Around midday Biddy and Geoff knocked on the front door. I had expected them earlier but was glad they turned up that bit later. I know how keen a golfer he is and this weekend the Ryder Cup took place in Rome. I had earlier tried to bring the Ryder Cup up on our Firestick but I could get nothing to work. When he arrived it suddenly worked again. If that hadn’t worked he would have had to watch the matches on his phone. Not such a great experience.
We had a lunch of salad and a beetroot tart in puff pastry that Maggi had made. Another success story for my local chef. We walked around Pinner and up to Hatch End and Lytton Avenue to see the house where Geoff and Lillian used to live. I offered to introduce him to the owners who bought it from him 30 odd years ago as the woman is a friend of Maggi’s. He declined.
Maggi joined us at the end of the walk and I rushed off back to home to watch Arsenal play Bournemouth. The match turned out to be an easy victory for the Gunners on the south coast. They came away with a 4-0 victory. One interesting point during the match when Arsenal were awarded their second penalty of the game Odegard, the captain, offered Havertz the ball and he scored. Hopefully this will bring a spark to his first season at the club after a fairly poor start.
We stayed in for the evening and Maggi cooked a lamb roast with aubergines, potatoes and lentils, accompanied by a couple of green vegetables. Personally I found it not up to her other dishes. However the pudding of chocolate and blackberries was excellent and on Sunday night I added it to the list of recipes we have started to gather on AnyList.
We followed the meal by washing part 3 of Laura Kunesberg’s series entitled State of Chaos which focuses on the disaster that has been the Tory party since 2016. I didn’t find the final part of the series anywhere near as the first two episodes. By the time we had finished watching the programme everyone was ready for bed. I concluded the evening with a dose of Match of the Day.
Sunday 1st October
Maggi and I started the day with a visit to Pinn Medical centre for our latest covid and flu vaccinations. All went smoothly. I haven’t had any reaction from the jabs (as I write this on Monday afternoon). We came back and took the train to Kings Cross where we wandered around the area of Kings Cross Station.
Our first stop, to see the McClaren parked outside the St Pancras Hotel.
In the open spaces in Coal Ports Yard an open air market or car boot sale was in progress. They wanted £7 entrance fee so we didn’t bother to go in. However scattered around the whole area stood vintage and classic cars. Old motor vehicles don’t have any interest for me but Geoff has always been a car man who has owned more than twice the number that I have bought. He wanted to look at these vehicles.
A short walk down the Grand Union canal, past the old gas holders now converted into flats brought our walk to a conclusion. We returned to Dishoom where we had decided to have lunch. We queued for about 20 minutes before being invited to our table.
I have visited Dishoom 3 times already and I am a bit tired of the place. The menu is quite limited if you want vegetarian main dishes. The waitress made a great job of putting me off the course I had originally chosen so I went for the paneer curry. It was ok, perhaps a little better than your standard English Indian dish. One of the starters was excellent, but Geoff was totally bowled over by the food. He loved everything he tasted.
I noticed how Biddy wanted to direct our walking and where we went in all our wandering around. Maggi claimed that the canal side book shop was moored on one side of the canal when I knew perfectly well it was on the other.
After food we walked back to the station and headed home. We arrived back in time for the final part of the Ryder Cup which Europe won comfortably in the end after it looked like the Americans could achieve a miraculous comeback half way through the afternoon.
They left and we had a quiet evening at home.