We met him at just after lunchtime at Heathrow. He had been intending to come up by train, but we figured that by the time he'd got himself organised, got the Tube to London then got the train up to Chesterfield, he would be seriously bankrupt and it would be well past bedtime. Easier for us to nip down and gather him in.
And in fact, we had a good run down, even had time to stop for a bit of lunch in one of the services on the way (memo to self: on no account, EVER, if tempted in to Burger King, indulge in the chicken royale. It's made of reconstituted chicken, is unbelievably salty and fatty and is as dire as dire as dire can be. Bleurgh, bleurgh, BLEURGH!!!!! The Builder quite enjoyed his burger though.
Anyway, back to Simon and the feasting. We got back to Tupton in good time. Simon and I had a gin and tonic, made with the exceptionally nice gin he bought in the duty free shop in Heathrow (Tanqueray No. 10, since you ask) and then we all trundled off to The Nettle for an extremely delicious feast there. Simon was a bit anxious about having the fillet steak - he had unpleasant memories of steak back in the 90s . And it has to be said that cheap, supermarket steak is unpleasant to this day. The Nettle, however, does not source its steaks in the cheap chiller cabinets at the supermarkets!
And so back home, a glass or two of wine and everyone fell into bed.
Simon did not emerge from his bed until nearly lunchtime!!!!!!! Well - shortly after morning coffee time :-)
In the meantime, I : grilled loads of sausages, meaty and quorn; peeled and sliced a hillock of vegetable crudites; slow roasted an enormous leg of pork from Farmer Jayne and Farmer David's most recent pig which I have kept hidden safe in the bottom of the freezer for this very event; I made a rather delicious (if I do say so myself) quorn shepherd's pie; I made (not anywhere like enough) roast potatoes and a mountain of vegetables. And then there were: steamed gooseberry pudding, apple and rhubarb crumble, rice pudding, raspberry syrup, golden syrup and cream, and a chocolate roulade that Carol brought. And gathered for the feast were Taffa and Gaz, Freyja and her Simon, Ginger Rich and Marryck, Paul and Carol, Penny and Steve, Joseph and Imogen and, of course, The Builder, our Simon and me. The Weather Dogs wagged their tails kindly and the sun shone and was quite warm. Warm enough for those who wished to, to sit out on the patio (though some of the patio sitters did put on their fleecy jumpers). It was a lovely afternoon. And there was almost no food left (though quite a lot of pork - but that was a mighty, mighty leg and I didn't put it all out!!).
Then the visitors all went away and Simon watched a weird American teen comedy all about (as far as I could see) underage drinking and underage sex and then we all fell back into our beds.
Simon got up at half past five!!
The Builder wanted to get up at half past five and make cups of tea and coffee :-S
It was my day off. We weren't leaving until half eight. No pressing need to get up at half past five at all!!!!!!!
In the end, though, time played its usual tricks and abruptly vanished with no notice, and in the end we were certainly rushing about to get out of the house anywhere near to half past eight! (And even then we had to rush back into the house as we were leaving because we had forgotten the sat nav)
We got in the car. We nimbly avoided all the traffic lights and traffic chaos that has appeared outside our place. Off we went. Only to turn round and head back to the house when The Builder discovered that his trouser leg was covered in grease and fat. His trousers were therefore definitely not suitable for public appearances - and I hadn't packed a change of clothes for a brief, overnight stay away!
Newly attired, The Builder hopped back in the car and off we trundled down to Winchester where we were to deliver Simon to a pal for a further night of sybaritic merriment. Except we ended up in Hyde Close and we should have been in Hyde Road. But eventually Simon connected with his friend and we dashed across country to Salisbury where we extracted Gwen from her lounge room and took her off to The Swan @ Stoford for a sneaky and unscheduled Monday Lunch. It was, as you would expect, absolutely delicious. My burger with buffalo mozzarella was a triumph :-)
Gwen safely delivered back home, we then moved on to Whiteley near Portsmouth for further feasting with Jeanette, Matthew, Rebecca and Evie. Matthew managed to get home from London by just after 7 and so could join us for roast pork, roast potatoes, loads of vegetables and a cherry pie (the cherry pie came after the main event!!). In a burst of unusual bonhomie, Evie took me up to her room and introduced me to every one of her cuddly friends. Ordinarily Evie treats me with the suspicion usually accorded to ogres you might suspect of barbecuing and eating small children. Yesterday, however, I was persona grata, which was nice. Not, of course, that it had anything at all to do with the large box of celebration chocolates that we were bearing when we arrived!!!
And today we came home. Feasting is now abandoned for the time being. We had eggs, chips and fried pork slices for lunch :-D (Although I suspect that Simon is still feasting)
Back to work for an evening shift today. The traffic in Tupton remains chaotic around our place. The traffic lights are still there, although they do move around a bit. Oddly enough, the traffic through Chesterfield and Sheffield wasn't chaotic at all. Took me a little over half an hour to get to work. Usually takes much longer at that time of day.
It was extremely disconcerting to drive towards Sheffield heading into the blackest of black, black clouds. Mercifully, it waited until I had reached the office before opening up and dumping a deluge on the city centre!!
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| Photo (c) Simon L |
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