker. Not, as you might imagine, a bloke with a fag on, but a large metal container with handles, a lid and some dials and gauges on the front. Well, to be honest, missing one gauge, hence it was a bargain.

It was reduced to something ridiculous like 25 quid. If youy try to buy one over here they cost about 200. We looked at it. We took the lid off. We put it back on again, noting the excellent fit. We poked the knobs and dials. We walked away and conferred out of earshot of it. We came back and estimated how many chickens would fit in it**.

We had to have it.

LL Bean are tremendously helpful. We spoke to the sales assistant, who slapped a SOLD label on our smoker, and told us to go and talk to the shipping team. The shipping team was a lovely lady from the next town, who was delighted we had come all that way to visit.

All of the shipping team were older people, all were completely charming. I got the feeling that LL Bean is probably the major employer in the area.

We did all the paperwork, chatting cheerfully. She was delighted to hear that we had plans to use our new smoker as a barbecue and smoker, and wanted to know what we planned to cook in it. We told her, 8 chickens. Because we can.

Finally, all the paperwork was done, she wished us a very happy journey back to the Cape and onwards home again. We waved goodbye with a little tear in our eyes. Expect the smoker in about 6 weeks, they told us.

We counted the days.

Finally, it arrived. With a Customs label on it saying we had to pay an import tax. I think the total cost of the smoker plus import tax was about 200 quid.

Still, it smokes a wicked chicken.


*We don't get out much.

**About 8.