We’re very lucky in Cockfield to have one of the best butchers in the north east; Joe Simpson sells some of the finest locally sourced and home reared meat that money can buy.

There’s nothing better on a cold winters day than popping down to Joe’s for one or two of his ‘home made’ pasties and, if its not first thing, it’s fairly straight forward to heat them up again - or so you would think!

This was the scenario the other day when Terry Kipling returned from ‘Joe’s’ with a couple of pasties for himself and wife Bernice.

Bernice is enjoying a well earned rest after taking early retirement from Glaxo in November and I must admit to feeling a little jealous these last few weeks, when the rest of us mere mortals are struggling to get to work in the snow and ice.

Anyway, when Terry got back in the house, he asked Bernice to ‘pop’ the pasties into the microwave to ‘warm them up a bit’.

“How long should I put them in for?” asks Bernice.

“Bout thirty five seconds” says Terry.

Now whether things were a bit noisy or something was lost in translation we’ll never know BUT, Bernice put the pasties in for THIRTY FIVE MINUTES!

I don’t know what happens to a couple of pasties when you microwave them for thirty five minutes and I don’t intend to find out, but they must be hot enough to heat a small house!

I must admit mind, I’m fancying one of those new ‘Microwave Beds’ that’s just come onto the market; EIGHT HOURS SLEEP IN THREE MINUETS!!