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Am a bit shell-shocked having watched the final two episodes of The Sopranos on Saturday. Wow. Great ending. Amazing final series: script, acting, lighting, design.
The Sopranos has been around for the past seven years, most of my thirties... now I'm 40 and the finale has come and gone.
What next? What TV series can fill the void? Currently love Californication, Men In Trees. But there's not even a SATC... next series of Desperate Housewives can't come close even.
Sniff.
Talking of www.my-wardrobe.com, I, ahem, failed to mention that I had also got my hands on a stunning teal and gold bead jersey dress by Antik Batik. Looking forward to wearing on the beach in South Africa at Christmas; and with a pair of heels or boots for chillier meetings for work in Blighty.
There's another Cacharel dress out there from a couple of seasons ago which had a tropical bird print which I wish I'd bought, but for now, until I can find that on ebay or somewhere, for a lovely price in the www.my-wardrobe.com sale, this gorgeous number will more than do. Will see me through a sea of black sequinned prom dresses this season, eh.
I love Cacharel designs, but I still hear ringing in my head a Dawn French/Jennifer Saunders sketch based in a department store's make up floor "Wel-come to the world of Cash-a-relle."
Also know to local as 'The 'Shoes' or Nell's Bar, (it's run by the charming landlady, Nell...), this is a great local country pub in the village of Cheddington, Bucks. Nell serves smashing home cooked food in massive portions. Nell changes the specials every day, but favourites are rack of lamb, spicy chicken wraps, mushroom risotto. My other half zooms in for steak and guinness pie or steak and kidney pudding all served as fresh as can be. I've eaten there many times and have never been disappointed. Good pub grub at very reasonable prices. There is a large garden with kiddy-entertainment stuff and an outdoor patio with heating. Two rooms inside, one which used to be the non-smoking bar and another one to watch the sport in. The 'Shoes succeeds for me where so many country pubs serving food fail - I look forward to eating there rather than being sorely disappointed, yet again, at inedible pub food. It's a 10 minute stroll from Cheddington Station, 40 mins from Euston, so worth a visit if you fancy escaping the big smoke for lunch. And the locals are very friendly.
WHY? Just say no to Crocs. Especially people over 55 with varicose veins wearing bright pink or yellow ones. Stop it. Now.
Now we've got the Landy we're planning a series of minis - checking out the weather and traffic and heading where it's best. This weekend we went to the north Norfolk coast - really beautiful. I had been there once before years ago with my mate Robin. We stayed in a good hotel called Roman Camp Inn which had lovely garden space and really good food. But we are fed up with shelling out loads of money for hotels that are nice, OK or crap - would rather stay in a top dollar place once in a while and camp the rest of the time, which is just what we're going to do from now on. So we're on a mission to buy a new tent and some camping cooking gear and next weekend we'll be off! Really looking forward to it. Great way to discover the country.
Today for instance, we drove through Melton Mowbray, which looked really lovely.
Anyway, we were up early Saturday, out before 6, arrived to look around the Cley nature reserve, then a pub called the Kings Head for a drink then back to the hotel to check in. Lunch, nooze, dinner.
Yesterday we were up and at 'em to walk from Cley to Blakeney Point, which was lovely but a bit of hard work in the blazing sun. Would have been stuck without a hat.
Randomly we met someone we knew on the beach, which was fun.
I loved getting back to the Landy, sitting swinging my legs on the tailgate in the breeze. Lunch in the Dun Cow, where we had a great crab salad. Being near Cromer and all.
Back to the hotel for a shower and some wine and early dinner in the garden, reading the Sunday papers. Very civilized. Getting up at half hour this morning to drive Paul to a meeting in Leicestershire before heading home wasn't so, but it was fun to drive the Landy.
Really liked it, several unexpected twists and turns. Back to War & Peace....
Twice in two nights - George has brought in a bat - pipistrelle we think. So cute... Paul takes them outside so hopefully they have survived. These are added to the list - weasel, squirrel, rabbits, mice, shrews, voles, blue tit, great tit, bullfinch, song thrush, blackbird, pigeon, dove, wren... every night we are woken by the crunching of bones and every morning we have to look where we are putting our feet to avoid various entrails. And he looks as though butter wouldn't melt in his mouth...
It's all very well to demand the provenance of our food, (there were apples from China in Morrisons the other day, I mean, really!) but it should stretch to other things too, such as skincare and clothes.
I've been a fan of Liz Earle's range Naturally Active Skincare for a few years now, and repeat order rather than come and go. They always wrap everything beautifully (recyclable packaging) and always pop in a present of a tester size of something or other. Bit jealous of the Isle of Wight shop on the beach location of her business too...
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