Send ’em down the knacker’s

November 9th, 2005 at 12:10 am by james

horses in fountain

Two things struck me tonight. One when walking in the garden of the beautiful restaurant where I had dinner; the other just as I put half my imaginary cash onto the blackjack table later in the evening.

The thing that struck me as I wandered in the garden, having exhausted my supply of social patience for a short while, was that very many of the wonderful people I’d left back in the restaurant were very much like the spectacular sculpted horses leaping from the fountain in the centre of the garden: on closer inspection they turned out to be fibreglass shells that nobody had bothered to make the arse-end of because that was supposed to be underwater.

The second was that only by recognising that you have nothing can you hope to risk enough. Something I’d perhaps lost sight of a little in the search for my arse-end.

So a useful day. I wound up doing lots of work as it happened, but got into the sessions I needed to. Dinner was a spectacular buffet on the terraces overlooking said garden with more variety than you could shake a stick at. Highlights for me were the best smoked salmon I’ve ever had, sliced on the buffet and served with capers; similarly excellent parma ham similarly sliced; lots and lots of whitebait. With good champagne to cleanse the palette in between I ate more than I’ve eaten for a very long time. At least since breakfast.

One Response to “Send ’em down the knacker’s”

  1. badlard Says:

    sounds wonderful. good for you…ah to have an expense account (or at least others picking up the dinner tab). Nice to IM today. Best.

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