Another Safari

What a social whirl we inhabit here at Millbrooker Towers; no sooner have we celebrated Capt. John's fifty years on the planet than it's time to haul ourselves around the village again with the Safari Supper-ers.

This time around the main course was to be at Sump Towers, so The Sump and Sumpette got to choose the theme for the night; they chose "famous musicians".

The trek began at Comb-Over Villa high in the vertiginous regions of Maker Lane where Liability Meeson had slung together a very yummy soup. The expression and body language on display from yours truly in this shot is, I promise, just one of those micro-second things that happen from time to time, I wasn't remotely grumpy - it just looks that way...Famous Musicians on display included a "Simply Red""Cream" of tomato and "Sweet" chilli soup with "Red Hot Chilli Peppers" served with "Bread", and "Red Red Wine".

Next up we descended from on high and invaded Sump Towers en-masse for a delicious feast of "Meatloaf" accompanied by one of the fat and vaguely operatic Texan's records in the background. The Sump had clearly spent aeons prepping the 'loaf which had innumerable different meats in it - mmmmm.It would be a shame not to mention that, before we tucked in, Shazzerooneypoos had a minor adventure when she found a fetching hat in Sump Towers' living room, only to be told a moment or two later that it's a handbag. Yep - she really did think it was a hat. Oops.Sump Towers was also the venue on this occasion for the traditional Safari Supper toast to Auntie Jean. Here's the great moment as the glasses are raised in honour of Millbrook's favourite first cousin once removed:For anyone unfamiliar with the Millbrook glitterati, clockwise from the left around the table we have Mrs The Millbrooker, The Sump, The Sumpette (formerly known as Mrs The Sump - no she's not suddenly become single, I just like the name better), Comb-Over and Liability Meeson, Shazzerooneypoos and Dong.

Without further ado, we marched across to Dong's Pad for puds to find ourselves daintily presented with extremely toothsome "Strawberry Fields" and "Hot Chocolate", modelled here by Liability and then The Sumpette: Puds was most definitely not of the low fat variety - huzzah!

After stuffing ourselves stupid with Dong and Shazzerooneypoos' sweet fare, the troupe made its way the short distance to Millbrooker Towers for the evening's close over cheese and biccies. Mrs The Millbrooker and I offered up a cheese board with photos of assorted musical types stuck in the cheeses:We had Buddy Holly in a special heart shaped Neufchatel ("Heartbeat"); Courtney Love in a ring of something creamy and strong ("Hole"); Miles Davis in some Roquefort ("Kind of Blue"); Bruce Springsteen in a mature Camembert ("Born to Run"); Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce in a round of Boursin ("Cream") and finally George Michael in a pot of cottage cheese (work it out for yourselves).

The wine flowed freely, as did the port, and things might have got a teensy bit silly as Dong and I decided to defend The Sumpette's honour over some trumped up disagreement about whether her title should be Donna or Elle Sumpetta. The result of said matter of honour was a challenge to a duel:

The date was finally set as the 27th of March - that's at dawn on the dam with handbags, followed by a slap up breakfast at Sump Towers (kindly offered by The Sump himself).

Eventually the series of long and early shifts (and the matter of a goodly dash of wine and port) got the better of yours truly and, somewhat unedifyingly, I slumped into an all-too-public doze which my wife kindly photographed for posterity.As always, thanks to everyone who Safaris - the food and the company is of the best.