This should probably be on the food blog

... for it was certainly a weekend of feasting and merry-making.  You couldn't possibly have called it austere.  Or even restrained!!

It started for me on Friday night, when The Builder got left to his own devices with a bowl of stale crusts and a jug of mouldy water, and I headed off to dinner with the ACES team at work.  In the old days, when ACES was a mere SE team, I used to work with them.  Then I got reorganised into another team and SE was upgraded to ACES and a few new people came.  But I still join them for their team dinners.  We went to Zing Vaa, down The Moor, a place I have been to a couple of times but back in the Way Back When, when Sheffield was new to me and my mental map was very fuzzy.  I'm not sure why I haven't been since.  The food is very tasty.  You wouldn't find it, mind you, if you didn't know it was there.  You get to it through a door under an awning next to the news agency and head down many stairs to find this rather nice Chinese Restaurant hidden underground.

So, come Saturday and stuffed with Chinese food and glasses of fizzy water, I accompanied The Builder in the car Down  South, where we were expected in Warminster at Barb's for Afternoon Tea.  Forearmed with her proposed menu I had not had any breakfast.  Nor had I had any lunch.  I had also encouraged The Builder not to have lunch either.  And thus we managed to do a certain level of justice to the ham sandwiches, scones and jam, blueberry pastries and ginger cake.

But not too much justice.  For we were off to The Swan for dinner and a certain level of digestive room needed to be preserved for that.  And we didn't so much step gracefully and elegantly from our wagon as leap heartily and merrily into a large wine vat (and a beer barrel if you happened to be The Builder).  The Swan was hosting a wedding party which was large and jovial.  I was therefore pleasantly surprised to be handed the most delicious plate of John Dory with paprika potatoes and vegetables.  Not that I was surprised to get good food, but often when there are large parties going on those who are not on the guest list find that their food is not perhaps as well prepared as it might otherwise have been.  No worries about that at The Swan.  The Builder thoroughly enjoyed his chicken and prawn Thai curry as well.

For some reason I slept the sleep of the Very Just on Saturday night.  I think it was probably the feathery quilt and the feathery pillows - and the fact that I forgot to turn the heater off!!

And so to Sunday and lunch with Gwen, The Builder's Mother at The Wheatsheaf in Romsey, where we had roasted half chickens each with more wine.  Even Gwen indulged, in the wine and all.  Previous experience has suggested that when you are served half a chicken for Sunday lunch it is usually quite a small chicken.  Often, indeed, a poussin.  Possibly even a guinea fowl disguised as a chicken, although any pub or restaurant that found itself blessed with a clutch of guinea fowl might well wish to advertise the fact.  But I had no fears about finishing a half chicken, even with roast potatoes and various vegetables.  Gwen, fearing that her little appetite might struggle, had a child's portion.  The Builder had no worries at all about managing a full portion.

Half a chicken?  It was positively half an emu!!!!!!!

Delicious, I have to say.  Very more-ish.  But an emu, I tell you.  An emu!  I hardly had room for my rhubarb and apple crumble afterwards.  But I managed to fit a little serving in.

So after all that, I was not a little surprised to find myself distinctly on the peckish side this morning.  I had rather thought that I had had enough food to last me for most of the rest of the week

The view of Great Wishford from our bedroom window at The Swan

We dropped in to the Wilton Garden Centre while we were pottering about yesterday morning.  I had intended to buy the seed potatoes from Thomson and Morgan when we get back from Australia.  But the garden centre was selling choose-your-own-potatoes in paper bags for £1.99 each, and they were selling some interesting varieties, so we bought lots of those plus a pre-packaged bag of Shetland Blacks and Highland Reds.  Must sort them out to sit upstairs and chit gently.

Back on the wagon again now.  Until Friday week when we head to London as the first step on our invasion of Melbourne.  Eleven sleeps to go until London