The Crepe Escape

[Cremolafoam]

We were getting to the end.

Wilbur - we used to live a few villages away. I used to drive to Wolverton and then get the train into London. It was an utter pain, and London Midland was sooo unreliable. I do like that part of the country though.

Wolverton! The out-laws caravan site is close to there - Cosgrove Park! The cycling along the canal path is quite nice. And is that where that ridiculously cheap carvery is?

Stropps, I only go in the gym at our Leisure Centre - it is a 2min "run" away, so very handy!

Wilbur, I have never really got on with Pilates, but I think I will give it another try when I am retired have more time!

Ooops, what can I feed FIVE girls - three of them hungry pre-teens - on the Wednesday of half term, for lunch, that is also quite QUICK as the idea is I press on with my work? Two are pescatarian. One is nut-allergic...

pasta bake (pasta shapes / home made tomato sauce / tuna / mozzarella and parmesan on top. Bake

Pasta with home made tomato sauce and tuna

Pasta with sauce made from onion / sardine / pine nuts / capers / top with toasted breadcrumbs...

pasta with posh pesto...

you get my drift.

salad. Ice cream and fruit. Bob's your uncle (or is that just me)?

Or Fish n chips (if I'm understanding pescatarian correctly).

I have been to M&S and we now have bacon, dig biscuits, two sorts of cheddar. Pasties - we'd never eat these in the UK normally but DH likes novelty, cheesecake and carrot cake - we are going to get very fat .

Weather is atrocious.

Mrs S - I loved Gatsby although they missed out the Owl-Eyed Man at the funeral which for me was quite important.

I think I might do a pasta bake .

I can't do ice cream (wrings hands) as they ALL may contain nuts! Ditto chocolate. Who knew?

...otoh they can have Eton mess and indeed assemble it themselves. Not that I'm thinking happily greedy thoughts or anything.

I am PROFOUNDLY fed up with this weather.

Pasta Bake is known as The Meal of Last Resort in this house. Mushroom risotto is hot on its heels, as these are the two things I make when I am in a foul mood, home late from work, and can't be bothered to cook.

I would stick to something veggie, to please everyone. Macaroni cheese with peppers and onions in it (and mushrooms?), and tomatoes on top, and a salad? Chickpea curry?

BTM - we lived in the next village to Cosgrove, and it was always a source of amazement to me that anyone would want to go on holiday there. By the cheap carvery, do you mean the Navigation pub, or is there somewhere I missed?

I've just bought two pairs of 'comfort shorts' from Evans to prevent chub rub. It was about the only time in my life I had to buy the smallest size, and then worry they'd still be too big. Still, for £3 a pair it was worth the risk.

Should come in handy for summer dress wearing on choir tour for, astoundingly, the weather looks to get warmer the very minute we arrive. Low 20s, with showers.

Just had a minor cry in the car when I realised how much I'm going to miss DS. I think I've only spent one night away from him since he was born, and that was three years ago. It already starts to hurt when he's been at nursery all day.

MrsS, I know the Navigation - it's on the canal, right?
I think the carvery is maybe called Wolverton House now (think it was something else previously) - big pub with massive beer garden. Cheaper than even the cheapest chips

Re the food, MI, I wouldn't sweat it too much! Anything above or a few DIY pizzas?

Herbs, you old softie

Hatty, we are going to see The GG after half term I think (unless we have to resort to it before then on a rainy day up North!) I don't think I have ever read the book, but was there a previous film?

I'm going to give the buggers stuffed pasta, actually, as even easier than baked. But will do Eton mess as am greedy myself.

Herbs

Yep, with Mr Redford, innit?

Yes - Leo less beautiful than Mr Redford but does a great job nonetheless. The parties look brilliant fun - I don't think they do them like that now. (tries to remember it's only fiction).

BTM, yep, that's the one. We used to go there a lot - for Sunday lunch or a Friday night dinner usually. We took DD2 there for her birthday lunch at her request once, and the fish was off. We complained, and the owner came out and argued the toss! Said the fish wasn't off, it was hake, which was "strongly flavoured." The fish was rank, and clearly off - you could tell from the smell. He argued for ages, and finally said "Well I'll replace it with something else, if you really want me to." We did, and then had to wait over an hour for the replacement to arrive. When we got the bill, we'd been charged for the fish and the replacement dish, so then had another row (but a more minor one this time). And we never went back. Asked the fish delivery man (the joys of village life! ) if he supplied the Navigation. He said he did, and had delivered the hake on the Wednesday, so it would definitely have been off by Sunday, unless they had frozen it.

DMIL once had a row in the pub in Cosgrove - The Barley Mow. The Sunday Roast wasn't up to scratch (roasties were really rank) and she got half the cost of the meal taken off!

Don't start me on the village fete and produce show, where all of the prizes were won by the committee and their families. I entered a jar of Chilli, Garlic and Coriander Relish one year, just for the enjoyment of the thought of Joyce and Peggy's faces after tasting it. DD1 won the children's cup one year, and there were a lot of sour faces as we hadn't lived there very long.

We had a burger van in the next village, and a Chinese takeaway van as well. And our local pub was barking - the landlady treated it as an extension of her sitting room and had her knickers and voluminous bras drying on the radiators. And the smoking ban hadn't reached this village pub - it was a bit like Royston Vasey. It was a local pub for local people. I went in there with a friend once, and the landlady greeted us, as we went in with "Got no beer", despite the other three drinkers all drinking, err, beer.

I just burst out guffawing at that.

You see, this is what worries me about moving to a village in the countryside

A friend who has big job in an organisation not uninvolved with the preservation of rural England says his favourite film is Hot Fuzz.

Rubes, haven't you heard of the '100 metre obligation'? Came in with the latest round of benefit legislation, you know. Definitely

MI's quite right, you know!

"my new house", she says.....

I'm loving MrsS's mansion with conservatory. I'd move away from Surrey in a flash if I wasn't tied to it owing to DH's job. I grew up in a Royston Vasey village, and I miss it.

Crap - it's still raining - it hasn't stopped since this time yesterday. I'm relieved I live at the top of the hill not near the river!

I remember a film where the Young american hikers walked into the remote yorkshire pub and everybody went silent and stared. It was not pretty after that.