Good friends

Yesterday’s dinner was another very enjoyable affair. The Gorse Fox had a starter of smoked gurnard,  a palate cleanser of whiting, and a main dish of roast sirloin. Exquisite. A small jazz combo provided the musical accompaniment and a table of four harpies with voices like screech owls tried to drown them out. Fortunately, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox were far enough away that it wasn’t too troublesome.

We retired to the peace and tranquility of the lounge for some after dinner coffee. A young couple came in. The Gorse Fox recognised the girl as one of the folk that was booked in to the spa for a facial. He commented to the Silver Vixen that she had wasted her money. He got kicked.

The harpies wandered in. One commented how lovely and quiet it was, and they settled down nearby. The peace was shattered as they held forth on showers over baths, heated towel rails, surplus furniture, mobile phones, selfies, and 101 other topics that nobody else had any interest in, but they were intent on sharing. We retired to our room.

This morning we had a quiet start, wandering down to breakfast just after nine o’clock. The forecast was wet, but the rain hadn’t yet started. We had plans to go and see Mrs Tiggywinkle and Badger. We gathered our things and got on the road. We stopped en route in Ottery-St-Mary in order to raise Sainsbury’s, but soon got back on the road. B and Mrs T live in Wellington so it wasn’t too far. We pottered up the M5 and arrived in time for a nice coffee and a chat. Badger was busy preparing a wonderful lunch, but was still very interested in the new car, as they are thinking of a change next year.

Lunch was a lavish affair with a choice of past with duck ragu or rice with garlic chicken. Well it all looked so good that we tried both. It was delicious. For sweet, Mrs T had prepared a fabulous cheesecake that just melted in the mouth. We were seriously spoilt.

During the afternoon the Gorse Fox helped Mrs Tiggywinkle with her digital photo management across devices. (When he gets time he’ll write this up and send her a copy). He also tried to sort out her over-capacity “OneDrive” but was too rusty on Windows to get to a satisfactory conclusion. He’ll have to try it out on a Windows machine at home (if he can find it) and see if he can come to a sensible conclusion.

It was late afternoon before we left. It had been a wonderful few hours. It is always so nice to catch up with true friends. We got on the road and headed back south to Sidmouth. We were back in the hotel within the hour. We got changed and headed to the bar before dinner. The harpies were there picking over some corpse or other (though it might have been an amuse bouche). The pitch of their collective screech seemed to have risen another octave... but still not quite enough for them to be only heard by dogs and bats.

Dinner was excellent again. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox both started with a ham hock terrine and then she had pork loin cutlets, while he had venison. He noticed that the restaurant was very busy compared with last night. There seemed to be a lot more bodies about, and most of them were still young enough to have a pulse. There was a real buzz of chatter over the background pianist.

After dinner we, again, retired to the quiet of the lounge. We sat by one of the huge picture windows and were quite mesmerised by the rain as it blasted against the window. After a tea we sat in the peace and quiet, but as the harpies approached we made tracks for our room. Even now, back in our room, we can hear the banshee howling of the wind and clatter of the rain as it blasts in from the sea. We cannot, however, hear the harpies. It’s nice to be in the warmth and comfort of our room.