fromage et plus fromage

Adam was sick. It was only a twenty four hour bug, but it happened to fall on last Sunday night, when we had tickets to the footy (his team) on the Monday night. After a day of exhaustion and a bit of a fever, he gave me permission to find someone else to take his ticket. Luckily Nicky was on email at that moment, so we had a girls' night out (with Kath from my work). It was a gripping game, Spurs came from behind to win it in the last minute, and Nicky yelled her heart out. Often just random noise, since she didn't know the team, or the chants, and no one can understand the english football crowds. But she did understand that we didn't like the referee, who was clearly wrong, despite the fact Nicky didn't know the rules. She declared herself a convert at the end of the game - I think her description was 'Even better than AFL'.

This weekend just gone was devoted to working on the floorboards. The french markets were in Didcot too. They weren't as good as when they were in Henley. But the feast of fresh baguette, half a dozen types of cheese, olives and sausages, salad and mustard was fabulous. And then, just in case we hadn't had enough rich food already, we went out for a super duper dinner at a posh country hotel called Fallowfields. It was a ten course extravaganza:
1. canapes. mushroom terrine/proscuttio, served with pre dinner drinks in the lounge,
2. soup. something with gorgonzola served in a tiny, fine china teacup with a teaspoon. picture us confused.
3. entree. sea bream for me, duck for adam. served with complimentary wine selected to suit the dishes. I now have two glasses of wine in front of me. my first adventure with a fish knife. i think i actually own a set (inherited) but i've never used one before.
4. lobster. already run out of names for the courses and we are only at four.
5. lobster claw bisque. mmmm. Red wine brought out. Three glasses. Water. Four.
6. sorbet. to cleanse the palette. not sure if we should have taken this course slower or faster to maximise consumption/enjoyment.
7. mains. so full. I had the Monkfish Navarin, Adam had the beef. Back to two glasses.
8. dessert. if the little chocolate pudding hadn't oozed the richest chocolate sauce you have ever tasted when I had forked it, I might have survived, but as it was, I couldn't do it justice. it was too much and too rich, and I couldn't finish it. sob. it still haunts me.
9. cheese platter. served with port. the dried apples were about all I could manage, but I tasted each of the cheeses and the figs.
10. coffee and chocolates. and bed.

And in the food theme... Big ups to Sainsburys' for their "Be good to yourself" (i.e. their health food) range. Particularly their "Be good to yourself" spam.

Spring rocks: Daffodils are everywhere, as are lambs, and trees full of blossoms. It is light until 8pm. It is windy and rainy, and sunny and warm.