First thing the scorning we headed to Tescos to stock up on various ingredients for our three course meal tomorrow. We are entertaining Chris and Monika tomorrow in exchange for their help in cleaning the hall carpet and cut the out-of-control holly bush down to size. I am responsible for the three part seafood starter, roast potatoes and veg to go with the roast lamb (Colin’s responsibility) and then the dessert for which I am going to attempt a Masterchef style deconstructed Black Forest style pud with a lot of the kirsch we brought back from Germany.
After shopping, I cleared the decks, masking taped all over the kitchen and siliconed in the laminate I had glued on yesterday. I have a special tool for the silicon but I very soon discovered that it is pretty useless and my finger (whilst in Covid time latex gloves) is the most effective. I decided to remove the masking tape straight after I had finished in case there were any blips. It seemed to go very well so I temporarily hing plastic over the area to protect it over the next 24-hours and decided to go for the other side of the kitchen as well all in one go with cleaning tiles, kitchen ‘aids’ and then siliconing. The kitchen does look so much better with the cleaning, silicon and new doors drilled and hing last week.
After the shopping and DIY, the final high point of the day was supposed to be travelling to East Grinstead to the Chequers Theatre to hear a different Northern Soul band. We were due to meet Karen and Charley at 5.00pm as they planned to treat Colin to an early Fathers Day celebration with a meal in a restaurant first. The journey should take around 55 minutes. In the event it took 2.75 hours with constant changes of route by the SatNav, roadworks and hold ups. We arrived three quarters of an hour late for dinner but luckily Karen and Charley had also been delayed so they are not waiting for too long. We were rather stressed but were very pleased that we still had time to enjoy a starter and main course.
We made it to the theatre on time and the seats I had chosen were very good - front row in the circle and very reasonable priced. I’m not sure about Karen and Charley but we really enjoyed the Signatures with their ten piece band and excellent front man singer - Stefan Taylor. He really was superb and his energy levels over the two hours or so were amazing. There was also an original North Soul singer who is 72 years old but still very good.Sadly there wasn’t a full house - could be due to the start of the football - but by the end of the evening the loyal few of us were all up on our feet and it was a great atmosphere. We even had a chance to say thank you at the end of the show as the main singers came out to meet the audience.
Colin was not feeling great and his knee is still painful so I drove back again and this time it was about an hour with no diversions. I was pretty tired by the time we eventually got home for a cup of tea!
