What a wonderful evening at the Talbot Hotel, Ripley. Through the grapevine I'd heard that the local Ale Taster had been invited to do his annual quality inspection of the Hotel's ales, as it turned out he was accompanied by the Lord of the Manor and flunkeys, the Town Crier, a Magistrate, Fleur de Lys and Thames Valley morris teams, a marching band and a pair of Scottish pipers!
Patrick and I had booked a table in the restaurant and he treated me to a three course Birthday meal - bread and olive oil dips to start, then lamb shank with pearl barley sauce and potato hotpot, then warm dark chocolate cake with mascarpone sauce for dessert. I talked shop with Peter the Ale Taster (resplendent in authentic English ale-tasting costume) and he recommended the Ruddles County which was indeed as good as it gets! The entertainment was great, and it was a chance to catch up with the Fleurs again. Wished I'd been dancing with them, at times.
Ian and Janet arrived for last orders, they very generously bought a bottle of bubbly, which we ended up taking to our room, a large medieval bedroom with a four poster bed, very romantic!
Best Birthday ever, I think :)
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2 comments:
Happy Birthday!
May I respectfully suggest that you take this time to draw a line in the sand and update the 'about me' profile summary on your blog... it's a tad out of date and doesn't relect your new reflections on life.
TCA
xxx
Tis done! Could not find an up to date photo of me, I don't have that many since I'm usually on the other end of my camera. Not sure how else I have changed? I go to less folk concerts now that I have 'joint ownership' of a narrowboat, but I still love my folk music and also my beer. Still go walking a lot, but haven't been out on the bike much, naughty naughty. But then we don't have two bikes at either home!!
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