A Quiet Day And Evening With Phil And Ruby,

but first we had to see this young lady,

last night my memory card told me it was full so we had to buy another one,

so a quick call to Comet and we were ready to go,

first stop Blackheath, we had a look around it's famous church and the shops,

a view towards the High Street,

Diana bought a corduroy jacket then we were off,

we soon arrived at Phil's house just on the outskirts of Guildford, the monkey puzzle tree had grown since our last visit,

from little seeds mighty oaks do grow, or in this case a monkey puzzle,

they are called that as it is a puzzle to a monkey as to how to climb it, I touched one of the leaves, and yes they are sharper than they look,

a shy Ruby and Phil,

we settled down in Phil's living room for few beers,

then had a look at what had been keeping Phil busy over the last few months, the music room was now finished,

as was his bedroom,

the black bamboos have now really got started,

so called because their stems after a time turn from green to black, so we drove down to town, past the roof top Thai restaurant we went to last time,

then parked up and walked down the hill to the outskirts of town,

to the ruins of the castle,

and the memorial gardens,

the Mad Matter, I wonder what they sell?

quaint little streets,

we walked until we arrived at Matahari's, a Thai/Japanese restaurant,

it was an old building dating from the 17 century,

step stairs were the order of the day then,

solid wooden floors and beamed ceilings,

it all looked so right,

a brief history of the building,

continued, I hope you can read it,

before the meal arrived Phil ordered a bottle of whistling duck wine, strange name but nice neither the less,

then the food arrived, mixed starters to begin with,

the trouble was they looked so nice I ate a couple before I remembered to take the photo!

'Cheers!' from all of us,

then the main courses arrived, a fusion of Japanese and Thai,

Ruby was happy collecting the food decorations,

she had such a smile,

whilst we were talking she was amusing herself making shadow figures, so I turned the flash off and took this shot of her,

then, ice cream!

I am not sure what Diana ordered but it was cold and sweet,

so it was good bye to the Matatahri and many thanks to Phil for treating us all,

then the walk up the hill to the car,

past The Keep, a lovely looking little pub,

as we arrived at Phil's one of Ruby's two cats made an entrance,

guess who was on the television as we sat down? yes it was my friend and one time co-worker Richard Campbell in the Pimms advertisement,

then it was time to say our farewells and we were on our way back to Beckenham,

a few miles into the journey Steve's car turn 1,000, well 1,007.4 miles on the clock, then home to bed.