One Saturday recently we got talking to our neighbour
over the fence and he asked us around for his famous Vesper Martini, so we
confessed we had not had one before and agreed to meet at Howard and Tracy’s
later on. Well we were converts to the drink favoured by James Bond but with so
much alcohol in it we were limited to two glasses lest we note be able to
stagger back next door afterwards.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
The Stork Cometh…
Congratulations go out to our friends Marc & Heather
in Sweden who have announced they are to be parents to a girl. We are over the
moon for them and wish them health and happiness to come.
Green Fingers…
Spring brings us back out into the garden and we have
been busy on those rare days where the weather was nice working in the
vegetable plot. Now we have more land available we have been setting up a fruit
cage, burning cut down tree (I abandon Sue to be fire monitor when I went out
with the lads down the road on our semi regular visit to the local curry house).
We have also been planting seeds in a propagator, planting garlic and broad
beans outside, moving the compost bin (when we roped in Sue’s sister Deb to
help) and generally preparing the land. We also jet washed the patio and cleared
out the shed so all we need now is for the weather to continue to improve.
On the Silver Screen…
We have found the Everyman Reigate is one of our cinemas of choice as they only have two smaller screens but have a lovely bar that sells fancy snacks, good coffee and wine by the bottle to take in with you. Also there is an old fashioned intermission where ice-creams are sold.
We saw the Grand Budapest Hotel here and I loved the
quirky hyper-styled setting with fabulous actors hamming it up to a bonkers
story, great fun.
We went with friends Chris and Carole and after the
show we had a bite to eat in the Jolly Farmer a gastro-pub with a deli-shop full
of expensive delights.
If you can’t fight, wear a big hat…
On a spur of the moment we decided to go to the Country 2 Country show that was being held at the O2 (the Dome). I had heard it promoted on the radio and it was a lovely day so we jumped on the train (and met the Brown’s who were also heading into town, though to Camden).
We hadn’t booked for any of the arena shows (too big a
place and not that keen on C&W), but we heard that there were several
pop-up stages around that would be playing free music. After a quick beer we
found the Armadillo Restaurant with a stage right outside so we set up base
there for lunch and watched a few acts while we had a relaxed meal and a few
more drinks.
Afterwards we wondered down to the ‘town square’ and
watched some more standing in a crowd of people, a large proportion of who were
sporting Stetsons, denim and cowboy boots.
Several of the acts were UK based but some were from
the US of A. We saw:
Sticking Matches (who have several songs in the hit TV
show Nashville)
More of wot I have seen…
We went down to Brighton to see a wonderfully be-bearded
American Folk artist called William Fitzsimmons.
We went with our friends Paul and Lorraine and first
had a bite to eat at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen where spectacular burgers are
made in the chain of joints started by a couple of Kiwi’s. Naturally I had to
have the Kiwiburger (who doesn’t want a fried egg on theirs?). The others had
the Habanero, Smokin’ Joe and one of the day’s specials.
Komedia is next door and is a great intimate venue
with three separate rooms. This time we were in the basement which suited the folksy
sounding acts playing.
Denison Witmer played a fabulous
one-man-and-his-guitar warm up for William Fitzsimmons who in turn was
accompanied by his band. Fitzsimmons is a big man with huge beard and a bald
head, his gruff deep speaking voice belies his soft and hypnotic singing voice.
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