Is This Mutton?

& #TuesdayTwirl

Dear friends. I quite often refer to "avenues of pleasure," usually in terms of them now being closed. I thought it was a commonplace saying, but it seems to have originated in the 70s TV comedy Fawlty Towers.

Basil says peevishly to his wife Sybil, "That particular avenue of pleasure has been closed off." Sybil, who was referring to his love of horse racing and a cheeky bet, replies "And we don't want it opened up again, do we Basil?" "No, YOU don't," he mutters.

My 5 Avenues above seems to be mostly food or music related. But these were simple pleasures that are now denied to me. I recently bought a sandwich on a plane that was supposed to be cheese and tomato. But it was entirely ruined with a lavish sprinkling of rocket. Reader, I cannot abide the stuff! Yet it appears to be on every salad or sandwich. I find the only salad I can guarantee to be rocket-free is a Caesar.

Sounds of the 70s was a pleasure for several years. I looked forward to putting my feet up at 3pm on a Sunday to listen to Johnnie Walker. It was also fun guessing his first song in the Facebook group dedicated to the show.

Sadly Johnnie died a few months ago. Bob Harris, a well known veteran broadcaster, has taken over but the music has changed. Whereas Johnnie played pretty much everything from the 70s, Bob leans towards artists such as the Doobie Brothers (a whole hour on them last week!), folk acts and obscure 70s tracks.

The Facebook group constantly has arguments about the music with some saying they love his choices. I don't; he hardly ever plays any punk/new wave or glam rock, and to me, they were the 70s. I refuse to be "educated" now on liking heavy rock or prog rock when I didn't like it back in the day.

Moving on to pop concerts. Nowadays the venues like to keep the bars open during the performance to make more money. I loathe having to keep standing up to let people barge by with their drinks.

Cadbury's was taken over by a US firm a few years ago (Kraft, who became Mondelez). They promised there would be no job losses but it wasn't long before the Somerdale factory near Bristol was closed and 500 were out of work.

I'm convinced the recipe has changed, except in the small number of bars described as "Dairy Milk". The chocolate doesn't taste of anything now.

Finally greyhound racing. I recall some fun times "at the dogs". It was a civilised evening out if you observed the racing from behind the Perspex glass of the restaurant. Your bets were collected as you dined. I organised a team building event at Swindon races. I went a few times to Wimbledon when I was with husband #1.

We live fairly close to the Walthamstow dog racing track but racing ended in 2008, although the iconic neon sign remains.

Is This Mutton in striped retro asymmetric dress from Reiss

Today's outfit is the second of two Reiss dresses I bought in the sales recently. It has a similar asymmetrical hem and drape as the coral dress shown here.

I wore it for our first trip to a new local restaurant called Gina. It's been getting great reviews and was featured in the Sunday Times no less. We loved the restaurant, the food, ambience and staff. It's definitely one we'll be returning to. An avenue of pleasure that's firmly open, in fact!

What avenues of pleasure have been closed to you recently? Do tell in the comments.

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