Beef, Bazaar…..all boiling

Weather now fabulous, I remember now why I wanted this house to have a big folding door opening wide to the garden….
      Another busy few days. The new Hastings Writers’ Group website went ‘live’ on Monday morning, much to my relief.
      It was well received by members at the meeting in the evening, and then to crown it all I won the Poetry competition.  I was genuinely astonished – we have some very good poets in the group and I felt my effort ‘Writers’ Block’ was very light and slight in comparison with some of theirs, particularly as our judge, Richard Evans, seemed to be quite an intense and literary young man.
      I was a bit turned off intense poet types by my OU tutor – you could see his nipples showing through his cheesecloth shirt….. I suppose I ought to think about publishing some stuff…. .

      Went up to London this week, to meet Philosopher’s old friend Alan – he had wanted us to go with him for lunch at Simpsons-in-the-Strand, as a belated birthday treat. Philosopher was not that keen – he does not enjoy eating at such places. I was more enthusiastic – I went there with my parents for my twenty-first birthday, preceded by drinks at the Savoy, and was quite interested to see if I would remember anything. I was told that back then, women were only allowed in the upstairs dining room, but I have no memory of that. In fact, I remembered very little, apart from the beef on the carving trollies.
      The place is very dark and heavy, like the gentlemen’s retreat it once was, and indeed there were a fair amount of city gents in the dining room.  The service was excellent, attentive but not intrusive. The staff were very pleasant and unsnooty.  We had roast beef of course – a truly vast plateful.  It was delicious. Only downside was the Yorkshire pudding – a bit leathery. After eating all that, plus a bit of rhubarb souffle and a third of a bottle of red wine, I expected to feel as dark and heavy as the restaurant. However, I still didn’t feel as full and bloated as I would have done after a meal in a Birmingham Balti house – less grease, I guess.
     

Gentlemen at Simpsons….

       I’ve just got back from minding the bric-a-brac stall at the Women’s Institute Bazaar down in the Old Town. Had an excellent range of stuff, and some yummy eatables on offer, but unfortunately this is easily the hottest day of the year so far.  If people were out at all, they were probably on the beach. We sold stuff, but not as much as the organisers would have liked. I was a bit of a family business – had four of the Philosopher’s latest paintings and three of Anna’s cushions to sell.

      I have not really highlighted Anna Dent Studio on here – her stuff has a retro feel, and she is developing an interesting range of products – mostly homewares.
      Here are a couple of pictures of her designs.

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