The Day of Dinner Parties

Saturday - Supper @ Whissendine:
Scott drove us to Oakham to collect our suitcases and off to Emma and James' place for a later fish and chips dinner. We arrived and were promptly served beers. Then to the table and some wine. Jen and Scott collapsed and crawled to bed. Then followed up by port and another 6 hours later I was finally off to bed.
James is a builder in Rutland and they just moved into their barn conversion. A 50 meter long two-story milking barn. 5 bedrooms upstairs and room after room, railroad style, of toys and christmas trees. fantastic!

Saturday - Dinner @ the Gallimore's:
I really felt my night when I got up. Can't quite get adjusted to the change in diet. Missing a good strong cup of Peet's.

Fox Hunt at Belton

First things first... off to a Hunt. Fox hunting is still legal, but the hounds are not allowed to tear apart the fox. So... what do they do? use a golden eagle to spot a hawk, use the hounds to chase it around, then blow it away with a high power rifle. Hound, rifle, or hawk, it is all going to kill the fox, why not back to traditional way? oh well.
Back to the house for a 20 min quick nap.
We charged off the the Gallimore's at 1:30 pm. Scott, Jen, and I first to arrive. Sat in front room, surrounded by elegant drawings and paintings of birds. Large fireplace roaring. Charles, Margaret, Scott, Jen, myself, Philipa and her son enjoyed smoked salmon appetizers sipping off excellent, cellared champaign magnum's. Robert and Ellie arrived with their newborn and their folks, Sally and David (?? cant recall) preceded them. Talk about laugh riot... oh god the jokes and banter.
After 3 magnums we moved to the dinner table. Ah, another fine meal. Game casserole... again? haha. It was excellent, again, with veggies and all the trimmings. I was taking it slow and agreed to drive, so Scott was trying to drink.
Christmas crackers were all pulled crossing over arms and the table games were plenty. Pea shooters, screaming long balloons, crowns, presents, what a grand event.

Dinner at the Gallimore's

I passed up a number of wine refills, Charles was just running laps around the table with a bottle in his hand. Don't know how many we drank. Scott hit the wall and I pulled up my boot straps and got in on the drinking... well not until the dessert, sweet wine, then port and cheese began. I think I had the best stilton of my life that night. The port went round and round and round. You could, as tradition demanded, only pass the port to the left and it never stopped. 3 hours of port passing and 3 decanters later, we finally headed off to Whissendine, late as usual, pissed and 8 hours later.

Friday Night - Dinner @ Owen Tudor:

Dinner at Owen Tudor

Back to Oakham for an evening dinner party with our family and some good friends, Charles and Margaret. Had 9 for dinner. Settled in with a couple Gin and Tonics then off to the table for some good wine and game casserole. Game casserole is a bit like a stew, partridge, pheasant, and venison cooked in a crockpot. Served with a few other veggies. Janet went for the second pot, caught her apron on the stove handle and dropped the whole thing on the floor. Brought out the stew with ceramic chunks in it, looked rather nasty... oh well, off to dessert. A sweet wine served, with trifle and then the cheese and fruit came out with a decanter of good port. I think we sat and laughed around the table for about 3 hours.
good times!

Arriving in England

Friday:

Sally's Service in Wing

Up a bit too late, Mom's service at 11am. Forgot the memorial book for the service, Scott ran back for it before attending the reception at the Village Hall with all the friends and family. Had a cup of tea and spoke with Uncle Monty Andrew about the family history. Seems we were run out of Scotland for cattle rustling and into Northhampton at some point around 1450ad. Family crest contains an oak tree and the motto Stand Sure. well that fits.

I spoke at the service after Janet, her speach was animated and lovely. I read the obit published in America. I was not teary and was very "Sure", if you will.

Afterward, we drove down Glaston Road where we will scatter mom's ashes and got stuck in the mud by grandad's barn pushing the car wearing a suit and long peacoat. We came back to Owen Tudor for a slice of tongue, a scotch egg, a bit of pork pie, a beer, and restling with my 2yo cousin who kept finding knives all over the house.
At some point we started work on the doll-house. hmmm

Building the doll-house

We are getting ready for dinner now and will be having old friends, the Gallimore's, over.

All for now!

Randy... how's the cat doing?

Thursday:

Awoke to VERY heavy ice fog, all trees, grass, and eves heavily covered. Heathrow shut completely and dozens of roads closed and congested.

Began building a 3 story doll-house kit in the late morning. Bit late for christmas, but may get done by monday.

Met up with Granny and took her over to see Uncle Henry (95 yo) in the evening for a whiskey, and back to Oakham for a jaunt to the pub (Admiral Hornblower's) for a quick pint and then for dinner, fresh ham (Philip's famous recipe) and veggies.

Jen up at 3:30am eating crackers in bed and talking about how she was sorry she was making so much noise. I had to tell her to shut up, it was the talking that kept me awake. haha

Wednesday:

Well, after some discomfort in a cramped seat, we finally arrived in the heavy fog to a mostly shut Heathrow airport and had a quick and uneventful passage through immigration and customs.

Scott flew into Gatwick... oops... and hired a car and drove up to Heathrow to get us. We drove round the M25 in the thick ice fog and made it to Oakham, Rutland by 6:30pm.

We settled in immediately for a gin & tonic, bit of fish pie and heated frozen veggies.

Arriving in UK

Departure

This afternoon, Jen and I leave for a 65 day journey across Europe in the dead of winter.
My mom passed away on October 4 and we are primarily travelling to have a ceremony for her in her home village and scatter her ashes.
We decided that it was time to take advantage of our time off in life and get on a train and see Europe.

We will be seeing friends all across Europe, from Amsterdam to Zurich to Padova to Como to Paris.

--jg