Lunch with the cousins

Routley descendants and spouses à table

Every bit as enjoyable as we'd hoped, and a bonus was that our 'new' cousin Gill and her husband Chris could come from Suffolk to join the party.  I hadn't met cousin Liz before, and hadn't seen Susan or Helen for upwards of 30 years.  Utterly sickening that Susan has not aged in the interval, and that Helen looks a good 20 years younger than her age.  Good genes, Susan reckons.  Our common ancestors are Routleys from Bristol and South Wales.  As we hadn't managed to get the private dining room we'd hoped for, conversation was a bit difficult, but we had a fun time filling in gaps in family trees.  Tuttons in Covent Garden provided a pleasant environment, background racket notwithstanding, and the meal was fit to eat if unspectacular.

Photo by Susan (second from left in upper photo)

We walked the Canadian visitors down to Charing Cross after lunch so that they could see a little of Covent Garden and its surroundings, plus the Eleanor monument (one of many) at the station: it marks the point from which distances from London are measured.  They were heading for Paddington, thence to Helen's home in Windsor to prepare for an evening at the Theatre Royal.

While we're on culture, we were a little early in arriving at Covent Garden, so paused for a few minutes to watch and listen to a string quartet not only playing pop pieces, but acting them out.  Now, which of you has given a competent performance on the violin, viola or cello while dancing a cancan?  Impressive, and huge fun.  I treated myself to their CD, and listened to it on the way to the hobby this morning, arriving, thus fortified, in a good mood for once.  [Just as well.]

We ambled back on a supposedly fast train, and treated ourselves to a taxi home.  Disgustedville-London return: £9 per man.  Disgustedville station to Forges-l'Evêque: £10 inc modest tip.  Oh well, it's only money.

A propos, having had some debts repaid recently, we're better placed to embark on the kitchen rebuild, and have almost finalised our bid evaluation.  Decisions and starting gun next week, and the plan is to get the work done while we're in Another Place in July/August.  I quail at the task of clearing out the kitchen, the cupboard under the stairs and the slot in the garage whither the washing machine is to be exiled.  Be prepared for my usual transformation into a quivering, whining wreck as the process moves forward.