So the last bank holiday weekend of the summer has almost come to an end. It’s been a gently social weekend for us, we’ve also been unusually vegetarian. On Friday Bob and Karen and Pete and Maggie came over, as 75% of them prefer their life without meat, Orynthia cooked up a lovely veggie couscous with corn bread and salad.

Whenever I have couscous my mind goes back to the outrageously over sized couscous meal we had near the Bastille opera house in Paris many years ago. We sat at an average sized table for two, watching in amazement as side dish after side dish, was placed upon it. Eventually the table was full, we assumed that we were clear to start eating. Just as we were about to tuck in, a member of staff produced another table, which he attached to ours, before adding yet more dishes. We are basically polite people, and they had gone to all the trouble of cooking the food, it seamed that we really had to try our best to clear the mass of dishes before us. When we finally left the place, we were considerably heavier and less nimble on our feet.

Saturday saw another gathering. This time we made the short walk to St Andrews to see Vikki and Simon. It was Vikki’s birthday, so Orynthia baked a cake. In addition to the cake, we worked our way through a lovely fish pie and several bottles of wine in the company of Jude, Russ & Becky and Heather. During the course of the evening, there was quite a lot talking of the supposed delights of camping. We needed to keep our wits about us as the camping fans tried ever more devious ways of trying to tempt us to join in the outdoor fun. Heather and Spider have gone for the happy medium of buying a camper van, which makes the prospect of spending time in the country almost appealing. At least you have a proper bed to sleep in. Tents are just rubbish, you can never find anything, it’s always too hot or too cold and as for getting dressed….!

Whilst in the house we’ve spent quite a bit of time listening to the splendid BBC Radio 7. Lot’s of great old comedy stuff, including “Vinyl Café”, which is good but so like Garrison Keillor as to be virtually a sample in musical terms.