Venta Fusion

That was a nice day.

Ellie had woken a little earlier than usual, but that wasn't really a problem. She had her breakfast and the Silver Vixen got all her stuff ready. Urban-Cub would be round mid-morning to collect her (after collecting her new car).

The Gorse Fox had other things planned. He had arranged the second annual VM Old Gits lunch and was meeting up with old colleagues in Winchester. Knowing the Goodwood Festival of Speed was on and could well impact traffic, he headed off at 10, but had no issues at all and pulled into the Winchester Park & Ride at 11. His caution over the time turns out to have been wise. Soon after he came through there was 5 vehicle crash on the M3 which closed the road.

Knowing he had time to spare he deliberately got off the P&R Bus near the King Alfred statue so that he had time to wander up through the town at a leisurely pace and find the restaurant in plenty of time. There seemed to be a vibrant farmers' market with plenty of street food stalls. Tempting, but he resisted.

The Gorse Fox stopped off by the Great Hall and the ruins of the old castle. He still had some time to kill, so took a few photos and wandered over to the Hall. He had forgotten that there was a charge to go in, so decided that having seen it many times before he would skip it today.

He continued up to the restaurant and made himself comfortable. Tanoshii is a pan Asian fusion restaurant and had a wonderful menu. If we lived closer, we would certainly return to try a wider range of the dishes than was afforded by a single visit.

The old colleagues started to arrive - one having just returned from a trip to the States for a standards meeting to discuss floating point arithmetic.

Another arrived - he now lives in Boulder and was in the UK for a holiday to see the family. We met his new wife before she headed back out to tour Winchester (rather than get bored silly listening to our reminiscences).

Finally, Blambo arrived. He lives just down the road in Romsey but got caught by the closed M3.

We had a lovely meal - the Gorse Fox noticed a Thai green curry, a Kung Pao King Prawns, and he had the Chicken Katsu. All were superb... but there were so many other enticing dishes on the menu that it does deserve a revisit.

As we broke up the Gorse Fox resolved to set up a further event and as if to punctuate the offer there was a deafening clap of thunder and the heavens opened. The rain fell in monsoon proportions. Water was pouring down the streets several inches deep as the drains were overwhelmed. The Gorse Fox, despite his umbrella was soaked up to knees as he boarded the bus back to car. Google assured him the M3 was still a no-go area so he headed across country and got home soon after four o'clock.

Thoroughly enjoyable.