Bringing a fun (but unphotographed) afternoon to an end with a good meal out. The tilt on the shot is intended to be artistic and spontaneous, but really just reflects my intention to not be too obviously taking a photograph of the table next door to ours.
My friend Geri was one of the very first people to appear on this blog: that’s her in the foreground of the shot of Joe on day 9. In the intervening time she, like me and everyone else, has got ten years and nearly five months older, and in her case that has led, today, to a birthday with a 0 on the end — though I will spare her blushes by not specifying which one. We’re still in the same place, however: not just the same pub, but the same room. Happy birthday to her.
Witnessed in the Miners’ Arms, Garforth, near Leeds, this lunchtime. They did eventually arrive in person to consume their lunches; which if they were as good as ours were, were worth the wait (mild, unsolicited advertising).
And so ends July 2021, a month of refreshing normality, and the last complete calendar month before this blog reaches the end of its tenth year, on 25th August.
It says a lot when you get a photo of my dinner, or rather dinner-to-be, as photo of the day. But on a grey, dull and uneventful December day, this was a splash of colour and form, at least.
24 people from the neighbourhood gathered in the ex-pub over the road to eat good home-cooked food and drink wine. Call it a ‘Solstice celebration’ (for today was the shortest day of the year), or a pre-Christmas get-together; it doesn’t matter, the good food and the good emotions remain either way. This is Christmas, for me: forget the presents, the best thing about it is the excuse it offers to push the boat out a little further and indulge in some really excellent eating for a few days. Tonight’s meal was great, and I didn’t have to lift a finger.
Being 42 