Wednesday 2 September 2009

After having started August with a level of determination to go on an economy drive, I seem to have eaten out in August more than in any other month in the year so far. Went for dinner with Ruth at Bella Italia last Thursday evening – much more crowded than usual due to the influx of festival-goers. I would have thought that to be in the true festival spirit they should have been up at the Rivermead site consuming greasy burgers out of a van, rather than enjoying pizza and wine in Bella Italia. Today’s festival-goers are evidently a namby-pamby lot. Afterwards went for a nightcap at Malmaison - so nice that the former Great Western Hotel has finally been converted into something after standing empty for years – hopefully it will survive in its new incarnation as a boutique hotel. The bar is a haven of subdued lighting and at-table service so something of a novelty in Reading. I remember when I had a summer job temping for the British Transport Police back in 1993 (one of my pleasanter and more interesting temp jobs) having to go down into the basement of the former GWH and collect post for them from a locker room down there – not sure what all that was about.

Went over to Henley with Ray on Sunday for a bit of a mooch. We wandered out to have a snoop at the house on Fairmile where we lived from 1997 to 2003 (though mainly at weekends in my case). When we lived there the house was badly in need of TLC (rotting windows, dampness – the bathroom ceiling in our flat once fell down as it was so weighed down by water). It and its neighbour are still owned by the Harleyford Estate, Ray’s former employer (or rather the sister company of Ray’s former employer Harleyford Golf – the estate is owned by two brothers whose relationship is such they split their assets down the middle to avoid ever having to speak to each other) but have now been renovated to within an inch of their lives, have gated entry and seem to have been renamed ‘Savill Court’ – and consequently would now be far too expensive for the likes of us. I haven’t been able to find a picture of the house as it used to be though I’m sure I’ve got one somewhere.

For lunch we went for meze at the Green Olive (eating out again) - had a gorgeous collection of dishes including a garlicky aubergine dip (ordered two platefuls) and a huge pile of deep-fried whitebait. Beats a roast any day.

Had yet another meal out this Wednesday as my parents were staying over en route to the Channel Tunnel and a two-week holiday in France, and as I was too idle to think of a creative meal to cook on a week night I booked a table at Quattro, a long-established Italian restaurant helpfully situated a mere skip from the house (in actual fact we scuttled in single file under umbrellas in pelting rain). When I first moved to Caversham my South African neighbour Nicki initially put me off Quattro by speaking disparagingly about its food and service, but IMHO the food, though not top-of-the-range, is nice enough and the service, though not overly effusive, is perfectly friendly and polite. They don’t do the bouncing up to your table, usually just after you’ve forked a large helping of food into your mouth, to ask “Is everything all right with your meal?” in perky tones before skipping off without waiting for an answer – but personally that doesn’t bother me too much.

On a last food-related note: we have upped the bunnies' food intake following the shock discovery of their weight loss - they are now getting twice the amount of pellets in the morning and the odd grape in between times. Ruth has been trying to assure Harley that his bottom is getting fatter, but I'm not sure as yet. The extra food doesn't seem to have dimmed Lola's appetite for plaster and wallpaper though - if I didn't know she'd been 'done' I'd suspect she was pregnant.