Friday

At Home :) Showers. Can't move around much. Not allowed to carry anything.

Ali cooked: We ate:

Cantaloupe

Sausage, egg & chips.

Thursday

a.m. In hospital.

Breakfast: inedible toast.

Lunch: Lassagne.

p.m. Home.

Chinese takeaway - Special Foo Yung & Noodles.

Wednesday

Surgery. Nothing to eat until about 8:30 p.m.

I ate: Toast.

Tuesday

In hospital.

I ate:

6 p.m. - a tuna sandwich (well, they said it was)

10 p.m. - toast.

Monday

Sunny. Spent most of the day at hospital being 'clerked'. 4 hours waiting for 15 minutes contact time!

We ate:

Smoked cod risotto.

Sunday

Showery.

We ate:

Prawn cocktail

Sirloin steak, chips, peas

Lemon tart

Saturday

Ali's birthday. Her family visited en-route to Wiltshire.

In the evening we went to Edmunds in Birmingham. It's got a new chéf, Didier Philipot who used to be at Toq d'or and Brockencote Hall. The restaurant has changed with a lot of new staff since we last visited. It has become more French, but I'm not really convinced that this was a good thing as Edmunds 'old' modern British style was particularly good.

Nevertheless, the food was (for the most part) very good - see the desserts, though.

We ate:

Asparagus velouté with summer truffle (the amuse)

LangoustinesMorel mushrooms, roasted hazelnuts, jus and oil,
accompanied with an “Armoricaine” bisque.

Lamb SweetbreadsWhite asparagus, confit of quail breast, honey,
sorrel, light dressing jus.

Wild Sea BassNew seasoned fennel, red pepper, anchovy,
basil, lemon and olive oil.

PigeonSquab from the Loire, Perigord duck liver, spinach,
Morel mushroom, shallot purée, pigeon jus.

Mini trifle with redcurrant jelly, peach purée, baked yoghourt (pre-dessert)

Baked Apricots

Toffee Soufflé (This was undercooked and was sent back to the kitchen).

Friday

Home, via Ross-on-Wye.

We ate (as an antidote to fine dining):

Chilli con carne.

Thursday

Next week promises to be rather strange, so we've been indulging ourselves a little. We went to the Crown at Whitebrook Where James Sommerin has a 1-star restaurant with rooms. This was voted the 2nd-best restaurant in Britain last year, coming second to Heston's 'Fat Duck'!

The restaurant is hidden in a welsh valley and it was raining!

The food was remarkable. We did the 6-course tasting menu with matched wines (there was a 9-course available!) and it was splendid. Only gripe was that the passion fruit soufflé was far too sweet. Service was uniformly excellent.

Because it was Ali's birthday (almost) we also got an extra assiette of deserts with a candle and carbon dioxide fog!

The room was OK, but very small. It would have benefited from some work refurbishing window fittings and cleaning in the corners (and on the bathroom extractor). The duvet could have been a decent size, too.

Wednesday

Sunny (forecast for tomorrow is rain, wind, low temperatures and [possibly I imagined this] plagues of frogs). Currently, there are many frogs in the long grass in the garden.

We ate:

Chicken & mushroom pasta.

Off to the Crown at Whitebrook tomorrow.

Tuesday

A couple of showers.

New tooth fitted!

The drive people came and finished, so we can park on it today. 

We ate:

Take-away pizza (Super Supreme, Texan BBQ) This time they managed to deliver promptly!

Monday

Dry all day. It would be nice if the folks doing the front drive would return to finish it!

We ate:

Seafood risotto

Sunday

Nice weather (for March, shame it's June). Only rained a little.

We ate:

Asparagus with a soft-poached duck egg.

Pan-fried swordfish steak, broad beans, wild rice, tomato/onion/garlic sauce.

Ali's bread & butter pudding.

(this confirms my opinion that swordfish (at least the swordfish I can get) really isn't worth the effort - pleasant, but not enough flavour.

Saturday

Raining. Shopping.

Out to Buonissimo in Harborne.

We ate:

A mixed starter to share, Mushrooms in filo, deep fried cheese balls, salad, olives, parma ham, salami.

Slow-cooked belly pork with marinated vegetables

Veal escalope with a cheese & mushroom sauce and new potatoes

Strawberry slice

Walnut & honey cake

Worth a trip.

Friday

An interesting day. The last day of term. Why is it that we never see the students who need us the most?

AND it's raining!

Probably an important day as I got the date for my hospital admission: 27th June. Can't decide how to react: scared/expectant ...?

We ate:

Sausage & mash with peas & gravy.

Wednesday

Still not raining. Still accessing the house via a bridge across the driveway. Tooth a little better :).

Busy day being an external examiner for a university in West London - lots of paperwork. In the evening (as a reward) we walked to Bohemia for dinner: will be interesting to see how my leg pain is tomorrow: the walk home was a bit of a challenge.

We ate:

Crayfish tail and apple salad

Cured meat platter with pickles and fresh bread

Whole plaice with new potatoes

Lamb knuckle with onion & red wine sauce and sweet potato mash

(Chef's sweet carrots and cream & garlic peas)

Crépe with berries & vanilla ice cream

Chocolate mousse with honeycomb

Highly recommended!

Tuesday

Not raining! Drive people arrived at 06:25 to start work - now (Wednesday a.m.) looking pretty good, but they still have to finish. Currently accessing the house by means of a bridge!

Major work on the broken tooth today; lots of drilling/cutting, impressions, etc. Not particularly nice. Next appointment on Tuesday (hopefully the last).

Long day with exam boards and stuff. Ali cooked.

we ate:

Macaroni cheese with bits of gammon

cheesecake (leftovers)

Monday

Raining. Heavily. Horrific drive full length of M40 (both ways) for 30-minute exam board that could have been done over Skype (but managed to deliver the guitar I sold on eBay at the same time :) ). Long, tiring day. Installers due to finish drive resurfacing tomorrow.

We ate:

Cod & chips (from the fish & chip shop).

Sunday

Still not raining. Worked in the garden (well, Ali did while I mostly watched).

The parsley I planted a couple of weeks ago has finally germinated. The basil seedlings are growing fast!

We ate:

Asparagus with hollandaise.

Rib-eye steak, peas/broad beans, crushed new potatoes with garlic, shallots, bacon & parsley.

Blueberry cheesecake.

Saturday

Not raining. Out to dinner with friends (and guitars).

We ate:

A spicy starter that I can't remember the name of that included jerked chicken, spicy aubergine and a papaya/avocado/watercress salad.

Mutton Curry

Sweet potato 'cake?', mango fool.

Friday

Raining.

We ate:

Roasted beetroot & mozzarella with beetroot mayonnaise & roasted red peppers

Roast gammon with mashed potatoes, stringless beans, parsley & shallot sauce

Cheese

Thursday

It's still raining. Ali cooked today.

we ate:

Ali's Italian Chicken (chicken breast cooked with onions, garlic, tomato, herbs and finished with melted Mozzarella; served with pasta.) Great!

Wednesday

Went to Côte Brasserie in Birmingham with Ali & Selwyn. I’m really impressed with this place; it’s a little taste of France in the centre of Birmingham. Food was outstanding and the price was reasonable.

We ate:


Crab Mayonnaise
Pork Rillettes
Bayonne Ham


Veal escalope
Duck breast with Grillotine cherry sauce
Risotte Vert
+ braised peas, gratin potato.


Creme caramel
Crepes framboises

Tuesday

We ate:
Sausage sludge (spicy tomato & mushroom sauce on pasta with sliced sausage) WAY better than it sounds!

Monday

Not so wet. Bank holiday.

we ate:

Dover sole meunière, Jersey Royal potatoes, fresh peas (hooray!), prawn & dill sauce.

Cheese

Last bit of the pear tart.

Sunday

To Wales to visit the Mother-in-Law. A very wet day.

We ate:

Salmon Mousse (from Saturday)

Rack of lamb, garlic mash, broccoli, mint jus

Pear tart (from Saturday)

No alcohol!

Saturday

Friends round for dinner. Spent a lot of the day cooking.

We ate:

1. Sushi (just 3 tiny pieces as an amuse).
2. Asparagus hollandaise.
3. Smoked salmon mousse, cucumber, shallot, crostini.
4. Braised partridge, broad beans, game chips, red wine jus.
5. Cheese [Manchego, Lancashire, Camembert, British Blacksticks Silk (a blue goats' cheese)].
6. Mini trifle.
7. Normandy pear tart.

We drank:

1. Champagne
2. Reisling
3. Pauillac
4. Port

It was really rather good (and worth all the effort)

Friday

The Virgin media man arrived when he said he would. Fixed the cable in 10 minutes - hooray!

 Shattered, so out for a 'curry' to our favourite Bangladeshi restaurant:

We ate:
Tandoori Murghi Marsalla (chicken lamb & egg in a spicy red sauce)
Chicken Passanda
Naan.