It had been a while since we had seen Caroline and Alan…
…in fact, Ogblog is a helpful resource to answer such questions as, “when did we last see Caroline and Alan socially?”:
Ah, so it was the equivalent Saturday two years ago – that’s a bit uncanny.
This time we enjoyed lavish hospitality at Caroline and Alan’s place. We also enjoyed son Alex’s company for much of the evening. Alex is now a strapping young man, which was somewhat predictable when you think about it, but always comes as a bit of a shock when you haven’t seen a youngster for a few years.
I tried to avoid saying, “haven’t you grown since I last saw you”, but that phrase came out anyway – at least half in jest.
Yummy nibbles before dinner with a very jolly Viognier. Caroline tried to assess which of the nibbles we liked best, but we were wise to the risk of saying, e.g. “the salmon ones”, because that would have enabled Caroline to say, “oh, so what’s wrong with the asparagus ones and the avocado ones?”. Janie and I are old hands at that game, even when the host/hostess isn’t actually playing it. Then a yummy main meal of:
- red pepper soup;
- herb-crusted lamb rack with poshed-up rice and roasted vegetables;
- chocolate tart and fruit cocktail.
A very tasty Châteauneuf-du-Pape complemented the main meal, especially the lamb.
Conversation naturally covered the biggest issues of the moment – i.e. cricket, with me, Alan and Alex all in the same room. We also discussed politics and world affairs to some extent – without any irony whatsoever, of course.
Alex stuck around for a higher proportion of the evening than was necessary for good manners, but when he returned downstairs having gone upstairs after dinner to watch a movie, Janie and I both realised that the time had flown, it was getting really late and that we were in danger of outstaying even the warmest welcome.
We also realised that we had been so busy discussing anything other than our trip to Japan that we hadn’t even started on that subject. So we covered that one briefly and promised to send Caroline and Alan some links to the blog on Japan – this one is probably best for a laugh and to pick up some other fine links:
Or, if photos are more their thing, here is a link to one of the several albums of pics:
But back to London in January – what else to say? – we’d had a very enjoyable evening – thank you Caroline and Alan.