Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Farewell Arts Club

Looks like I am down to blogging twice a week.

This may be the last time you hear about the Arts Club, I am afraid. I am not renewing my membership - in fact as a parting gift, it was extended specially so that I could have a farewell dinner there with my allotted 6 guests. It was to be a bit of a Christie's alumni reunion with Miss S, Rox, Tom, Rebecca and her beau Giu, plus my cousin James. But Tom and James could not be tracked down, Rox is in Switzerland again, and Giu was stuck at work.

So it was just me with Rebecca and Miss S.
We enjoyed a three-course meal. Rebecca chose a nice bottle of Claret for us.
And it was such a pleasant evening, full of tinkling laughter and sparkling conversation. Even Miss S showed a more lively side, though that may have been the wine.

I know I promised some of you a description, so if I can remember what I ate, I will tell you.
1) pate en croute with pear chutney.
2) roast pheasant with roast autumn veg, one of them was a nice crispy toasted leaf...and there was something (perhaps the giblets) in a vol au vent.
3) Paris Brest Praline in a creme anglaise sauce - hey I remembered that one. Very hazelnutty.

Apparently, there was a banquet in the dining room with all the big players in the arts world (hello!), including Princess Margaret's daughter (I knew she was one of the little bridesmaids at Charles and Diana's wedding but forgot her name was Sarah Armstrong Jones. Yeah I know, don't worry.)

So we ate in the Bar/Bistro upstairs and after dinner I showed the girls the cosy drawing room where the recitals take place.

To tell you the truth, as much as I have enjoyed my membership, I never took full advantage of it. More often than not, friends and I end up in Chinatown eating dim sum. I find myself in Mayfair/Piccadilly less often than I once did, and I can't justify renewing. I have other things to do now, and priorities change.

But I am glad I could take you all along for a year :)

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sorry I missed it but glad you had a nice time. Sounds delish!

Prerona said...

sounds fun! how are you? been a long time, huh?

ML said...

Roast pheasant? Lovely! I love pheasant! It sounds like a really fun evening for you.

Anonymous said...

Yaaay!
Thanks again. Tinkling laughter indeed, and Miss S was the cutest.

michelle said...

I will miss the art club reviews, but as u say- things change
U wii b happy to know that I have to typeset The Sailor's Prologue from the Canterbury tales in middle english type...eek...(its Chaucer) due in three weeks

and I am doing a research paper on Eric Gill, the British artist/typographer!

I have finished tshirt, bussn card, street sign, dot assgn...now need to study Math, Comm and finish these assgn...


blahhhhhhhhh arrrrrrrrrrrrr haaaaaaaaaa

and at the end of the month the graphic class will have dress as a super hero day, haloween, pirate day, 80's day and pimp and ho day.

michelle said...

totaly forgot to tell you what I am doing for the fancy dress week

Monday Superhero- SuperDesigner gal, wearing plaid mini over blue tights, white bodysuit with SD pinned to it, blue sarong for cape and a plastic crown!!! with Pig Tails...

Tues: halloween Bussn student, black suit, I heart Networking pin, rolly breifcase...hehe its a inside joke at school..we hate the bussn students because they are boring

Wes- Pirate day blue tights under cut off shorts, black high heel boots, puffy white dress shirt and a red sash..maybe pirate hat

Thurs- 80's jeans with leg warmers and high heeld boots, fake permed hair, loose sweater in a loud color, maybe I will put WHAM on it!

Friday- I will be A Gansters Ho with black 3 inch platforms, Polkadot halter maybe a drawn in mole by lip, red lippy

will take pics!

Olivia said...

Rox - I must admit, not as great as it usually, but they were catering for a banquet at the same time so must have been pretty rushed.

***

Prerona - hey, been busy at work and am not blogging as much as I used to!

***

ML - actually, I prefer guinea fowl.

***

Rebecca - it was my pleasure.
Hehe! Remember I was complaining about heels? Today I bought the cutest shoes to go with my poor neglected skirts, and they're still fairly comfy.

***

Jia Li - you have to typeset the whole tale? Is this old-fashioned typesetting on plates or is it digitised?

Oh, Eric Gill - I found out something about him a few months ago and tried to look up whatever it was, but have forgotten. Possibly I saw one of his typefaces and wanted it.

Look forward to the pics of the week!

michelle said...

hand set, I wish we could use the presses, but the older presses need lead and we don't use lead anymore...I wounder if the new mach would produce the same result...hmmm...I did find a old english font and in illstrator I could warp the images a bit and tea stain the print outs.

Anonymous said...

Ooh Jia Li - I just remembered, when I was little we had a tabletop press in our study. It was round faced and sat on a table with lots of little drawers underneath, filled with dusty little lead letters. I still remember the smell of them. Considering I used to fiddle with that a lot, and we had leaded window panes which I used to scratch my name into with pins or the lead pencil from my slate, it's a wonder I'm still in one piece.
This was back before anybody thought about removing the lead from petrol too...ugh...

neena maiya (guyana gyal) said...

Haha "Even Miss S showed a more lively side, though that may have been the wine." What's she normally like?

michelle said...

ooh we got a larger verson in our production lab...

The Moody Minstrel said...

Dang...I don't want to think about how much I missed since I'm a relative latecomer to your blog!

Just when I popped out of the moody blue,
Hopping into a blog of violet,
Unknowing that the art link would fall through,
Joining the fun, and you inspire it!
Knuckled under now, it seems.
If you have time, please share your dreams!

Olivia said...

Gyal - very, very reserved.

Jia Li - have you used it yet?

Minstrel - huh? Oh, you mean the past year at the Club? At least your here for future adventures elsewhere!

Loving the code poem!!!

I am spending the weekend with my Mum, checking blog while she watches the Nutty Professor, however she knows about the blog...thinks it's cool.

michelle said...

not yet, I've seen it in action...its kinda cool

AmitL said...

Hi,Olivia...visiting here after quite some time..nice to see the blog going strong,as always,albeit,as you say,might be down to twice a week.:)Will be back to read some of the interesting posts I missed.

Um Naief said...

even tho you're thru w/ the arts club, i'm sure there will be tons of new adventures and stories to give to all of us... i can't wait.

did that guy ever move out from your bldg?

i had pheasant a long time ago. it had a nice flavor from what i remember.

how's work going?

michelle said...

hey, I just came back from skating, landed a clean sachcow! and two footed my toe, but it will come back. It was a off day, didn't fall but stumbed or over roated the jumps...

my sprial is good, spins need to be tighter...

Anonymous said...

Amit - welcome back. It's even slower now, but I will get back on track, hopefully even blog tonight!

***

Tooners - absolutely, stay tuned for more.
Oh yes, "that guy" moved out more than a month ago. The room was empty for a few weeks, and now we have a new female lodger, Spanish, in her 40s! And in the small room, a Chinese grad student, who has just graduated. Not a Japanese person in sight!

Don't know why, but I found the taste of guinea fowl much more satisfying than pheasant.

***

Jia Li - you landed a Salkow, that's what! Keep going.

Anonymous said...

Amit - welcome back. It's even slower now, but I will get back on track, hopefully even blog tonight!

***

Tooners - absolutely, stay tuned for more.
Oh yes, "that guy" moved out more than a month ago. The room was empty for a few weeks, and now we have a new female lodger, Spanish, in her 40s! And in the small room, a Chinese grad student, who has just graduated. Not a Japanese person in sight!

Don't know why, but I found the taste of guinea fowl much more satisfying than pheasant.

***

Jia Li - you landed a Salkow, that's what! Keep going.

michelle said...

but I always had a clean salcow, I realy want to get back my toe and wrk on my loop as well

and I have to ask can u guys see my mac site well or I might have to move it...when I have the time

michelle said...

and I just spent $115 on a book titled the history of Graphic Design