pumpkinstrokemarrow

The two gents. were given what appeared to be bottles and the two ladies got flowers. Which, on the basis that the bottles would have costed about as much as the flowers and would not, in consequence, be hundreds of pounds worth of vintage burgundy, got me wondering about how important a freebie of this sort would be to a performer of this sort.

If we suppose an audience of 1,000 paying an average of £20 each, we have a take of £20,000. We further suppose that the venue takes a quarter, their agents take an eighth and expenses another eighth, we are left with £2,500 a head for some rehearsals plus the performance. At say 52 performances a year, one a week, we arrive at a gross income of £130,000 a year. Good money but not humungous. But enough that they should not be too bothered about the odd bottle of plonk.

Although I have heard that performing people can be a real pain about other sorts of extras. Their agents supply hirers with long lists of requirements which must be met to the letter at pain of the performing person throwing a wobbly or worse. Sardine and cucumber sandwiches made with soft rye bread without carraway seeds and with the crusts removed. Sardines to be purchased from Waitrose. Four half litre bottles of Highland Drain naturally organic water, two cold and two room temperature. One small jar of Brylcreem. Lemon Sherbets which must be bought in the High Street sweet shop in Sherbourne. And so on and so forth.

On the culinary front starting the make the acquaintance of a family of sheeps cheeses called pecorino. Today's was from Alio's Deli. down the road (the Epsom one, don't know if the Walton one is any relation), is a hard pale yellow cheese with a dark rind and comes from Sicily. The whole cheese being perhaps 9 inches in diameter and 4 deep. Very good it was too. He carries a dozen or more different sorts so we will have to work our way through them. Then there are the dozen or more different sorts of salami - which I much prefer to the German or Hungarian versions. One difference being that the meat is chunked with the fat rather than being coarsely minced. He also sells giant aubergines, more or less spherical in shape and maybe 5 inches in diameter. Aubergines not my favourite vegetable but perhaps we will get to try one, one of these days, for the crack.