Watching the paint dry…

We have just hired a local painter to paint the exterior of the house properly and he has done a fine job. The window frames, window stonework, and soffits were painted in a period style off white, the downpipes in black, and the front and back doors in a lovely shade of green called sage. I used some of the left over green to paint the front bench. It is all looking very smart and we have had several comments from the neighbours as to how it puts their houses to shame. The only problem is we now need to redo the interior decoration as it is looking decidedly shabby by comparison.

Kiss Me Quick…

The Aldbury Morris Men go to the seaside

Staying at Ramsgate and visiting Broadstairs, Margate and Deal in the Isle of Thanet region of Kent the Morris men went on their annual pilgrimage in search of an audience and a good beer (not necessarily in that order).

Although we stayed at Ramsgate it was not the most picturesque of the towns but still has that working port feel to it however like the beach after a storm the local populace seemed to be comprised of the flotsam and jetsam of London.

Broadstairs was more idyllic with its small sheltered bay surrounded by grand cliff top buildings this was a popular holiday destination for Charles Dickens and the town makes the most it can about that fact. Here too a popular and long standing folk festival occurs annually.

Margate’s latest claim to fame is the new Turner Contemporary Gallery where we saw an impressive collection of Mondrian paintings spanning his evolving career.

One of the highlights as ever on these tours was the musical interludes where the amassed talents could perform often encouraging audience participation.  

Flying Visit…

Recently we had Marc visit us whilst he was in the UK to see his family. We had him helping out in the garden building a frame for the squash and netting the raspberries whilst I planted more corn, brassicas and red onions. Finally we are starting to reap our rewards with strawberries, raspberries and salad crops coming into season.

We played a few board games and frequented a couple of local establishments as is our want plying him with food and drink.

The following weekend we met up in London after he had spent some time with his mum and aunt and we visited the Comic exhibition at British Library (sue was less enthusiastic about it and was quite shocked at Crumb’s version of Rupert the Bear). We met up briefly with Jamie before he cycled of to visit friends and we went to lunch at the Eagle pub on Farringdon Road. After a tasty meal we went into the centre of town to visit the impressive new Foyles store. I bought some music at the Fopp store (Caro Emerald, Sigur Ros and Public Service Broadcasting) a board game at the Orc’s Nest (Tsuro of the seas). On the spur of the moment we bought tickets to see Jeeves and Wooster (starring Robert Webb, Mark Heap and Mark Hadfield) that evening at the Duke of York’s Theatre and it was very enjoyable. We rounded off the night with a meal at a La Roche Mediterranean restaurant opposite the theatre. Accommodation was with Marc at the Goodenough Collage and the following morning we celebrated Marc’s birthday by gifting him a copy of Zombie Dice before having a leisurely breakfast at Carluccio’s. Later we strolled back into town stopping to allow me to visit the Cartoon Museum and to buy a comic from Gosh before having a drink at Waxy’s Little Sister and riding a new double-decker bus to Victoria eating spicy pork buns and Lotus flower buns on the top deck, return to our place for a steak meal and a few more games. It was a great weekend.

Down in the Dumps…

We have not feeling so well recently for various reasons. Sue has been suffering with her damaged shoulder and is struggling with the physiotherapy with some minor improvement. I have had a bad case of eczema currently and it is being very irritating. I have developed computer-mouse elbow (like tennis elbow but without the running about) and have had to change to an orthopaedic mouse which is helping. In addition we are both feeling unfit and overweight. Overall we are not in the best spirits about our physical condition and this has had knock on effects to our mental piece of mind.

Dancers Descend on Dorking…

We stumbled across the Dorking Day of Dance when we went into town and enjoyed the various Morris sides and entertainment groups (loved the Monty Python sketch about the French and English Knights - very funny).

Sunny Daze…

Now that the weather has improved we have been working in the garden trying to encourage the plants to grow better then the weeds (with mixed success) and have been eating out on the deck, enjoying the al fresco living until gone 9:30pm with friends or just by ourselves.