The Stratford Pimm's® Trials

Rosie and I have decided, during our summer holidays of nothing-ness, to test out all the bars and restaurants of Stratford-upon-Avon. Seeing as she's been too busy revising to get out much and I've been.. too busy juggling kids and houses to get out much. So in the last week, we've set about our evenings trying out Pimm's in the local pubs. Of course, had it been over the course of a night we'd have been on the floor and probably not able to tell the difference between Simon Cowell's pee and a glass of Pimm's, so it's just as well we've spread out our taste-tests.

Let's start with the basics. According to the Pimm's advert which cunningly incorporates people dressed up as fruit and dancing overzealously down a street, a summer Pimm's drink should contain a bit of everything of the following: Ice. Lemonade. Orange. Mint. Cucumber. Strawberry. And of course, a 50ml measure of Pimm's. On with the trials!

Bonus points for our Pimm's taste test:
- A fancy glass
- Straw added in by bar staff
- Shaped ice
- Cocktail umbrella
- Fruit on rim of glass
- Crazy coloured people singing the Pimm's tune
- Fireworks display as the glass is passed to you
- Any form of Freebies.


Pimm's 1.
Before a trip to the cinema on Sunday evening, we decided to sit in the Picture House Cinema Arty-farty bar and enjoy some Pimm's. This proved more of an investment as we were charged £4.00 per drink, served up in a narrow beer glass and contained no fruit and no straw. EXTRA Minus points for the slow barman who spent more time flipping his peroxide fringe back and forth. Should have thrown the drinks back at him! I've also recently been informed that Pimm's comes in three different 'flavours' - Pimm's mixed with either rum, vodka or gin, hence the Numbers on the bottle (e.g. 'Pimm's No.1') which up until now I'd never paid any attention to. But after knowing this valuable piece of info, I was able to taste the strong rum in this drink which ruined the delightfulness of Pimm's rather. If I wanted rum, I'd have ordered it!

However, by chance we'd walked into a night of music in the bar, so technically there WAS singing going on, although no necessarily the Pimm's theme tune... But for a pleasant evening of music, we'll definitely go back. Plus we were able to take drinks into the cinema. Score: 2 cucumbers out of 5. Not a great show (but the movie itself was brilliant)!

Pimm's 2.
After the cinema we took a detour on the way home and found ourselves at Hole in the Wall/Bar Room Bar. There we ordered two Pimm's - each £2.80 - which included cucumber cubes and a token slice of lemon. HAS NO ONE SEEN THE CRAZY PIMM'S ADVERT?? IT HAS COLOURED PEOPLE! Rating: 3 cucumbers. Price was excellento, but if I'd wanted that much cucumber in my drink I'd have ordered a salad.

The next day...

Pimm's 3. 
Rosie and I met for a very enjoyable lunch at Cox's Yard during the stress of yet ANOTHER moving day, so once again treated ourselves to PIMM'S. It was hot, summery, I was wearing flipflops which happens once-in-a-lifetime, and Pimm's tends to round up all the happiness and blissfulness of summer into a chilled drink. Cox's Yard is definitely a tourist trap, but one of my newfound favourite places in Stratford. Love love love! (And Pimm's pimm's pimm's!)

 

I was also very pleased to see that the bar at Cox's actually had an official Pimm's fruit tray, which consists of a long storage box with individual compartments to hold each - AND EVERY - bit of Pimm's fruit from the mint leaves to the strawberries. In case you can't read the photo, or got distracted by the mouth-watering picture of Cox's Pimm's beside, a glass costs £3.75, and a '3 pint jug' (a Pimm's Pitcher) £15.25 - the latter I feel is rather a tad too pricey, particularly if you get onto our Wetherspoons experience below. Rating: 4.5 cucumbers. We definitely had 'all the trimmings', and we even had straws put in for us, which, judging by the failures of the last two bars, is a bit of an achievement.

Pimm's 3. 
We figured a good place to have started with - to mark out a 'standard' - would have been Wetherspoons. There is ALWAYS a Wetherspoons wherever you go. Not to mention good value for money, picture menus for the children (YOU GOTTA THINK OF THE CHILDREN!), and by total chance and luck, the place where everyone else our age in Stratford hangs out. I'd started to wonder WHERE THE HELL everyone was! No straw, and a pitiful lemon and lime, but a good chilled atmosphere. Despite the fact it was Wetherspoons. Suitable for anybody in winter wanting to pretend it's summer. Rating: 4 cucumbers.

 Where are the fireworks and belly dancers??

 

Very good priced, but not a classy night out.

It can't have been all that bad as a couple of nights later we were back and ordering a REALLY good priced-pitcher of Pimm's, costing £6.90. This was after a very disappointing trip at The Encore... (keep reading!)

Pimm's 4.

The benefit of doing a Pimm's trial all in one go is that by the time we'd have hit The Encore, we wouldn't have had enough money anyway to afford these. NINE POUNDS FIFTY!!!! NINE POUNDS FIFTY FOR TWO DRINKS! I think this is APPALLING! Extra EXTRA minus pounds for the abominable prices! My temper was somewhat eased out after finally being able to relax into one of the absolutely fabulous Zebra armchairs I've always seen yet never tried... Truly exquisite, I'll buy FOUR. 

So, what is included in the £4.75 drink? Well, we did get not-one-but-two straws, and a range of fruit including an unexpected raspberry, and Rosie seemed to think it tasted particularly good until I said that 'Pimm's is Pimm's...' and until we went on to Wetherspoons for the pitcher which was stronger and cheaper! But if Rosie can taste the difference then I'd better add on an extra point. Rating: 3.5 cucumbers. Stylish setting, scandalous prices! 

  

 The price won't have us coming back for more... But the chair, the chair!! 

Setting an example.

And so not with a fizzle but with a bang, here's how the experts do it. This was the first evening in my new house, so please excuse the lack of straws, herb garden containing fresh mint and a room of belly dancers or something equally as carnival-istic, but visualise a pretty damn good Pimm's: a heap of MIXED and Pimm's-RELATED fruit at the top (including strawberries), the froth of fresh and chilled lemonade all mixed with an estimated measure of Pimm's. (Newby said a capful was 50ml but moving house is such a hassle I was beyond caring!)

My favourite place for Pimm's must be Cox's Yard for a laid back summer evening with friends. I still can't get over their scanners as well - there is no need for notepads or pens there, all the staff and waitresses carry small scanners and books of barcodes, so anything you order, be it food or drink, they just scan the code which send it automatically through to the tills and the kitchen! Neat, huh? Wetherspoons was amazing value and a good place for randomly bumping into people you haven't seen for ages... or saw just yesterday. But good student digs in the small town that is Stratford. Worst Pimm's is the rum-ridden rip-off from the Picture House Cinema bar, and priciest goes to The Encore (no encore this time!), but I wouldn't object to one of their Zebra chairs for the same price as a Pimm's! 

La Vie Parisienne

Oh my goodness. WOW. So much to tell! 

Yesterday I forced myself out the house to endure another Malesherbes Music concert. The spanish accoustic guitar was surprisingly lovely - i was beginning to think that the guitar was just an awful instrument with the exception to Lindsay Lohan's band in Freaky Friday! But this guitar has now fuelled a desire to watch The Mask of Zorro again! :) However, serenity was ruined when an old man came to play the viola, and at first I thought he must have been a beginner! But as he progressed it turned out he wasn't an old man refuelling his desire to learn the viola, but to describe the performance in a word? MYOSHI. It wasn't Myoshi (Chostakovitch and Jongen for those particularly interested), but it was verging onto that. I.e. utter calamity and note bashing. 

Came home, argued with the cleaner... Turns out what really ruffles her feathers is when I walk out the door whilst she's talking. It was a classic Eastender's scene, me slamming the front door whilst she's squawking French at me, and then yanking the kitchen windows open to fire more French babble at me whilst I walk out and slam the gate (they are HEAVY doors!). 

After getting the girls from school, we all went out again for the evening to meet Caroline in Paris. YES - PARIS. I drove (this time, knowingly) through Paris. i am so proud! I've been told that if you can drive round the 10-lane car-mash-up that is named l'Arc de Triomphe, you can drive anywhere. And I made it. Driving up the Champs Elysees is like going up the big hill on a roller coaster - unsure of what you'll get once you get to the highest point! The lights were so pretty, we drove round Notre Dame, past the Louvre (I had no idea how MASSIVE it is until yesterday evening), right through the centre of Paris. It was INCROYABLE. Definitely there in my list of top ten memories of Paris! For those who have a rough idea of Paris, we were heading up to the 17ieme, which is the top left-hand corner of Paris (we live just outside the periphique on the bottom right-hand side). Caroline very kindly (and surprisingly) took us all out with some of her friends to go to the Theatre! It was my first french Theatre experience, but so amazing and brought back all the memories of going to the theatre as a child, as the room was really grandiose, with galleries, boxes, gold lights, big curtains on the stage... We went to see 'La Vie Parisienne' written by Jacques Offenbach. I didn't understand much of it, and couldn't work out a story line (everyone seemed to be in love with everyone else, so there was no clear relationship/romance going on), but it was fun nonetheless! 

 

 

14, Bld de Strasbourg 75010, Metro: Strasbourg Saint Denis / Château d'eau

In other news, I received ANOTHER unconditional offer from a university - this time Brighton university! I'm so happy! And in not-so-great news, I have used up my pink Domestos. :( I have another bottle of Domestos to get me through until February, but the bottle is not a hot-pink colour. I guess the very special things in life are rare! :P

A Lunchtime Concert

String music. A cellist resembling Quasimodo. A CELLO! (Sweet love.) Pretty chamber music to start with. Unfortunately, these sweet symphonies didn't last long. 

I wasn't warned about the Miyoshi. If you repeatedly bashed a Chinese shi'tzu against a wall by it's ears while yowling lines from the Qu'ran for the first time, or gave a toddler with Aggressive Personality Disorder a hammer and a piano meanwhile strangling someone with a tape measure, we'd have repeated the Miyoshi performance. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Afterwards I check my vitals. No gushing blood from ears, my eyeballs are still in place, no uncontrollable vomitting or spleen explosions. I am surprised that the only effects that this so-called 'music' has created is a migraine and an intense fear of short-haired crazy violinists wearing halter-necks. I had my hands over my mouth - not only in shock - but to stop my inner self screaming out in tortured pain. 

WHY? WHY? Why would anyone want to listen to this... this sporadic CATERWAUL, let alone PLAY IT? I think Mozart's bones just broke out into an epileptic fit. If you had to represent several simultaneous Strobe machines in the form of sound, you'd play Miyoshi. I think the fact I didn't run out in the middle of this terrorising performance was due to the fact it temporarily paralysed my legs. I hope Catie wasn't too terrorised either and made it home without collapsing from post-traumatic shock. 

Salle Cortot, 78, rue Cardinet, 75017, Métro Malesherbes

This does have a happy ending!

Oh my goodness, it will be a miracle if I make it to Saturday morning alive and still in one piece! This week has been HELL. As a karma-believer, this is definitely a sign though that Christmas will be absolutely fantastic, I'll get everything I've ever wanted, carpet under my feet, a nice bed, see all my friends and nothing will go wrong. I'm holding onto that thought. 

So YESTERDAY. Wow. The ULTIMATE 'worst Wednesday'. 8.00, driving the girls to school. Come back home and spend half an hour searching for a parking space. 10.30, picking one girl up (I can't even remember which one!). Return home and spend just as long looking for gap to park the car. 11.20, picking up the next one from school. Driving round the block several times for a space to wedge the car in. Then THIS is where things got really rough. 1.30, drive Margot to her school detention. Petrol light comes on. 2.00, Juliette to Tennis. Round the block twenty times looking for a goddamn parking slot. 3.00 Pick up Margot from school and drive to Tennis, return and drive round the block looking for pavement space to mount the car on. 4.00 Marie and friend want to go ice skating early. I want a holiday in New York, a petite chien and a wardrobe of Louboutins. We don't all get what we want. Unfortunately, Marie does get what she wants. So Ice Skating, with a stop off for petrol on the way. Her friend asks me annoying, idiotic questions all the way there. Return home, drive round the block several times before parking in front of the neighbours front gate. 15 minutes later the doorbell rings and it's the neighbour kindly asking to move my car - just temporarily. I look at my clock and realise it's time to go anyway to collect Juliette and Margot from Tennis. Collect the girls from tennis at 5, return home, ram-rade the car into a smallest gap halfway down the road. 5.30-6, William asks me to do some errands. Who am I? The errand-boy? I do them anyway, which results in me walking to the key-copier place three times, as William didn't give me enough money the first time, and then after the second decided he needed two copies of the same key. 6.30, collect Marie and friend from Ice Skating. They both refuse to come because they want to wait for 'Pere Noel'. When is he coming? They don't know. I should have told them he didn't exist. Now that would have put a smile on my face! I sit in the car for an hour and a half, stressing, ranting, shouting at everything, and then half-sleeping. My head is actually throbbing and my eyes are being held in their sockets my my closed eyelids. I dream of floating away to a clean white space where there are no screaming kids. I love how William thinks it's ok for them to stay as long as they want to see Father Christmas - it's not as if I've had a shit day at all, whilst he's stayed at home the entire day and watched me run around like a headless chicken.

8.00 I walk back into the ice rink place, glad to see that everyone's gone and they've had to wait for me. Good. They bloody deserve it. We get home, drive round the block umpteen times before I give up and park it in the one space furthest away. I look forward to the added stress of running to the car already late for school in the morning. I collapse into bed and I'm out like a light. 

This morning was not much better. It started at 8.30 with Juliette banging on my door telling me we were late. Very late. I sit up instantly, and the sudden realisation that an hour and a half ago, I'd switched my alarm off comes to me. Shit. We  make it to school for 9. Saturday feels like a life time away. Obviously this Christmas is going to be SO good, that this week needs to be crap just to balance it out. Juliette finishes school at 3. I can't be bothered to argue, so after seeing another music recital at Malesherbes, I race back to collect her. This evening, as I'm cooking tea, Margot presents the dreaded Bread and Butter pudding to me. There is no way I can get out of this one. Unsurprisingly, I'm expected to make the whole thing, whilst she does something equally as school-related and important... such as... checking Facebook and updating her status. Like I said, very important. The recipe sucks, so I ad-lib, toast the bread instead of fry it, and don't add as much milk - I'm still scarred for life from those school dinner puddings where the bread is drowning in milk and glob. When I pull it out of the oven, it looks a masterpiece. Finally, something has gone right. Like Julie says in 'Julie and Julia' - ' I love that after a day when nothing is sure, and when I say "nothing" I mean nothing, you can come home and absolutely know that if you add egg yolks to chocolate and sugar and milk, it will get thick. It's such a comfort.'. 

I'm still baffled however as to why it's called Bread and Butter pudding, as I didn't use butter at all... 

Then, to absolutely top the evening off, and a sign that everything will be FINE, and there's only one more day to go, I got another offer from a University. And I'm so happy! And so suddenly my day has been WONDERFUL, and I'm really excited about tomorrow! :D

Also, if anyone's feeling happy and Christmassy, DEFINITELY check out Jason Mraz's version of 'Winter Wonderland'. Omg, I can't stop humming it! (Thank you, Sarah Smythe!)

Wednesday

I'm ill. :( 
Juliette had a sore throat/cough, and so look who was next to get it! It's so 'lovely' that the one time they actually care about germs is when they're coughing away and DON'T want cough-germs on their hands. And I was awake again at 5.30 this morning. Well, it felt like HOURS before that, until I FINALLY decided to check my phone just in case it was 9am and we'd all slept in, and it was 5.30. Today though, I wasn't 'bouncing around'. It felt more like I was slowly dying in bed and getting through boxes of tissues. URGH. The week before I go home. 

Yesterday was awesome (despite being ill) - I went to Chatelet to buy a Christmas Present, and then walked from Chatelet across Paris to Malesherbes for a music concert at the Music School, which was a LOT better this time. Although I still don't understand why the musicians look so OLD!  Professors perform too, but don;t they have ANY students??! This time is was a violinist performing with her accompanist, and although I was a bit weary of the contemporary pieces (L.Janacek), the more classical ones were incredible. To my disappointment though, I discovered that there are no cellists in the January program. WHAT is the world coming to??? 

Salle Cortot, 78, rue Cardinet, 75017, Métro Malesherbes

Yesterday afternoon, Margot leapt into the car and jargled out a bunch of rapid-French, and I amazed myself by understanding what she was on about after she'd repeated it once! Her English tutor had given them all an English recipe for a pudding. The way she said 'poo-deeng' I understood she probably didn't know what it meant, so spent ages trying to explain how 'dessert' in French is 'pudding' in English, and then I asked her what the pudding recipe was, and she looked at me as if I'd asked if micro-pigs came before dinosaurs, and said 'Poo-deeng'. So obviously my explanation hadn't helped. I asked 'WHICH pudding', and finally got 'bread and butter'. OH mon dieu! Of ALL puddings, she has THAT?! Jeeze, that's hardly a traditional English pudding!! Although to be honest I can't think of a traditional English pudding other than Ban & Jerry's or Christmas Pudding... But Bread and Butter? That's the most horrendous concoction ever! Why would anybody want soggy bread with raisins after their meal? I think she's expecting me to 1) buy all the ingredients, and 2) make the pudding. Apparently her teacher wants to see them/ try them/ eat the whole lot on Friday. This is an English class, not a cookery class! And why on earth has everyone got the same recipe? The only thing worse than one bread and butter pudding is an entire class-worth of badly-attempted B&B puddings!

HOME in two days. TWO DAYS! And this 'big freeze' Daily Mail is predicting? If it affects the trains I'll be RUNNING home. 

A Pre-Christmas Christmas!

Last Thursday, Catie and I went to the cinema to see my new love. Josh Duhamel in 'Bebe Mode D'Emploi' (or 'Life As We Know It' in English cinemas). Omigosh - so amazing. And the great thing with French cinemas (or really, any cinema other than in England), is that people are QUIET! People go to the cinema to WATCH films - not to sit down, have popcorn fights and chat for 2 hours in a dark room. Even our Canadian friends were shocked at the tales of English cinemas! So anyway, we were able to drool over Josh Duhamel in a quiet, calm and very comfy and warm cinema. 


And then today I went back for another Duhamel drooling-session (lol) and also to keep out of the house for today. It was just as good second time round, and I cried again in the Coca-Cola advert. IT IS sad!!!

I guess it was all just as well, as during my shopping spree I found a dress I've been searching for AGES, but has been a total sell-out in Paris, so I am absolutely delighted about that. And also a top to go with these Topshop trousers I bought ages ago but never wore because I had no top... And now they are majorly 'in', so Perfect timing! And to top it off, I returned home to a bomb-site. I guess I would have gone insane had I had to sit there the whole day slowly watching the house turn into a zoo ground.

Christmas. Is here. Today.

I came down this morning, to what looked like Christmas Morning. From nowhere, the living area had been turned overnight into Santa's Grotto. Seriously, there were presents EVERYWHERE. I wish I'd got a photo. It looked extremely impressive! There were presents taller and bigger than the Christmas tree, all beautifully wrapped. It was incredible. And the girls got to open them all today. Because as Marie told me, they'll get even more on Christmas Day. In Switzerland. On their Skiing holiday. In their Chalet. At Christmas. MORE PRESENTS! And this was only the living space! The kitchen had magically turned into a zoo of... dead things: an ENTIRE salmon fish, Oysters (which looked absolutely revolting - shells of phlegm...), chicken, Panetone, a percussion array of Baguettes, SO much chocolate, and about 4 pumpkins.

So my job tomorrow? TIDYING. I've planned to whack my iPod on some loud speakers with some super-cool dance tunes, and have a mad cleaning session with bin-bags and the hoover. I'm actually really looking forward to having an empty house, and to be able to get through all the crap! There is litter and paper and plastic bagging and cake crumbs EVERYWHERE. *I'm really excited!* ANDDDD there'll also be before and after pictures. Aren't YOU excited?! 


Also, just to add: this is my 100th post. :D

Paris at Christmas!

More window shopping today - Galleries La Fayette is the equivalent of London's Selfridges, and so all their windows were 'done up' for Christmas. Not nearly as spectacular or classy as Selfridges, but they were fun and child-friendly. This year they were carrying the theme of 'musicals', so each window was related to a particular musical. I took Catie along and she added to the Christmas spirit with her red coat and singing all the theme tunes!

  

 

Mary Poppins and Singing in the Rain (changed to 'snow') were both great - with mannequins dressed up in the windows and for Mary Poppins, bits and bobs on strings flying out of her carpet-bag, although the photos didn't come out too great because of the glass reflections. There was also West Side Story, Mamma Mia and Hairspray. Printemps had a FANTASTIC window, which I truly loved (and not because it was pretty much completely pink). All of the window displays 'moved' in someway - puppets or items tied to fibre-string, so supposedly moved 'by themselves'. The Printemps window (see below) was set up with loads of tables, with little puppets (very clever) having a big tea part, with huge pink cakes etc. It reminded me of my Textiles project! :)

  

  

A Language the whole world understands

Today Catie and I went to a music lunchtime concert! I was very excited about it, as I've been really missing the sound of my (or any) cello or stringed instrument, and was delighted the other day to arrive at a metro station where there was a small string orchestra performing. 

When Granny came out in October, she bombarded me with several newspaper cuttings and information sheets (anyone who knows her will understand the true meaning of 'bombard'!), including a program sheet of lunchtime concerts put on by the The ECOLE NORMALE DE MUSIQUE (founded in 1919 by the famous pianist Alfred Cortot). The school (probably equivalent of Birmingham Conservatoire etc) has lunchtime concerts every Tuesday and Thursday for students (of 'diplôme supérieur') and music professors to perform to the public (free admission). 


Fortunately Catie and I share similar interests, so we were both pretty excited! Unfortunately I didn't enjoy today's concert so much, as it was dominated by one flautist-professor, and every piece performed included the flute, including a bass flute which looked more like part of a Hoover accessory. However, I can finally admit that I've finally heard someone play actually PLAY a guitar, and that those instruments can do more than play the bass line to a done-to-death rock song. It was good, and just being in the Art Deco concert hall brought back all those endearing memories of my performing days. Ahh. I sound like a circus horse, but it was always nice being on a big floor-boarded stage with grand piano behind me and a (very scary and judgmental-looking) audience in a curve in front of me. 

So, it's definitely something I'll do again - particularly if it's every Tuesday and Thursday, and gets me out of this house. I have a new program of all the December concerts, so hope to get in on some cello-action! :)


Meanwhile, Catie and I decided that Harry Potter is definitely the thing to do this Thursday morning. Expelliarmus, Expecto Patronum and all that jazz.