Chocolates, sea shantys and a night at the dogs
What a weekend. Saturday, Mike and I headed down to the village of Tenterden where Jon and Jo (aka Caliko) were playing in the annual folk festival. We arrived and it was packed, everywhere you looked was either a Morris Dancer or someone carrying a musical instrument on their back. The sun was out and it was a glorious day.
We found Jon &Jo upstaires in the function room of the Eight Bells pub engaged in what is known in folk terms as a sing-a-round. 4 acts sat up on stage playing a few songs each. Mike and I consider ourselves to be very open minded when it comes to music despite having our own particular tastes but one of the acts who played were painfully bad and unfortunately ruined a perfectly good Sting song with their own rendition, accompanied by an ear screechingly bad concertina. It was enough to send Mike back to bar for another pint. Luckily they were followed by what can only be described as 4 burley looking men singing the most fantastic sea shantys acapella style. I have never heard anything so loud and this was without a microphone but the sound was so uplifting and thoroughly enjoyable. Jon and Jo performed a range of their songs and it was so great to hear them live again and singing in such a different way without the rest of the band.
A pub lunch and a chance to catch up with them followed and was a great end to an unusual afternoon. In the evening I took to the receipe books and cooked a fabulous lebanese meal for Mike and other brother Rob. The meal only took 10 minutes to cook but about 2 hours to prepare but it was worth all the effort as it was gorgeous.
The following day I turned 39 and woke up to coffee and presents in bed. Another gloriously sunny day and I was looking forward to meeting up with our close friends for celebrations. I was very lucky to receive lots of lovely presents including 4 different boxes of luxuary chocolates which Mike and I will enjoying consuming over the next few months.
In the evening, 15 of us met up at Sittingbourne Dog Track, home of the greyhounds and famous chicken-in-a-basket meal. We spent a
frantic few hours betting on the races which came fast and furious, in between gorging on our gormet meals and drinking wine. What a laugh. Trudi was the winner of the night scooping a £38 win on her first £1 bet. We had tips courtesy of the Racing Post and brother Rob which turned out to be pretty accurate and I managed to win over half of my races, pooling a massive winning stash of £5.50 by the end of the night. Others were not so lucky and drowned their sorrows in beer.
I think though the winner and by far the youngest gambler of the night was our neighbours son Harry who proceeded to surreptitiously fill his pockets with everyones winnings when no one was looking and disguise his tealeaf tendancies by stuffing his face full of bread and butter pudding and custard.
We found Jon &Jo upstaires in the function room of the Eight Bells pub engaged in what is known in folk terms as a sing-a-round. 4 acts sat up on stage playing a few songs each. Mike and I consider ourselves to be very open minded when it comes to music despite having our own particular tastes but one of the acts who played were painfully bad and unfortunately ruined a perfectly good Sting song with their own rendition, accompanied by an ear screechingly bad concertina. It was enough to send Mike back to bar for another pint. Luckily they were followed by what can only be described as 4 burley looking men singing the most fantastic sea shantys acapella style. I have never heard anything so loud and this was without a microphone but the sound was so uplifting and thoroughly enjoyable. Jon and Jo performed a range of their songs and it was so great to hear them live again and singing in such a different way without the rest of the band.
A pub lunch and a chance to catch up with them followed and was a great end to an unusual afternoon. In the evening I took to the receipe books and cooked a fabulous lebanese meal for Mike and other brother Rob. The meal only took 10 minutes to cook but about 2 hours to prepare but it was worth all the effort as it was gorgeous.
The following day I turned 39 and woke up to coffee and presents in bed. Another gloriously sunny day and I was looking forward to meeting up with our close friends for celebrations. I was very lucky to receive lots of lovely presents including 4 different boxes of luxuary chocolates which Mike and I will enjoying consuming over the next few months.In the evening, 15 of us met up at Sittingbourne Dog Track, home of the greyhounds and famous chicken-in-a-basket meal. We spent a
frantic few hours betting on the races which came fast and furious, in between gorging on our gormet meals and drinking wine. What a laugh. Trudi was the winner of the night scooping a £38 win on her first £1 bet. We had tips courtesy of the Racing Post and brother Rob which turned out to be pretty accurate and I managed to win over half of my races, pooling a massive winning stash of £5.50 by the end of the night. Others were not so lucky and drowned their sorrows in beer. 
I think though the winner and by far the youngest gambler of the night was our neighbours son Harry who proceeded to surreptitiously fill his pockets with everyones winnings when no one was looking and disguise his tealeaf tendancies by stuffing his face full of bread and butter pudding and custard.
posted by Liz Bailey @ 10:40 AM
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