Good grief, where did April and May go, I just blinked and they were gone. Talking of gone, so are Nicky and Mike. Well I say gone but they are actually on a relatively loose piece of elastic stretching from West End to Bath. Having decided that The Inn @ West End was a far too dangerous place, both economically and for health reasons, to live close to, they have moved. There was much sadness and gnashing of teeth and a complete rewrite of the cash flow forecast and then they were off. Mike has returned a couple of times on the pretext of golf, ‘forgot my jacket’ and ‘just passing’ but life at The Inn just isn’t the same. They even enticed Andy and Angie away for a weekend or two which changed the atmosphere at The Inn dramatically. Have you met Angie? You obviously weren’t at last years staff party, she was the mermaid. If you were there you would understand; something from her and Andy’s latex days I think. Nuff said.

Since I last wrote the plugs for the hanging baskets have been bought, planted, grown on in Mikes’ greenhouse and the baskets put out. The troughs have been planted too and in that unseasonally warm spell we had, have come on well. I have just watered them and am not sure if I have put enough plants in them and may have to fill in with a few Impatiens sp. Talking about flowers and the front the hedge at the front has looked spectacular and I have had to call my friend Peter, as I do every year about now to ask its name. It is of course Rosa de la Haie – I think that is how you spell it. It is a stunning looking flowering hedge and the roses turn into lovely red hips and I do like nice hips.

The warm spell caught us a bit unaware and we are a bit behind the curve with the Summer menu. However, we are nearly there and it should be up on the website and available next Tuesday. The Website – have you looked at that. Doooa, stupid question, how else would you be reading this. What do you think of the new format, good eh. Thanks to Graham and Alistair at Rubicon for their thoughts and contributions. I just need to rewrite all the content and keep it up to date, somehow not as easy as it should be.  We are trying to make it a bit more interactive and worth visiting more frequently, so any ideas welcome.

We played golf at Woking Golf Club last week and what a glorious day we had. The golf was won by Dave Brown (again) off 15 and Alistair scored 33 points playing off 23 so there will have to be another meeting of the handicap committee. However, the more significant event was the deal given to Dave so that we could open the Imperial of 1999 Chateau Beycheval. What an experience and what wonderful wine. We all enjoyed it tremendously, thanks Dave.  

Last Sunday I made the supreme sacrifice and got to The Inn at 6.30 am, yes 0 dark hundred hours as Gazza would say or silly o’clock as I would say, to host a coffee and p-stop for a smart car meet or something. There were about twenty really interesting Ferraris, Bentleys, MG’s etc, parked on the forecourt which attracted quite a bit of attention from passers by, not to mention when they quietly left and tootled off down the road at 30 mph at about 7.45. Not for the first time the car park and its’ occupants were worth a multiple of the value of The Inn!

Like my new car? It's the one on the...left!

So much has happened in such a short space of time. I’ll try to be more diligent now that the site looks so spiffing. Speak soon,

Gerry the Jovial Landlord

PS No! No piglets yet. I fear I may have lost my touch.