It was an unseasonably hot day in September in Aylesbury- around 25 degrees. Glenn and Helen were doing the garden getting it ready for spring bulbs. I sat in the sun doing a crossword enjoying the last of the northern hemisphere heat.

Glenn eventually had a rest – in the shade.

In the afternoon Helen and I left Glenn to finish the gardening and went for a shopping trip to the quaint town of Thame. There was unusual pounding music when we got there – and we discovered the fair had taken over the Main Street. The large fair rides were in the narrow streets scarily close to the small buildings.

We didn’t hang around too long in the dining and went home after a quick shop in the very good Waitrose.

In the early evening we headed to Chalfont St Giles where were were meeting Stephanie and Dave from Wimbledon at the Merlins’s Cave pub for dinner.

We had time to check out the village – starting with the essential village duck pond. The pub with castle tower was in the middle of the street.

There was an old cemetery with an ancient swinging gate – maybe the precursor to the turnstile?

John Milton of Paradise Lost fame used to live in a tiny cottage further up the street.

After our wander around we went into the pub to wait for the others who were caught in M25 traffic. We had drinks and then starters as we waited – all delicious. I had a salmon fish cake with poached egg and hollandaise sauce.

As the sun went down we realised the light above us didn’t work and we couldn’t read the menu- so we asked for another lamp or candle – which couldn’t be found by the young waitress. So then we asked to be moved to another table. This was easy now that many customers had already left. We were obviously the difficult customers!

Stephanie, Dave and Lottie the rescued greyhound arrived and we ordered our meals. Only 4 out of 5 meals arrived – and 5 minutes later the waitress asked if everything was ok. We had to point out that one person didn’t have their dinner. She went off to find out where it was. It looked like she had forgotten to order it from the kitchen so it took another 15 minutes for Glenn to get his meal after we had all finished.Later the full bill arrived and the original waitress was nowhere to be seen. We found a manager and told him the story. We had the late main course plus other small items removed from the bill.

Apart from all those dramas we had a good evening and the food was good.

Helen drove us home along the winding roads – finding one unexpectedly closed – but we found a good alternative. Maybe that’s our last warm day in the UK.