Relaxing in Cheltenham ...

It can't be December already, but it is. C-H-M enjoyed his Cooking Theory Examination yesterday and is looking forward to the Practical Examination on Friday. This involves cooking under examination conditions against the clock (no talking except about sharing ovens, no conferring, no asking the teachers what to do or how to cook it). If the food isn't served at the appointed hour you have to leave the kitchen and you fail. So served at exactly 1.30pm will be one loaf of Italian bread, one chicken sauté Normande with mashed potatoes, carrot batons and broccoli and one lemon meringue pie... And no, that's not a balanced menu: it's meant to test the skills we've learned this term, as indeed it will. Must go and write the time plan now. All good clean fun.

Also good clean fun was a visit to the beer tent on a Thursday off in Cheltenham. Pictured here in one of Corky Gregory's photos are, L to R: Paul Noakes, John Howell, C-H-M, Jane Charman, Ros Cleal and Jo Bacon. Judging from the immoderate amount of hair displayed by C-H-M this must be 1977. (C-H-M's hair featured for this season only as it all began to fall out the following year.) Dr Ferris remarked that I look as though I've walked into a Timotei advertisement: "Even now, people vividly remember the advert featuring a lady with wonderful long blonde hair walking through a sun-dappled meadow", says their website. Steady on, Dr Ferris ...

Dear oh dear ...

1979 again: where do we start? Carole Anderson's apron, I think: which has some pretty colours in it. My random-knit sweater? Certainly it made an impression: later that year, I was in a cinema in Cambridge and was recognised by Jane Charman, who dug at Crickley in maybe 1977 and 1978: she yelled in front of the whole audience "Julian, the last time I saw you was on ATV Midlands, talking about cow bones, wearing that horrendous random-knit jumper!" I tried to sink invisibly into the seat and failed. In the back pocket of my jeans: trowel, WHS, forged tang. And, Arwel Barrett, what are you doing and what are you wearing? I think, to be fair, Arwel and I had just retrieved, more or less intact, the horse's skull that was found in F3351 on Ros Cleal's cutting. That's what's in the wheelbarrow on a bed of plastic bags. But it wasn't that heavy, so I'm not entirely sure why Arwel appears locked at that rather uncomfortable-looking angle.