B&B&B
The Guardian published a listing of B&Bs this weekend.
I think somebody should do a B&B&B website – letting people know the child and baby policies of B&bs all round the country. It would save a lot of time and effort – if you want a weekend away, it’s a big pain trying to find somewhere to stay that will allow you to bring your baby let alone provide facilities.

I guess that means I have to do it…. Well, maybe some other time – when I’m less busy – HA HA HA.


The residents
The residents of Ashbourne Grove have been energized by the prospect of planning being given to a pub at the end of the road to extend. The bar is turning (predictably enough) from a seedy student dive into a new cocktail bar – and since it backs onto the end of our road, residents were worried that there would be a beer garden and that it would cause noise late at night.

It turns out that it won’t – there won’t be a beer garden, but several of the road’s residents are very active complainers (somebody in our road – not sure who, and I don’t really care – complained that our loft extension was too big, so the council had to come and measure it – it wasn’t too big, of course) – so a group of us – me included went around to check out the plans last night.

The guy running the new bar seemed very accommodating, although I’m sure he privately wondered why everyone was complaining about something that wasn’t going to happen. He just wanted to get the complaints removed so he didn’t have to go to community court – fair enough…

I agreed to go along, but by that time, it was clear there really wasn’t anything to complain about... still, it was interesting to see the way the dynamic of the street’s active members worked – good to observe who lead and who followed – and worth realizing that en-masse, the Ashbourne Grove mob is Quite an eloquent and reasonable mob as mobs go.

By the time the meeting had gone on for an hour, though, I was hoping it would finish so I could get home to put George to bed and make a cuttlefish salad:

1 cuttlefish cut into thin strips
1 bunch of fresh coriander
3 spring onions sliced
an inch of ginger, finely diced
a chilly de-seeded and sliced
a pack of salad leaves (I used watercress because it was reduced in summerfield)
the juice of a whole lime
a sprinkling of olive oil

Fry the cuttlefish for about 3 minutes in a hot wok – until they turn white, then combine all the ingredients. – it’s a lovely fresh, summery salad with lots and lots of flavour.