Eating Out – Page 4 – Ian Louis Harris

Spending Time With Some Funny People, 5 and 7 March 2019

When I say, “funny people” in this context, I mean comedy people, not necessarily strange people. Some of them might also be strange of course, but I’ll leave that judgement to the reader.

Funny-comedic, not necessarily funny-strange: Rohan Candappa

First up, for lunch on Tuesday 5 March, was Rohan Candappa. He wanted to try a Malaysian & Indonesian restaurant, Melur, on the Edgware Road. As I had requested that we meet somewhere over my side, as I needed to be at Lord’s for a game of tennis afterwards, that seemed a reasonable choice to me.

The weather forecast suggested heavy rain around the time I’d be finishing at Lord’s, so I took my car to Aberdeen Place and parked there ahead of lunch.

The food at Melur was excellent. I was restrained in my choices given the tennis bout ahead, going for an inoffensive Nasi Goreng. Rohan went for a more spicy version and for some roti canai, which I tasted and reckon was a pretty darned good roti. I shall forever more associate that dish with Rohan, so much so that I’ll think of it as…Rohan Kanhai. Coincidentally, I shall similarly forever be reminded of that Guyanese cricketer when I recall Rohan Candappa’s visit to Lord’s with me, last year:

Two Sweltering Days At Lord’s, The First With Ian Theodoreson, The Second With Rohan Candappa – Part Two: With Rohan C, 24 July 2018

But I digress.

Initially Rohan and I discussed my burgeoning career as a musician in a novel genre which fuses punk rock with Renaissance guitar:

The Sound Of Home Counties, Performed By “Ged Waitrose”, 4 March 2019

I’m thinking of naming my novel genre “Mock Tudor Rock”

Rohan, who plans to manage my band, made several branding suggestions – I responded to those thoughts subsequently as follows:

The Wessex Petards might work better as a band name the The Wessex Pistols and I still feel that Sir Michael Smear is a more visceral nom de punk than Sir John Rancid. But I cannot better your album name – Never Mind The Bailiwicks – it ought to go gold or platinum on the name alone, before we release so much as a tiny sound sample…in fact it had better go gold or platinum before we release so much as a tiny sound sample.

Rohan and I also spent a fair bit of our time discussing Rohan’s wonderful Threadmash idea. I had participated in the inaugural Threadmash event a few week’s before.

The Rohan Thing, My Short Performance Piece As Part Of Rohan Candappa’s Inaugural Threadmash, Gladstone Arms, 5 February 2019

I very much hope my thoughts were helpful and that Rohan can find a way to make the Threadmash idea work for all concerned.

I had allowed loads of time between lunch and tennis, so brought plenty of reading matter with me which I enjoyed reading over a couple of excellent cups of coffee at Café Laville, overlooking the canal in sunshine.

Then on to Lord’s in order to be taught a lesson by one of my favourite real tennis opponents who has recovered from injury since I last played him and seemed keen to let me see how well he can now move around the court. A surprisingly close match in the circumstances – I thought I did well to get close.

On Thursday 7 March I had a music lesson with Ian Pittaway, who passed expert judgement on my Mock Tudor Rock…

…while helping me with some other silly ideas (watch this space) and sensible techniques (don’t hold your breath).

Then a visit from John Random for a bite of lunch and the second of two sessions of NewsRevue archiving. The first session was 25 January. John has a large collection of NewsRevue programmes, flyers and reviews, which simply needed to be digitised.

We succeeded in scanning it all in two sessions, despite lots of chat, listening to some music and cricket-match like breaks for lunch/tea.

Following some cheerful chat about murder rates around the world, which identified Mexico and especially Tijuana as a hot spot, we both agreed that Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass must have a lot to answer for. So we listened to a fair smattering of Herb. John was especially taken with his version of the Third Man theme…

…and his version of A Walk In The Black Forest:

We decided that this type of music is, in many ways, the soundtrack of our childhood. Of course we like to remember the cool stuff from the 1960’s and no doubt have listened to far more of the cool stuff in later life, but when we were kids this was the music that was being played on the radios and gramophone players most of the time in our homes and the homes we visited.

We also of course chatted about NewsRevue casts, shows and material gone by. We discussed one of my own classics from more than 25 years ago, Mad Frogs And Englishmen, which I realised I hadn’t yet Ogblogged. I have put that right now:

Mad Frogs And Englishmen, NewsRevue Lyric, 5 February 1994

Job done in terms of the archiving, it was time for us to set off for one of our regular Ivan Shakespeare Memorial gatherings – at which NewsRevue writers from years gone by gather to eat, chat, laugh and informally quiz.

It was International Women’s Day today, so we found ourselves an all male gathering this time. In addition to me and John: Gerry Goddin, Mark Keagan, Barry Grossman, Colin Stutt and a rare but much appreciated visit from NewsRevue founder and “father of the house” Mike Hodd.

The venue was the Spaghetti House in Holborn this time; a good notch up in service and food quality from Cafe Rogues in my view. My first time there but not the group’s first time.

For many years John Random has talked about his vicarious support for a football team by the name of Blyth Spartans. His home town, Hartlepool, is John’s real team but he has carried a torch for this other team for decades.

John excitedly reported that he finally got to visit Blyth Spartans and saw an exciting match there just the other week. I believe it was this match. I feel that this momentous event needs recording for posterity, as does an image of John wearing his new Blyth Spartans titfer.

John reported on the event as follows:

I would like to say a big thank you to all those of you who came out to the Spaghetti House on Thursday night. Thanks also to Mike, Colin and Gerry for their entertaining quizzes. Falling as it did, almost on International Women’s Day I regret to report that NewsRevue has still not come clean on its gender pay gap. We haven’t even had any jokes about it, yet – though I have a feeling, we will – and soon.

As I said earlier, it had been a funny week.

Funny ha-ha, not funny peculiar.

Well, maybe funny ha-ha AND funny peculiar. Good times with good friends.

Dinner At Spring Restaurant With Bobbie Scully, 28 February 2019

It didn’t occur to me, when I booked Spring Restaurant, that Bobbie and I were meeting on the eve of the start of meteorological spring…

…but with the benefit of hindsight and subsequent thought processes, what a timely and apt choice that was:

Talking of timely, I thought I had allowed plenty of time to get from the office to Somerset House, where Spring is located, which indeed I had. I arrived at the South-Eastern entrance of that enormous building complex a good few minutes ahead of our 19:30 booking – only to realise that I needed to be several levels up and across to the North-Western side, where the New Wing and Spring are located.

I was still at the restaurant itself within 5 minutes of the appointed time, but, hell’s bells, Bobbie was already there.

Bobbie, she whose idea of timeliness is based on leaving home at the appointed hour, not getting to the venue at the appointed hour, was some minutes ahead of me, looking smug.

Under interrogation, Bobbie broke down and confessed that her plan had been to see the Charlie Brown exhibition ahead of meeting me, but had been too late for that and so was a little early for the dinner. Hence, both early and Bobbie-style late in the one fell swoop. This at least made more sense to me than the alternative hypothesis – that Bobbie is now better at time keeping than me.

Spring Restaurant is a good place – you can read what it has to say about itself here.

The food, under the supervision of Skye Gyngell, who is apparently a big name chef, was excellent. Unfussy, good ingredients cooked, presented and served very well in a charming setting.

Here’s what the TripAdvisor community thinks of it.

Bobbie went for the beef that evening, whereas I felt fishy and had a very tasty wild hake fillet. We shared some cheese after the main meal, which was an excellent selection.

Bobbie and I once again failed to put the world to rights despite agreeing how dreadful it all is and how much better it could be.

We also reminisced some more about evenings gone by – mostly very good ones – we agreed that many of our theatre visits 30 or so years ago, such as this one…

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams, Lyttelton Theatre, 12 March 1988

…were top notch. Although Bobbie is still hyper-ventilating a bit about The Long Way Round, which she rates as possibly her worst experience ever at the theatre:

The Long Way Round by Peter Handke, Cottesloe Theatre, 8 July 1989

I wanted to pick Bobbie’s brains about a weekend a few week’s earlier in 1989, when we went to see Don Giovanni and Ashley Fletcher came to stay, which I remembered as being somewhat of a low point for several reasons, more my own issues than those of the opera which I did not enjoy. I need to do some additional unpicking with Ashley on that one, but suffice it to say here that Bobbie and I had a good laugh about our slightly different but clearly linked remembrances of that June 1989 weekend.

But back to Spring on the eve of spring 2019 – the evening flew by and in fact it very nearly was meteorological spring when we realised that it was really quite late and that we should head home.

A few minutes earlier, we had debated the placement of lemons on about a third of the tables and I had concluded that they must denote reservations, but the waiter assured us that they were for decorative purposes only and that the choice of tables was random. He offered us a lemon on our table if we therefore felt bereft…which we agreed we didn’t.

I’m rambling. It was a very enjoyable evening and I hope we don’t leave it another year or so before we regroup.

Have We Both Gone Off Our Trolley?: Dinner At Otto’s With John White, 21 February 2019

Despite John’s insistence that his choice last time of the vegetarian haute cuisine restaurant Vanilla Black did not mean that he had gone soft on me…

Vegetarian Dinner With John White At Vanilla Black, 3 December 2018

…I decided to test the hypothesis by, this time, choosing an exceptionally carnivorous place; Otto’s on the Grays Inn Road.

So have we both gone off our trolley? No of course we haven’t, but what I have learnt is that, subsequent to me choosing the place, Otto’s has been shortlisted for a prestigious international restaurant award: World Restaurant Trolley Of the Year 2019.

Still, while not off our trollies, neither were we on the wagon. Indeed, John messaged me while I was still slaving away at the office over some silly numerical issues, already long-since forgotten, to let me know that I’d find him in Ye Olde Mitre rather than his office, when I picked him up on my way to Otto’s.

So there in The Mitre I found him and there I declined a pre-dinner drink; partly to keep my intake within reasonable bounds and partly because I was a bit later than intended and we really did need to set off in the next 10 minutes or so for our booking. The burghers of Ye Olde Mitre and the beadles of Ely Place might, if they notice such matters, have observed that this was the second time in a row that I declined to drink when entering that wonderful hostelry to join the yeomen of BACTA. Mind you, the place was heaving with people, so I doubt if anyone, other than John’s colleagues, noticed my abstinence.

We had a good chat along the way to the restaurant – John’s mum died just a few weeks ago and the funeral had been just a couple of days before our gathering – getting the funereal discussion out of the way before dinner.

Once at Otto’s, John was in an unusually “appy” mood – i.e. using his smart phone apps a lot.

Here’s John learning all there is to know about the rather splendid Burgundian wine we drank together…

…while this picture, of John’s Tournados, was taken by John and zapped off in mid meal – John’s way of making his carnivorous daughter, Bella, envious as hell at the sight of our meal.

Yes, John was clearly keen to show that he had not gone soft on me and was making an excellent Tournados-sized fist of such proof.

I also went for a very meaty option; the special of the day pork chop with mash, spinach and mushrooms. All cooked to perfection.

We both had started with lobster bisque – a classic starter served deliciously well.

I didn’t have room for a desert, but John, still demonstrating his robust dining credentials, went for a “death by chocolate” type thing which he (in collusion with the charming waiting staff) insisted that I try:

It would have been rude for me to decline the offer in the circumstances

When the pair at the next table – very senior gentlemen, so similar looking I took them to be twins – got up to leave, John got all “appy” again with their bottle of Margaux. I tried to capture that moment but was too late and John signally refused to repeat his research with a photo-opportunity-pose:

John completing his Margaux research at some distance from our neighbours’ bottle

It is always such a pleasure to have dinner with John – catching up on each other’s news over a good meal.

Otto’s was an excellent venue for such an evening. While I wouldn’t want to eat French classic style food all the time, we do it all so rarely now (there’s so much choice in London),so it’s easy to forget why that classic style is so enduring. When it is done well (as it is at Otto’s) it is a very, very enjoyable dining experience.

But if only we had known about the World Restaurant Trolley Of the Year Award nomination, we surely would have chosen at least one trolleyish thing at the place…

…I guess that might mean we’ll simply have to go back there some day.

Vegetarian Dinner With John White At Vanilla Black, 3 December 2018

Yes, you’ve seen it written here in black and white; we dined in a vegetarian restaurant, Vanilla Black, suggested by John White.

I hope you’re not going soft on me, John…

…I said, when John’s suggestion came in. But John insisted that this Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant was quite exceptional; he had tried the place recently with one of his daughters, Lydia.

It’s a slippery slope, this…

…said Janie when I told her. Janie is not a great one for vegetarian food – indeed it was she who went a little crazy in Japan after one meal in the vegetarian monastery retreat of her own choosing on Mount Koya:

Japan Day Ten: Journey To Koyasan And Cemetery Walk, 29 October 2018

Next it will be veganism and after that John will become an even fussier eater than Kim.

John and I discussed those possibilities early in the evening and concluded that my concerns (and especially Janie’s) were ill-founded. We should have had that early discussion in the Seven Stars pub nearby, but I was a little late and John was running even later, so we agreed that I would abandon the (to be honest, over-crowded) pub and we’d meet in the restaurant.

This enabled John, although he had been running later than me, to get to the restaurant first. We texted each other with some bants while I was walking and when I arrived at Vanilla Black, John was texting away, presumably in my direction. I suggested that we might stop doing “the youngster thing” (sitting in restaurants playing with our phones rather than talking), but John wondered whether conversation by text while face-to-face might be fun. (No.)

Here is a link to a sample of the excellent menu.

Here is a scrape of the actual menus that were around at that time.

We started with (see photo above):

Carrot Broth, Coffee Shortbread and Carrot Cake – Pickled Walnuts and Spiced Carrot Purée (John )

Edamame Bean Ice Cream, Sesame Cracker and Nasturtium – Crispy Soy Sauce, Pean and Edamame Bean Salsa (Me)

Then we progressed to:

Celeriac Profiteroles, Dill and Raisins – Vanilla Roasted Celeriac and Pickled Red Cabbage (John)

Fried Shiitake, Pine Nut Purée and Crispy Enoki – Marsala and Pine Salt (me)

Then we found room for deserts too:

Gianduja Chocolate Brownie and Roasted Hazelnut Ice Cream – Tiger Nut Milk, Salted Chocolate and Nutella Powder (John)

Banana Ice Cream, Whipped Toffee and Banana Biscuit – Vanilla Cream and Toffee (Me)

All of the food was genuinely delicious and we both agreed that we were having an excellent meal.

We tried a rather interesting wine from the excellent wine list, which went well with our food, although the staff said that most punters are not brave enough to try it: ORANGE WINE ZERO-GMT, MULLER THURGAU. John and I were sufficiently brave and were rewarded for our bravery.

As usual, we discussed many subjects, ranging from personal, work, through the ghastly domestic politics to international affairs. When the topical subjects of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang and the Chinese Social Credit System came up over dessert, John said that it reminded him of the fate of Citizen Smith. I paused for a moment and suggested,

I think you mean Winston Smith from 1984, Citizen Smith was the Freedom For Tooting fellow.

We had a bit of a laugh about that and I promised to milk the joke on Ogblog.

I imagine a couple of scenarios in which we switch the characters around. For example, a comedic version of 1984 in which Big Brother’s thought police spy on Wofie (Citizen) Smith only to discover how hapless he is so they decide to leave him alone:

Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Citizen_smith.jpg – based on the same fair use rationale as Wikipedia

Alternatively, a dystopian version of Citizen Smith, in which Winston’s parochial attempts to liberate Tooting from the clutches of Wandsworth Council inexorably lead to Winston Smith’s torture and incarceration in the dreaded Room 101, in which dire situation comedies from the 1970s and 1980s are shown on a loop until the victim breaks down and submits to the authorities.

Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Winston_Smith.jpg – based on the same fair use rationale as Wikipedia

John obviously thought my ideas for milking his slip of the tongue were very funny, as he laughingly gestured that he thought I should milk the joke with at least four scenarios:

So, I think it is safe to say that John has not gone soft on me after all.

In fact, the more observant reader (who drills into the menu) might notice that it was me who ate an entirely vegan meal that evening – not by vegan design but simply because the dishes I chose all happened to be vegan.

Even Janie seems to be somewhat of a convert after I showed her the pictures and described the dishes – I can hear her on the telephone as I write telling Kim that she thinks Vanilla Black might be a good place for them to go.

As always, it was great to catch up with John regardless of the food and drink- although we do try (and mostly succeed) in also having great food and drink too. This Vanilla Black and John White evening was great in all of those respects.

A Mere Evening With John White, Ahead Of John’s Regeneration The Very Next Day, 15 October 2018

The headline is a misnomer pun, because no evening with John is ever mere. I spent an evening with John at Mere Restaurant.

All the grub is tremendously well presented and tastes at least as good as it looks…perhaps better

Janie and I had spotted this place when we thought we’d eat out for John and Mandy’s most recent London visit, which ended up being dinner in Noddyland…

Dinner In Noddyland With John And Mandy, 29 June 2018

…although Mere was in any case fully booked at the weekend many weeks ahead of time. But I had more luck at relatively short notice for a Monday evening with John.

Both of us are really glad that I recalled liking the look of Mere and booked it. The food, service, presentation, everything was top notch. John and I agreed that this was one of the very best meals we’ve had in London.

What did we eat? – I hear you cry.

John started with Pumpkin: Pumpkin Filled Agnolotti, Mixed Mushrooms, Marmite Emulsion
I started with Octopus: A la Plancha’, Caper & Raisin Dressing, Potato, Piperade
John progressed to Cornish Cod: Black Curry, Pickled Celery, Hazelnut Dukka, Lovage Sauce
I progressed to Pigeon: Roast Breast, Braised Leg, Lardo, Girolles, Pedro Ximenez Sauce
The above was all washed down with a well-chosen bottle of Sancerre – one with more oak and fruitiness than I would normally associate with Sancerre and spot on for the diverse dishes – thank you Mr Sommelier.
After a suitably long pause to chat, mull the world’s problems and finish the wine, we moved on to
…in John’s case Cheese: Selection of Four Artisan Cheeses , Fresh Figs & Jam, Seeded Cracker
In my case Hokey Pokey: Manjari Cremeux, Salted Toffee, Honeycomb Ice Cream, L&P Gel
The sommelier also did us proud with drinks to accompany our afters; in John’s case a white port, in my case an intriguing sherry that went surprisingly well with a chocolate desert.

You can see menus and things through this link.

There was an element of skittishness to our mood. I questioned (between ourselves) whether the much lauded Samoan chocolate came from Western Samoa or Eastern Samoa.

John’s view was that there is no such place as Eastern Samoa. Technically now, of course, there is no such place as Western Samoa either. Obviously I was trying to distinguish between the two main islands of Samoa, the more westerly Savai’i and the more easterly (and more populous) Upolu. Answer from John there came none.

John added to his self-confessed spacial challenges by confessing that he keeps a little chart of the cricket fielding positions at hand when he listens to cricket on the radio, as he finds the names of the leg-side fielding positions confusing.

By Py0alb – in powerpoint, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27694084

To be honest, I was pretty impressed that John is now taking that much interest in the cricket. Who knew? I’d better get him to a match again soon enough. But I digress.

We also discussed some serious subjects, such as the dire state of UK politics. We wondered whether occasional fine dining detracted from our left-leaning credentials. We thought it probably didn’t, but agreed a pact along MAD lines not to denounce each other. John then told me that he was to give evidence to a House of Lords select committee the next day, on the regeneration of seaside towns.

I’m an old hand at such appearances of course, having done two on Brexit in the past couple of years:

The Lords, Then Lord’s, Plus A Coincidental Segue Between The Two, 1 February 2018

I got some intriguing notices for my second appearance – click here for those.

But I’m digressing again.

John’s appearance can be seen through this link or the embedded vid below starting at 16:11:53:

I must admit that my mind wandered skittishly a few times as I watched – the regeneration of seaside towns is not at the forefront of my interests/concerns at the moment – other than naturally taking an interest in a good pal’s work – so the following questions and answers passed through my mind:

Does John show any signs of a tremendous but slightly over-indulgent evening meal the night before? No;
Should John’s evidence session be re-titled “Peers On Piers”? Yes – unquestionably;
When the chap from the British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions and the chap from the National Piers Society meet, is that pier-to-pier networking? Yes – what else?;
When the Lords form a select committee on the regeneration of seaside towns, have they done so as a last resort? I’m afraid so, yes;
Are there other good puns about this topic that I can’t think up right now? Let the court of public opinion – i.e. the Ogblog readership, decide.

Anyway, we’ll quite possibly be returning to Mere one day – especially when the girls read about what they have missed. A Mere tremendous evening.

A Few Very Pleasant Evenings, 28 September, 2 October and 4 October 2018

28 September 2018 – Dinner With Deni, Tony, John & Kathleen

Early evening was my last game of real tennis at The Queen’s Club in my capacity as an MCC refugee:

Photo of me at Queens (from a different day) with opponents cut/airbrushed out

A fierce battle, it was, with a gentleman way above my pay grade, but through the wonders of the handicapping system we had a close fought match, which ended as a draw.

I thought 20 minutes would be more than enough time to get a couple of miles down the road to Deni & Tony’s house, but I hadn’t counted on the Friday night traffic combining with an accident nearby.

Yet, I arrived at the same time as Daisy, coming from the opposite direction and we really weren’t that late.

Plenty of time for drinks and nibbles before dinner.

Deni had gone to town in the kitchen, with a gazpacho soup and a salmon dish as the main. Desert was their favourite; profiteroles – it happens to be one of Daisy’s favourites too.

Lots of lively discussion too, trying to put the world to rights. John’s moderate views were somewhat tempered by his opinion that the only feasible route back to sensible, moderate politics might be barricades and politicians up against the wall and shot.

Everyone was on good form despite it being Friday evening and we were all surprised when the Cinderella hour struck and we said our goodbyes.

2 October 2018 Jamming Session & Dinner With DJ

Coincidentally I played real tennis (now back at Lord’s) before my next evening out; a jamming session with DJ at DJ’s place.

As I had all my tennis gear in tow as well, I decided to forego the electric instrument (which had sort-of been the plan), taking my baroq-ulele instead.

Electric-ulele – not selected for this match in the end

We tried amplifying the baroq-ulele for a while, which sounded rather interesting actually. We also mucked around with the strange assortment of songs I’ve been working on; then mucked around with a few of our favourites.

We still cannot decide which of us is ground control and which of us is Major Tom. It shouldn’t be that complicated, but it certainly is.

As always, we had a good chat and ate some good food too. An interesting bottle of Croatian red wine too – that worked wonders on my vocal chords.

4 October 2018 – Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner

It’s been a while since we had an Ivan Shakespeare dinner – this one had been rescheduled more often than a routine visit by a British Gas engineer. But at least an Ivan Shakespeare dinner is pleasant and worth the effort.

Actually not much effort for me. Jasmine had suggested we try Bill’s in Kensington, which, frankly, is a hugely convenient option for at least two of us; me and Jasmine. In truth, many of us are starting to find Cafe Rogues tedious, in terms of the food (ordinary), the service (poor) and the tedious, Byzantine rules for Christmas gatherings.

A great turnout this time, a dozen of us, including some new-old faces, such as Emma, Nelson, Neil and Sam. Plus many of the usual suspects. I mostly got to chat with Jonny Hurst, Barry Grossman, Mark Keagan and Nelson at my end of the table.

For sure the food and service was better at Bill’s. The traditional “food half an hour later than everyone else’s” game for baiting Jonny Hurst is clearly just a Cafe Rouge Holborn thing; not a standard entertainment in all restaurants. Who knew?

John Random made an executive decision that the traditional quiz would not quite work with the ambiance – we were in a very central table position.

We are all keenly awaiting Graham Robertson’s “would I lie to you?” game, but we’re starting to think that he has sold our stories for megabucks to television syndicates in the Stans and has now fled the country with his ill-gotten gains. We don’t care, we’re having a great time at these dinners without Graham and his game anyway.

Seriously, I always enjoy these gatherings and others must also do so because so many of us have been coming back for more, several times a year, since not long after the turn of the century.

Roll on the next one.

Sunday Lunch At The Orange With Kim, Micky & DJ, 16 September 2018

Well ahead of time, DJ invited us to lunch at The Orange in Belgravia/Pimlico. We had been looking forward to the day for much of the summer.

We weren’t disappointed for sure. It is always good to see DJ, Kim & Micky. As it turned out, it was a beautiful late-summer’s day, sitting in a very airy, well-spaced restaurant upstairs.

None of us had eaten in the restaurant there before, although Micky had previously been to the pub. We were all most impressed by the food the wines and the service. Janie and I both majored on the Sunday roast beef with all the trimmings, as did DJ.

Kim and Micky furnished me with a thoughtful bespoke birthday card and gifts, one of which was a tee-shirt emblazoned with the same legend as the card:

DJ, Kim and Micky told us about the Dalmatian coast, which they had recently been exploring. We pondered the lack of Dalmatian dogs in Dalmatia and wondered whether a themed boutique hotel, Villa De Vil, might be a winner. I expect Dodie Smith’s estate might have a question or three to ask about that one.

We didn’t realise that there is a glorious upstairs terrace at the back of The Orange, acting as a sun trap in the late afternoon. But under the guidance of excellent, interesting and kind waiter Gareth, we took up residence out there for after dinner drinks and to carry on chatting.

On learning that there is no house guitar, we tried some a capella singing…very badly.

Gareth was not only a maestro at serving food & drink, he is also a selfie maestro. The photograph below, achieved without a selfie-stick, is clearly the act of an experienced, steady hand.

Gareth also took a few pictures in a more regular or old-fashioned style, with the photographer excluded. A couple of those are shown below.

Many hours passed. It got dark. Eventually (at 21:00), the terrace had to close for regulatory/licensing reasons. Janie and I decided to call it quits at that juncture, leaving DJ, Kim & Micky to have “one for the road” by relocating to the pub’s outdoor seating, by the road.

Special, memorable times with special friends.

Tennis At Queen’s Followed By Dinner With Simon Jacobs At Brasserie Blanc, 12 September 2018

I have been playing real tennis at The Queen’s Club this September, as the Lord’s court is closed for refurbishment and a few other clubs, such as Queen’s, have, very kindly, offered us MCC tennis types refugee status for the month.

It’s been a somewhat sobering experience at times.

My first gig as a refugee was a singles friendly match against a 12-year-old…

…who absolutely took me to pieces.

To be fair, he is the champion player at his age group and, if “the book” is to be believed, he is even capable of beating the U15 champion now. Here is some film of him winning the French Open:

I’m pretty sure he’ll be an exceptionally good player. Remember where you first heard the name: Bertie Vallat…

…I know, you couldn’t make up a more Wodehouseian name than that…

…he’s the boy in the foreground at the start of the filum.

Anyway, point is, after that ego-bruising episode, I decided that I needed a lesson in technique, so arranged to play an hour-long friendly match with one of my Lord’s chums, then an hour of coaching, ahead of meeting up with Simon in Hammersmith.

I did well in my friendly match – reclaiming the handicap points I had lost to Bertie. Then I enjoyed my lesson too, which I think will help my lawners as well as my realers…am I starting to spend to much time hanging around the arcane language of this game?

Then, after killing some time in a couple of coffee bars along the way, I met up with Simon Jacobs for a relatively early dinner at Brasserie Blanc.

I explained my difficult hour at the hands of a twelve-year-old the previous week, which led Simon to suggest that I might have “done a Serena” and/or resorted to corporal punishment. Neither of these suggestions seemed, to me, worthy of Simon.

But then Simon might well have had other things on his mind. He was very kindly taking time out to have dinner with me just a couple of days ahead of the launch of his latest single; Top Of The Pops. How cool is that?

Well, you can judge for youreselves by listening to and watching the following YouTube:

We discussed without irony the increasingly ghastly political landscape. The absence of irony is not because we have lost our senses of humour – heaven forbid. No, it appears that we never did have a sense of irony, due to ethnic accidents of birth. No point mocking us (we wouldn’t get it), simply pity us.

The food was very good indeed. The wine was also very good. The service was excellent, until we asked our waiter to leave us alone for a short while to consider what to have for, or indeed if to have, desert. Then we complained when the waiter returned because he had neglected us for so long.

The waiter laughed and told us that we were his favourite table of the evening. Poor chap, he clearly thought we were being ironic…he didn’t realise that we really meant it – he didn’t realise that we don’t do irony.

We talked a fair bit about music; not only Simon’s new single but his plans for the album and also the stuff that I am fiddling around with at the moment. Simon set me some homework around “I Only Have Eyes For You” and also “Nothing Rhymed”, the latter of which has yielded faster results than the somewhat tricky former.

The evening whizzed by and I had no idea how late it was until we got to Hammersmith Station. Still, not so late that the tubes get tricky.

As always, it had been a very enjoyable evening with Simon.

Edinburgh Day Three: A Fortunate Man by Michael Pinchbeck, Flamenco Global & Dinner At Roseleaf, 19 August 2018

The promised deluge mostly dumped its load overnight, leaving a drizzly, mizzly morning.

We’d already rescheduled the Falkland Palace/real tennis outing to Tuesday and/but there was no hope of modern tennis either in the murk, so we had a very pleasent, quiet morning hunkered down with our provisions.

We watched the start of the test match while grazing, then set off to the City to collect our tickets…

…and then go out to Summerhall. There we saw A Fortunate Man, a two-handed play adapted from the book about a rural GP, in the rather apt setting of a former veterinary college lecture theatre. It was a very moving piece.

A Fortunate Man has been very well received – reviews can be found here.

Then on to Flamenco Global at C. This had been a more serendipitous choice; I simply wanted to find some music (for variety) at that hour when we found that we couldn’t get tickets for Extinguished Things.

We had a glass of wine at the bar before the show, served by the most disengaged, humourless young people we have so far encountered in Edinburgh, which, together with the rather dour queue management at C, didn’t seem to auger well.

But as it turned out, Flamenco Global was a stunningly good act. Ricardo Garcia is a superb and seemingly very sweet guitarist. His playing was accompanied by some fine dancing by Nanako Aramaki.

We chatted afterwards with a nice Scottish couple who were fans of Flamenco and of Garcia in particular.

Then the bus home…

…for a quick freshen up and then off to the Roseleaf for dinner.

Great grub and friendly staff. daisy started with satay prawns & went on to a chunky Cullen Skink (a sort of smoked haddock chowder), while I started with an excellent mushroom soup followed by a trout dish. A fruity Viognier wine. We even had deserts – Janie had affogato (all the fashion I am told) while I tried a banana parfait with ice cream & chocolate named Bananarama.

All the music was similarly late 1970s early 1980s with various retro feels in the crockery and a collection of mad hats around the walls for mad hatter tea parties, apparently. For a short while we had a strange couple next to us – she had no volume control, occasionally speaking so loudly and strangely it was hard nor to look. They ate incredibly quickly and mercifully moved on at pace too.

Quirky place, superb food, excellent service, rounded off our day very nicely.

If you want to see all of the photographs from this trip, click this link or the Flickr Album link picture below:

Edinburgh Day Two: Harpy by Philip Meeks, Wu Song The Tiger Warrior, Dinner At Ship On The Shore, 18 August 2018

We rose late by our standards and pootled around first thing. We played tennis around 11:00 – the courts were deserted on a formerly-drizzly, albeit Saturday, morning.

We took some brunch at Mimi’s Bakehouse on Shore, then went off to get some provisions. Found Great Grog for wine & coffee. Then a sports shop for some training troos, then Leith Farmers’ Market for some brunch provisions for tomorrow, as the weather is set very poor.

Then we went in to Edinburgh proper for our shows, both recommended by the nice family in Let Me Eat Too. First up, Harpy – a one woman play with Su Pollard. Very good performance but the play was a bit slow and all over the place. It has been pretty well received though – reviews can be found here.

In need of refreshment and reasonable comfort, we eventually found an Andalusian tapas/wine bar place happy to let us sit outside and drink some wine. There was a curious incident with a pair of drunks and their Yorkshire terrier dog and I got shat on from a great height, literally. Good job I was wearing my vinyl (imitation leather) jacket.

Then on to Wu Song – The Tiger Warrior. The recommendation lady had described it as musicians from North Korea but actually it was an extraordinary mime/dance show from Taiwan.

We probably wouldn’t have booked it had it been described to us more accurately but we really enjoyed it, so that lady’s confusion proved to be our friend. It was pretty well received in formal reviews too.

Home for a wash/change and then on to Ship On The Shore for dinner. Excellent fish meal.

We shared a crab salad starter. Daisy tried lemon sole while I went for seafood linguini.

Massive portions but superb food. We got home before the rain started…just.

All of our photographs from our week away, mostly at the Edinburgh Fringe, can be seen on our Flickr album by clicking here on the picture below:

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