A mooching-about kind of day...

The last couple of days have been chilly, and the sunshine has been replaced with heavy grey skies. I mooched about the house today, and felt like I'd achieved nothing! However, I did book an Airbnb in Auxerre (near where we stayed last year) and we booked the Eurotunnel (or Le Shuttle as it's now known) for our journey across the Channel, using our Tesco Clubcard vouchers, so we saved £120! That was a definite bonus!

We also tried, and failed, to update the VWs Satnav and I grappled with this for far longer than I should have, which was frustrating. I popped in to see Mum and Dad in the afternoon and took a box of cakes, and we chatted for an hour, but it wasn't the cheeriest of conversations. Later in June, they will have been in the care home for three years, something I can't quite believe, but they still haven't come to terms with what's happened, and I don't think they ever will.

Sophie and I watched another episode of Masterchef after a delicious dinner of paella, and the four contestants were reduced to three finalists. Half of the programme was set in a restaurant called Core, run by Clare Smyth, and the preparation of the dishes was daunting in the extreme! I looked at the website and the tasting menu is £205 per person... and if you want a wine pairing, it's another £135 each on top! I'm not sure we'll be booking that when we next venture to London!

After Masterchef, Keith and I watched an intriguing programme on BBCiPlayer called Trauma Zone, about the downfall of communism in Russia between 1985 and 1999. It was a series of clips found in the BBC archives office in Moscow, stitched together to form a seven-part series, and it was utterly fascinating!

Two visitors to the garden!

Although I've started hating Tuesdays at work, today wasn't so bad, but it was a lot busier and noisier than yesterday! We had far more phone calls to answer even though three of us were manning the lines, and we all had a bit of stress first thing as some of our crash courses were cancelled, which made some parents mad!

As always, it was a relief to speed home and relax. Keith had prepared a delicious curry which we enjoyed with mini poppadoms and naan breads, and there was enough left over for Sophie's lunch the next day.

Sophie and I went upstairs to watch the four remaining Masterchef contestants cook in Istanbul, which looked grey and chilly... we think it was filmed in the Autumn or Winter and everyone was well-wrapped up against the cold!

To our delight, we saw two hedgehogs this evening with their snouts in the food bowl! Both of them are big and healthy, and it's no wonder! We will have to think up something for when we go away in September and arrange for a neighbour to pop in and feed them every couple of days if I invest in an automatic feeder. It's like having another pet!

Bank Holiday working

I was allowed a small lie-in today as I started work at 9am, rather than 8am. I worked with Kathy and I have to say we had a very pleasant day! Yes, it was busy with swimming bookings, but I was able to do the box office returns and answer all the customer service emails between calls.

At 2pm I sped off home to sit with Sophie and Keith and have a cup of tea and a natter. She had been to Farndon Fields this morning for breakfast, so she had treated us to a sausage roll (which we shared) and some macarons.

Neither of us fancied going out so we had a good look at places to stay on the way home from Spain in September. We picked out a gorgeous hotel in the town of Carpentras, somewhere Keith and I had stayed BC (before children). I remember doing the journey from Northampton in one hit and almost falling asleep while having a pre-dinner drink, something I have no wish to do again!

We then looked at hotels or Airbnbs further north in Burgundy as I wanted to take Sophie to Rully and Mercurey, two lovely wine villages we stayed in years ago. We looked at lots of places but none of them seemed quite right, and although we saw a great hotel in the town of Dole (where I stayed with my parents years ago), it was too long a drive up to Calais.

There was no rush so we played a game of cards while Keith cooked dinner. After we'd eaten we started watching a silly film starring John Hamm called Confess, Fletch but Sophie and I gave up and went upstairs. We looked out of the bedroom window and saw Herbie the Hedgehog stuffing his face in the garden! Lovely!

A perfect drying day!

Today has been a perfect laundry day with a lovely breeze, plenty of sunshine and blue skies. I changed the beds and managed to get everything on the line to dry... for free! And the bedding smelt gorgeous after it had been dried in the beautiful sunshine!

As well as doing loads of washing Keith and I decided to move the sofa from the conservatory into the living room as it made sense to have it in there. We're planning on buying two new armchairs (one of the arms was ravaged by Monty's claws) but we don't want them to be too big. Moving the furniture was tricky but we managed in the end, and I gave both sofas a good clean and hoovered behind them.

In between doing this, I transferred some more of my 1985 diary onto the blog and traced the places we'd visited on Google Maps. I had made my Dad do a 200-mile round trip to visit a chateau in the village of La Chapelle d'Angillon, where the French author Alain Fournier was born, as I was reading this book, Le Grand Meaulnes, at the time. When we arrived, I was hugely disappointed with the chateau, which had been turned into a Country and Western-themed attraction! The chateau in his novel was mysterious and enchanted, and I loved the story of a peasant boy meeting the love of his life there. Happily, it seems to have now been restored to its former beauty - https://chateau-angillon.fr - so maybe worth visiting again if we're ever in the area!

Keith barbecued in the evening and it turned windy and chilly so I didn't sit out in the garden with him! It was way too cold!

A late Spring mooch!

Sophie went to the gym this morning for her Yoga class and while she was away I put a colour on my hair, as I was looking distinctly badger-like! When she returned, we had a very pleasant breakfast of pastries and coffee and sat and chatted. She was going away with Vikesh for the weekend, and staying in an Airbnb in Warwickshire, so we said goodbye to her at midday and went on our planned mooch in the stunning Northamptonshire countryside.

We decided to revisit some old haunts and headed for the village of Geddington first. I knew there was a pub there, but Keith spotted the sign as we drove past, and I couldn't be bothered to turn around, saying we'd go on the way home!

We carried along the A4300 towards Corby and saw a sign for the village of Stanion. I was pretty sure we'd been to a pub there before, so we turned off the main road and headed for the centre of the village. We came across the pub, The Lord Nelson, but it looked well and truly closed. 

From Stanion we drove to one of our favourite pubs, somewhere we used to go to frequently when it was a real ale pub, The Vane Arms at Sudborough. Sadly, this was also well and truly closed and the pub itself looked empty and forlorn. What a terrible shame. Both Keith and I have some wonderful memories of going there and having drinks and meals with friends, and Keith had his stag night there.

We were starting to feel a little worried by now... was this the end of the mooch as we knew it? We drove back towards Corby and decided to head for the village of Bulwick, and The Queen's Head. The last time we were here, we called in on a Sunday evening to find it closed, but today it was open, with people sitting in the sunny garden and enjoying drinks. 

I loved this pub as it used to be dark and cosy and felt very old, with an open fireplace and a lovely smell of woodsmoke. However, the present owners have mucked about with the lounge area and it felt cold, overly bright and formal. Keith chose a pint of March Hare at 4.2% while I had half a Guinness, and we took our drinks outside.

One of the customers had decided it was a good idea (according to him, anyway) to go shirtless, which is never an attractive look if you don't have the physique to carry it off... Hmmm! We sat at a large round table with our drinks and watched as the terrace gradually filled up with people wanting to enjoy the gorgeous sunshine.

It was lovely to sit and relax, and after we'd finished our drinks, we left to go to the village of Kings Cliffe about four miles away.

This was a delightful road, passing through the pub-less village of Blatherwycke where we saw a huge lake and signs for Apethorpe Palace... in the middle of nowhere! Apethorpe Palace was once owned by Elizabeth I who inherited it from her father. You can visit as part of a guided tour, and it looks beautiful!

We arrived in the large village of Kings Cliffe and found the pub, The Cross Keys Inn, on the main street, and parked around the corner. 

It was a lovely pub, built in 1732, with a delightful little snug, a bigger bar area and a garden. The staff were very friendly and told us there would be live music this evening. In fact, a couple came in who had booked to stay overnight and they were there to see the band! Groupies!

Mine was a half, although it looks bigger!

We spent a pleasant half hour with our drinks (Keith's beer was Summer Lightning and was 5%) and saw more and more people come in, some of whom looked as if they'd been out walking as they had backpacks and boots on. 

After our drinks, it was time to move on and the afternoon was flying by. We hoped that pubs would be open all day today as it was a Bank Holiday weekend so it was on to the next one!

From Kings Cliffe, we headed towards Fotheringhay, five miles away. Again, the road was lovely with high hedges, lots of trees and farmland stretching away to the horizon. We came to the village of Woodnewton and saw a pub! One we had never been into before!

Of course, we couldn't pass up this one and it looked beautiful. It was called The White Swan and it had a large, pretty, terraced garden and a modern, bright bar area. Keith chose a Timothy Taylor Landlord pint here and we took our drinks out to the garden where people were sitting eating, drinking and soaking up the gorgeous sunshine.

Keith intently studying the drinks menu!

I think we will definitely come back to this one as I know Sophie would love it! The two men in charge were very friendly and efficient, and it was great to find a new pub in a village we'd never visited before.

The time was about 3pm so we made the decision to go to one last pub in the historic village of Fotheringhay where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned in the castle there for committing treason. The castle no longer exists but was built around 1100. Henry VIII gave it to Catherine of Aragon as a gift and she lavished money on it and restored it to its former glory. Unfortunately, she fell out of favour and the castle was given to his successive wives but was mainly used as a prison. Mary, Queen of Scots died there in 1587.

We found The Falcon Inn easily and parked in the large car park. People were out enjoying the sunshine in the garden and the pub had an airy conservatory and cosy bar. Keith wasn't impressed with the beers here and drank a Birra Moretti rather than an ale. Again, we went to sit in the garden to soak up the rays.

We both agreed that, after a somewhat shaky start, we'd had a successful mooch with not bad beers! The countryside had been stunning and it was lovely and relaxing pootling along the lanes and finding pubs. What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon?

We left at about 4pm and trundled home the way we'd come. I saw the pub sign in Geddington but we decided to go home and relax. Keith watched the football while I went upstairs to watch an episode of the ITV drama, Maryland.

Dinner tonight was a Chinese takeaway, followed by The 1% Club. Amazingly, I deciphered the answer to the 1% question but I did pause the television while I worked it out!

Masterchef scores!

As readers of this blog will know, Sophie and I are avid watchers of Masterchef, and this year we compiled a list of culinary terms or words that crop up repeatedly. It's like playing bingo when a contestant uses them and we should have made it into a drinking game!

So far, these are the most popular terms and words:

The top place goes to:

Contestants who hail from different areas of the world (such as Thailand, India and Indonesia) and mention it as much as they can - 22 points. Not surprisingly, these contestants seem to do extremely well on Masterchef and produce some amazing food with terms and ingredients we've never ever heard of!

Followed by:

Contestants crying                    17 points

Crumb                                        15 points

Tuile                                            14 points

Asian                                           13 points

Mother                                        11 points

Grandmother                             11 points

Oil                                                 9 points

Home-made pasta                       7 points

Travelling                                     6 points

Other terms include: 

Fondant potato                                3 points

Samphire                                         3 points

Crisp                                                3 points

Velouté                                            3 points

Gel                                                   3 points

Soil                                                  3 points

Vegan, soufflé, chocolate fondant, poached pears, "de-constructed", sous vide, panna cotta, pomme purée all scored 2 points, while creme "pat", consommé and fusion all scored 1 point.

Massively out of fashion now must be an emulsion and foams, as they haven't been mentioned at all!

We have also noted mention of Harissa and contestants being on a "journey"!

Next week is Finals Week and four of the remaining contestants are off to Istanbul, so Sophie will be watching even more avidly than usual, seeing as she is going there in November!

Good luck to them all!    

It's Friday, yeah!

We had a lovely, very quiet shift today as Sara and Nicola were on holiday, and Sheila left at 12pm to go to another centre. It was bliss! I managed to get a lot done, including all the emails, another film input and some of the playscheme places for the summer.

Keith didn't go to the pub tonight, as his mate John was in Aldeburgh, so he cooked dinner while Sophie and I sampled a bottle of English wine and watched the last episode of the first series of Race Across the World. The English wine was fine (Keith had bought it by mistake and it was £10) and was very elderflowerish, and a bit tart for my liking. We asked him not to buy it again but it was drinkable. I am not  a fan of English wines, I'm afraid. We just don't get enough sunshine and warmth to fully ripen the grapes, but I know that our sparkling wines are very good and have even beaten Champagne! They are a bit expensive, though!

After dinner we watched Top of the Pops from 1982 and that certainly brought back some memories! Sophie envied me growing up in the 80s, and I have to say the music was very good!