Z has a long day

Okay, right, I couldn't not say what my concerns were, in the end. I pulled my punches, but I still raised the issues I felt should be raised, and ended by saying I'd endorse the decision if *this* and *that* had been considered and judged okay. But I did it in a friendly way and explained the reason for being relatively formal about it...that is, it's an area I've had a lot of involvement in, and I sort of can't help myself. Oh damn. Still, I will quit next year.

Anyhoo. Today started with birds yawning and wondering why I thought it was a good idea to wake them up so early. By 8 o'clock this morning, I was almost ready for lunch. Which I didn't have until after 2 pm because Dilly and Al didn't arrive home until 1.15 when we'd sort of expected them soon after noon. Still, didn't matter, and we had the jolly opportunity to give Zerlina her birthday presents two days early - the Sage will see her on Tuesday but I'll be several counties away by then. She was very pleased with her toddler Lego (does anyone actually call it Duplo?) and other toy and her parents enjoyed playing with it too.

Off to Snape again tonight for another concert, and it was a cracker. Really good. Oh, don't we love links. Here we go.. You may remember that I decided to get to grips with a composer I didn't know a lot about (new year's resolution, I think) and chose two - Mahler and Shostakovich. Mahler proved to be a bit hard to love. This concert contained music by both of them, so seemed ideal. Well, Mahler is The Man. Fabulous songs, sung by a wonderful singer to brilliant accompaniment. The whole evening was a great pleasure and I loved every minute. Well, that is, of the concert itself.

Supper was a different story. It's not as easy as one might think, providing food for people who are going to turn up - or not - and want hot or cold food depending on the weather, and whose, um, demographic profile will vary from night to night and influence what and whether they'll buy your food. Tonight, being a weekend and reasonably upmarket classical music, people were prepared to come and eat out. Sadly, the caterers had had to throw some food away during last week, so cut down on what they provided tonight (I discussed the matter with a member of staff). Frankly, I was disappointed.

I read the blackboard and was quite encouraged. Now, first mistake - if it's sold out, wipe it off the board. When I got to the food, I was instantly let down. Several mixed vegetable salads of various types with gloopy dressings. I made that mistake a fortnight ago - a Russian (or would it be Greek, pfft, who cares?) salad that was mostly cold potato, so ignored them. There was shredded cold pork with more potato salad, which didn't appeal. There were beef salad baguettes that looked a bit more than I wanted, and smoked salmon sandwiches which, in retrospect, I wish I'd had. I went for the prawn salad. £5.50 for a sundae glass containing some salad leaves - not easy to get out and eat tidily with a fork, some shredded raw onion, two thick slices of cucumber - not easy, as mentioned already - one eighth of an excellent tomato, not run of the mill tomato at all, one sixteenth, I should think, of a lemon, which was awkward to squeeze and not very juicy either, some prawns and a big prawn in its shell. I sort of bought it for this big and juicy-looking prawn. It had, however, been frozen, cooked. Well you know, you can tell - it had that wet and flabby feel and it was shedding bits over the rest of the prawns, which I fussily picked out. There was a Marie Rose sauce I could have helped myself to, but with that silly glass I could only have dolloped it on top, so if it had been merely jarred mayo plus ketchup, or worse a catering-size jar of pink mayo, I'd have been stuck with it, and my general principle is don't go there. I mean, it tasted okay but it was hardly eating-out food. If I'd taken a guest, I'd have been deeply embarrassed. I don't think the new caterers are going to cut the mustard, at this rate. It was a dispiriting experience. A good job that the music was so good.

If I have time, I'll write a short post tomorrow, just to bid you all a loving au revoir.