On a sad note, today I'm wearing something yellow in memory of Jo McGowran
Last weekend...that's not the one that finished last night, but the one that finished a week ago, The Boy and I went off to the ski show, which this year was at http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifEarls Court. Of note was that I could buy cheaper tickets online before the event, but by the time they'd added their booking fee, I might just as well have bought them at the event. Which was pretty empty really. It was inevitably going to be an expensive trip...it always is. Works on the same principle as IKEA...you go in to buy a £2 candle and come out six hours later with an entire flatpack house costing several thousand pounds. I regard it as a major success if I get out with a bill of less than £200. This year The Boy needed new ski boots. His first pair. I said I would buy them for Christmas. The whole process took about two and half hours, which was a pain as by that time we had only and hour and a half to spare. The net result is that we had to leave before they had finished fitting them (heating them and moulding) so he had to wear them on the tube to make sure the moulding finished off....He has interestingly shaped feet and ankles...even I could see that when he stood in line with a group of other males. His ankles are so narrow, yet the front of his feet are really quite wide. Although there is a family joke to be told, I'm not aloud to say a thing. Anyway, the boots are green...pretty much as I felt when I had to pay.
Sunday we traveled down to Brighton like Royalty. Not in a posh train, nor in an RAF helicopter, but separately. It wasn't that we weren't talking it's just that there wasn't room for us all in the Jeep. A year or more ago The Cat's Mother and I bought in Brighton an old wrought iron column to put a pot plant on. The man loaded it in the back, and we realised that no matter how we tried the two of us would never be able to carry it up the 97 steps to the flat. So it got taken from Brighton to Loughton, where The Boy and I lifted it out and put it in the garage. And there it stayed as there was not an opportunity to take it back to the south coast until this weekend. So a year later The Boy, the column and I drove past the shop in Brighton that had originally sold it to us. Somewhere behind us was The Cat's Mother, The Cat and her best friend Namesake....obviously it had taken them longer to get ready and leave. The column was carried up the stairs without too much bother, the plant placed carefully on the top. And lo and behold it looked wonderful.
That evening we went out to a restaurant and had to cook our own food. It wasn't that the chef had gone on strike. It wasn't that we couldn't afford to pay so had to cook and wash up. It was because we were at Jamie Oliver's Recipease. They supply all the ingredients, and a chef to teach you how to cook. There was fourteen of us tasked with creating American-style pork chilli. We worked in pairs...I was with The Cat's Mother, The Cat was with Namesake and The Boy was with A Complete Stranger. Nobody fell out, in fact we had a splendid time chopping, adding salt, frying, adding salt, boiling, adding salt, mixing, adding salt, etc, adding salt, etc, adding salt, etc. And we all managed to turn out something quite delicious washed down with a couple of glasses of delicious wine. Who said the young don't know how to cook?
And before I go any further...thank you Rol for the comic! And see you at Christmas Scarlet....
