Tuesday 7 February,
2 February. Drove to the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil to Pride & Prejudice.  My host is unusually generous and books up to ten seats and takes a party, one of which provides dinner afterwards.  The play compared poorly with the last TV production I saw and it was hard to hear.  At half time in the bar I was pleased when our host led a consensus that dinner would be the next act.
Last autumn he booked three plays at the Ustinov in Bath and in each case they were excellent.  They all had the same players, one was classical, a modern translation of Eurydice, the next was a new translation of 'The Phoenix of Madrid' by Calderon da la Barca C17. That was my favourite - stylish and amusing.  Finally was another C17  by the Frenchman Marizot - also good.  The differences between Spanish and French cultures were as clear in the 1600's as they are today.  The big countries of Europe are much more than different geographies, they are different cultures with languages defining different ways of looking at things. It was clear 350 years ago and it still is.
By now I felt I knew the players and they were always very well cast.  Bath itself is a treat because if you are early there are several places to enjoy a pint and afterwards you are spoilt for choice of places to eat.

Saturday 4 February,,
A bit snow in the afternoon - that made it easy to spend a few hours cooking with a view to making something that would do for next week.  Being the end of the pheasant season I bought a brace for £5 and did a soupy stew Gordon Ramsay recipe, five root veg, mushrooms and chestnuts - very good indeed.   If a meal is good enough to look forward to at the end of the day, I don't mind if it is the same one for a few days in row.

That evening I set out to dine with good friends about ten miles away.  Getting down my track was more testing than I anticipated and after thoroughly good company, comestibles and potables I was pleased to be offered a bed for the night.  Sunday, one might have been in another country judging by the weather - all snow and ice gone but on leaving the first vehicle I saw was a new car upside-down in the road.  Glad I slept over.  My hosts, much more than is usual, can be relied upon to have a mix of interesting people and the next morning we took up on my plan to start 'literatours' - with enough ideas for me to make notes on getting home.
Sunday lunch with a good lady friend only few miles from the previous night's dinner.  If you're a singleton a family Sunday lunch is a bit of treat,especially when its done as well as this.
Monday, I was at the office all day and was asked out to dinner with my favourite wine merchant - old friends from my married days in Wiltshire.  I ate very well and drank even better.  It is time I started my spiffing stew -that will be on Tuesday.