An idiots guide to an idiot: The Alec and Laura Farewell Tour reaches it's penulatment performance.

This was a gig of two parts. On Wednesday Alec, Laura, Gary, Ellie, Oliver and Laura joined us for dinner at home. We'd asked Alec & Laura what their fave dinner was & both said steak so I went to our local butcher , a proper butcher, and got some rump steak that was absolutely delicious. My cooking didn't mullah it though by general consensus my attempt at a rare steak turned out as medium rare, a little peppercorn sauce was requested and so Tara could try it as well I used veg stock instead of beef. I didn't have any as I think a good steak just doesn't need any accompanying sauce however it all went! Tara had a piece of salmon steamed with a little smoked paprika, we all had home made 'healthy' chips ( cooked in the oven with just a little oil), fried onions and mushrooms. A great night and a great laugh!
The second part was a BBQ ( they've another to go to tomorrow night!)in honour of A&L with the usual suspects invited plus just a few of their friends. No a huge 'do' by any stretch of the imagination about 16 of us in total.
Oliver did a sterling job of working the BBQ. The food was very well cooked & delicious, also brought from our local butcher, Gary had brought over some drumsticks marinated all sorts of goodies and were very good indeed , also an interesting potato salad with a lemon twang to it and a very nice coleslaw. Ralph particularly enjoyed the sausages. Unfortunately I dropped a pack of 12 enroute to the BBQ & Ralph was alot quicker than me!
Our dear Alec had been taken down the pub for a few drinks by his boss as today was his last day until he returns.............Lets just say he was not maybe three sheets to the wind but there was quite a gale blowing him in that direction!
We all had a great evening with Ralph getting fed all sorts of things he shouldn't have been fed not surprisingly the next day he didn't eat much!
I said a few words which I believe hit the spot as some people made some very kind comments to me after. I don't mind admitting here that it was an emotional night for Tara & I & I'm not too big to say I shed a tear or two. Alec and Laura will be away a long time & of course we'll miss them like mad and worry as well. I believe everyone had a good time as certainly nobody seemed in a hurry to go which was great. We asked guests to bring a bottle which they did in abundance, Alec and Laura's friends are a really good bunch & it was a pleasure to host this get together.
I tried to take a selfie photo with everyone but unfortunately missed out Eilish & Jake, I'll get them another time! I haven't added all the photos here but they all appear on Facebook.
Dare I say a great night was had by all!