Yaverland seven

The last day of our recent holiday in the Isle of Wight saw the seventh visit to Yaverland of the holiday. A day with a brisk breeze from the south so we did not swim on this occasion. But we did buy the cakes noticed at reference 1.

The day had started with finding an older lady in the car park at Brading, a long time resident, who turned out to have come from Sutton and to have achieved the distinction of being sacked from the Epsom branch of Elys - long gone, but Elys still hangs on in Wimbledon - what must be one the last remaining suburban department stores which has not either died or been gobbled up by one of the national chains - although it has been gobbled up by Morleys Stores. She was sacked for the offence of being late back after a lunchtime swim in the lido which has since become Marshalls Close, roughly behind what used to be the Eclipse public house. She had compounded the offence by having wet hair.

Gastro Heima failed to open for lunch (not a good sign), so back to the Kynge's Well for toad in the hole, washed down with a drop of cheap Chablis - in a bottle with a rather mouldy label - despite which bing seemed to think it was good stuff, possibly the same as that of which it was said 'this fantastic direct import has been in the Moreau family since the late-1800s, who have acquired an impressive range of parcels in Grands Crus, including a monopole, and Premier Crus. Classic Chablis crispness with a nose of clean clay and minerals. On the palate, good mid-palate weight with meyer lemon [a sort of lemon from China], limestone, nectarine and kiwi. An excellent vintage for Chablis with an even more excellent price'. Hmmm.

A jolly enough meal, nicely presented, but the toad in the hole was made after the fashion of many pub pies, with the hole part being warmed up out of the freezer, the toad part being cooked separately and then dropped in the hole. Not like the sort of thing you might have at home at all. Furthermore, they had used very cheap sausages, unusual in these days of sausages coming with all kinds of bizarre flavourings and chefs' recommendations.

Onto St. Mary's (Brading) to inspect the flowers and the monuments. With a chunk of the church next to the chancel being given over to the Oglanders, people who came over with the Conqueror and were big cheeses on the island until maybe a hundred years ago.

PS: oddly, bing fails to find any mention of the swimming pool in question. One might have thought that some local history buff would have posted something somewhere. The National Library of Scotland turns up the relevant two and a half inch map of 1950 or so from Ordnance Survey fast enough, but all it offers is a small blue blob at about the right place. Before the days when such maps were clearly marked with leisure spots.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/more-soduku.html.

Reference 2: http://www.elyswimbledon.co.uk/.

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