Saturday

Predominantly sunny, but not war; about 13C. Did some work in the garden: cut the big lawn (hopefully for the last time this year) and did some trimming and pruning. Lots of green bags for the recyclers tomorrow.

Went to Liaison 'pop-up' restaurant. They haven't been operating this year, so it was nice to see old friends still working. There will only be 2 more, because the garden centre they use for the event is closing at the end of the year.

We ate:

Belly pork & garden pea soup (amuse)

Duck terrine with sour cherry chutney

Crab and chive croustade with chive risotto & brown shrimps

Rack of lamb, confit breast of lamb, beetroot tarte tatin

Sole paupillotte & asparagus

Chocolate & caramel tart with seville orange panacotta

Gingerbread and buttermilk trifle, pain d'epice

Friday

Dry, cool. Spent half the day at work being trained on the new electronic marking system that we are required to use this year. Expecting ructions from some colleagues. Not sure that the system has been thought through clearly enough ...

Walked about 2 miles in the sun this afternoon - still shattered at the end of a walk this long :( .

We ate:

Sirloin steak, potato rosti, courgettes, pea/shallot/onion/cream,

Thursday

Mostly dry (a torrential shower at lunchtime) and cool: 12C. Most of the day at home with a hospital visit as well (managed not to pay for car-parking). 2-mile walk in late afternoon.
Then on to a 'Question Time' event run by my college - really good and great to give the students a voice: really proud of them!

Dinner at the Dilshad in Selly Oak (Bournbrook, really): we ate:

Poppadoms/onion salad/ chilli sauce/raita
Murghi Channa Balti
Tandoori Murghi Channa Balti
Naan

Wednesday

Work again!!! Doing more re-introductions for returning students. Not so wet today.
we ate:

Sausage, bacon, egg, beans, mushrooms, chips!

Tuesday

Busy, busy, busy ... I'm amazed at how much work I (apparently) should have done while I was on sick leave. Certainly no-one else seems to have taken it on.
Yesterday was really wet, today is much drier, just the occasional shower. Getting cooler, though (12C) and we've turned the heating on at home!

It is good to see the returning students this week, but the work pressure is high.

I know I'm getting old and grumpy (well, I've always been grumpy), but I'm fed up with other drivers'  behaviour at traffic lights: there ALWAYS seems to be one who doesn't stop when the lights change. And don't get me started on illegal number plates!

Ali cooked tonight. We ate:
Chilli con carne.

Monday

At work. First day of term. Frantic. Running here, running there, meetings wirth colleagues [mostly excellent, but one who tried to stitch me up by putting my name on his decision :(  ].
Tired, but still went for a walk - 1 m.

Too tired to write more...

We ate:
Risotto (squid, prawns, mussels)

SUNDAY

The weather was OK to start - only about 12C, though. Later in the day it rained (and rained, and rained ...)

Took my mother to lunch at her local Harvester:
We ate:
Gammon & Chips x2
Mixed grill.
Eton Mess sundae.

SATURDAY 22nd

A nice day.
Started cold though, had to scrape ice off the car at 07:30 when we went shopping - first time this Autumn.  (No great deal from the butcher today, but that's OK.) Stayed sunny, but the temperature didn't get above about 14C.

Ali cut the big leylandii hedge (it's smaller than it used to be, about 5' high, but still something like 90' long). Did a great job.

I went for a walk while she was recovering, up to the dam at Bartley Green reservoir (part of Birmingham's water supply system) so walked about 1.8 miles. Irritated that I still can't carry anything, but working on it.
Went shopping to Northfield to buy some bits and pieces (would you believe account books and bagels?)

We're worried about our neighbour. He isn't young and seems to be having a lot of health issues. Obviously don't want to interfere, but he's a good guy and his family don't live close. 

I cooked (Ali did dessert). We ate:

Duck rillettes, with salad, crostini, cornichons.
Duck breast, fondant potatoes, creamed peas with shallots, red wine sauce.
Creme brulee. 

(I thought it was rather good: I was escpecially pleased with the potatoes and peas, as these were experiments. I can finally cook duck consistently!)

Last catch-up

This week (starting 17^th September has been tough. It’s been my first week back at work since the middle of June (for any new readers, I had surgery on my spine to decompress the sciatic nerve at L5 after 2 years of pain. Seems to have worked).

To add to this, I’ve changed roles and am now the Director of one of our undergraduate programmes. This means a huge workload since the Freshers (new, first-year students) started this week. None of this would have been possible without the hard work of my colleague & friend Chris. Thank you!

But, it has been a hard week. Quite a lot of issues had been left because ‘Bob’ll sort that out when he’s back’ – it’s also complicated because the nature of my recovery is such that I can’t carry much (a couple of Kg maybe) and I can’t always walk far. Some of my colleagues understand this; some don’t. I also had a few thousand emails to catch up (actually, I just deleted everything from more than 3 weeks before my return).

Anyway, to finish the catch-up for the blog:

The weather here hasn’t been bad this week (though 13C is a bit of a shock after 32C!) and, until today, it’s been quite dry. Today, it’s gone colder and there’s a band of rain sweeping south. The forecast for tomorrow is sunny, but cold.

Here’s what we ate this week:

SATURDAY

Lamb biriyani

Badshai chicken (tandoori chicken, minced lamb, egg)

Naan

(all from the local Indian takeaway)

SUNDAY

Paella (seafood, chorizo, chicken).

MONDAY

Kedgeree (Ali cooked)

TUESDAY

Roast lamb, roast potatoes, broccoli, Gravy (Ali cooked)

(There’s a min story about the shoulder of lamb. When we went food shopping to the supermarket on Saturday, we were chatting to the butcher, as we often have in the past, and he offered us a shoulder of lamb at a very low price. We were delighted. Shows that good things happen when you’re nice to people.)

WEDNESDAY

Out to Bohemia:

Goat cheese and hummus parcels (Ali)

Sautéed chicken livers in a sherry sauce

Slow cooked shoulder of pork, sautéed sweet potatoes, rum & orange sauce (Ali)

Lamb chump, garlic mash, thyme jus

Suet spotted dick & custard (Ali)

THURSDAY

Sausage sludge (I’ve written about this before: better tasting than it sounds!).

Wenesday 12th/Thursday/13th/Friday 14th

WEDNESDAY

The weather turned a bit. After lunch it became windy and (relatively) cold – down to about 24C. This curtailed Ali’s swimming expedition and we walked an spent time in cafes instead.

In the evening we went to La Storia in the Cours Saleya. Though obviously aimed at tourists, the food was pretty good. Portions were large, but the service needed improvement.

We ate:

Salade Chevre (ALWAYS Ali, no need to ask)

Salade de poulpe and supions (baby squid & octopus)

Pizza (4 seasons, Ali)

Canard a la pech (with frites & ratatouille – pretty good!)

Tiramisu (ali)

Creme brulee (quite good, about 5^th on my list).

THURSDAY

Clear blue skies again and sunshine. Rising temperatures.

The guide from Tuesday had recommended L’Escalinada (we wondered if he got commission) and it was next door to Table Alziari, so we’d seen it was busy. We decided to give it a go and were not disappointed.

We ate:

Ribamabelle (a mixed platter of starters to share, sardines, octopus, baby squid, fritters)

Escalope of veal in a Ceps sauce with tagliatelle (ali)

Testicules d’agneau a pane (sheep testicles fried!)

Lemon meringue (Ali)

Panacotta

We ate too much. (It was cash only, by the way.)

FRIDAY

Last day. Great weather, Swimming in the Med, shopping, walking. Visited the Port.

In the evening, we went to restaurant Franchin  (one of our favourites and right by the hotel). Madame is still there, but looks a lot older. The waiter was her son – and he wasn’t good!

We ate:

Avocat & crab (ali)

Terrine foie de vollailles

Entrecote with chanterelles (both)

Creme caramel (ali)

Armagnac

Saturday saw us leave at 09:00 for the airport. As usual, ripped-off by the taxi driver L!

A great holiday. Feel so much better for it!

Monday 10th/Tuesday 11th

Sorry the updates are taking so long - it's being back at work!

MONDAY 10^TH September

Hot again. Walked a lot.

We at the Le Bouchon Provencale, Rue Rosetti – it wasn’t a great meal. The service was bad and the wine process a rip-off. The cooking was poor.

DON’T EAT HERE!

We ate:

Tomate farcis (tasteless)

Salad Chevre (FAR too much leaf, not enough cheese)

Souris D’agneau (supposed cooked 5 hours – NOT. It was chewy and the connective tissue was intact)

Magret de Canard & Pepper sauce (Ok, but over-cooked. Sauce arrived 5 minutes after duck and was tasteless)

Meal was very over priced – (More than the Safari!).

We went to the Cafe in Cours Salaya for coffee and cognac!

Tuesday 11^TH

Trip to Gordon and Grasse, including the expensive Fragonard perfume factory.

We at at La Table Alziari – it was EXCELLENT!

We ate:

Terrine
Vegetables Farcis

Poche de Veau (stuffed breast of veal)

Daube Agneau

Tarte Tatin

Clafoutis

2 pichets of wine (€12!)

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I'm Back!

This is a (maybe several) big update(s).

We’ve been in Nice for the last week, enjoying (relatively) high temperatures and a lot of sunshine. Also good food (and bad) and some decent wine.

SATURDAY 8^th September

Le Safari – this is a bit of a tourist trap in the Cours Saleya (the flower market at the edge of the old town) though lots of locals eat here too. Friends recommended it many years ago and we’ve often eaten here at Christmas. The service can be a bit off, depending on the waiter and the time of year – Christmas is good, though the food is generally good. This time, the service was pretty awful; they tried to seat us at bad tables (basically in the middle of the footpath) and the waiter was clearly not very interested in serving us. The food was good, though we’ve eaten better here. One nice touch was that it’s now possible to have half-size starters!

We ate:

Petites farcis (stuffed vegetables)

Accra (salt cod fitters)

Lapin rôti (wild rabbit roasted in a wood-burning oven over a dish of sliced potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic & thyme) – pretty good stuff, but the portions were very unequal in both size and content.

Mille Feuille of fraises & rhubarb (Ali).

The Fete du Port was on – a big party in the port – we wandered over for a look: fun!

SUNDAY 9^th September

Hot: 30C and very sunny: time spent on the beach!

Walked to the port for dinner to L’Ane Rouge (the Red Donkey). This is a posh seafood restaurant that we’ve been trying to get to for a couple of years. Problem has been that we tend to be in Nice at Christmas, and their opening hours (and space) is limited then. Anyway, booked on Internet before we left.

The restaurant itself is very attractive with many images of L’Ane Rouge himself. Staff were courteous and helpful and completely bilingual. The service was exemplary and, though expensive, we thought it was value for money.

We ate:

Amuse: Augegine curry, olive pastry, cheese balls

Patience: Mackerel and gazpacho

Courgette flower stuffed with a chicken mousse

L’Ombrine (like cod) with a green bean salad

Roasted peach (Bob)

Lobster Salad

St Pierre (In ½ a bottle, sliced lengthways)

St Honneur (Ali)

Ch. Bellet Rosé, Côtes de Provence

More soon ...