[Varley]

Perhaps why the 'aperitif de pays' is un petit pastis de Ricard. Mind you it is a place full of French people so even the teetotal have strange experiences. When still age-barred from normal beverages Ma never let us drink anything but Evian and had the chambermaids (again when age-barred from detailing them otherwise) douse the rooms with 'flit' before we went up the petite colline de bois.

I will have to see if the ladies of enemy occupied Hibernia can emulate your soup with beef bones. In the days when the butcher delivered the bones with the joint I did try several times to make something appetising in the way of soup, but entirely without success.

Ham stock is the only thing I bother with now and have a decent pea and ham on the go now (I am waiting to hear if it meets with Hibernian approval, the gammon which was its making certainly did - entirely baked, with roast-a-bag instead of boiling).

(Turkey the same as beef. Ma could turn out a decent soup after Christmas had wrung all else out of the bird but my attempts were woeful so I no longer bother. My curry of Yule, however, is very fine indeed and lasts until well in to January).