Paddles, pies and peregrines
Paddles
My friend Andrew married his lovely wife Dionne at the end of last year – not only were we delighted to be invited – but Andrew asked me to hold one of the crossed oars in the guard of honour – I felt very bad about not having ROJ ready to whisk the bride and groom from the reception at the Caledonian Club in Belgravia off on their honeymoon in Mauritius.
Dionne looked stunning – and stunned the congregation even more by being 45 minutes late! We had fun listening to the organist frantically finding fill-in pieces from his repertoire of Rogers and Hammerstein.
The reception was a Very Grand Affair with Very Caribbean Overtones – it was lovely. The band had previously played at Wayne Rooney’s wedding (I believe he plays football….) We danced, we ate, we drank and we wished them all the happiness in the world.. we then staggered home to bed at a very unseemly hour of the morning.
Pies
I organised the first pie club dinner of the year – at the George Inn in Borough high street – the last galleried pub in London, now owned by the National Trust – the company was excellent, as were the pies ( we scored the George an overall 4 out of 5). Turn out was impressive – with 15 regular members and three newcomers, but no Peers of the realm or Bishops this time.
Andrew and Dionne spent the evening gazing lovingly into each others’ pies….
Peregrines
A perk of my trade means I sometimes get to do some really intereting things.
Yesterday morning I found myself on the roof of the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament to you and me). I had arranged for a wildlife officer to get up there to monitor the two peregrine falcons that look as if they are about to nest in the Victoria Tower. On a bright clear day the view was spectacular, and the male bird was easily visible preening himself on a high ledge. The plans are to put in a nest box with webcam to keep a distant eye on their progress.
After clambering over and around the tower we celebrated in style with doorstep sized bacon sandwiches in the parliamentary staff canteen.
The Car
Half-term approaches and I am taking four days up at the farm to finish the rear suspension – I may get the front done too if I’m lucky. I shall also be hunting out all the exhaust brackets and restoring them before fixing to the underside of the car.
I hope the weather warms up….