A great success ...

... even if I do say so myself.

I still had a lot to do in preparation for the arrival of my music group mates for what I'd advertised as a Britten Bonanza, a celebration of the great composer the centenary of whose birth was on 22nd November. We devoted the following to his music when we met for our weekly music session, but today was my own initiative, and was also an opportunity to repay some of the hospitality I'd been given by other group members.

The main event in terms of food was beef cheek with white bean purée, button onions and sautéed pear. As with so many of these recipes that seem so straight-forward when you read through them, this dish ended up taking much more time to prepare than I'd expected. It's just as well that I got up at 6:30 am to make a start! Anyway, the meat was in the oven for its slow cooking by 9:30, and the other elements were sorted two hours later. That still left bits and pieces of last-minute shopping to attend to (including wine which I'd been unable to get last night because of being too late to catch the offie before it closed (and the sale of alcohol isn't allowed until 12:30 pm on Sundays, so that was cutting it fine enough with people due to arrive at 1:45.

Once again, as I so often do when hosting the music session, there was no sign of panic when the first guest arrived. Glasses of bubbly and a selection of savoury nibbles where ready and waiting, conversation got going right away, and we sat down bang on scheduled time at 2:30 for the fist item on our Britten agenda. This was Benjamin Britten - Peace and Conflict, a docudrama about the composer's schooldays and the development of the pacifism which was a lifelong element in his makeup.

Food was served after that, accompanied with many oohs and aahs from my four guests, who were much taken by the beef cheek dish and even more so by the panna cotta. There was much discussion and analysis of the film (about 20 minutes too long was the general consensus), and then it was time for coffee and the second item on the musical agenda, which was a viewing on Blu-ray of the 50th Anniversary performance in Coventry Cathedral of Britten' magnificent War Requiem.

After this thrilling and shattering experience there was a gradual winding down, with more discussion and commentary. I got the house back to myself at 9:45 after a hugely successful and enjoyable day. When they left, I put my feet up and took this, the only photo of the day, with the camera on the coffee table and the window behind the TV set lit up by the next-door neighbour's recently installed motion-sensing security light.