Two Views

Today is a day of two views. This is the view from where my desk is now in the study. The window is boarded up awaiting its new sashes (due on Tuesday) and we'll be having karaoke up here in about 8 hours time. The room is almost empty - in a few moments I'll be turning off my PC (when the music file copies to our XBox Media Centre are complete) and moving it out of the way.

Yesterday was totally taken up with party preparations. We moved things, we cleaned things, we made signs to help people over the idiosyncracies of the house (like the light switch for the downstairs loo being outside and round the corner, and the fact that the hot tap in the bathroom has to be turned clockwise for "on"). Paul spent the afternoon playing with our new pressure washer, cleaning the algae and dirt off the deck and the front path so none of our guests will break any legs. We didn't know any of the stone had a colour other than muddy green! The postman will be very happy!

Around 5.30 Annie came round to wire up the karaoke and we began copying files to the XBox, which will provide the music in the lounge through the surround-sound system. But the most important part of yesterday was testing how well the Jennings had settled, and this is the second - rather more welcoming - view I wanted to share with you.

The view in the dining room. Paul and I tried a glass last night and the beer is perfect. Crystal clear and with a lovely nutty hoppiness that you can only get from real ale, and then only at its best when it's gravity fed. There's another sign on the front of the barrel now, warning guests not to tip it. Our student parties were well known for impatient drunkards tipping the barrel once it got past halfway to increase the flow. They ended up with pints that were half yeast (we know - we cleared them away the next day) and presumably hangovers that were more than half bad! If we can keep the barrel still, we should be able to extract almost all its 72 pints in a drinkable state.

This morning we erected the gazebo, and I've just finished cooking up a stockpot full of our traditional chilli which we'll be serving with baked potatoes in the time-honoured style. That will now steep until around 8pm when I'll put the light under it again to get it fired up in time to eat. I've made it quite mild in deference to sensitive tastes, but we will also be deploying the world famous Blair's chilli sauces which Mary Sue brought over from Ottawa a couple of years ago. We have four varieties from the mild Jalapeno sauce to the almost inedible "Sudden Death" so all tastes are catered for :o)

See you on the other side!