An idiots guide to an idiot: Two dinners and a battlefield walk.

A mix of three events on this blog entry. Met Paul & Kate for Sunday dinner last week, we went to the White Lion in Dunstable & very good it was too.
Paul, Kate came round here first so we drove there in one car which made sense. Paul ,Kate & I had roast beef with all the trimmings and Tara had a beetroot & feta salad, wasn't a huge choice for Tara but they could supply wheat free bread for her which was good. All the food was well cooked and prepared, I had a very nice pint of London Pride, others having soft drinks. All too full to do a pud justice I had coffee, Kate a Latte, Paul tea & Tara also had a Latte after that we called it a day there & came home. Good to see Paul & Kate, they told us about the bothy they are staying in over New Year on Exmoor....a very different NY but I'd prefer somewhere with guaranteed warmth!  We must meet up again soon. No photos I'm afraid, I did take some on my old Blackberry but it won't download them onto the PC!
Tara & I had dinner at the Bridgewater Arms in Little Gaddesen yesterday evening. It's all very Christmassy here with a real log fire an' all! Quite a snug pub though our window table could have done with being a bit warmer, it's a Greene King house that is waitress service in the restaurant. Had a pint of London Glory. Another relatively light amber coloured ale,4.1% in strength, I was driving so just the one, Tara having a Bacardi and coke.
I had a Wagyu burger. It was very good but no better than other burgers I've had to be honest, don't really know what all the fuss is about this Jap Wagyu beef is this is anything to go by. Tara had Chilli Salmon fillet with salad odds and sods. Mains were a goodly size so didn't really have room for pud so we knocked it on the head then. Got home & watched a couple of films. I'd recorded 'Starter for ten' starring James McAvoy (produced by Tom Hanks no less), a film about a student getting onto the University Challenge team and the ups and downs of   whichever bird he fancied. I thought it was a jolly little film, with a great camo by Mark Gatiss as Bamber Gascoigne however Tara fell asleep. Wouldn't watch it again but it was a reasonable film. We then watched 'Now you see me' about some magicians who pull off a bank robbery and annoy Michael Caine. I wasn't so keen on this one but Memsahib thought it the better of the two.
Generally read before going to sleep & at present reading 'Azincourt' by Bernard Cornwell, I haven't read any of his books before & am enjoying this one set in medieval times, Henry V and all that.

That leads me to days jaunt which was a very interesting guided walk around Berkhamsted Castle to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the siege of the castle by the French King Louis in 1216. It's just about to date as to when the siege happened though some allowance must be made for the use of the Julian calendar in those days before it was changed in the 16th century to the Gregorian calendar. About twenty people turned up in freezing conditions to have a very lively and informative talk by Julian Humphrys the Battlefields Trust Development Officer.
Berkhamsted Castle is somewhere that we have known for years having had picnics and walks round it many times when the boys were younger, it's a very ruinous affair now (that's nothing to do with our picnics I should add!) but there is still just enough left to get a flavour of what an imposing castle it would have once been. The faced masonry of the walls has long been robbed away in part to build a manor house nearby so all that's left is the inner core of flint and rubble, also the coming of the railways in the 1830's chopped off the original main gateway into the castle. It had two ditches ( moats by another name I think) which was rare in castle terms. The French king laid siege to it after taking both Rochester and Hertford castles. He eventually ran out of steam when the rebellious English barons who had initially joined him went back to the Royalist side. It was about an hour and a half walk though mainly it was standing listening, also had a chance to meet Laurence again who I hadn't seen for ages. I may well renew my membership of the Battlefields Trust after this as I enjoyed it so much, follow this link to find out more about them:   http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/