Pearls

I did the usual school escort service with Zoe and Ellie before heading home for breakfast. Being Thursday, the morning was fairly well mapped out. Ocado dutifully arrived with the bulk of the shopping and all was stowed away. Then we headed for Sainsbury's for the traditional top-up. So far, the day had followed a well-trodden path.

After lunch we slipped into the car and headed across country to Basingstoke. We had a good run and were parked up and entering the shopping centre soon after 16:00. We had time to have a good wander around and see how much it had changed over the years. It would be nice to have such a "destination" shopping centre near us.

We made our way towards the top of town, where all of the restaurants are situated. Each of the menus was examined and finally we decided to eat in "ASK:Italian". It was only 17:00 and the restaurant was very empty. Despite this, we were asked if we had a reservation. A smart comment flashed across my mind, but was quickly suppressed. We sat down and had a tasty meal. Diane chose Lasagne (A new recipe of Italian fresh egg pasta sheets, layered with rich beef and red wine ragu and topped with a creamy bechamel sauce and aged hard cheese. Served with beef meatballs, coppa ham, extra ragu and cheese.) and I chose Manzo Piccante (Short rigatoni with beef and red wine ragu, beef meatballs, fresh chillies, roasted peppers and balsamic red onions, topped with mozzarella.). Both meals were very good and I would certainly choose the same again.

We left and wandered back through the shopping mall to The Anvil. This is a theatre we used to visit when we lived in the area, but haven't been back for about 25 years. Kim had bought us tickets for a show. Originally, it was scheduled for April, but due to an attack of Covid-19 it had to be postponed until tonight. The seats that we had were in the third row and we had the most fantastic view.

At 19:45 Elkie Brookes came on stage with her band and proceeded to rattle the rafters with her amazingly powerful voice. She might be 78 but my goodness could she belt them out.

In the first half of the show, she concentrated on her well known and well loved classics, including: Nights in White Satin, Pearl's a Singer, and my favourite, Lilac Wine.

After the intermission, she came back on and did a few new numbers and some old blues classics. The audience lapped it up. Many were up and dancing. I think she must have known I was in the audience because she finished off this Bob Seger's "Night Moves" (and I love Bob Seger's music).

It was all over too quickly. We were walking back to the car soon after 22:00, and having fought our way out of the car park, headed home on almost empty roads. We walked in the door about 23:20. What a night.