under another sun

Up early to do a few bits and pieces of work, then Lorraine and I assembled her new dressing table. A lovely thing it is. Then downstairs to be collected by Adele and Jane. Adele lending Lorraine a food dehydrater for Lorraine to make more of her dried orange slice ornaments.  I climbed into Adele's yellow car and we drove off to Poynings. We ended doubling back and going via Alfreston and then towards Brighton. Plenty of banter in the car, some of it centred on Jane's love of telling anecdotes. The high downs and fields beautiful and still covered with thin snow. Eventually we reached The Royal Oak -- a pub Lorraine and I have driven past on many occasions but never stopped at. Lovely village pub. There we met Sally, Frances, Rick around the corner, and Deana -- and had lunch which, as a non driver, I was able to wash down with a couple of pints of Harvey's Old Ale. Nice to see folks from my old glass class again. Ben unable to make it as he was -- rather mysteriously -- ...

Lorraine's birthday. Got up early and wrapped a couple of presents for her, and took her cards and pressies up with a cup of tea, followed by breakfast. I got her the CD version of Recomposed , by Max Richter and we lay in bed listening to it with the Juliette windows open on what was the warmest ever Easter Monday. Up and a cup of coffee and we sat outside playing scrabble then Beth and John arrived, and Beth drove us off to The Royal Oak at Wineham . She was a bit nervous about driving everyone, but actually drove extremely well. We arrived safely at the Royal Oak. Beth had phoned for a table, but we found this one was in a gallery of leering taxidermy. We relocated and found a nook, where only Lorraine could see a stuffed weasel in a case if she peered. Once our eating was done, ploughman's for Beth and I, sausage and mash for John, and Chicken Caesar for Lorraine, we sat outside in the sun playing euchre. Lorraine and I able to enjoy Harveys straight from the barrel, ...

Extra day today. Drove off to Henfield this lunchtime, to the home of one of Dawn's sisters, who was selling a VW beetle, which we were going to look at. It was a promising red. I like cars with actual colours on them. However, it only had two doors. Lorraine toying with the idea of a new car, as her current one is getting a bit long in the tooth. We had Betty and John in the back, and after the car business was done, and we'd spoken to Dawn and her sister, and taken advice on local pubs, we drove to one called The Wheatsheaf. However the menu seemed to annoy everyone, being fussy and nothing appealing. We then drove to The Royal Oak , where we had some nice grub in a lovely historic pub with low ceilings, and only a moderate flurry of Deliverance banjo duelling from the locals when we arrived. I had sausages and mash, which was excellent. The ladies had a variety of ploughman's lunches and John had a big ole burger. I managed to soak up a couple of beers there too, and ...