South Down’s syndrome?

That’s it, summer is over, but it was good while it lasted. Autumnal gloom settled over coastal Sussex yesterday, scuppering plans to walk across the Downs of the Arundel estate of the Duke of Norfolk to the George and Dragon for lunch. I call it poor planning, having a diet day on a sunny day and then scheduling a potential lunch out day when the weather is crap. I know who is to blame but cannot possibly say.

Instead I spent the morning slaving over a publishing deal and further considering how to spread the good word about Currencies Direct. Talking of spreading the good word, I must talk to the Reverend Jeff as he must have experience in this area.

So lunch was taken instead at The Black Rabbit as it has some of the finest views in Sussex, even when the weather is somewhat less good than desired, or promised by those damn weather forecasters, who were promising the warmest day of the year yesterday, a mere two days before. How can one dovetail one’s diet into a the one’s day when forecasters such as the Reverend Jeff’s daughter, Holly Green (!), get it all so wrong?

The lambing season on the South Downs

Over a very decent lunch, talk turned to the lambing season, which we had witnessed close up the day before , as my picture today shows, to horses and the unfortunate events that seem to be engulfing racing circles at the moment. Great Aunt Pam, who has recently astounded me with her reminiscences about riding out with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker in Richmond Park in the early 1970’s revealed that her horse at that time was a former steeplechaser, but was described by her trainer as being as slow as a hearse. She claimed that it was worse than that, as he also had an aversion to jumping, which is a fatal flaw in a steeplechaser and that the only job that he did well was to look pretty.

I can almost hear the thought processes of my regular readers after reading the last part of the last sentence. How will the writer of this column make an analogy between a certain Valbonne-loving aged author and looking pretty? The answer is that despite some consideration, I could not think if a connection.

Later we adjourned to my house in Arundel to open more wine and discuss the finer details of my Aunts move to the town. I am sure that everything was settled to everybody’s entire satisfaction but after the Barolo has begun to flow, I cannot be exactly sure . Suffice to say that Auntie Pam now has a good idea of what to expect when she becomes resident. I wonder if she will now change her mind?

I don’t need to remind you, or for that matter Myself (that Nice Lady Decorator will do that for me)!of the fact that today will be the second diet day of the week. However, this time I am going for the full food option rather than being seduced into using up half my daily alliance on beer, as was the case in Tuesday. I do not want to point fingers but a certain Decorating person was to blame.

Then one more day to go before what I expect to be an epic weekend in Monte Carlo. Starting at the Cafe de Paris for champagne, taking in the Buddah Bar for dinner, pretending to be James Bond at the casino and then dancing at Jimmy’s, before hauling ourselves back onto a plane on Sunday to return to normality. Blow in, blow out, crash out and then home for rest and recuperation, and to nurse the credit cards back to health. Sounds like a fine weekend in prospect.

Chris France