Parties and leftovers

Raspberry sponge gâteau by chef-patissier Bishop

I always look forward to having a crowd round, but never quite remember how stressful it gets as the hour approaches.  We got much of the preparation done well in advance, and our fears of over-catering were largely ill-founded.  Not much left of the 36 burgers, 32 drumsticks, a couple of packets of Speldhurst sausages, a large dish of sag aloo and - of course, a six-can batch of Ms Jaffrey's 'very spicy delicious chick peas', without which no party of ours is complete.  Martyn had made a stupendous range of puddings, including a handsome gâteau.  After days of contradictory weather forecasts and heavy rain in the morning, the sun was shining by the time guests started to arrive, and by mid-afternoon one family was sitting comfortably on the grass.  My birthday treat next day was a ride to the tip with the paper plates, napkins and scraps.

Leftover drumsticks and chickpeas, along with some veg knocking about in the bottom of the fridge, did for a couscous royal last night, and Martyn has liquidized and frozen the remaining fruit salad.  So we're just about ready for the summer migration south, hoping that the tunnel is working correctly tomorrow.  We've booked our Usual Flophouse in the Auvergne for a night.  I'd planned to use another nearby, but found when I looked this morning that is fully booked.  Still, booking late at the normal place got us a fat discount.  Just hope we don't get a noisy Italian family next door again. 

Mr B contemplates the port of Dieppe

[Later]  Well, as it turned out, the uncertainty over services through the tunnel prompted us to forfeit the non-ref tunnel bookings and re-book, at rather greater cost, via Newhaven-Dieppe.  I didn't feel like adding insult to injury by forfeiting the non-ref hotel booking, so it meant that we didn't get there until 21:30, some 14 hours after leaving home (though less than seven hours' driving, cf. over eight from Calais).  I wonder at the awful driving on the French motorways.  At one point I had moved out to pass a couple of lorries that were lumbering uphill, whereas we were doing the legal 130, adjusted up for speedo error.  Some twat in an Audi hurtled up behind us doing a good 170, overtook us on the right, then swung in front of us to pass the second truck with inches to spare.  By time we got to Issoire, tea was all we wanted, even with HIV milk from a motorway aire, and it's always good to know that we've broken the back of the journey.  The going between Dieppe and Chartres is SLOW, however, and lousy with roadworks.  Having slept typically badly the night before, we got a pretty fair night's sleep at the air-conditioned UF in the A.  Just as well.  It is hot here, and temperatures are unlikely to drop below 22° tonight.

Today's journey reminded us once again of the utter loveliness of the A75 route through the Auvergne and the Causses.  Huge panoramas, puffs and skeins of cloud hanging beneath us in the valleys - all slightly spoiled by a detour in consequence of the farmers blockading the motorway north of Brioude, and emptying crates of peaches across the slip road.  Martyn's unequalled navigating skills got us back on to the motorway at a familiar junction not too much further on, whereupon we had a good fast run for thirty miles or so, no doubt while others followed the signposted diversions.  Thus fortified, I suggested we take the Béziers ring road and come home via Capestang and Lézignan, rather than take the Kamikaze training ground known as the A9.  Well, thanks to the unparallelled incompetence of my navigating, we came off the Beezers-Carcassonne road too soon.  That ought not to have been dire, had not the villages been awash with routes barrées.  Having taken mental stock of the contents of the cool box, and with only a brief pause to get a baguette and some butter in the village, we got home in just decent time for a lunch of leftovers, and shopped later.

Part of the shopping derives from my rash offer to do canapés for 50 at next Sunday's lunch for sponsors of the piano bash.  We're hosting one of the pianists for a night, and I'm doing a couple of airport/station runs with performers and families next week.  Meanwhile, we're looking forward to several days of fine music.  Watch this space.