Say 'friend', and enter

[shewhomust]

gillpolack paid us a visit as part of her study tour in England and France.

When I talk about LJ to someone who doesn't use it, I'm always careful to explain that the 'friends' label is misleading, think of it as a kind of reading list. At least LJ tries to avoid the pitfalls of the dreaded FaceBook (which allows you to treat as a friend everyone you - or one of your friends - has ever met, and to be astonished when they don't act in a friendly manner). And so on.

So Gillian and I have been 'friends' for some time now, and this is the first time we've ever met. durham_rambler was worried we wouldn't recognise each other at the station, but I was confident we'd each look like our LJ icons (I recognised nineweaving as a picture of the Pleiades, didn't I?). And I was right; she looks just like her icon, and very like one of my cousins (especially when she smiles) and besides, she was the only person to get out of the right carriage on the train. Instant familiarity - and the main difference between conversation on LJ and conversation in real life is how much faster we can talk IRL.

We headed for the Cathedral, and walked across Kingsgate Bridge to the accompaniment of faint and drifting brass, one last manifestation of the Brass Festival and, at the low key level at which we engaged with it, an entirely pleasing one. We paid our respects to Bede, as you must, and avoided the parties of youngsters photographing each other in the cloisters (which are part of Hogwarts school) and admired the energy with which the rain was hurtling down, and ate soup in the refecrory which is now a restaurant, and eventually came home soaking wet and were just beginning to dry out when desperance arrived with his portable kitchen, and there was much unwrapping of gifts and admiration of interesting Australian herbs and goodies.

Dinner was excellent, but since desperance was cooking you didn't need me to tell you that. The wines I had chosen complemented the food as well as I had hoped, which was less of a certainty. There was spinach soup with lamb meatballs, classic middle eastern flavours but with an almost oriental hot-sour spicing in the stock (it's probably entirely authentic, but it was still a fusion of different associations for me), with which we drank Three Choirs rosé (plenty of fruit to stand up to the lamb and the spicing, but a good dry edge). The main course was a very rich duck fesenjan, with delicious Persian rice (with carrots and apricots and steamed until a beautiful buttery crust forms, and then turned out and topped with barberries and pistachios and actually that rice would be a meal in itself and there is still some in the fridge for tomorrow, hooray!) which was easy, once I had established that there was indeed a bottle of the Madiran left: duck means southwest France to me. We had a cheese course, because visitors from elsewhere must be introduced to our regional cheeses (and besides I love cheese) with a bottle of French malbec which Helen had given us. Dessert was a rice pudding (due to a communications breakdown, it was very nearly two rice puddings, but durham_rambler spotted what was going on, and disaster was avoided, and there was mild, cool, creamy rice pudding to accompany gillpolack's luscious walnut muscat. I've been drinking another glass of the muscat while I type this, and since the glass is now empty, the post must be nearly finished, too - the meal was rounded off with conversation into the small hours, and I'm ready for another early night.

Yesterday morning we all trooped into Newcastle and saw the sights there: the vallum crossing in Benwell and a scrap of the Wall, the Lit & Phil, the Vampire Rabbit, the Tyne Bridge, the Castle - when I write the list like that, it looks as if we had quite a busy morning, and I suppose we did, though there was also lots more talking (and some more rain). And then we put Gillian on her train back to York, where she continues to cause havoc, and returned to our several homes and works.

Comments

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

If I got the job from Friday, I can come in September, and I'd love to come visit you two.