April

Hooray it's Dinner Club time again and this month we have set our sights on the Fleece Inn, a popular pub situated on the edge of the picturesque hills in Holme, near Holmfirth. After a short car journey down windy roads we pulled up in the pub car park feeling optimistic  as the scenery really is beautiful and the pub looks welcoming.

We were  seated at a table in a cosy corner near the bar where we perused the menu. The Fleece Inn offers an a la carte dinner menu as well as a good choice of daily specials on the chalk board.  As we were served our nicely presented meals we quickly realised that this was more than just pub food, it was delicious and definitely more of a restaurant standard.  As we tucked into our dinner, the atmosphere in the dining room was freindly and relaxed, the service great, nothing was too much trouble. Despite the fact that it was really busy, the lady serving us still made time chat which put us at ease straight away.


Our conversation drifted from cake decorating, there had been a lot of birthdays and therefore opportunities for Catherine and I to practice our new hobby, to the Royal wedding. We discussed what we thought Kate Middleton's dress would be like, and the horrors of Diana's! And of course Prince William's receeding hairline came under scrutiny.


So finally to my Theme which was 'The Intellectual Dinner Club Desert Island Discs'. We have covered many topics so far during our time at the Intellectual Dinner Club, but music hadn't yet made an appearance, so I thought it was time for us to share our taste in music by choosing eight songs that represent different times in our lives. I was intrigued to hear what my fellow Witches would choose and how it would reflect their personalities.  Everyone found it really hard to narrow it down to just eight, Caroline declared that it was like having to decide which child to rescue in a disaster!


However the ladies didn't disappoint, some totally excellent song choices appeared and also some really surprising ones.  I cracked up when Catherine chose George Michael's 'Fast Love' and I don't think anyone saw my Gypsy Kings' 'Bambeleo' coming either! Ha ha! I enjoyed learning about Caroline's rock chick side to her personality and felt culturally educated by Amanda's choices, which she actually played snippets of on her fancy laptop.  

Those cool dudes The Gypsy Kings

  It turns out that looking back on our lives through music  showed us what a big part of your life it plays and that  listening to a song can immediately transport you back to another time and place.  


We left the Fleece  fairly late feeling full and happy and already looking forward to next time...

Phoebe x

March

There was a touch of warmth in the air this evening. Could spring be almost upon us? I took the rhubarb sprouting in my garden as a positive sign.

Tonight we were going to be seated in the 'dining room' part of 'The Riverhead Brewery'; ie 'The Riverhead Dining Room'. As we entered the bar the noise of happy drinkers washed over us. Pubs may be closing every week at an alarming rate but this place is certainly bucking the trend.

We took our places at the upstairs table but the seating arrangement was going to be a cause for some distress. It was rectangular and set with 3 places down one side and 2 down the other. Danni was at the end, seated across from nobody, and she wasn’t happy with the arrangement. She wasn’t in the best of moods anyway this evening due to a lack of monetary funds, and the unhelpful waitress who didn’t obligingly re-arrange the furniture wasn’t helping to calm troubled waters. If it hadn’t been for this little problem, I’m sure the evening would have been perfect. The décor is warm and comfortable with wooden flooring and soft lighting; and the food is absolutely delicious - I opted for the ‘stuffed pheasant breast + roast loin of venison’. It took a while as I’m a slow eater but I cleared my plate and savoured every mouthful.

As conversation resumed, the burning question on my lips this evening was ‘Who was your favourite – Starsky or Hutch?’. For me it’s always been Starsky. I can remember walking to school when I was about 8 yrs old and pretending I was his girlfriend. Phew, all this talk was making the room very hot and much wafting of menus was needed to cool us down. This almost spelled disaster as the air currents caused our candle to be blown out and we were temporarily without ‘ambience’.

I was very excited about tonight’s theme which I had called ‘Oh Glorious Ingerland’ and posed the question, what does England mean to you? It had been a thought provoking theme and set everyone to thinking about this place we call home. Catherine and Phoebe had both taken a trip to York to immerse themselves in the history of it’s streets; Caroline had questioned whether she wanted to remain in a place that tied itself up into so many bureaucratic knots; Dannii surveyed her family and friends to see where they felt Yorkshire fitted into the scheme of things; and I dealt with my ambivalence by recognising what I love about my country as well as where it disappoints. Some wonderful work was produced and we debated until we were the only ones left in the restaurant.

And so another meeting draws to a close. Goodnight, sleep tight. X

Amanda

February

The month flew by and now here we were scarily flying through Holmfirth in Dani's little car 'The  Princess Pussy Wagon' to The Crossroads pub where tonight's dinner was to be held. It was eerily quiet inside, a little smelly and I was being  blinded by seventies style carpet that I was pretty sure decorated my Grandma's home in the eighties.  Our expectations of the venue were low and my dinner of roast turkey did indeed remind me of my traumatic Sunday dinners as a child, being force fed cauliflower and trying to hide watery carrots in my pocket. To sum it up the place wasn't that 

 great but the company was making up for it...we somehow ended the meal discussing passport photos...I had just had a rather fetching one done that could confuse passport control into thinking I was Cher. Phoebe pulled out her driving licence to reveal that she was in fact a Russian murderess and Danielle revealed that she had no eyes and a squashed head. We dissolved into a fit of giggles as we posed seriously next to our pictures trying to avoid the impending task of presenting our terrible themes. I was embarrassed, it was clear the task hadn't had the desired effect and we had all struggled to find something different to do with our days. It had only reminded me that life is hard when you have to balance work with family life and it's difficult to find time for yourself to do something different each day.

But I was proud of the girls...they tried really hard and some of the different things they did each day were interesting and fun...my favourite was Phoebe's picture of herself in the shower wearing a new, flowery shower cap! We agreed that it wasn't the best task but I think the girls understood why I chose it. Routine isn't always a bad thing and there's no shame in watching Come Dine with Me every night if you want to, but it has taught me to get out there and try and do something different every now and again, probably not every day but whenever I can.

I don't think we'll be visiting The Crossroads again, Amanda's pursed lips were enough to show her disapproval. But for the friendly staff and the most basic of basic food it's the perfect place to take your Grandma. Maybe one day I will visit there again, if it's still around when I'm eighty...it could be my something different to do that day.

Catherine

February

For the past month the girls have been filling in colourful  journals trying to do something different with each day...and do you know what it's really hard! I hate this theme...my something different so far has been doing puzzles at work and eating porridge for breakfast! I'm finding it really difficult to think about what I can do different and then by the time I've thought of something it's the end of the day. Things are really getting me down at the moment and I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to complete this theme...should I give up? It's really not as uplifting as I thought it was going to be...it's pretty depressing really.

Catherine

February

Every February I find myself in the same place, slightly flabby wearing my high-waisted jeans to try and keep my muffin top disguised. It's only February, I'm still wearing misshapen, giant woolly jumpers  so there's no need to reach for the Jillian Michaels DVD just yet. But at this time every year I start thinking about the year ahead and how I'm not doing anything different to last year, I'm still just eating, sleeping, going to work and then coming home and watching re-runs on the TV. When my husband sat down to watch 'Come Dine with Me' one evening and declared we'd already seen this one but 'leave it on it's a good one!' I realised that something had to be done about my monotonous routine and I needed to inject some life into my days...I needed to do something different.  My husband the other night decided to shake things up a bit, turned off the TV and pulled out the Scrabble board (I know we're wild aren't we?) it threw me completely. Turning the TV off was almost liberating...I felt like I had actually done something with my evening...I know it's only a game of Scrabble but it was fun,  my husband and I actually had to converse with each other and I learnt some big words. So it was there and then whilst playing scrabble that I got the inspiration for the next theme 'Do Something Different Today."

Catherine

Welcome to the Intellectual Dinner Club

An Idea is born...

On Friday 17^th October 2008 our four ladies had just enjoyed a delicious meal and in the warm, relaxing restaurant basement they decided that this was something that they should do on a regular basis.

In the eighteenth century a group of women who became known as “Bluestockings” created an intellectual community whose purpose was to merge the scholarly and the sociable. In this spirit they would dine out and choose a theme every month, they would then each present their individual interpretation of that theme to the others, and so the Intellectual Dinner Club was born.