pumpkinstrokemarrow

Next stop was a Dropbox faults forum. Post the problem and get an answer within half a day, quite reasonable given the time lag between here and the US, from where I assume that this product is run. No magic wand but I do get a road map. Check the disc out. Which works the second time around. Relink the PC. Which, after around 16 hours or so, results in the 4Gb or so of missing folder being reconstituted. So I have learned that the offsite backup side of this product really does work and that maybe we need a new PC. Off to John Lewis to see what they can do for us. Maybe next week.

In the margins, off to Wisley to look at the spring bulbs - snowdrops and crocuses as it turned out. Spent a bit of time in the pinetum where they have some very fine pines, a lot of them more than 100 years old. Surprised once again, coming out of a large and full car park, how few people there seem to be in the gardens itself. A bit of space and a few shops can soak up an awful lot of people. A good proportion of whom appeared to be more senior than ourselves; mid week is clearly quality time for seniors time. I think I prefer things a bit more mixed.

Attempted to have lunch in the peaceful, half empty restaurant to be told that there would be a wait of 20 minutes before they would be able to take a drinks order. So we decided to use the more crowded and democratic cafe where we were sitting down with our trays in about 15 minutes. With, in my case, quite a decent portion of aubergine and lentil curry with white rice. Not great, but entirely OK for the money. Not really very keen on aubergines, curried or otherwise. We then got to wondering about the staffing arrangements. Yesterday's sun had clearly drawn out hordes of seniors. But how much can they flex the catering arrangements? It is not like Chessington World of Adventures which is next to a sea of houses containing people who can work there. Who can perhaps be summoned in the middle of the morning to do an extra shift when the sun pops out. Wisley is out in the sticks and such houses as there are may not contain the sort of people who want to bang out aubergines and lentils to the likes of me. Which is perhaps why the catering was struggling. I imagine the manager put most of his (or her) resources into the cafe; that is the way to get through the numbers. One person in the cafe is going to get through more people than one person in the restaurant, enough more to make up for the smaller spend per person in the cafe.

Comparisons with Chessington not out of place. Wisley runs to several large car parks, several large shops and a variety of catering facilities. They have a butterfly experience in a large new glass house. My father, a member of the RHS in far more stuffy days might not have been impressed to see what has become of the place. But the large new glass house did contain a fair bit of interest, and the bit without butterflies was neither hot nor crowded. Lots of interesting plants. In particular, lots of interesting cacti and succulents. Made a change from pine trees.

Back home to pork soup. The usual drill is pork, pearl barley, white cabbage and mushroom. But on this occasion I had a peeled potato left over from yesterday to use up. So I grated it and added it at the beginning. Which had an interesting effect on the scum one gets off of the boiling pork. Wonderful creamy stuff, frothing up rather in the way that milk does. There must have been some tricky interaction between the starch in the potato and whatever it is in the pork which scums. All died down after a while and the resultant soup was tip-top. Did maybe three pints between us for tea and I shall now move onto the balance for breakfast.

And by the time that I had tried the 8th bread, which was not bad at all, I was left feeling rather full. To the point of dozing in front of ITV3.