Keeping Warm…

We have had a surprisingly mild winter so far and have even enjoyed an evening meal sitting outdoors around a fire pit at the Whittenbury’s where food was cooked over the coals and we sat well into the night along with Paul and Lorraine and Debbie.

Not all Business…

I had a trip away for a few days at a sales meeting and was treated to an outing for evening meal in the Great Hall at Warwick castle. It was a themed event where we all worn tabards and jester’s hats and we treated to entertainment by some talented Mediaeval musicians, a magician, and a host and hostess. It reminded me a little of a school outing I had many years ago, to a venue in Auckland called Dirty Dicks.

Gregarious Glutton’s…

The semi-regular Gregarious Glutton’s outing went this time into London. We met Marc, Derek and Donna at the Botanist for cocktails and then went on to Casa Brindisa (near South Kensington) for some very enjoyable tapas followed by some delicious gelato next door at Venchi and a few more cocktails at Uncle Barts Speakeasy (an intimate and funky little venue).

Culture and Cuisine…

We stayed up in London after our Gregarious Glutton’s evening out and Marc and I went to the Ashurbanipal exhibition the following morning at the British Museum. Afterwards we caught up with Sue and wandered into a few book shops and a comic shop, had coffee at Café Vernano 1882, a drink or two at Clapham before enjoying a most delicious lunch at the trendy eating establishment, The Dairy, at Clapham.

Ole Birthday…

I thoroughly enjoyed a Mexican inspired meal that Sue made for me especially for my birthday. 

More of wot I have heard…

We went to the Harlequin Theatre in Redhill to see Band of Burns perform songs and tunes inspired by the life and works of Rabbie Burns. We met Paul and Lorraine at the theatre after we had a lovely Thai meal at Sia Kitchen above the Junction pub.

The band were amazing with individual members taking turns to lead and provide information in context to the songs and tunes about to be played. They were a very talented group of musicians and we had a wonderful evening.

Just the Two of Us…

Sue and I had a lovely day out with breakfast in Reigate and then watching the very entertaining film, The Favourite, at the Everyman cinema, and then seeing a steam train thunder past as we waited on the platform for our train home again.

Out in the Shire…

Recently we visited Jodie (and Sam the Dog) in Ludlow with Debbie for a weekend of catching up.

We had a bracing walk up at Clee Hill as the clouds closed in and we also had a visit to the quite spectacular Stokesay Castle nearby.

The next day Dawn and Muz also came over to help with some simple DIY and afterwards we all enjoyed a meal and a few drinks.

The following morning before we left we wandered around Ludlow and across the bridges and along the riverside with a great view back to the castle.

More of wot I have heard…

I have bought some new music from some quite different artists.

What Is Love by Clean Bandit. A new band that is currently very popular with catchy lyrics and exciting sound to them.

The Last King of Pop by Paul Heaton. A retrospective through this artist history from the Housemartins, Beautiful South and to his partnership with Jacqui Abbot.

The Essentials II by Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox. An unusual and slightly novelty act of reinterpreting recent (and not to recent) song in an older style. It can be quite a revelation how some songs are changed and reimagined.

More of wot I have read…

I have been re-reading Saga of the Exiles series of books by Julian May that I first read over twenty years ago, and I was pleasantly surprised how well they stood up to the passage of time. Some events and scientific discovers have since had a small impact to what we know about what was a possible future or knowledge of the past, but not enough to truly effect the story in any great way.

I like the premise of the story of how people are transported back from a future where humans have evolved and encountered other sentient species to a pre-history Pliocene earth where they encounter other alien races inhabiting the land. As I am a fan of Celtic mythology I like how the author provides an alternative narrative as to the origins of these fables and how she succeeds to make a science out of magic.

The series includes The Many Colored Land, The Golden Torc, The Nonborn King and The Adversary. Later she went on to write about how humans evolved and became involved with a galactic federation of races in separate series of books.

For me though I most enjoyed the Saga of the Exiles.

The third and final volume of this series which was originally conceived to continue in several more books, but was halted after artistic disagreements is a darker and more melancholic affair.

The Ballad of Halo Jones Volume 3 by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson

Gregarious Gluttons…

We had arranged to meet up in the New Year with Derek and Donna for a meal and as Marc was around he joined us too. We went to Bada in Godalming where we had some delicious and interesting Asian fusion tapas. We agreed we needed to make this a regular event.

A day to ourselves…

On a rare weekend without prior commitments Sue and I went to the seaside at Clymping and Felpham, for a walk and lunch (fish and chips for me and crab salad for Sue). Later we went on to visit some grand churches and have a coffee (coffee for me, glass of fizz for Sue) at Arundel, and then back home for some board/card games.

Postponed Catch-up…

After the illness suffered by Terry and Katharine we met up for an evening meal with Rod and Jenny where we had a lovely catch up. The next day we went for a pleasant walk around by the Bridgewater Monument on the Ashridge Estate and had lunch at the Valiant Trooper in Aldbury.

Christmas Time…

For us Christmas seems to really start with the annual carols at Uncle Terry’s neighbours, with music by the Morris crew, and professional musician neighbours (and professional musician son). It is a pot-luck dinner with friends and neighbours and has a convivial and uplifting feel to it that sets the scene for the festive period.

There were several changes to our Xmas schedule brought on by unforeseen circumstances such as the sad death of Blonde Deb’s mother, the Whitenburys became ill with a norovirus, and Uncle Terry suffering with a nasty cold-like virus. We stayed with Deb and extra night and visited the Woodman and community owned The Hope where she and Sue caught up with old friends, and next day we decamped for our place and had a relaxing day watching telly at home.

The annual GPE Walk with current and ex-work colleagues was organised this year by Rob and we spent an enjoyable time at the quirky Kingfisher on the Quay in Camberley.

On one day between Xmas and New Year Sue and I watched rugby at Twickenham between Harlequins and Wasps (a scrappy game where Harlequin eventually won). The tickets courtesy of Marc Harrison who couldn’t make it that day.

We had a walk in the low-lying clouds at Reigate Hill with the recovered Whittenburys and Paul and Lorraine (plus dogs) and we went back to P&L’s for a lovely roast dinner.

New Year’s Eve spent at home with the Whittenburys playing a few games, eating lots of cheese and watching Jools Hootananny until the early hours

On New Year’s Day, we went for a walk around the village ending up at the Prince of Wales with the Whittenburys and Reg.

Musicians against homelessness…

In November three of the pubs in Dorking, The Star, the Old Home and the Kings Arms hosted a musical weekend to support the charity Musicians Against Homelessness.

We wandered between venues and caught some very entertaining artists including 3 Men & a Buddha, Box Hill Bedlam, Jess Milne, Kitty, Fillerup, Mr Anchovy and Exlectix amongst others.

Playing around…

Played a couple of the new games (Photosynthesis and Gorus Maximus) with Chris and Carole and guess what? Sue won both games.

European Tour…

We started our northern European tour by crossing through the Channel Tunnel one evening and stopping overnight at the basic but cheap Ibis Budget Calais Tunnel sous la Manche at Coquelles. This enabled us to get an early start for the long drive to the Essen game fair, crossing through France, Belgium, Netherlands and into Germany. We got to the show mid-afternoon and found all the regular carparks full, so after a long diversion, we ended up at the remote carpark number 10. It was a very busy show for a Thursday with lots of kids about, so it must be holiday time in Europe. Sue was quite overwhelmed by the scale of the show and started to appreciate what it is like for me when visiting. We met David and Kotie there, who had driven up from their home in Antwerp. We were staying, as always, at Mulheim an dur Ruhr at the Handelshof Hotel.

We had only planned to stay two nights before moving on for our holiday. The first night we had dinner in the hotel and caught up with a few people. Sue spent the following day quietly in Mulheim, wandering about or reading at the hotel, while the rest of us went back to the show. That evening, we had a lovely traditional meal at the Mausefalle ‘mousetrap’ with David and Kotie (pig knuckle is their speciality).

Next morning we drove down to Cologne where we planned to stay a couple of nights at the Mercure Hotel Severinshof Koeln City.

We walked into the old town and had a look about where we found a quirky bar called Papa Joe’s Biersalon where they had many different coin-operated animatronic musical machines (including the puppenband) and with a full house the place was vibrant and lively, we had a couple of beers and shared a pretzel and apple cake.

The town is dominated by a large cathedral (biggest in Germany) and we visited it and the glittering treasure chamber rooms. It was the weekend so the town was heaving and since it was almost levelled in the war much of the architecture was relatively new and uninteresting. It was also quite dirty and grey looking.

In the evening, we went to the Papa Joe’s Jazzlokal club (part of the same group as the Beirsalon) to see some enjoyable jazz-blues music. The jazz club does not serve food, so we nipped across the road to a take away joint that prepared fabulous slices of pork in a bun. This club has a reputation for being one of the oldest still running in the world and has music every night. They cram the people in like they do in New Orleans and it had a great buzzing atmosphere, unfortunately after all that excitement I needed a lie down.

The next morning, we took a different route and walked towards the river (stopping for breakfast at a bakery on the way). The area we stared at had been redeveloped and new crane inspired ‘kranhaus’ buildings had been built for commercial and residential use. It was a pleasant stroll as we passed the old Olympic building and past the chocolate museum (we didn’t succumb to temptation though there were a queue of people waiting for it to open). We crossed over and went up a tall building to get a panoramic view back across the river of the city. Afterwards we crossed back passed the ‘love-locks’ that cover railings along the railway bridge. We had lovely rustic lunch back at Papa Joe’s (which was much quieter on the Sunday) and then strolled through the old town into the new passed the original Farina eau de cologne and 4711perfumeries. We picked up an apple strudel and headed back to the hotel for the evening.

We drove on to s’Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) in the Netherlands (where I had visited many years before with work) we took a canalboat tour along the Binnendieze, that runs through and under the old town, after having a lovely lunch at the Bolwerk. After we walked through the delightful town and visited the cathedral, the liquorice and sweet shop called Tum Tum, and had the local delicacy Boschebol (a huge profiterole the size of a child’s head – we shared it) at the famous Jan de Groot bakers.

Our hotel was across the road and was called the Little Duke (the full name of the town translates somewhat to mean the Duke’s forest, and they have a larger hotel in town. This smaller one had no common facilities and even had an automated check-in/check-out system).

In the evening, we went to the fun and lively DIT for a meal where we enjoyed traditional bar snacks such as bitterballen and broodjes along with some fusion Asian food. The town is obviously quite wealthy as is evidenced by the design and trendy boutique shops, and by the interesting breakfast the following morning at CoffeeLab (coffee flavoured acai bowl and mini pancakes dressed with grapefruit and granola). Before we continued our journey, we had a visit to the Hieronymus Bosch exhibition (a local 15/16^th C artist renowned for his disturbing religious imagery of hell), in the display were reproductions of his works (often triptychs with a story to them) and modern, three dimensional models of his more bizarre characters from the paintings.

It had been quite a revelation to us how close everywhere seems to be in mainland Europe, each of our stops being within two hours of each other, however, I would not recommend driving into Antwerp now as the place has always been busy and now with major road works it is a nightmare. The wet weather didn’t help, so with the later start, the traffic and the weather, we didn’t get to see much before we drove out to meet Dave and Kotie at their place. We all went back into town on the more efficient tram. The old city centre looked attractive with the clever lighting and the reflections in the wet cobbles. We ate at Pelgrom where they have a large number of beers and sell flights of them for sampling (which we did). The food is wholesome fare and tasty. We stayed over with David and Kotie at their house and returned to the old town early in the morning to wander around and visit the Cathedral (which had an exhibition that included original Rubens – a local boy – paintings, along with some interesting modern artworks).

Getting to Bruges was much easier and checked into the Velotel, which was further out of town than we would have liked, but as we left it late to book and didn’t realise that All Saints Day was a public holiday, it was the best option for us. It did mean a 40min walk into the old town, but luckily the weather was glorious. We had a beer on the main square and watched the crowds of tourists before joining them and wandered around admiring the architecture and views. We ate and sampled another beer flight at the Bourgogne des Flandres brewery, which has a canal side terrace. We had another drink at a bar decorated for Halloween before having a disappointing meal on the square.

Breakfast the next margining was at the cute and trendy Cafune coffee shop and fortified we wandered around some more before retiring for a leisurely and lovely lunch at ‘t Nieuw Walnutje in a one of the many pretty squares around town.

On way home stopped a Dunkirk to visit the moving Operation Dynamo exhibition and walk along the beaches, before loading the car up with goodies sourced at a wine shop and supermarket and getting the train back to old Blighty.

Soul Sisters…

Recently Sue went to see Soul II Soul with her sister and sister-in-law and friends at Brighton and had a good time getting their groove on.

Racing Hero…

Motor racing hero Rob Walker was celebrated with a car parade through Dorking recently as his famous independent race team was based in the area. Several F1 cars along with other classics were driven around the high street in grand exhaust warbling style.

Unusual Celebration…

For our friend, Dave’s 50^th a group of his family and friends met at Borough Market for a few drinks before going off to join a very entertaining Jack the Ripper Tour that ended up at Spitalfields Market where we had a few more drinks before getting a meal at a nearby Meze Bar. A slightly unusual choice to celebrate your birthday, but everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly.