A sociable breakfast!

I'd arranged to meet my friend Lynda for coffee this morning, and we decided to visit Beckworth Emporium. I hadn't been for ages, put off the last time by the forty-minute wait for a table, so I was keen to go back.

As we arrived between breakfast and lunch, we were seated immediately, and we both ordered scrambled eggs on toast (getting our order in before breakfast finished at 11am!) and hot drinks. Sitting in the conservatory was pleasant, and the sun was warm on our faces as we chatted.

We both had a lot to catch up on, and we lingered over the late breakfast before having a look in the food shop and the homewares section. New buyers had taken over the business, and the prices were still extortionate! Most of it was stuff that people don't really need, and I resisted the urge to open my purse!

After saying goodbye to Lynda, I returned home, and Keith and I popped over to the care home with some things Mum and Dad needed. On the way home, we briefly flirted with the idea of going to the pub, but we were sensible and went home instead!

For some reason, the scrambled eggs had made me feel a little queasy and I spent the afternoon regretting choosing them! I had two small cans of Fevertree Ginger Ale and felt much better, thank goodness! Keith had prepared a carrot, swede and onion for me earlier, as I was making Mulligatawny soup for dinner, served with naan bread.

I fried the onion, swede, bacon, carrot and apple and then added curry powder, beef stock and tomato puree. I was astonished to discover we didn't have any mango chutney, a real staple in our household, so I added a couple of tablespoons of tamarind chutney I found in the cupboard instead. However, when I tasted the soup it didn't have the same mango chutney flavour so Keith and I had to trek over to Mawsley to buy a jar there.

Back home, I put a couple of good dollops into the soup and gave it a stir. It now tasted a lot better! 

I needn't have worried about the soup as it was delicious, rich and spicy. I cooked rice, added it to the soup and cooked a couple of naan breads. Delicious and so simple. Luckily, there was enough left for lunch tomorrow for Sophie and me.

After dinner, we looked at Airbnb houses for Christmas. We had saved some to a favourites list and we went through them, picking out two that we particularly liked. With Keith's agreement, we picked one and sent a reservation request. Unfortunately, the host came back almost immediately and apologised that the house was showing as available in December; she'd forgotten to alter the dates! Sophie was furious but we contacted Francisco, who hosted a house we'd stayed at in Pollenca back in 2019, and we asked him if he was prepared to let us stay there over Christmas. Fingers crossed!