Our nomadic existence continues and tomorrow we set off to Merseyside. We're staying with my Mum for a couple of nights. We're looking forward to seeing her along with my brother Pete and his wife Val who we've not seen since their daughter Lisa's wedding in the summer. After that we've got our great friend Dave Haworth's 60th birthday party in Liverpool on Sunday and then it's an early start on Monday as we head up to St Andrews in time to do a bit of babysitting for Sarah at lunchtime (please be kind to us weather and traffic).
A few nights in the caravan (please be kind to us weather) are planned before we head down to the Lake District on Saturday for another dear friend's 60th birthday. After that we've got Sunday dinner planned in Ribchester with more friends (my what popular people we are I hear you say) before returning to Framlingham on Monday.
After that we've got almost two whole months in Suffolk. This will be the longest that we've been here since we moved to Framlingham almost a year ago and it will be good to have a couple of restful months as another hectic schedule is bound to begin again in the spring.
We've got a few things planned already. Framsoc has some tickets for National Theatre Live's performance of Corliolanus at Aldeburgh Cinema. We've intended to go to one of these live theatre cinema screenings for ages but needed the impetus of someone getting tickets to push us into going - promises to be good. The last time we saw anything like this was the live transmission of Stephen Fry's one man show from London at FACT in Liverpool.
Whilst mentioning the cinema, I was pleased to see that all of those I suggested as worthy of Oscar Nominations from American Hustle and Nebraska the other day have been nominated for BAFTAs - I told you they were good.
After Coriolanus we've booked a night away in The Ship Inn at Dunwich. It's only about half an hour away but we saw in Suffolk Magazine that they were holding a music night in February with dinner and accommodation (including breakfast) at a very reasonable price so we thought we'd give it a try. I know we could drive there and save a few pounds but we've not been to Dunwich yet and it will be good to be able to have a few glasses of wine or beer and not worry about driving.
After that it will be Valentines night. Last year we went to The Crown and I think we'll do the same again this time as Matt, the chef, is very good at coming up with some innovative and tasty dishes. It was interesting to see that the TO LET signs in The Lemon Tree Bistro (which sadly closed very suddenly in December) came down today. I do hope it's an eatery of some sort and not another gift or antique shop. It's not that I don't like gift shops or antique shops I just think we've got enough but we've not got enough restaurants - a pizzeria or wine bar would be good.
In our short spell at home we've crammed a fair bit in. On Wednesday we went and explored the Lanes in Norwich. We've been watching that retirees' fare Antiques Roadtrip on the telly and wondered if we too might find something in a shop for £100, persuade the owner to sell it to us for £40 (as if) and then watch it at auction as the feverish bidding starts at a fiver and finishes at er a fiver. It's very entertaining but I don't think those dragons on Dragons' Den would think much of the business model.
I'm still busily doing Jillian Michaels' Thirty Day Shred exercise DVD every morning although in my case Thirty Day Shrek might be more appropriate judging from the colour I go after twenty minutes. At least, in conjunction with the diet, it is working and I've lost the 5 lbs I put on over Christmas. Another seven to go and Leo's Deli might see the takings back up again.
With the the local bush telegraph alive with sightings of Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift around the town (give the lad a break he's no doubt come home to see his mum and dad for Christmas) it's appropriate to give the blog a musical theme today.
This week we've had some contrasting musical entertainment within five minutes walk of home. On Wednesday we went along to St Michael's Church to hear local choir The Phoenix Singers perform their seasonal concert. We're not in the slightest bit religious but we like a good tune and enjoyed joining in with the rousing choruses of popular carols. There was a good variety of songs from traditional carols through to White Christmas and The Little Drummer Boy both sung solo beautifully by a young man with a fine tenor voice. The songs were interspersed with festive readings of passages from classics like The Wind In The Willows and Paddington. After the show there were mince pies and tumblers of mulled wine and we blew the caution of our diet to the wind and indulged with one of each. I'll be glad when this diet is over. I've lost almost a stone in the last eight weeks but Christmas is not exactly the best time to be abstemious.
In a completely different musical vein our local,The Crown, hosted local singer songwriter Lucy Sampson and her three man backing group last night for an evening of her own songs plus some great covers thrown in for good measure. Amazingly The Crown didn't charge for admission and it was nice to see a good mix of local people enjoying the performance. We hadn't heard Lucy sing before but she's a very talented musician with a powerful voice - a great night.
Here's a taster.
We're delighted to have friends staying with us in Framlingham this week. We've known Dave and Jane Haworth since before our children were born and have missed seeing them after moving away. We're cramming in as much as we can in the short time that they are here and today we headed to the coast and had a walk around both Walberswick and Southwold where we had a great lunch on the pier.
Despite rough seas the weather was kind enough for us to walk down the pier and have a look at the famous water clock before strolling along the beach to the town centre.
Although we aren't far off November a few foolhardy people were braving the water including a couple of surfers who were riding the waves quite expertly.
Yesterday we took Jane and Dave for a quick look around Framlingham. We showed them the castle, the church and the market but with heavy rain forecast decided on an indoor activity for the afternoon and headed to Cineworld in Ipswich.
We saw Tom Hanks' latest movie Captain Phillips on the amazing IMAX screen. It's a very powerful film that draws you in completely and leaves you emotionally drained. Hanks is brilliant as the level headed captain and the actors who play the Somali pirates are totally convincing to the extent that it feels like we're watching reality. It's an excellent and unmissable film.
Last night we ate at our local The Crown. We eat at The Crown quite often and it is going from strength to strength. It's wonderful to be able to walk to somewhere serving good, interesting food and not having to worry about drinking and driving. Last night we tried the new menu and were impressed with all the food. The celeriac, duck terrine and boneless quail starters and the loin of pork main course were favourites.
We've done the rest of the cooking. On Monday it was lasagne and tonight it's chicken pie. I might not be up to Crown Head Chef Matt Ransome's standard but I'm trying.
If someone had suggested last year that we'd be spending an autumn Saturday sampling sausages at twelve different venues in a small Suffolk town whilst being transported between those venues in a pink stretch limo and that one of those tastings would be at In Da Cottage, a shop selling the unlikely combination of "Antiques And Sourdough Bread", I'd have said they were having a laugh. But that's what came to pass yesterday as we encountered our first annual sausage festival in our new home town.
The event's fame had spread to Wapping and was listed in The Times' "great days out this weekend" which must have boosted numbers. The £4 fee bought a book of perforated voting slips entitling the holder to sample and vote on sausages at each venue and, in addition, along with the ballot slips were a couple of stretch limo vouchers to reach the sites at the extremities of the town.
After a very fine coffee at the Lemon Tree, where we managed to finish The Times Jumbo2 crossword without using the iPhone to cheat for the first time in a while, we bought our weekend's provisions at Leo's Deli, Hall Farm Butchers and the greengrocers before heading off on the trail. And what a delicious trail it was too! Fortunately the sausage samples were not too large and artery threatening and we assessed the samples seriously and marked them honestly on three categories. The big problem for me was the question "How likely are you to buy regularly?". However delicious a sausage might be I am hardly likely to drive to Norfolk to buy a packet so our own Co-op and Hall Farm butchers had to score highest here.
After the event I tweeted this and was delighted to hear later that our local butcher had used their home advantage and won. I don't know how my other selections finished.
Although we've lived here for almost nine months now we've not actually been at home for more than a few weeks at a time so it's taking some time to get into a routine but there's certainly plenty going on. In addition to the Sausage Fest yesterday the excellent Crown was holding a small sale of jewellery and accessories in one of their function rooms. Marion bought this lovely and inexpensive pair of gloves (the photo colour is wrong - they're grey) and another present which I won't mention here as the recipient may well read this. We also saw the excellent Roadii outdoor fire cooking system outside The Crown and we will be getting one for next spring.
We ended the day with a rabbit dish. I finally persuaded Marion to give it a try so the butcher jointed one for me and I used The Hairy Bikers' recipe off the BBC website. Slow cooked with prunes, brandy, wine, shallots and finished with double cream it may not have been the healthiest of Saturday night meals but it was very tasty and once Marion had got over the association with Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit I think she enjoyed it.
A very pleasant day ended with watching The X Factor and my annual ritual of betting on it on Betfair whilst reading everyone's comments on Twitter. Someone tweeted "It's S**t" but I can't disagree more. Manipulative perhaps but always entertaining and, at the moment my bets are going in the right direction (all winnings being offset however by Marion's phone bill as she votes for Rough Copy)
