Tag: Andrea Dean

A Long Weekend Catching Up With Long-standing Friends, 6 to 9 April 2017

It was no real coincidence that I worked up several pieces about parties of my youth by way of introducing Rohan Candappa’s guest piece last week. I was due to see the Alleyn’s crowd on the Thursday and several old youth club friends on the Saturday.

Thursday 6 April 2017

The Thursday evening was a semi-regular-style gathering of the old Alleyn’s clan in the City. John Eltham tends to organise it and who would have bet against Johnny being the “get together monitor” back in the school days? He wrote:

here is the plan:

7.00pm Walrus & Carpenter public house- 45 Monument Street

8.30pm wander a whole 10 yards to Rajasthan curry shop  ( our usual)

I pre-announced that I didn’t expect to get to the pub until 7:30/8:00 – as I had long-since arranged a game of real tennis early evening.

Fun, it was, playing doubles with my allocated doubles partner for this season’s doubles tournament – which will be my first go at the trophy – indeed at any physical sports trophy, since my glorious quarter-final fives victory against Johnny Eltham himself in 1975.

So I arrived at about 7:50 to be told by Mr David Wellbrook (who else) that I was late and needed to assume drinks monitor duties.

Fortunately (and quite naturally) it was John Eltham who was holding the float, to which I added my share and then three of us (Ollie Goodwin the kind third) shared the burden of getting the round in.  A small float of “poppadom money” survived the round.

Fifty billion here and fifty billion there soon adds up to real poppadom money

Early April but such glorious weather – we were gathered outside the Walrus and Carpenter enjoying the setting sun and getting a bit cooler, yet not cold.

Indeed it was quite close to 8:30 when Johnny remarked that it was starting to get a bit parky…nippy even…but in any case it was time to regroup in The Rajasthan.

That restaurant runs like a well-oiled machine. Long-used to getting unco-ordinated groups of city folk to gather themselves and place their orders – it all just sort-of happens in that restaurant and it is always a decent (if not exceptional) meal.

My eye was caught by Hariali chicken, which is minimally-described as “Cooked to Chef’s special recipe”. I asked the waiter, who mumbled, “curry-leaf, lemongrass, lots of herbs and spices, very very nice” and I was convinced. Most if not all the others at our table paid far less attention to the detail of their chosen dishes than that.

Most drank beer, but Ollie Goodwin, Lisa Pavlovsky, one other (was it Jerry Moore?) and I formed a small gang of four for white wine, specifically Nika Tiki Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Not the best I’ve ever had but a decent example; I’m sure Sir Nigel Godfrey would approve.

At my end of the table I was within chatting distance of Gavin Hamilton, Martin Brassell, Paul Driscoll, Ollie Goodwin, Jerry Moore, John Eltham and Mike Jones. Sadly I missed out on proper chat this time with Rohan Candappa, David Wellbrook, Lisa Pavlovsky, Steve “Peanut” Butterworth and the late Chris Grant. By “late”, I mean “arrived half way through the meal”. Not “deceased”, nor “arrived at 7:50, roughly the time I said I would arrive, Mr Wellbrook”.

As always it was a very pleasant evening indeed. What a treat to be able to take pre dinner drinks outside The Walrus and Carpenter.

Saturday 8 April 2017

Let’s gloss over the Friday, which I had intended to be a “do my own thing/get some blogging done” day but which turned in to a mostly work day. Bitty, stressy work at that, with a shocking game of real tennis thrown in mid-morning.

Saturday, the weather was truly glorious, although Janie and I weren’t really able to take full advantage of the weekend’s exceptional weather until the Sunday.

Still, it enabled us to start our evening with friends at the house in the garden terrace, which is a bonus in April and was a very pleasant way to start the evening. Our record for this feat is a mild 7 January evening with David and Steph – click here, but this April evening in the garden had the added benefit of enjoying light in the earlier stages of the evening and thus enjoying the sunset.

The guests were Jilly Black, Andrea Dean, Simon Jacobs and Wendy Robbins; all originally friends of mine from BBYO, i.e. going back to when we were teenagers. It is a testament to Janie that she gets on so well with all of them and likewise they have all taken Janie to their hearts.

It wasn’t long-planned as precisely this group of six, but we had wanted to invite Jilly for ages and she had particularly mentioned that she regretted not being able to see Andrea and Wendy at the party, which Jilly missed, last May.

Then, when I saw Simon in January, around the time we were setting this evening up, realising that he knows and likes all of these people, it seemed only sensible to ask him too.

It might seem a bit drawn out to some readers, inviting people in early January and setting a date for April, but by our (admittedly rather low) temporal standards, I think we got the gathering planned and implemented pretty quickly.

And everyone turned up.

Janie went to town with exotic nibbles; thai-style fish cakes, some flaky-pastry-meaty-parcels and a wonderful chicken liver pate on toasted french stick.

Between the nibbles and the main course I tried to pacify the guests with a few numbers on Benjy the Baritone Ukulele.

Andrea and Wendy, who are dear, dear friends of mine, appreciative of, but not experts on, music, declared that I have truly mastered the instrument. Jilly and Simon, who are also both dear, dear friends of mine, fine musicians to boot, were both clearly so moved by my performance that neither of them was able to add to Andrea and Wendy’s judgement. I think that says it all.

It did get a little chilly by the time we went inside. Some might even say “nippy” or “parky”. Anyway, inside we went.

The centrepiece of the meal was Janie’s signature beef with wasabi sauce dish, which works so well for gatherings of this size and which we knew would be novel to our guests. We’d have to eat it very often indeed to tire of it.

After the main course, chocolates, tropical fruits etc.

What did we talk about? All sorts.

Old times? – not all that much.

What people are up to now? – much more.

The difficulties involved in grown-up dating and some very funny anecdotes from some around the table reminded me and Janie of the film Through the Wall, which we saw in December – click here.

Less Trump/Brexit talk than usual these days – which was a blessed relief really.

Wendy told us the story of her recent visit to Downing Street, which really needs to be an episode of a sit-com, rather than an after dinner anecdote.

It was really nice to see everyone and (cliche alert) the evening flew by.

We could do nibbles on the patio again this evening, Sunday – the weather remains glorious. As I write, the sun is still streaming in through the window of my little man cave here in Noddyland.

Nibbles in the Noddyland Garden. Janie took the picture so once again she isn’t in it!

Postscript

While I was posting this piece, Simon Jacobs uploaded a couple of tracks from his forthcoming album. It was possibly one of those Brian Wilson/Lennon-McCartney creative tension moments after hearing my exquisite baritone ukulele playing last night. As Simon himself says on Facebook:

After 3 decades of procrastination, I’ve finally recorded some of my own songs – and now the first two of them are on YouTube (one of them even has a video!)
So please take a listen, subscribe, share with your friends and post your comments… Then, sometime in the summer I’ll release a whole album through the usual channels, tour the world and then of course there’ll be the drugs and the groupies, the breakdown and rehab, the bizarre plastic surgery, the invitation to be an X Factor judge – all the usual humiliations.

Ogblog readers might well enjoy one or both of these tracks:

Bridge With Andrea, Barmy Kev & Maz, At Andrea’s 11 February 2009, Then Mine 15 April 2009

Our bridge four was getting close to its end by then, but despite the gulf in motivation and bridge quality between the four of us, we persevered with occasional social evenings of bridge.

Maz sent me this message after the 15th:

Many thanks for the ‘last supper’ last night – as always extraordinarily good and I ate too much.

Thanks too for my memento of the bridge 4 that has been going for 19 years I think (as one of original founder members).

If I have time I will try and do a short quiz for you at mine.

See you then and give Janie a big hug

Do I remember what I cooked? Do I heck. Do I even remember doing some sort of a quiz? Nope.

A Couple Of Bridges To Cross But Perhaps Not So Many Magic Tables Back then – 14 August and 20 November 2008

14 August 2008

We crossed the river and played at Hampton Wick (Maz’s new place) for the first time. Some business on the e-mail about Andrea driving and co-ordinating pick-ups around North-West/West London.

My thank you note to Maz was not too revealing – it read:

Many thanks for a most enjoyable evening last night. Excellent meal and, as always, good company. Nice to see your new home, too, which I thought was very you; you seem very happy there. Shame we didn’t get the cards but you can’t have everything I suppose.

Looking forward to the next one.

20 November 2008

The next one turned out to be at Barmy Kev’s place. I supplied the card table and accoutrements, so must have driven there. Kev’s mother-in-law Mabel was in situ, as Kev’s set up e-mail revealed:

Ironically Olivia’s mum still with us, will be for a year now, don’t ask, but will find a way round this and no rowdy behaviour after 11pm.

Ged , if you can supply table cards , scoreboards etc, this will help.

Subsequently, by which I mean some 10 years later, Kevin and Mabel achieved more than 15 minutes of fame when a video about Kevin and Mabel’s use of a “Magic Table” to help people with dementia went viral – some 3 to 4 Million views at the time of writing (January 2019):

But back then, it was simply bridge with dinner en famille.

I can’t find any post match analysis (by which I mean bridge match, not magic table match) on the e-mail trails, so perhaps we didn’t get much in the way of magic bridge hands on the table that night. I do recall a very enjoyable evening, though and the e-mail wires were certainly busy trying to set up the next one for the January.

A String Of Late May Evenings, 22, 27 & 29 May 2008

A few late May evenings with little to report.

Thursday 22 May 2008: Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner

This was at “Rogues” in Maida Vale, as was the norm in those days. John Random did the shout out and only provided limited feedback afterwards:

A big thank you to all of you who turfed yourselves out for the Ivan Shakespeare Memorial Dinner despite the cyclone, earthquake, Crewe and Nantwich Bye-Election and anything else that might have put off lesser mortals. To those of you who didn’t make it, you were much missed. Till the next time…

It will have been fun.

Tuesday 27 May 2008: Net At Lord’s

The e-mail trail tells me that this was Chas, Adam, Mat and me. Here’s my shout out/reminder:

Just a note to remind you all that we are netting this evening.
See you at HQ Indoor School in whites just before 18:00.
Adam – FYI – I’ve bought and am bringing my helmet after our last net together! Although, having seen Mr Flynn on Friday, I’m not sure I’ll be trying to hook the head-high stuff anyway!!
Best
Ian

The “Flynn” reference is to a Kiwi player named Daniel Flynn who was not spared the need for dental work by his helmet – see video below:

I think that net was my first go with a helmet. I had decided to wear one from that 2008 season on, after a couple of near misses the previous season – at least one of which was at the hands of Adam, albeit in outdoor nets. Chas commented afterwards:

Great being at Lords last night, but am I the only one suffering from multitude of aches and pains from the cricket net?…
…The helmet was ‘interesting’ although I did notice others wearing them as well.

Thursday 29 May: Bridge At Andrea’s Place

The four was again Andrea, Barmy Kev, Maz and me. Pre bridge e-mail chat between me and Barmy Kev revolved around Kev being available early and wanting to meet for a pre match drink, whereas I was a mixture of unwilling and unable to do that. My final word on what seemed to have been quite a stressy day:

I need to clear some work before coming out this evening so won’t be around until 20:00 as expected.
 
Also expect to drive, as could do with a detox and will be pushed for time.

Afterwards, my e-mail to Andrea:

Just a note to thank you very much for your hospitality on Thursday. Super meal and good bridge too. Is Kev still there? Looking forward to seeing you at the next one.

Andrea’s e-mail back to me:

V funny! Kev obviously likes it here as he turned up early and stayed about 20 mins after you lot left. See you at the next one – and don’t forget to get your visa.

The reference to a visa must mean that Maz had just moved South of the river and that we were going to play at her new place next.

Despite the fact that Andrea and I are both “propa sarf” people…”deep sarf” in Andrea’s case (Sutton), by 2008, after so many years north of the river, we needed metaphorical visas when venturing sarf.

Still Quasi After All These Years, Bridge At Mine With Andrea, Maz And Barmy Kev, 3 April 2008

Our regular bridge four had rather fallen into decline at this time. Gavin decided he was too busy running Charing Cross Hospital or something…

…and we struggled to find a fourth.

Then, in early February, I wrote to Andrea:

It was good to speak the other evening, Andrea. We discussed a possible bridge. I have a fourth person “quasi-lined-up”, although without dates of course. I propose mine as the venue on that basis.

Andrea replied:

Good to speak to you too, Ian & thanks for finding a 4th – gather his name is Quasi!

Little did she know then that I had lined up Barmy Kev, whom I knew from Middlesex cricket and his occasional appearance on the field of play in Z/Yen colours:

Ged Tries To Keep His Head While Kev Fly Slips, MTWD “Lost Masterpiece” Three Part Match Report on Z/Yen v The Children’s Society, Holland Park, 26 June 2007

Strangely, though, Barmy Kev really can play bridge. No, I don’t mean, “is someone who has more or less picked up the rules of the game of bridge and is therefore marginally more effective at the game than plankton”…

…I mean “Barmy Kev can REALLY play bridge”, in that it was almost embarrassing to have someone who can play at his level grace the kitchen table of people who play at our level.

Still, Kev likes good food, good wine and good company and my regular group could do all that as well as the best of ’em, so this arrangement proved to be more than a one off. I’m not sure that it was a “more than the fingers of one hand” off, but it was not a one off.

Maz, who I guess is now really quite good herself as she was keen to progress beyond our kitchen table stuff, chimed in afterwards to say:

…thanks so much for great evening last night – food and bridge was great. Good that Kev is so good.

I get the impression that I didn’t play so well. Message from Kev:

I would like to thank you for your hospitality last night. The food , drink, company was excellent. The Bridge-well you can’t have everything. Anyway, all good fun and would definitely be up for next one.


My reply to Kev:

It was good to see you. I didn’t think your bridge was that special last night – rust and vino veritas don’t mix it seems! My bridge I thought was exemplary.

Andrea’s thank you note, read so many years later (January 2019) made me chortle:

Just wanted to thank you for a really lovely time the other night. Great to see you, fab food, wonderful company and bridge wasn’t bad, either. Just one Q – when looking for a new bridge partner, was your criteria to find someone who is the complete opposite to Gavin in every conceivable way??

Note to Kev: Andrea unquestionably meant that kindly. It’s just that you REALLY aren’t like Gavin, in any conceivable way.

On the field of play, Gavin would have worn whites, not pinks, for a start

Bridge With Andrea, Maz and Gavin, 18 April, 5 June and 31 July 2007

It seems Henry had dropped out of the group by then, to be replaced by Gavin. Maz for some reason at that time was unwilling or unable to host, so the events were held:

  • 18 April 2007 at Andrea’s;
  • 5 June 2007 at my place;
  • 31 July 2007 at Andrea’s again.

An October plan got postponed/cancelled so that was pretty much it for that year. No wonder I only got worse at the wretched game, playing so rarely. Plus ca change…

…Andrea and I had some weird bants by e-mail about baby-sitting and similarly tending to pet animals. I think this was probably connected with some strange excuses we were hearing or something like that. The thrust of the joke is lost in the mists of my poor memory and time.

A Few Diary Notes & Memories About Evenings, Second Half Of January 1997

Photo by Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0

18 January 1997: John Random (Burns) & Jenny Mill At Sandall Close

I think this was the first time we had dinner with those two. Janie dutifully wrote in her diary “fish only, no meat” so my guess is that we did indeed eat fish.

Who would have thought that, inadvertently, we’d see those two for a meal almost exactly 25 years later, but we did indeed go to their place in Bromley for a super meal on Sunday 16 January 2022.

24 January 1997: Bridge At Maz’s Place

I’m guessing here, but the four would probably have been Maz (obvs), me (also obvs), Andrea and Tessa at that time.

I think Maz was living in Becklow Road, Acton by then.

The eating and drinking will have been as central to the evening as the bridge, if not more so.

25 January 1997: Dinner At Stuart & Cathy’s Place

Stuart Kent (“Little Mick” Kent, my dad’s cousin’s son) and his partner Cathy Andrews.

They lived in Muswell Hill in a rather eccentric-looking penthouse apartment designed in an uber-1970s garish style, which they had inherited from the previous owner – an unusual look they clearly liked & had enhanced.

Very pleasant evenings, all three, I’m sure.

Rather A Lot Of Dinners, Parties & Dinner Parties Over The Summer Months Of 1995

Ossobuco – picture by Stu Spivack via Wikipedia Commons

It was that sort of era, really, the 1990s. Dinner parties and small gatherings.

Listing The Events

  • 24 June – “Tessa’s party” – Tessa played bridge with me, Andrea and Maz. She lived in Acton;
  • 1 July – “Duchess Japanese meal” – that would have been at Momos on Queen’s Parade. Janie and I often ate there in those days, quite often making it a Friday evening treat after work. It was a superb, authentic Japanese place, run by Mr Asari. We still miss it. We decided to treat the Duchess to the place for her birthday that year;
  • 15 July – “Kim & Micky [for] dinner” – at theirs I think. Janie and I went to the Canal Cafe to see NewsRevue the next day.
  • 29 July – “John & Jolli” – that will have been John Thompson and his partner Jolita. I think they came to Sandall Close for a meal.
  • 5 August – “Bernie, Heather & Dave” – these are people we met in China in 1993. We owed Heather & Dave hospitality as we had been to a party up their way (Bedfordshire/Northamptonshire). Bernie was a laugh.
  • 26 August – “Dinner with Anthea”
  • 27 August – “North China restaurant” with Andrea and others?

The menu is absent from Janie’s diary for the above events, but absent for:

An Ossobuco Evening With Daniel, Julie, Michael, Elisabeth, Kim & Micky, 3 September 1995

Daniel had migrated to Australia and paired up with (perhaps already married) Julie. This was their first visit to the UK together. Janie cooked a wonderful Ossobuco meal for all of us that evening.

Special in so many ways as a dish, this was also her signature dish from the first time Janie ever had me over for dinner, so it seemed appropriate:

Ossobuco At Janie’s Place, 16 August 1992

A very special evening, that one.

More Listings As We Move Into Autumn

  • 10 September – “John & Mandy” – possibly our first visit to their place in Wanstead, as I wrote down directions;
  • 14 October “Kim, Micky, Phillie & Tony” – dinner at Sandall Close
  • 15 October “Michael & Elisabeth” – dinner at their place
  • 4 November “Murray Elliot lunch” – Ros’s dad. We were off to see Ros in Turkey a few days later.

An Evening Of Dexterity & Quick Math Skills With Andrea Dean & Other(s), Probably 4 March 1994

Andra Dean recently (August 2020) found the above photograph, which she chose to e-mail to me wondering whether I remembered the infamous “Fruit ‘n’ Nut evening.

Of course I remembered it…vaguely. As did Andrea. We swapped notes.

It was supposed to be a bridge evening at Andrea’s place in Ormiston Grove, Shepherd’s Bush. Somebody didn’t turn up, so we couldn’t play bridge.

Andrea had been given the game Fruit ‘n’ Nut, probably Me magazine, possibly as a freebie and/or perhaps to review for the magazine.

At least three of us, possibly with an additional non-bridge playing fourth person, got really quite drunk and played Fruit ‘n’ Nut instead.

The juxtaposition of a citrus fruit in my mouth in the photograph suggests temporal proximity to the demise, in February 1994, of Stephen Milligan, who sadly died of autoerotic asphyxiation in similar circumstances…

…by which I mean “with an orange in his mouth”, not “while playing Fruit ‘n’ Nut round Andrea’s place”.

Stephen Milligan’s passing is said to have been one of the nails in the coffin of John Major’s hapless “Back To Basics” morality campaign. From my point of view, Milligan worked wonders for my Get Back To Basics NewsRevue lyric, which ran and ran in early 1994:

Get Back To Basics, NewsRevue Lyric And Ben Murphy Recording, 2 January 1994

But returning to Shepherd’s Bush and the Fruit ‘n’ Nut evening, my abiding mystery questions revolve around who else was there and why we didn’t have four for bridge.

Around that time, we were mostly playing at my place, Daniel’s place or Andrea’s place. For some months, Marianne (Maz) had not been the fourth bridge person as she and Daniel had split up. For reasons known only to Daniel and Maz, it was Daniel who “got” me and Andrea as bridge companions in the “Daniel & Maz split settlement”. Later, when Daniel took the only practical step possible to avoid playing bridge with us – emigrating to Australia – Maz rejoined us and became a regular part of our irregular bridge arrangements for many years.

Anyway, I have a funny feeling that Daniel was part of the Fruit ‘n’ Nut mayhem, but I don’t know who the missing fourth person might have been. Tessa certainly became part of the group around that time – perhaps she had to withdraw at the last minute or something.

I don’t know why I associate Wendy with that evening – it might be a false memory – but it is the sort of crazy evening memory that tends to have Wendy’s fingerprints over it. Perhaps it was one of those evenings when Wendy had a go at playing bridge but we all gave up on the bridge idea early in favour of the fascinating and sophisticated card-based game that is Fruit ‘n’ Nut.

Anyway, this piece is a shout out to whoever else might have been there. Please let me and Andrea know if you were one of the Fruit ‘n’ Nut cases that evening. You can send us a private message if you wish, but public confessions as comments on this piece would be even more welcome.

Then there’s the question of what the game Fruit ‘n’ Nut is about. What is its central conceit? What are the nuances that make this game truly special? Is it comparable with bridge in terms of its call on cognitive ability and mental stamina?

Basically I remembered Fruit ‘n’ Nut as a slightly elaborated version of snap, with bespoke cards and a bell.

I recall distinctly that the amount of fun and profound meaning we were getting out of playing the game increased as the evening wore on. This might be because it is one of those games whose subtleties become apparent the more you play it…or it might be because we were all getting drunk as the evening wore on.

Andrea has gone one better than my dodgy memory. It’s the investigative journalist in her I guess. Andrea has researched the origins of the game on-line, even finding an instructional video.

It seems that Fruit ‘n’ Nut has different names in different places. In the USA it is known as Halli Galli. The above video is worth the investment of 2’20” for its serious mode of delivery if nothing else. It explains the game in excruciating detail and describes it as a blend of “dexterity and quick math skills”.

My recollection, in our version, was a requirement not only to strike the bell but also to ejaculate the phrase, “fruit and nut” as vociferously as possible. Was this our own playing condition or does this form part of the UK rule book?

Even the website Boardgamegeek seems a little light on detail for this game, but it is still an amusing and worthwhile read.

The lack of standardisation in the playing conditions and even in the naming of the game reminds me of the chaos that ensued in the 1870’s with lawn tennis (aka pelota, aka Sphairistikè); a subject I have been researching and writing up recently:

Scoring Synchronicity: How Real Tennis Scoring Was Adopted For Lawn Tennis Scoring – Then Lawn Tennis Handicapping Methods Wormed Their Way Into Real Tennis, Part Four Of Four Pieces On Tennis History

In the matter of tennis in the 1870s, naturally the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was called upon to standardise and codify laws for the nascent sport of lawn tennis, as it had done for cricket and for real tennis.

I wonder whether the good services of the MCC might be called upon again, to become the international guardian of the laws of Fruit ‘n’ Nut. Indeed, not only the laws but also the spirit of the game, which is surely the very essence of the honourable sporting activity that is Fruit ‘n’ Nut. In particular, no “early peek” at the card you are about to turn over when it is your turn to lay a card.

Perhaps also there should be a dress code for the game. I’d suggest whites, but then as an MCC cricket and tennis sort of fellow, you’d expect nothing else.

Sadly, my sartorial standards back then were well below the requisite for such a sport, as the photograph from the evening sadly attests.

Even more sadly, the results of our matches were not recorded, so they are lost in the mists of time. I’m pretty sure that my ability to recognise shapes and count to five would not have been diminished by alcohol, although my bell-thumping speed and dexterity might have been adversely affected.

I suppose a rematch is out of the question?

Did We Go To Andrea’s For Dinner?, 21 August 1993

Both of our diaries say:

Andrea dinner?

Neither has any further details.

I’m going to guess that this particular idea fell through.

But it might have happened that evening, just with neither of us writing any further details in the diary.

For sure we did have dinner with Andrea…more than once…but probably not that night.