Having had to leave my car's new roof up for a couple of days while the PVC finished stretching, it was very pleasant to get the chance to put it down again on the drive to Ipswich on Saturday. I enjoyed the wind in my hair, and
rotwang hid under a baseball cap to avoid sunburning the, uh, follicly-challenged bits of his head.The party itself was very pleasant, a barbecue starting in the late afternoon and continuing into the early hours of the morning. The next day some of us went for a pub lunch over at Pin Mill. It was only after lunch that I remembered where I'd seen the name before - in some of Arthur Ransome's output (see next post, about what I've been reading).
Nothing on Sunday or Monday nights, but on Tuesday we spent a pleasant evening eating way too much sushi up in town with
bytepilot and his Best Beloved. Wednesday was
rotwang's birthday, and we both had the day off. A friend of ours from the States was coming through the UK, fairly briefly, so we picked her up at Gatwick, dropped her at Heathrow, and in between fed her and showed off the new house. Afterwards we returned home and I cooked quite extensively (see below).Thursday night was our regular D&D session, where
caffeine_fairy tortures us. Tonight, off out to a local beer festival with
vicarage. Tomorrow, party at waistcoatmark's. Sunday, rotwang's parents are coming over for the day. Monday, dinner with anubisgrrl and her beloved.... sleep? who needs sleep?Ah yes, the birthday dinner. This time, all out of one book; Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer. The prose is sometimes a bit on the pretentious side, butthe recipes are great and very reliable.
Griddled aubergine slices topped with feta, chilli and mint. Theoretically these should have been rolled up with the filling inside, but I thought they worked well without being rolled up, and were doubtless a whole lot easier to eat. I think I need to slice the aubergines a little bit thinner next time as they were very slightly tough, but not too bad.
Lemon and garlic roasted chicken pieces, with hasselback potatoes, roasted chestnut mushrooms and baby courgettes.
Slut-red raspberries in Chardonnay jelly - Nigella's description, not mine, I promise you. This was really yummy, not to mention seriously alcoholic, but it really does take three hours to set - can't hurry it.
Well, he seemed to like it ;)
Oh, and I had a call from Amex yesterday evening to say that the police had apparently found the card which was stolen with my wallet in a house they were searching. Yay ;) I took great pleasure in phoning the relevant police station to give them the crime reference and the name of the person to speak to at British Transport Police who had all the details and my statement (it having been a month now, I'd rather they spoke to them first since I doubt I remember as much now as I did then)
