Church in Easter heist

Food! Real food was back on the agenda yesterday and more importantly, on my plate after the 600 calorie privations of the day before . After a cooked breakfast it was once again out to do battle with that chilly east wind atop the South Downs before settling down to some serious (well, not that serious) work on Currencies Direct, the world of popular music, and sales of my book the Valbonne Monologues, now nearing 100. 82 is near a hundred, that is my position and I am sticking to it.

An invitation to dine at the expense of the Black Rabbit as part of their try out of the new facilities on Wednesday evening is a welcome diversion. Sprog 2 will be back for Easter and no doubt hungry and we had hoped to be joined by the Mighty Omega and James “Desperate Dan” the landlord of the White Hart. I wonder if he was unable to make it because cow pie will not be on the new menu? The £500,000 refurbishment of the Rabbit is almost complete and they want to make sure their offering works by inviting their favourite customers to try out the menu. Obviously some of those were not available so we have slunk in the back door.

Last night though, my gentle suggestion that we should pop out for an early beer was rejected by that Nice Lady Decorator on the grounds that she had not finished her err… decorating. A flimsy excuse in my book, but as she rightly pointed out life is about to get busy again in the run up to, and celebration of, Easter. I must have been looking down in the mouth about the nil by mouth ruling, but then she got a taste for it, packed up her paintbrushes, and we popped up to The Swan for just the one, or two, where I took this picture in tribute to the English cricket team who got the draw they so did not deserve against New Zealand,

I suppose it was inevitable, but on the way back we were faced with running the gauntlet. Trying to go past the White Hart without getting dragged in. We failed. Thus by the time we got back the partridge, which had been nestling in the oven for rather too long was, how can I say this without getting a slap?, fully cooked and honed down to perfection. Actually it was surprisingly good, and personally I like well roasted vegetables, which turned out to be very fortunate (less so for the vegetables).

Lampshade made from cricket bats

During daylight hours, whilst he could still see by the light of the gas lamp before the darkness of a Yorkshire afternoon enveloped him, I heard from Steve “yeah yeah yeah” Jackson pointing out that the Crab and Lobster is at Asenby, not as I had stated in this column yesterday. Several of you pointed this out including the lovely Poly Bufton who has dined there and was similarly impressed. It appears that it is the only good restaurant in Yorkshire, which is not a view shared by “yeah yeah yeah” because according to him they do good road kill at several local eateries, some of whom even cook it. Frankly, I hope not to encounter whippet surprise, and that is not a local pastime.

So Easter and the celebration of the season for eating Easter eggs approaches. I just wish the church did not try to muscle in on a good holiday. The Easter egg celebration must have been going on for decades. It is such a pity that the church can’t have their own holidays. They have already done their best to mess up Christmas, next they will be hijacking Whitsun.

Chris France
@Valbonne_News