A taste of St Leonards Road

If there's one thing that we both miss in France it's a good curry. Jan makes curry, from scratch, and it's good, but I particularly miss that authentic curry restaurant taste that is impossible to find where we live. A couple of weeks back I saw reference to curry mixes that you could buy online and we bought a few to try. Blow me but I think that they're really good. So good that if I closed my eyes I could swear that I was eating at the Viceroy on St Leonard's Road in Windsor. This place became our regular Monday night haunt after work in times past. Monday was the only day that I could pick Jan up from work and as we left her office at 18.15 the smell of curry was so enticing that we succumbed and got into the habit of having a curry every Monday evening before going home. We've maintained that habit here, usually eating any leftover weekend meats. We became such regulars that they started sending us bloody Christmas cards. Grief, my mouth is watering as I write.
Anyway, try this site. Lee will look after you and I suggest you get a few different ones in to try. So far we've tried the Goan Fish Curry and the Vegetable Jalfrezi and the next on my list is the Chicken Karahi. The medium hot is just right. They're all made in India so you can't get more authentic than that. Recommended.

A nice surprise

Mum rang this afternoon to say that she was fed up with the weather in England and fancied some time in the sun. After a flurry of activity, arranging flights from the UK and Girona (for us), we booked a week at a large hotel in Tenerife. It's not the sort of hotel that Jan and I (not pictured above) would normally choose, but mum offered to pay. When someone else pays, you do as you're told! Thanks mum.

***

Unable to stand me anywhere near her beloved kitchen, or watch me mess up simple dishes, Jan cooked dinner last night. It works every time!

Barcelona

A small note of caution. I usually use the built in spell checker to correct my typing errors. But because I´m logged in from Spain on a Spanish machine the spell checker, thinking that I´m typing Spanish, highlites every word, so I´m having to rely on proof reading. So der.

Some time ago Ben (that´s Jan's eldest son), booked us into an Egyptian restaurant for arguably the worst meal that any of us had ever eaten. I remind him from time to time, it keeps him on his toes. Anyway last night, ever the thoughtful host, he had booked us into an Italian restaurant. It was an excellent choice and they were offering something very different. Da Greco, Paseo de Gracia, 116, 08008 Barcelona 93 218 65 50 is a stylish and very busy restaurant. The food was excellent with some nice twists but what was new and interesting was that a small plate of what anybody ordered was, additionally, brought to the table for the others to sample. It was such a simple and inexpensive idea that offers diners the opportunity to sample more of the menu. Highly recommended.

***

We love Barcelona. As long as you take sensible anti theft measures it´s a wonderful place. Lively, vibrant (if that isn´t the same thing) and always full of surprises. It helps enormously that we have Ben and Paula to show us around because we see and experience so much more. Particularly when it comes to two of our favourite pastimes, eating and shopping. I don´t suppose you´d ever noticed that? This afternoon we got both, in one hit. Diagonal Mar is a huge shopping centre where the boulevard Diagonal hits the sea. Being a modern (yeah right - Ed.) man I don´t mind shopping. Being a (fat - Ed.) modern man I love eating and Barcelona is the place to eat. There´s so much choice of every nationality and from every area of Spain. One little thing to get used to is that dining out starts much, much later than we are used to. For instance, because we had a late breakfast, we didn´t decide to eat something until about 16.00, so we ate outside on the roof terrace of the shopping centre. The place was buzzing and all the retaurants were busy. We ate at Sagardi Euskal Taberna, Avda Diagonal 3, 08019, 93 356 04 76. This place specialises in food from the Basque country, pintxos (tapas) being their speciality. Very good it was too. You choose your pintxos from the bar and, as everyone has a toothpick holding the delicasy to the bread beneath, they just count up the sticks at the end. On top of that, the waiters come round separately offering you hot dishes which are impossible to refuse. If Jan and I had been on our own we´d never have come across this place and missed out on this delight. Excellent.

What's your surname?

If you ever had the slightest doubt about Wales, or Cardiff in particular, think again. Look at the fun you can have. Never have so many people with the same surname had so much fun. It even headlined that internationally famous and talented person, Grace Jones. Unfortunately Tom Jones couldn't be there, because he's not called Jones. Unless, that is, you spell Jones, W-o-o-d-w-a-r-d. And they broke a world record to boot. Gosh, I'm so envious, I wish I'd been there, it sounds like they all had a great time.

***

So there we are sitting at the computers this morning, when I lent over Jan's shoulder.

"What are you doing my love?" I said.

"Booking your birthday present for next year," she said. "How do you feel about going to Rome for a few days next February, for the grand total of 50 euros return?"

It would have been churlish to mention that my birthday is in January and she wasn't going to spend much, so I said "Do you mean 50 euros each?"

"No, it's 25 euros each," she said.

It transpired that Jan had really wanted to go to Morocco, but mindful of current problems had decided that being killed by the Mafia had more appeal. At least you would die with a good meal in your belly. Rome is my favourite city and Ryanair have just opened their French hub in Marseille, an hour and a half away, from where you can fly cheaply all over the place.

It's great to have little treats to look forward to. Isn't she nice?