i married a maniac...

So we invite Richard and Neia around for a meal at châteaux cuttsy, this sounded like a good idea at the time BUT there are a couple of things, which weigh upon us in advance. Firstly, as landlord and landlady of our local boozer they can drink, in fact I suspect Richard has medals for it; it’s going to be a large one. Secondly, said boozer (Prince of Wales, Ampthill) is a ‘gastropub’ it serves damned fine food, Richard and Neia eat professionally cooked food every night. So it is with magnanimous generosity that I let Kathy cook whilst I take on the task of drinking with our guests (I’m good like that you see).

As always Kathy (with a little help from Jamie Oliver) is on top form, we have Madagascan prawns, melon soup, scallops, we have a roast fillet of beef wrapped in Serrano ham with porcini mushrooms, we have cheeses from all over Europe, we have tiramisu, vodka jelly and even home made fudge. In short we have a gastronomic extravaganza.

Not wanting to let the side down I ensure the imbibitions (good eh?) match the food, the four of us take to the task with professional aplomb, we drank beer, we drank, liquors, we drank port and we drank 4 bottles of red and a bottle of white, I did not open the water.

A good night was had.

The maniacal wife?
Oh yes, turns out that Richard suffers with vertigo, as does Kathy. During the light hearted convivial conversation Kathy admits that whenever she is high up and close to an edge she is drawn to jump (apparently a common symptom) HOWEVER in a vernaculously vertiginous moment the admission was delivered. The stronger urge though is actually to push me over the edge! I’ve never been scared of heights but I sure am now scared of wives!