Country Life Fair

Posted on 2014/10/04 08:22:45 (October 2014).

[Sunday 28th September 2014]
Went to the Country Life Fair in Fulham Palace today. This was the first year it had been held.

It turned out to be a bit of a trek getting to Putney Bridge, as we first had to go to my office to print out the tickets (I almost always forget to do this when I'm actually at the office in the week) then the district line wasn't running from Victoria.

Got there just before midday, and were greeted with a glass of Champagne (and a "mocktail" for Erika) on arrival. Then we went for a wander round the stands. Pretty much the first set of which seemed to be all gunmakers, and I was reminded of how contradictory some of my "lifestyle choices" are. I like Country Life for a mixture of its bucolic portrayal of the subject matter to which the title refers, but also the unmistakeable air of posh about it. As a vegetarian though the hunting / shooting / fishing aspect of it obviously sits a bit less well. I think I must be in a really tiny minority of people who like both tweed and tofu.

We headed over to the sort of show ring area, where there was a demonstration of dog handling for children, and also a collection of farm animals. So this was nice for Erika, although as always she likes looking at animals from a safe distance, but under no circumstances actually wants to get close enough to touch them.

We had lunch sitting just outside the big marquis. Although we got a ham and cheese child-oriented sandwich for Erika, she preferred the venison sausage Chie got, combined with some mashed potato from my lunch (surprisingly there was in fact a vegetarian pie on offer, so I can't be the only one). I had a glass of Wiston (an English sparkling wine) to accompany it, which was superbly dry, right up my street.

Continued our wander round the stalls after lunch, and also watched a bit of morris dancing. Managed to get Erika to have a nap in her buggy. We headed off around 3:30.

Not much to report for the remainder of the day.

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