china stone

Five days before Cabot Circus opened to the public [25th Sept 08] the granite kerbstone reached its final destination and was installed in Penn Street at the entrance to the new centre. It is bizare for me to stand on the stone and remember the landscape it once was part of in the heat and humidity of South East China. For those who are interested the text on the stone in Chinese is the title of the work - A weight of stone carried from China for you - The other texts are the location - the quarry where the stone came from, the date it was quarried and stone type as it is refered to in China.

Cabot Circus Cantata publication

Cover and pages from the new Cabot Circus Cantata publication:

medieval meal at Quakers Friars

Right in the middle of the development site is Quakers Friars, a 12th century friary which is a grade one listed historic monument. Unlike the rest of the development what is going on here is a very sophisticated restoration project with most of the staff being skilled stone masons, carpenters and craftsmen. Meriel, one of the architect's surveyors suggested that the most appropriate meal here would be a medieval feast which dated from the period of the buildings. Using Meriel's initial suggestions and with a great deal of research BY Leighton, the chef [the real food company] we came up with a meal which included suckling pig stuffed with eggs and Brie cheese, salmon cooked in beer and vinegar, leek pottage and elderflower cheesecake amongst other all served in 'trenchers' plates meal of stale bread.
The meal was served to about 40 staff under a tree in front of Quakers Friars on a rare sunny afternoon during the lunch break. Of all the meals this must be the most surreal, surrounded as we were with the sounds of diggers and cranes.