Level 2 Chi Kung.

One of those rare occasions when we use a car – one hired for the morning from the car club we belong to – reminds me how good it is not to own one the rest of the time! Driving is by far the most efficient way to get to Jack’s school, but now that I am hardly ever in cars, the motion sickness is pretty bad in heavy traffic. A good meeting with the new deputy head, to plan for a smooth transition to a new school when Jack turns 16 next year. By the end of the meeting – which took over two hours – I was starving, and suggested to Nick that we have lunch on the way home. I then enquired innocently as to whether we might be in the right part of town for Odette’s. Nick was initially dubious: Odette’s tends to be rather spendy in the evening – but I pointed out that they do a very reasonable set menu at lunch time, plus with Monique in Thailand we haven’t been out for ages. He was (as usual) not hard to persuade! Fabulous mushroom soup (oh, what a symphony of subtle flavours), poached salmon with lightly curried mussels (surprisingly yummy) and then chocolate mousse for Nick and caerphilly with bara brith and quince cheese for me. Hit traffic on the way home and were very slightly late for Dashi’s bus (yikes!). Did some admin then headed out to collect Katie from after school club. Afterwards Katie and I headed straight to a restaurant for our monthly meal out together (that Katie instigated in November). We are on a quest for penne as good as Carluccios and are working our way around the Italian restaurants in the village. This time we tried Bianco 43. Katie pronounced the penne acceptable but my bruschetta was dreadful. Hey ho, the search continues.