June Tabor

Went to see June Tabor in concert last night. The venue was Huntingdon Hall in Worcester (great potential, poor execution).

It's probably 20 years since I last saw June, but I'm delighted to say that she still has a wonderful voice and an arresting stage presence. Andy Cutting on melodian (diatonic accordion, forsooth!) was splendid as was Marc Emmerson who excelled on viola (something you don't hear nearly enough, I think). The performance is still as stylised as ever, but, all in all a good night out!

More Good Food

Yet another restaurant review, I'm afraid. Went to Simpsons in Edgbaston (currently the only holder of a Michelin rosette in Birmingham) last Wednesday for an unusually splendid meal. Ravioli of foie gras, duo of beef and blackberry & apple crumble soufflé + all the little bits that come for 'free'.
The service and food are outstanding, but the wine list (a book an inch thick!) really is far too expensive (bearing in mind that I like expensive wine). For e.g. a bottle of the Reserve de la Comtesse 1997 is on sale for £68! this is a mark-up of about 300%. Bear in mind that this is also one of the cheapest Bordeaux wines on the list.
Nevertheless, a good evening.

We went to Liaison last night, a restaurant on the busy A34 in Hall Green. From the outside it looks more like a solicitors' office than anything, but inside is a sea of (almost) minimalist calm, decent service and outstanding French-inspired food. The seafood sausage was fabulous, but was eclipsed by the trio of game (a 'special' not on the menu).

Not the cheapest food around, but certainly some of the best; the food was (almost) of the same quality as Turners in Harborne, but the wine list was much more to my taste (good wines by the glass and some nice ½-bottles too) plus there was real espresso!

Turned out Nice again ....

So Nice was a good place to be for Christmas again. The weather was OK (it rained on 23rd, but was mostly dry and sometimes sunny afterwards). Our hotel was almost totally encased in scaffolding - they've finished the tram and are cleaning up the frontages of older properties that are near to it. It'll be OK in the new year, I expect.

We spent Christmas morning travelling the length of the new tramway - fascinating! It's particularly good to see the town (almost) free of roadworks and quite changed by the process.

The pictures are of the Bay des Anges on Christmas Eve
(afternoon and evening).

As ever, the food was pretty good and we ate particularly well at Le Tire Bouchon (translates as The Corkscrew) where the food was pretty special.

All in all, Nice was a lot quieter this year, maybe because of the unsettled weather?

Happy Winterval

So we're off to Nice in the morning. This is actually a picture from last year, the weather forecast isn't great for this year, but there's a chance for some sunshine on Christmas day.

We've got reservations at a couple of nice restaurants - we had one for the Chantecler (supposed to be the best restaurant in Nice, certainly the most expensive) but they've decided not to open.

I hope everyone has the Christmas they want -- personally, I'd like the new year to be peaceful.

A Frosty Start To The Day

The picture doesn't do it justice, but the garden looks fantastic today. There was a frost last night (my not very accurate max/min) thermometer says that it went to -3. Whatever, it's nice enough to give that wonderful 'icing sugar' effect to grass and foliage.

So, I'm starting another day at home, quite glad that I don't have to scrape the ice off the car...

Back in the kitchen...

So, the oven's fixed and my kitchen is back in production. It was (as I'd thought) just the element for the main oven that had failed. Anyway, I was glad we'd got breakdown insurance as these things aren't that cheap, considering that they're really just a coil of wire that gets hot!

A good day writing (about writing) for the book and then dinner at a local Bangladeshi Restaurant the Sundarbon in Selly Oak. If anything, the food's better than ever and the service is fun!

Murphy's First Law

Sometimes quoted as If it can go wrong, it will, but, more properly as the perversity of the universe tends towards a maximum.

We had invited a Professor from Nankai University to dinner last night: he's great company and had been to the folk club and entertained us in Tianjin. So, we were cooking when - suddenly - all the power went off. I reset the circuit breaker and everything was fine, except the oven, which is deceased!

Nevertheless, we still produced some decent food. Now we just need to get the oven fixed!

Working at Home II

This is one of the nicer things about working from home - my view of the garden from my study.

Even though Autumn is well and truly here (and it feels as though winter isn't far away) the garden still looks pretty good.

So, while I'm working away writing (today about writing skills for research) all I have to do is turn my head for a bit of relaxation.

Oh well - back to work!

It feels like Autumn

It's finally started to get a bit colder. The leaves are beautiful - wonderful golds, browns and ambers. Bonfire night is past, so maybe there'll be fewer explosions tonight?

The weather today is beautiful. An almost cloudless blue sky and even though the temperature's only about 10C, it feels much warmer. There's a strong breeze though - enough to make it difficult to cycle. The forecast is for stronger winds tomorrow.

Of course, now that it's really Autumn, Winter is just around the corner ...