Blessed are the cheesemakers

http://youtu.be/-xLUEMj6cwA Blessed are the Cheesemakers, from Monty Python's Life of Brian.( Some call it blasphemy).

The day dawned stormy, as it usually does when I'm meeting Dave in Cheltenham. I banished all thoughts of linen trousers and wondered if I should look for my wellies!

Went down to the letterpress printer's in Stroud first, to find the printer and re-tune his digital radio. He had forgotten to bring it in. However, this will give me an excuse to go back and blip his workshop. He offered me a coffee but the bus was nigh.

In Cheltenham, Dave and I did some heavy shopping in Lakeland and L'Occitane (well, I shopped and Dave bumped into people from his church/monastery tea shop, which is usually what happens) then we hit the new Carluccio's restaurant. As it only opened yesterday, it was extremely busy and I kept thinking Dave was going to walk out while we waited. It was unnerving. Eventually we got seated and he revealed the source of his unease: he doesn't eat meat on Fridays. Fortunately, the G-F menu had a sharing option of three different pasta dishes, so with that and some starters, we were well set up. In fact, we had to leave some. That did not deter us from having a pudding, which for me turned out to be the best-ever coffee and bitter chocolate ice cream. If I ever cease to be able to make my family's trademark "choffee" ice cream, I shall know where to turn for a sustitute. We stayed chatting for hours, and the bill came to less than usual because I'm teetotal now. Dave's contemplating retiring soon, so we shall have to eke out our eating-out fund.

As we left, I remembered I had not blipped the restaurant because we'd been too busy discussing Dave's past and future holidays. So we went back to the wonderful Cheeseworks shop in Regent Street, where I'd been earlier to buy some vignotte for Steve. I don't eat a lot of cheese because of my sinuses, but let's just say that this shop is cheese heaven. If you are a conoisseur of cheese, it's probably worth the trip to Cheltenham, unless you live in Shetland.

I spotted Pont L' Eveque cheese on the shelves, which always makes me giggle. One day, on the way back to the ferry in Normandy, Steve and I stopped in Pont L'Eveque for some lunch, and asked for some filled rolls with cheese.
" Pont L'Eveque cheese?" asked the lady. and Steve said.
"No, any cheese will do"
(In case you didn't know about French regional food pride, the above remark is pure foodicide),
I quickly added a slab of some of the famed Pont L'Eveque cheese to our take away order in case we got thrown out for insulting their terroir....

Incidentally, Pont L;Eveque is where the film about the D-Day landings, The Longest Day, was shot, and it's also the location of the only Voltaire book I've ever read, L'Ingenu. I did first-year French at Edinburgh in the 1980s, but gave up because the entire department was, not to put too fine a point on it, bonkers. There wasn't a sane member of staff in the entire department. If you were there in the early 80s, you'll know what I'm on about. It was Alice-in -Wonderland-on-red-wine all year round. Call me biased, but I preferred getting drunk on Sangria in the Spanish department, where the profs were blatantly sexist but sane all the same,

So, if you're in Cheltenham, do check out Carluccio's and Cheeseworks. If you're the lady in the picture, Michelle's mother, I apologise for including you, when you said you were unphotogenic, but I do think you add life to the picture. It's a shop, not an impeccably presented cheese museum! I'll crop the pic if you really hate it. I don't. (helena1@mail.com is my email).

Dave and I did not have much time to check out the charity shops afterwards, but that is just as well, as the Lower High Street is being ripped to shreds because the Brewery complex can be expanded.

"So that they can build more vacant shops and units" said Dave morosely.

C'est la Vie a Cheltenham.

PS We realised that we still haven't tried out the Jamie Oliver place. Part of me is afraid to do so, in case it doesn't live up to its reputation.