The society of saints

Last night I met with the Venerable Bede, Mrs Bede and Vin's Right Hand Man (to be) and the Better Victoria for a lovely meal in Sicilian Avenue in the West End of London. Towards the end of the evening, Ven. Bede mentioned a type of drink that I had not heard of before - the Italian Flag. It is comprised of a shot of amaretto, grappa and limoncello. Well, that sounded like a nice combination, so let's try it! Thus, as V. Bede covered his head in his hands, I ordered it. Individually, these are good drinks - and, especially in the case of grappa, strong too. In truth, they don't deserve to be drunk together as you lose the taste of each, but as a one off experiment it was very interesting drinking one after the after in honour of the beautiful country!

There was, of course, plenty of conversation throughout the night. Over the years, I have acquired for myself a reputation for being a kind of Ghengis Khan Catholic. Well, the Bedes and Vin's No. 2 will be so liberal! So, there was plenty of tooing and froing over the virtues of proper (i.e. pre Vatican II) Catholicism and the newer more insipid sort. However, I showed my magnanimity by drinking to the health of Vincent Nicolls, the recently announced new archbishop of Westminster. Let's hope he proves himself to be the right sort of priestly chap.

On a more serious note, it was great seeing the guys again after so many months and hearing about their doings. I hope they weren't too bored by my evocation of the joys of reading about Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. Venerable Bede, are you sure you don't want to join I Would Have Crossed the Rubicon With Caesar?!