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Mar. 17th, 2007 09:03 amLast night we went to Eastleigh College for their Mayor's Charity 'Gardener's Double Delight' evening. Aside from Peter and Marian of course, we were the only members of the 'Chain Gang' present! Jim and Maria, and John and Margaret from Rushmoor, had tried to buy tickets but been too late - the venue only held 60 and the tickets had been snapped up quickly.
Before dinner was served there was a stall selling gardening books and equipment, so my mother was in her element - she came away with several books and a new trowel. I passed the time talking to Peter and Marian. I noticed the Eastleigh mayoral chain bore Edward VIII's cipher and the date 1936. I remarked to Peter "That must be a rare distinction, boroughhood conferred by Edward VIII." Peter said Eastleigh was the only borough of Edward's creation still in existence; there'd been a couple of others but they were abolished in 1974. He explained that Eastleigh had petitioned George V for boroughhood, and he'd agreed to confer it, but then he died, so Edward VIII had to sign the Charter - then Edward abdicated before the Charter was formally awarded, so it had to be awarded by George VI! So Eastleigh is 'the borough of three kings'.
We were waited on by a group of students, who did a thoroughly good job. I was sat opposite Marian, and next to him was Brian Kidd, a gardening expert who appears on local radio and writes a weekly column in the Portsmouth News. My mother is a devotee of his column, so she had plenty to talk to him about all night! On my other side was Joan, who was Mayoress of Eastleigh in the eighties and whose husband has remained on the council all that time; we had quite a chat about the joys of civic duty. Her experience of twinning was just as exhausting as mine. My main course - lamb with rosemary stuffing - was first class. The red wine was very strong stuff, from the first glass on I felt decidedly heady all evening.
I fell off the chocolate abstention wagon. When we made our menu choices back in January, without thinking that it'd be Lent I'd chosen white chocolate mousse. Not only that, it came with chocolate drizzled in a criss-cross all over the mousse and the plate. You can't turn away fine food, especially when you've ordered it anyway, so I had to abandon my abstinence for one night. With dessert, they passed round strawberry meringues and chocolate-coated strawberries - much loved by my mother and Marian, who both remembered dipping strawbs in the chocolate fountain at Abbotts Ann last summer. Just one lapse - I'm resuming my no-chocolate Lent today and will keep it up till Easter. I was just being sociable last night :)
Brian Kidd ended the evening with a witty speech and a few gardening tips. One of his recommendations was using a mix of seven parts water to one of urine to make compost compost quicker. He then recounted how he'd offended the Ventnor horticultural society with that idea - here he brought the house down.
Home for some of Comic Relief - caught the Ricky Gervais 'faking' sketch and Catherine Tate as Lauren encountering Tony Blair. Collapsed into bed, still swaying a bit from the wine, just before midnight.
Before dinner was served there was a stall selling gardening books and equipment, so my mother was in her element - she came away with several books and a new trowel. I passed the time talking to Peter and Marian. I noticed the Eastleigh mayoral chain bore Edward VIII's cipher and the date 1936. I remarked to Peter "That must be a rare distinction, boroughhood conferred by Edward VIII." Peter said Eastleigh was the only borough of Edward's creation still in existence; there'd been a couple of others but they were abolished in 1974. He explained that Eastleigh had petitioned George V for boroughhood, and he'd agreed to confer it, but then he died, so Edward VIII had to sign the Charter - then Edward abdicated before the Charter was formally awarded, so it had to be awarded by George VI! So Eastleigh is 'the borough of three kings'.
We were waited on by a group of students, who did a thoroughly good job. I was sat opposite Marian, and next to him was Brian Kidd, a gardening expert who appears on local radio and writes a weekly column in the Portsmouth News. My mother is a devotee of his column, so she had plenty to talk to him about all night! On my other side was Joan, who was Mayoress of Eastleigh in the eighties and whose husband has remained on the council all that time; we had quite a chat about the joys of civic duty. Her experience of twinning was just as exhausting as mine. My main course - lamb with rosemary stuffing - was first class. The red wine was very strong stuff, from the first glass on I felt decidedly heady all evening.
I fell off the chocolate abstention wagon. When we made our menu choices back in January, without thinking that it'd be Lent I'd chosen white chocolate mousse. Not only that, it came with chocolate drizzled in a criss-cross all over the mousse and the plate. You can't turn away fine food, especially when you've ordered it anyway, so I had to abandon my abstinence for one night. With dessert, they passed round strawberry meringues and chocolate-coated strawberries - much loved by my mother and Marian, who both remembered dipping strawbs in the chocolate fountain at Abbotts Ann last summer. Just one lapse - I'm resuming my no-chocolate Lent today and will keep it up till Easter. I was just being sociable last night :)
Brian Kidd ended the evening with a witty speech and a few gardening tips. One of his recommendations was using a mix of seven parts water to one of urine to make compost compost quicker. He then recounted how he'd offended the Ventnor horticultural society with that idea - here he brought the house down.
Home for some of Comic Relief - caught the Ricky Gervais 'faking' sketch and Catherine Tate as Lauren encountering Tony Blair. Collapsed into bed, still swaying a bit from the wine, just before midnight.
