More dinner bliss

And we did!

Sophie and Phil are brilliant musicians and fabulous friends and we don't see them nearly often enough.

So when we had a text to say 'how's Tuesday for dinner', we fell over ourselves to make it happen. After all, we'd been promising since we moved into this place that we'd have them to dinner, and we move out in less than 3 weeks!

Sophie is a member of the brilliant Magpie Lane*, who I finally managed to see live just before Christmas. And she and Phil are among that rare breed of 'people who play together a lot' who just know one another's timing and harmonies as naturally as breathing.

On a good night, Anthony and I can find something of it too, but whenever we hear it, it's breathtaking, uplifting and balm for the soul. Phil and Soph are also proper foodies, and Phil loves a good red - he brought one with him, and it matched a treat with the roast lamb, christmas pudding and cointreau butter that constituted our version of my friend Zenta's 'Christmas the sequel'.

After dinner, Sophie got all excited (in that fabulous, 'kid in a lolly shop' way that she does so well) about my christmas pressies from Ants.... She already has a dress - so we might make a re-enactor out of her yet. I'm quite enjoying this dinner-do thing... i cant wait til we can do it in our new house too!

*The group takes its name from an infamous Oxford street, known as a reliable place to find ladies of negotiable charms, and in pre-Victorian times called for centuries by the less salubrious Gropec*nt Lane. Truly!