Wednesday

Dry and cold for most of the day (spent recovering from yesterday’s events) until evening when we were going into town to dine with Selwyn (as we do most months) when it poured with rain. Still, after finding a new route to that part of the City, we were able to park close to the restaurant – Opus – and we spent a pleasant evening there.

We ate:

Tian of Brixham crab, citrus salad (Selwyn)

Lincolnshire leek and smoked haddock fishcake, Free range poached egg, butter sauc

Ham hock terrine (Ali)

Escalope of rose veal Holstein, lyonnaise potatoes (Ali)

Red-legged partridge, fondant potatoes, plum sauce

Cheeses (Selwyn)

Crème brulee (Ali)

Pear and glazed rice conde

 (Incidentally, the escalope ‘Holstein’ means fried in breadcrumbs with a fried egg on top!)

When we got home, we were aware that our 87-year-old neighbour was wandering around in the rain. Turns out that his garden shed had been burgled and that the thief, in making his escape, had fallen through the garage roof. Presumably, he then just opened the garage door and limped off into the night. Can only hope he hurt himself.

Looking at the scene the next morning, I think he/they got into our garden from the house that backs on to it, went over the wire fence into our neighbour’s and then tried to exit by removing a fence panel between our garden and the other neighbour. Wouldn’t have been able to get through the hedge, I think, so tried to leave over the roof. Ali thins this happened, despite the vile weather, because there were lots of folks out for Halloween.