Heart Attack and Vine

Well, we have been back from the USA for over a week now, and I am just about back in synch. It seems that my body-clock has been affected more this time than on four previous trips to America. Tuesday last week I went to bed very early and woke bolt upright at 5.30 am. so I got up and got to work on time for a change. The drive to our new place, at Biggleswade, isn't much fun in the dark, home and back, so roll on lighter nights and mornings.

We had a quiet weekend because Ben's football match was called off as early as Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon, Ailsa and I went into Huntingdon, with a coffee on the agenda. But we got a shock when we found that Debs had closed her shop, De-Lites. Just an A4 notice on the door to thank all her customers. A victim of the competition from Costa and Starbucks no doubt. We didn't flick a coin...we don't like Starbucks, so we went to Costa.

Whilst in San Diego, we were treated to a new dish - Ceviche - defined on Wikipedia as a form of citrus-marinated seafood appetizer, popular in mainly Latin American countries like Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and Bolivia. Both finfish and shellfish are used; finfish is typically raw while shellfish is typically cooked. It's popular in the Benham household as well, so armed with a googled recipe, Ailsa set about having a go at making it. The result was brilliant, and there is some over for tonight. Only downside ??? It's not cheap to make, when fresh sea bass and avacado are included as well as shrimp.

On Sunday, and with his putter hand itching to give his new "Taylor Made" putter a proper try, I agreed with Ben that nine holes of golf would be a good idea. Good choice...we played the Manor Course at Pidley and despite three penalty strokes, I still equalled my best of 49. The first hole, played over a small lake, has often seen me put one straight into the water. Imagine my pleasure to see a poorly hit tee shot fly low and 'skim' across the surface, Barnes Wallis style....only to find as we walked to the green that the lake was frozen, and the ball had flown off the ice! Actually, it shows I am not the only one who can't hit a decent tee shot on this hole; there were four balls actually on the ice, which will no doubt sink when it melts. Highlight of my golf day was a five on the long par 5 6th. Best I had ever had before was a fortunate 7. So I was very pleased.

In the evening we watched the latest "LoveFilm" mailing - No Country For Good Men - which we watched through to the end, but not overly impressed with. You'd like it if you like blood and gore, though.

Today came the news of the death of the retired, but formerly very popular BBC sport presenter David Vine, making me wonder if Tom Waits had foreseen David's demise years ago, when he wrote and recorded the song "Heart Attack and Vine". I wondered if it would make a good newspaper headline.......but it already has ;-)