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Messing about in Boats

Wind we have in plenty, willows we lack and technically we have been messing about in ships rather than boats.

Dear Reader, I was just settling down to write this on the bus in Portsmouth as we headed to Chichester when the bus failed to start. So my Kenneth Grahame reference was lost in the activities which occurred over the intervening hours between then and now.

Short summary, to be expanded upon later...
  • Very informative tour of HMS Victory. Peter Mercuri is now taking notes on his iPod in an attempt to win a quiz. Spent time in the Action Stations building and other nautical places. Thanks to the Director of Fun for arranging, with the encoragement of Colin Jackson, I believe.
  • Extra time in Portsmouth following the bus failure while we waited for another to arrive. Some went up the Spinnaker Tour, me included. Others went bowling. Apparently bowling is not The Boss's strong suit.
  • Decamped into another, smaller coach for the ride to Chichester about 2 hours later. 
  • Noted that a box of music was missing. Then realised there were two boxes missing.  Finally tracked them down in Fareham at the second bus company's home base; thanks to the wonderful Kevin for his work in locating them on his "day off". Thanks Nick Iles for taking me to retrieve them. Thanks also to Nicholas' GPS Pamela for guidance on finding the place.
  • Cathedral this morning for a Masterclass with Sarah Baldock. Was great fun. I will always remember the bus analogy of how to start singing.
  • Lunch with Hemptons and now back to retrieve one small piece of music I left behind at the hotel this morning.  Lunch was interesting. Coronation Chicken Baguette. I had no idea what it was, but now I can tell you. Pieces of chicken mixed with sultanas and Keens Curry Powder. Does anyone know why it was called Coronation Chicken? Was it served at the Coronation as an attempt to pay tribute to the Colonials?
Must away, Evensong rehearsal soon and I want to go back and spend some more time with the Marc Chagall stained glass window in the Cathedral. More later.

Cxxx

Comments

  1. BruceJanuary 8, 2011 at 12:05 PM

    Coronation Chicken is a cold chicken dish that that is able to be prepared beforehand so that everybody including the cook would watch the Queen's coronation in 1953 and still be fed. The coronation took hours and hours. It was on TV for the first time, and certainly people standing and watching in The Mall leading down from Buckingham Palace were on their feet from about 4 am till the carriages returned to the palace well after lunch.

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  2. UnknownJanuary 8, 2011 at 2:44 PM

    The accompanying adults are very useful! Nicholas and his GPS ... John Campbell and his attentiveness to Alison and her technology ... the Thomases and looking after Annabel's gorgeous girls ... others I don't know about and everything they do.All in all we get the message that the whole journey is working well with travel (apart from 1 bus misadventure), singing and relationships between everyone. Any news on Nareen Nichingham's RSCM exam?

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  3. KevinJanuary 9, 2011 at 4:34 AM

    Bruce's account may well be right, but the generally accepted history is that the receipt was invented by Constance Spry for the real coronation banquet (for the posh people) in 1953. Aside from curry powder (whose quality and contents can obviously vary greatly), apricots in some preserved form are a key ingredient (and sultanas are definitely not). It can be surprisingly delicious: who knows, I may be inspired by this post to restore it to restore it to my culinary repertoire.

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