Pakora Masterclass

 James and I drove home from the Cotswolds on Thursday without any hold ups, sharing the driving as usual, and listening to The Rest is History podcast. It was great to see Tom and Flora who seemed enthusiastic about our return. Much laundry was done and we started packing for our Safari; we will depart on Monday afternoon which is very exciting. It has been nice to be at home, socialising a bit and doing useful errands. James met up with Gerry, I had lunch with Chanel; James had his last vaccination and I had my hair cut. We went out for a lovely Italian meal to the very popular Nonna’s Kitchen in Kirkintilloch on Saturday with Heather and Ewan, the food was very tasty and the service was friendly and cheerful despite how busy it was. An excellent evening. 
This afternoon we went to a Pakora masterclass at Mr Singh’s near Charing Cross with Marjory and Forrest. They gave us a voucher for this for our wedding anniversary and we decided all to go together. It was great fun, and although it was a cookery demonstration rather than a class, the chef (Josh) was very entertaining and assured us that pakora is eaten a great deal more in Scotland than it is in India! Josh didn’t measure out his ingredients at all, just scooped garam flour and various spices into a bowl, mixed it up and added the chicken, haggis or vegetables. He made it look so easy and so speedy, however as he pointed out, he has been doing this every day for twenty-five years! The pakora was delicious and then we had the rest of our Indian meal, which was not only delicious but very filling. I suppose we had each already had three large pieces of pakora before we started our two course meal. I asked (because Ewan asked us to!) if you can make pakora in an air fryer; the answer is not really - you need a good old deep fat fryer to get the proper effect. Back at home we finished packing for our holiday. 

Visiting Charles and Jeremy

Today was our last day in the Cotswolds, the week that we have spent here has gone by all too quickly. We drove to Tetbury in the morning and went on a garden tour of Highgrove House, Prince Charles’ gaff, where he lived with Diana and their boys in the 1980s. And he still lives there now, as well as his many other homes. According to a recent complaint by one of his team of gardeners, he walks around inspecting the gardens and giving them notes about changes / improvements written in red ink! It all looked very familiar from photoshoots that they did then with tiny William and Harry. However I couldn’t take photos around the gardens because at the beginning of the tour we were told firmly that we were not allowed to! This was a pity because there were many gorgeous flowers in bloom, and the fruit was being grown on trellises on the wall of the vegetable garden, there were tree shaded paths, sculptures and fountains, so it was very photogenic. Charles has tried to use all natural methods of gardening rather than chemicals, and I was interested in the wildflower meadow where they have increased the amount of flower varieties every year. Some parts of the garden I thought were a bit overdone; just a bit too planned. I did like that all of their ponds and fountains have wee bridges leading out of them so that animals who may fall in can use them to climb out. One of the fountains was very top heavy with moss and plants, with the water dripping through, and our ancient (and very posh) guide explained that this was so that insects and butterflies would not be disturbed. However I couldn’t help thinking that it looks ready to topple over and could have done with a vigorous trim and still have left plenty of vegetation for the insects! After our tour we went into the restaurant for a late lunch which I have to say was absolutely delicious in delightful surroundings. 
In the afternoon, we went to the village of Moreton in Marsh, where the nice nurse from Cirencester Hospital had recommended the Bell Inn, allegedly Tolkien’s inspiration for the Prancing Pony pub in Lord of the Rings. It is indeed a pleasant and old-fashioned pub and we had a drink there. Onwards to Stow-on-the-Wold to see Saint Edward’s, a beautiful Norman church, parts of which date from the 11th or 12th to the 14th century, and which stands on the site of an earlier wooden Saxon church. Its north door is flanked by two yew trees which have grown into the structure of the church. It looks like something out of a fairytale and is rumoured to be another inspiration for Tolkien, this time for the Doors of Durin, which are the entrance to the Mines of Moria. This is however unsubstantiated. 
Then we headed to The Farmer’s Dog near Burford for dinner. I booked this a few weeks ago while watching Jeremy Clarkson getting it renovated and opening it for business during the latest series of Clarkson’s Farm. We enjoy the series so thought it would be fun to visit. I was impressed; the bucolic setting overlooking fields is lovely. The food was very good too, and the service was friendly and efficient. We chose to sit outdoors under the awnings for which Jeremy was outraged to have to pay £40,000. It is a huge amount of money, however the umbrellas are huge and substantial, with gutters to divert rainwater. They also have heaters which was useful as the evening cooled down. It was really fascinating to visit the place that we have recently watched being done up; it must have been filmed last summer when it was all rather chaotic; it’s good to see that the place is running well now. 

Outdoors Swim and a Reunion

James went for a walk and I went for a swim in Cirencester’s Open Air Pool, which was great, I love swimming there. I then spoke to Holly on the phone; our pre-holiday phone call to finalise details about our Safari in Tanzania. I can hardly believe that in a week we’ll be there. While we were chatting I popped into Keith’s café in Black Jack Street for a coffee and a pastel de nata, which was just delightful. 

James and I had lunch with my former school friend Morag, whom I haven’t seen for 36 years, although we have kept in touch via notes in Christmas cards. We met at Aston Pottery which has excellent home baking. We started with quiches; the portions were absolutely huge. The afternoon flew by, we had so much to catch up on. James went for an hour’s walk to the Thames walkway in the middle while Morag and I shared a cake and chatted some more. 

In other news, Ozzy Osbourne has died today. He always looked as if he was about to die but somehow I never thought that he would! End of an era. 

Farewell to the aeroplanes

Today was the last day of the airshow; there is no flying display but the aircraft depart one by one, often waving to the hardcore fans who are still watching. It has a nice atmosphere, however this year James went on his own after dropping me off at Cirencester Hospital minor injuries unit. My foot has continued to really bother me since I rolled it in Inverness a couple of weeks ago; it aches all day and gets worse towards the end of each day. It also concerned me that my ankle was x rayed by mistake, instead of my foot. Cirencester Hospital is small and really friendly; it wasn’t busy when I arrived at 9 a.m. although it quickly became a lot busier so I was pleased that I was ahead of the crowd. The nurse who looked after me was such a pleasant person; she took me through to x ray in a wheelchair at great speed, saying “Scream if you want to go faster!” which made me laugh a lot! I was found to have an avulsion fracture of the 5th metatarsal. This explains the continuing pain. The good news is that it should improve over the next few weeks, and if it doesn’t I should go back to a hospital. Meanwhile I’m to wear trail shoes to support my foot, rest it and elevate it when I can and use ice packs on it. 
I then walked (gently!) over the footbridge to Cirencester town centre which took only ten minutes, and had an absolutely delicious brunch of coffee and French toast sitting outside the pretty Luxe café which is in one of Cirencester’s many little lanes. The aeroplanes departing Fairford were flying overhead every few minutes and all of us at the café were looking up into the sky to watch them. James joined me there at lunchtime and I had another coffee, the surroundings were delightful. We strolled down to the market and listened to an excellent busker singing Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” and then we continued into and around the Abbey grounds. We had a business video call later and then had dinner at Henry’s which was tip top. 

Fun in the FRIAT enclosure

What a difference fifteen minutes makes! Today we set off at 7.30 a.m. on the dot, and got to the FRIAT enclosure a whole hour earlier than yesterday, by 9 a.m. It had been raining during the night and into the morning, but it was dry enough when we arrived to have our breakfast of coffee and pastries sitting outside on the picnic benches, which was rather lovely. The coffee from the van at FRIAT is absolutely delicious. I remained at the benches while James went to the grandstand, and I joined him again later. There was one big downpour in the middle of the day but then the blue skies returned. Both yesterday and today have had much better weather than forecast so both the organisers and audience were delighted. 
There was a poignant moment right at the end of the day; a retiring aircraft, an F-16, taxied through an archway of water from the airport fire engines as a farewell tribute, apparently this is a tradition. We went back to Cote for a tasty dinner later. 

Sun kissed at Fairford

This morning we left the cottage in Cirencester just after 7.45 a.m. and just as well we did, because today is one of the two busy weekend days at RIAT. We had to queue for a short time as we approached Fairford airfield by car, and for a longer time as we waited in a slow moving line through security. But we were in our seats in the grandstand by the time the flying display started at 10 a.m. There was a heavy shower as we went through security but the day brightened up exponentially and by lunchtime it was very sunny and very hot and muggy. I spent quite a bit of time watching the flying display from the grandstand but when it got very hot I took myself into the shade beside the FRIAT tent and still had a good view of the flying display. I had a baked potato with cheese and onion for lunch and it was delicious. James was so happy watching the aeroplanes; by the end of the day his face and arms and especially his knees, looked rather pink because he spent almost all of his time in the grandstand in full sunshine. It was a great day, and later we had a delicious tapas dinner in La Bobina. 

Back in Cirencester

Our tiny cottage in Cirencester really is tiny. Small bedroom and bathroom upstairs and living room / kitchen downstairs. There isn’t even a back door! However it is clean and extremely well located right in the centre of the town, beside the Roman Museum and lots of cafés and restaurants. 

This morning we set off to the air show nice and early; the Friday of the airshow is traditionally the least busy air display day because most people arrive at the weekend. In the FRIAT enclosure we found ourselves among a keen squad of hardcore aeroplane enthusiasts. You can attend the airshow for up to six days, three of which (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) have flying displays, and then on the Monday morning the aircraft depart, which is also worth seeing. 

We soon got into our routine of watching the planes from the FRIAT grandstand, eating, inspecting the static display, and in my case, reading my book. Today I hardly had time to read my book because the weather was lovely so I ended up watching a lot of the flying display. When I say lovely, I mean neither baking hot nor lashing with rain, both of which drive me inside the FRIAT tent for shade or shelter. It was a great day, and later we went to Cote back in Cirencester for a tasty dinner, followed by drinks at the Golden Cross, which was full of friendly locals who were genuinely unintelligible to us! We were probably unintelligible to them too!