It’s been an “OK” sort of week – decent enough weather-wise and a couple of excellent adventures. As we “speak,” the weather people are suggesting that today will be SCORCIO – temperatures reaching 27C (about 80F) with 150% humidity. It’s gonna be a hot one!
Last Sunday we had a splendid family barbeque for lunch. Nick & Annabelle came across and Adam, Ava and the girls came as well. The weather was kind and there were a number of games of croquet going on while I tried desperately not to incinerate the sausages or Sandy’s salmon with pesto. Penny made a couple of delicious flans and a potato salad as well as an offering of chicken burgers, all of which was outstanding.
As well as a great feast, this was also the inaugural firing of the new barbeque which performed flawlessly (I should hope so)! After about twenty years of fine service, I was reluctantly compelled to retire the Weber barbeque we had – every time I went to light it, I was almost overwhelmed by the smell of leaking gas. So, I donated it to the recycling centre last autumn and have only recently got round to buying a new one – the English weather has been so dismal that we’ve not missed too many barbequing opportunities. Now, we are ready to go again!
We went down to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London on Wednesday which was an excellent day out. We took Nick, Lucy & Annabelle with us and had a great day. The exhibition is a splendid opportunity to see some unusual, exciting, stunning artwork of all sorts – paintings, etchings, sculptures, etc. Quite overwhelming but absolutely highly enjoyable. Some of my favourites:
The one by Cayce Zavaglia entitled “Rest” was perhaps the one which made my jaw drop open with astonishment. Zoom in on what appears to be a painting and you will see that it is actually embroidered with very fine cotton threads on linen. The mix of colours is extraordinary and it can be yours for a mere £14,000.
After a couple of hours we wandered across to a Mexican restaurant that Nick had been told does pretty decent Mexican-style offerings, Club Mexicana. And, they did and they were very good. Lucy and I had the Cheeseburger Burrito which was excellent, Penny and Nick had a selection of fish and BBQ short “rib” tacos. The short rib in question was, in fact, jackfruit flavoured with a delicious hickory-smoked BBQ sauce and it was very convincing. On the strength of it, Penelope has scoured the web for a suitable recipe to try herself – I’ll post a review. Meanwhile, Annabelle popped across the food court for pizza – unfortunately, some old man tried to steal it from her.
We had hoped there might be sufficient time left over for a visit to the Paradox Museum, a recently opened venue in London in which one interacts with a number of optical illusions. Unfortunately, it’s very popular and one is encouraged to pre-book. We hadn’t as we weren’t sure we would have enough time and sadly, when we got there they were full! Another time, perhaps. It wasn’t a completely wasted journey, however. It’s just opposite Harrods which is always an experience. It’s been years and years and years since Penny & I wandered around it and Annabelle had never been so we spent a happy half hour or so exploring (mainly the various food halls). No purchases on this occasion although I did fancy the £7,500 small tin of Beluga caviar.
We were out to dinner last night with our dear friend Mary who used to live opposite us when we lived in Byfield. We’ve since moved as has she so we don’t see each other as often as we might like but it’s always a pleasure when we do. She very kindly took us out for dinner to The Tuning Fork just on the edge of Rugby which was excellent. It was a very interesting dining experience and the food was off-the-chart good. It’s kind of a mixture of café and fine-dining restaurant – they serve breakfast and lunch as well as dinner and certainly the food we had was excellent.
Finally, I am thinking I need to enlist the support of one of my sons to assist me in the tedious job of trimming the Wisteria. If I don’t get to it soon we may be completely taken over.
And finally, this from Pickles – a very familiar experience for me.
And finally, finally, I neglected to wish my lovely sister Sarah a “Happy Birthday” for last Friday – she’s older now than she was a day or so ago. As it happens, she shares that birthday with my great-niece Azalea. So, a belated Happy Birthday to the pair of you.
This coming week features my brother Sandy’s birthday as well as another of my lovely nieces, Amanda. Happy Birthday to you both.
Meanwhile, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg