I say, through the snow – we had originally planned to walk. However, our cat Echo has a habit of thnking she’s a loyal dog when we walk anywhere and tends to follow us. Last time we tried to toddle to the pub we got within 50 metres and she refused to go any further, meaning we had to turn round and go back (within having even sniffed a bevvy) lest she get lost. So it was safer to take the car. Sorry environment!

Anyway, long story short, brilliant dinner and great to have someone else deal with all the cooking/cleaning up. I had butternut squash veloute to start. Basically, very very thick home made soup. Nom. Then venison for the mains – I’ve not had venison in years! Finally, some sort of strawberry creme brulee thingy that was also delicious. And of course, it was all followed up with nibbles for the rest of the evening – Twiglets, After Eights, all those must haves :o)

Yep, I’ve been rubbish at blogging of late. I have all the usual excuses – pick the one you prefer.

On Christmas Eve, we chauffered our friends Dee and Richard for their wedding. A Christmassy spectaular, with ‘Sleigh Ride’ as part of the service and balloon model reindeer on all the tables. It was a brilliant day, fantastic to see everyone and special to have been able to contibute a favour rather than a traditional wedding gift.

Speaking of favours and gifts, every reception attendee was met with a goody bag. Lovely Christmassy bits in them, but I won’t spoil the secrets within.

Another great bit of fun for the tables was the introduction of a ‘pass the parcel’ only with instructions on who should open the next layer rather than relying on music, i.e. the person with the smallest shoe size, the person with the shortest hair etc. I think our table pretty much trampled over everyone’s attempts at doing the loudest animal noise.

Also, the wedding contained probably the best first dance I have ever seen. You’ve watched the videos of people dancing down the aisle, people re-enacting Dirty Dancing, people slow dancing only to break into Mc Hammer’s ‘You Can’t Touch This’. Rich and Dee not only acted out clips from at least 30 songs, they’d managed to construct it so as to tell the story of how they met. Brilliant.

Rich and Dee’s first dance

All Bar One – paint every number over your top over and over again, except the number 1
Anchor
Bat and Ball
The Black Cap
The Blind Beggar – host to 10,000 London cabbies, all seemingly present at the Kray shoot out.
Boathouse
Bricklayer’s Arms – brickie
The Bright Star
The Butcher
The Castle
Cat and Fiddle
Charlie Brown’s
The Chequers – black and white dress
Cock and Bull – oh, behave.
The Compasses
Cricketers
Cross Keys
The Crown – Beefeater
The Devil’s Punchbowl
Dirty Dick’s – Dick Turpin
Dog and Bear
Dog and Duck
The English Rose
The Fisherman’s Arms
Flame – gay pub in Luton
The Fox
Fox and Hounds
George and the Dragon – think Saint George in his knight phase
The Globe
The Grapes
Green Man – meant to be a spirit of the woods; with modernisation, now the Green Giant who sells sweetcorn
The Halfway House
The Highwayman – Dick Turpin
Hog’s Head
Hope and Anchor
The Horseshoe
Hungry Horse
The Jolly Sailor
King’s Arms/Head – choose a king
Leaky Cauldron
Lord Nelson
Man in the Moon – think the Mighty Boosh
Nag’s Head
The Phoenix
Pig and Whistle
Pink Punters
Prince of Wales
The Queen Vic – Queen Victoria
Queen’s Arms/Head – choose a queen
The Railway Tavern
Red Dragon
Red Lion
Robin Hood
Rose and Crown
Sherlock Holmes – the famous detective
Slug and Lettuce
The Smugglers
Three Broomsticks
Three Tuns
Unicorn
White Bear
White Hart
White Horse
White Lion
The Winchester – go as Shaun of the Dead
The Woolpack – sheep