» Chez Kay
Andrew Kay – Town mouse or country mouse, that is the question
If I’m known for anything it’s my appetites. Yes plural. I have a capacity for stuff that can be alarming, whether it’s food, drink, art, theatre or country dancing. Oh yes, on one level I am urban man, city smart and sophisticated, on another I am happy whirling up and down a village hall, stripping the willow in a twister of enthusiasm and perspiration but seldom with precision. I am also happy swinging some innocent victim around to a jive or swing band. I guess that gives me what are commonly referred to as catholick tastes and I have come to terms with that status over the years (pogoing is now longer an option is the simple ‘up-down’ action of my body can be detetced on the seismograph at the San Andreas Fault’s laboratories).
‘‘I’m not easy to pigeon hole but how people love to pop us into envelopes for ease of filing’’
Other people can find my particular brand of catholicism hard to deal with. I’m not easy to pigeon hole that’s for sure. Nor do I want to be. But how people love to pop us in convenient envelopes for ease of filing.
I rather enjoy the fact that these days my shock value comes from the fact that I enjoy country living. It’s quite a laugh dropping a rural gem into an urban conversation. I have known people wobble on their bar stools when they discover that I can often be found walking the dog for miles through local forest or along river banks.
It’s much the same when people learn that, despite my ‘gourmet and gourmand’ leanings, I actually really love simple food. I adore fish and chips and have a thing about Heinz Salad Cream that I am not even going to start to justify. You see there again people build expectations about my role as a restaurant critic but they shouldn’t. I love fine food but when busy I will bolt a burger and in my cups I might kill for a kebab.
So town mouse or country mouse? Who cares, I’m all for taking a chance and giving things a go. I love my home in a suburb that borders on the real Sussex countryside. I like my nights out at the theatre, eating oysters, dining, dancing, drinking cocktails as much as my nights in playing board games, reading books, listening to music or watching the television.
I do have one enduring passion and that passion is Coronation Street. I cannot abide any of the other soaps and in particular I hate Emmerdale. Maybe I can use that as a guide and say that I am clearly town mouse but a bit of a country mouse on the side.
