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Today got off to a slightly panicked start.
 
When I received the notification email from the RPS yesterday advising me about my win, it was attached to a similar email dated 9th July, which I hadn’t received (not sure if the reason for that was an error at their end or due to the dodgy wifi here) anyway yesterday I only read the first email advising me about my win and asking me to email a high resolution copy of my photo along a few words about the photo to be published in their monthly journal. 
 
I had planned on doing that this morning but awoke to a second email advising me that the deadline for this had been Wednesday 11th July at 9am and if I wasn’t able to send the info by 4pm today, due to the impending print deadline they would have to call for the second place image to be published in the journal instead of mine!
 
Jeezy peeps! Even though it wasn’t my fault that I hadn’t received the email till after the deadline, I was mortified that they would be thinking I had received it and hadn’t bothered to reply.
 
A quick initial email soon sorted things out and I can’t thank the two RPS ladies I was dealing with enough for their kindness, patience and tenacity in trying to get hold of me (I received another two emails from them desperately trying to get hold of me whilst my reply languished in my outbox waiting for the damn wifi to do its stuff.  I would have been faster using carrier pigeon!) 
 
I sweated buckets as the high resolution file of my photo took forever to send then it took forever to receive confirmation of receipt.  Thankfully all came good in the end.  Phew!  I was ready for a gin by then and it was only 2pm!
 
Alan, Ally and Jordan headed off for the day (there is so much for Alan to do and see here)  and after a late lunch we spent the afternoon sunning ourselves at the Barn, in the company of Jeffrey.  It’s lovely to have a dog to fuss over as I am really missing Lola, but old Jeffrey brings a lump to my throat.  He’s so old and wobbly but he seems happy.  I just hope whoever owns him is taking care of him.
 
The weather forecast had been for thunder but there was none of that and just after 7pm David and I headed off out for dinner.  We had booked a table at The Masons Arms   in Knowstone for 8.15pm.  It’s about 45 minutes from where we are staying so we left in plenty of time to enjoy an aperitif before dinner.
 
The journey seemed to take longer than we thought it would and it was approaching 8.05pm as the sat nav directed us off the main road and onto one of the “maze” roads as I call them (as it’s like driving through a maze.)  We didn’t think anything off it as the pub is in a small village so it made sense that we would drive on a country road to reach it, however, minutes later we were rather flummoxed when the sat nav smugly announced You have reached your destination when we were precisely where today’s blip was taken.  You will notice there’s neither man nor beast far less a village with a wonderful pub in the vicinity.  Curses!
 
I quickly googled the pub on my phone (praying I would have a phone signal.  I did.  Hurrah!) and David entered the postcode into the sat nav whilst I rang them to let them know we would be a little later than planned! 
 
We then had to carry on this road (not a hope in hell of turning round on those narrow lanes) until we reached the next entry back onto the main road, finally arriving at the pub 10 minutes after our due time.  It turns out that when David adds an entry to the calendar on his iphone, if he includes a destination he can send it to the car and it automatically sets the sat nav for that destination.  Well, we won’t be trusting that again.  Postcode entered in the car every time from now on!  Yes Peter I know, fruit based products!
 
Anyway late-ish arrival aside, we had the most wonderful night. 
 
When we walked into the bar we were greeted by friendly locals and bar staff and three beautiful Labradors, two yellow and one black.  I was in heaven as I petted them (I am missing Lola so much, I had a lump in my throat as one of the golden labs got up and moved closer to let me cuddle him) 
 
We took our drinks into the cosy little lounge, where we were also served some delicious amuse-bouche of gazpacho, and cucumber with tuna.  A wonderful introduction to the delicious food we were about to eat, as the Masons Arms is not just a superb village pub, it owned by the wonderful chef Mark Dodson and his wife Sarah and the tiny restaurant through the back is exquisite.
 
We had one of the best meals of our lives (rated on location, food, atmosphere and service) starting with (recording this for posterity) smoked trout with Jersey Royals, radishes and a caper and lemon dressing, then David had duck breast with buttermilk potato gratin, confit leg, carrots and chard and I had fillet of beef with breaded Jacob’s Ladder, nettle puree, smoked mash, sweet peppers and green peppercorn jus, for desert we both had malted chocolate ganache, mint ice cream and honeycomb.  
My mouth is watering again just typing that!   Coffee was served with a square of orange fudge, a little tarragon and mint macaron and a sugared strawberry jelly square.  A perfect end.
 
We spoke to Mark as we were leaving and thanked him for a truly wonderful meal.  We also bought his book, which he signed for us.  It is unlikely we will ever be brave enough to attempt to cook anything from it (although having looked through it, he makes a lot of the recipes seem quite straightforward) but it is a lovely memento of the evening regardless.
 
We drove back to the Barn singing along at the pitch of our voices to a very loud Lost Soul Band, feeling very happy indeed.