Bob goes to Chinatown

As I think everyone can agree, it would be a great failure to spend any length of time in an English village and not visit the pub.  So (dutifully) on Friday after class, we headed to ours (note: these two events, class and pub attendence, have no direct correlation. . . yet, anyway.)

Adrian, me, and Jenny 

 And across the table: So Yun, Ko-Yu, and Jhen Wei (sorry about the flash, girls!  My photography is still decidedly amatuer)

We had some very tasty cider, which is something I haven't tried much at home, but here seems to be something of a specialty - very tasty stuff!  The pub is called "Froggies" because it's run by a Frenchman, who together with most of his staff stopped us on our way out to welcome us to the village and ask where everyone was from/etc (it's pretty obvious who the new flute students are every year here - everyone else has been around for ages!).

On Saturday the Boxalls, WHO ARE VERY LOVELY PEOPLE (thanks for the warning, Sue!), came to our house to teach us whist, an English card game (those of you who've read any Austen/obsessively watched Pride and Prejudice will recognize the name).  Fortunately for me, it turns out whist is a lot like hearts, but with a revolving trump and old-fashioned gender roles.  Since we were short on men, I volunteered to be "Bob" for the game - and the nickname seems to be sticking. . . !!

Once a month, there's a "whist night" at the village hall, and as new transplants, we are expected to put in a few appearances (the Lutherans in my readership will be very familiar with this scenario).  Our whist debut is this Friday - wish us luck!

Sunday brought us a lovely garden party at Trevor and Dot's for the village to come formally meet the six of us.  As I hoped, lots of tweed.  We had Bucks Fizz (mimosa in a bottle, how could that be bad?) and a preponderance of nibblies.  Everyone was very kind.  The unofficial purpose of the party was to clue us in to who it's alright to accept lifts from while walking in the village.  Sue also informed us on the sly that there's a village member for every character in Vicar of Dibley - and now I am determined to match everyone up!

After the party concluded, we went back up to London for the afternoon/evening to hear Jacques Zoon's recital at the Royal Academy of Music.

Exhibit A:  Royal Academy of Music 

The recital was in their beautiful Duke's Hall, which actually looks like a duke's hall, and probably was named for an actual duke as well!  J.Z. played the Bach A major on a wooden flute he made himself (for you flutist-types, it's made from a German baroque bore and minimal silver mechanism to make it a bit easier to play), a sonatine by the Dutch composer Geraedts (really wonderful, lesser known piece), and an arrangement of the Brahms Violin Sonata no. 2, op 100 that Zoon did himself.  The Brahms was my favorite - he pulled off both the arrangement and the performance really well, so well you didn't miss the violin at all.

After the recital we were starving (the morning's nibblies were by that time a distant memory) and headed to "The Crispy Duck" in Chinatown for a feast of epic proportions.  It. Was. AMAZING.

A stuffed Jenny and Adrian outside paradise

 How do I describe this meal?  I can't.  It was too freaking wonderful.  Fresh seafood, steamed vegtables in a divine broth, perfectly cooked rice, crispy noodles to die for - I'm salivating just thinking of it (at 10:00am).  We all ate so much it was hard to move normally afterwards - but SOOO worth it.  

Our Taiwanese contigent smiling at the entrance to Chinatown

I think this group talks about food almost as much as we talk about the flute.  I have found my people.

Then back to work on Monday.

Love to everybody!

Kristin