Fab weekend – as always – with the AV5 girls, at Janine's cottage. Kicked off this year with a trip to Chichester Festival Theatre ('Chi, darling') to see the much awaited performance of The Sound of Music! A lot of 'high on a hill was a lonely goatherd' and 'Doh a Deer' going on in the car in both directions..
AMAZING woman singing the Maria role, and ditto the Mother Superior. Absolutely fantastic and deserved their standing ovation at the end – no mean feat, given the average age of the Chi punters… Thought the chap playing Georg was a tiny bit weak and could have done with being hotter, but its pretty tough to follow in Christopher' Plummer's marching footsteps… Anyway, we even managed a cheeky picnic beforehand, avoiding the then torrential rain that battered on the theatre roof throughout..
Saturday was a busy day – went off to the Good Food Festival at Goodwood Race Course – v nice duck wrap for lunch and some pricy cakes – then on to the girls' favourite in Storrington – the antique store (several jugs (me & J), a large glass decorative bottle (Jane) and some spare knives (Clare) purchased, and then Hanwell's, the shop that sells everything under the sun..
Onwards for a walk to the local vineyard, Kinsbrook and a bottle of its finest fizz, while I snuck in a restorative kip and then drove to pick them up.
Drinks and dinner in the garden as hurrah hurrah it was actually warm enough. Tried out my white port cocktail from our Porto trip which went down a treat for all except me, obvs. Then a moroccan salmon and garden salad bits, followed by Clare's nectarine and toasted oats pud. All accompanied by lot of chatting and catching up, the best bit of all.
Cheers to J for hosting us – just a shame it couldn't be topped off with an England win on Sunday morning but hey ho, still a joy.
Sx