Last weekend was spent with friends celebrating Chris' 60th birthday in the traditional manner...lunch at Yiannis in Sherwood followed by a bit of drinking and then some more drinking...Sonia headed home after the cake and drinks at Maggie and Mike's that followed the wine at the restaurant, whereas I joined the cavalcade to catch a bus down to the Lincolnshire Poacher for the traditional "pub conversation and debate". I have little memory of how I got home but Sonia says I had enjoyed myself. The Sunday was spent processing the photos of the day.
This weekend started with our watching the Olympic flame land in Cornwall live on the BBC news channel, watching some TV, and my testing the bottle of rioja someone bought me for my birthday. Whoever got it, you chose well, and I enjoyed a couple of glasses.
Saturday was supposed to be my birthday treat from Sonia - a helicopter flight over Nottingham from East Midland Helicopters so I could take a lot of photos. Unfortunately the weather was against us and the company had to ring up and cancel about an hour beforehand. They had cancelled all flights yesterday due to the rain and low cloud. We are now booked on the next Nottingham flight on 18th August, let's hope the weather is better.
We had planned to have lunch in a village pub somewhere near Costock after the flight. We decided to have a trip out for lunch anyway, to make up for the postponed flight. We ended up at the Crown Inn in Old Dalby. Sonia vaguely remembered that there was a nice pub in the village from one of her "library outings", back in the days when County Council staff got an extra Tuesday after certain Bank Holiday Mondays. It took some finding but it was worth the tour of the village. Orange juice for me as the driver, a very nice pinot grigio for Sonia, and a couple of bistro style courses each. The food was great, my "roast loin of pork with bubble & squeak, and stilton cream" was well prepared and presented. The pork was tender, the bubble and squeak was tasty and stilton cream was not over powering. Sonia went for the "pan fried chicken breast with mashed potatoes, bacon & silver skin onion jus" and said that the small pickled onions went well with the beautifully cooked chicken breast. She struggled to finish the main course but had left a dessert shaped hole in the stomach that was filled by a "chocolate brownie with chocolate ice cream". Her plate was very clean afterwards. My "plum & rhubarb crumble with crème anglaise" was the right balance of tart and sweet, soft and crunch, and disappeared far too quickly. A peppermint tea for Sonia and freshly ground coffee for me rounded off the meal and the bill came in at just under £30. I think it was worth it.
A steady drive home, stopping off at Six Acres garden centre to check out their cafe and pick up some treats from the deli, was followed by a gentle collapse onto the sofa to watch Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows on filmflex while I finished the rest of the bottle of rioja. We then spent some more "quality time with the sofa" while we watched the week's backlog of missed TV.
This Sunday has been spent refelting the shed, swearing after hitting my thumb with the hammer putting up some trellis netting on a fence, and writing up this blog post. A somewhat more "grown up" and sedate weekend than the previous. Who knows what future weekends will bring?
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