Three days, three excursions
Mar. 5th, 2023 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustOn Friday I took the train into Newcastle to see E - the simplest of undertakings, a trip I'd have taken without thinking twice, in the before times, but which involved much (entirely unneccessary) anxiety about coorfination and communication. It went very well - I had a lovely time, as I had been confident I would, but also all pick-ups and train weangling were achieved very smoothly. So perhaps my comfort zone has been enlarged a bit (it needed it). She took me to Kiln in the Ouseburn: a café which is also a pottery, which I may once have visited for coffee while visiting the Ouseburn's open studios event. They found us a little table in the shadow of the bar, where we lingered over our tea and coffee, and eventually ordered lunch. The menu was full of words I didn't recognise (and I would have thought I had a pretty good foody vocabulary), and not all of the words I did recognise meant what I thought they did: roast potato latkes turned out to be blocks of layered potatoes, and the 'toum' which accompanied them was aïoli dialled up to 11 (just as well we both ordered it). But the confit fennel with harissa was a perfect balance of sweet and tangy and hot and savoury (I wished the bread was better designed for soaking up every last drop of saunce). Our server adressed us as "ladies", which I never get used to.
After lunch we only had time for the briefest visit to E's flat, just enough to meet her cat, because she had promised C a lift to the station: but what I lost on time with E I gained in seeing C after a very long break, and catching the train together, so it's all good.
One of the phone calls that delayed our setting out on Wednesday was from the department of our insurers who deal with replacing our car: they were now ready to start that process (yes, only a month after the event. I don't know why, either). They will look first at the garage who sold us the car in the first place, and if they can't help will look further afield. so yesterday we visited that garage, and took a test drive in a model which has come onto the market since we bought our car. It's slightly smaller, which is both an advantage (easier to manoeuvre) and a disadvantage (less luggage space). We can insist on like-for-like (which they don't have in stock but can find in a couple of weeks), we can pay the extra for a fancier model of the car we had, or we can downsize slightly, and we need to let them know on Monday (tomorrow) morning. It's a curious sort of three-sided negotiation, where both we and the garage are bargaining with the insurance company, which is not present.
The car we drove was a vivid shade of orange: when I said I was not picky about the colour, it had not occurred to me that this was an option. It made me think of the Ford Asbo that Peter Grant drives in the 'Rivers of London' books. I have just looked that up, and discovered that a) the name refers to the model od the car, not the model, and b) he's quoting Jeremy Clarkson. Oh, dear.
Sedgefield Farmers' Market is held on the first Sunday of every month, but it didn't happen in January, and I can see why. So last month was the first market of the year, and although we arrived reasonable early, we found the stallholders looking shell-shocked and the stalls stripped bare. Today was market day again, and things have calmed down a bit, thank goodness! I had a choice of pies (and bought rabbit), and most of the vegetables I wanted (no red cabbage, but I got the last of the sprouting broccoli)). The baker had challah, which I didn't buy, and challah buns, which I did (because there will be burgers for dinner). There was a new spice stall, so I bought some aleppo pepper, and Rosalind (who makes the best preserves) was there after a long absence.
Time to go and cook some of these things...
After lunch we only had time for the briefest visit to E's flat, just enough to meet her cat, because she had promised C a lift to the station: but what I lost on time with E I gained in seeing C after a very long break, and catching the train together, so it's all good.
One of the phone calls that delayed our setting out on Wednesday was from the department of our insurers who deal with replacing our car: they were now ready to start that process (yes, only a month after the event. I don't know why, either). They will look first at the garage who sold us the car in the first place, and if they can't help will look further afield. so yesterday we visited that garage, and took a test drive in a model which has come onto the market since we bought our car. It's slightly smaller, which is both an advantage (easier to manoeuvre) and a disadvantage (less luggage space). We can insist on like-for-like (which they don't have in stock but can find in a couple of weeks), we can pay the extra for a fancier model of the car we had, or we can downsize slightly, and we need to let them know on Monday (tomorrow) morning. It's a curious sort of three-sided negotiation, where both we and the garage are bargaining with the insurance company, which is not present.
The car we drove was a vivid shade of orange: when I said I was not picky about the colour, it had not occurred to me that this was an option. It made me think of the Ford Asbo that Peter Grant drives in the 'Rivers of London' books. I have just looked that up, and discovered that a) the name refers to the model od the car, not the model, and b) he's quoting Jeremy Clarkson. Oh, dear.
Sedgefield Farmers' Market is held on the first Sunday of every month, but it didn't happen in January, and I can see why. So last month was the first market of the year, and although we arrived reasonable early, we found the stallholders looking shell-shocked and the stalls stripped bare. Today was market day again, and things have calmed down a bit, thank goodness! I had a choice of pies (and bought rabbit), and most of the vegetables I wanted (no red cabbage, but I got the last of the sprouting broccoli)). The baker had challah, which I didn't buy, and challah buns, which I did (because there will be burgers for dinner). There was a new spice stall, so I bought some aleppo pepper, and Rosalind (who makes the best preserves) was there after a long absence.
Time to go and cook some of these things...
no subject
Date: 2023-03-06 03:44 pm (UTC)I attempted to make some.
I failed.
But we do have some extremely garlicky oil to use liberally in cooking.
The really interesting bit of the instructions was to split the cloves and remove the central sprout before using them, as a way of reducing the harshness of uncooked garlic. That was definitely successful.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-07 11:45 am (UTC)