St Austell’s Tribute

As I mentioned earlier Mel was living in Cornwall when we decided started courting. I promised myself a really nice bass guitar from my first paycheck. As a huge fan of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and in particular their bassist, Flea, I really wanted to get an Ernie Ball Stingray as this was his bass of choice at the time. I noticed an advert on ebay for a very good price on a fretless Stingray in Cornwall and decided to buy it. Mel and I had kept in touch and I knew she was living in Cornwall so I asked whether she wanted to meet up as I was going to be nearby. She invited me to stay over. While down my mum also happened to be in Padstow and was having a meal at Rick Stein’s cafe with her sister, my Aunty Gill, and their parents. They asked us to join them and had checked with the restaurant who had said they thought it was ok for 2 more to join the table.

The journey across was challenging with the Sat-nav sending the taxi driver down ever more narrow and dangerous roads. When we arrived at Padstow it transpired that the restaurant had made a mistake and that there was no way they could accommodate Mel and myself as well but had space for us to eat afterwards. We had 45 minutes to wait in the picturesque harbour. There was a pub with benches looking out to sea, I ordered us each a pint of Tribute. We supped the delicious amber libation while listening to a Cornish brass band playing on the quay and gradually became less inhibited. Over the evening three hundred and fifteen miles between us felt like less and less of a barrier and more like a challenge. As we went into the restaurant, now somewhat tiddly we were greeted by my mum, Aunty Gill and my grandparents who presented us with 2/3 of a bottle of wine saying that they didn’t need it and would like us to have it… This further loosened our inhibitions and by the end of the night we were confident that we both really liked each other, and three hundred and fifteen miles wasn’t a big issue. Our relationship started then and blossomed with time.

A few years later we visited the St Austell’s brewery and told the barmaid our story and she swiftly returned with hats and a bar towel.

We will be drinking tribute at Mel's leaving do at Hollybank.

When we were preparing for our wedding in 2012, Mel and I decided we wished to pick and purchase our own wine (to help keep us on budget and help us deliver a more personal touch).

Sue and Ed Jackson came to stay one weekend and were delighted to help us pick the sparkling wine for the wedding breakfast and also for the bus journey from St John’s Chuch, Shirley to Bickley Manor, Bromley.

Sue was pregnant at the time with Alex so couldn’t drink. As such she was the self-appointed designated driver and “sensible one”. She kindly agreed to label the different wine glasses from a to h, and filled them from the bottles in another room so Mel, Ed and myself could truly blind taste.

As we voraciously opened the bottles there was one in particular that resisted all our efforts. It had one of the new fangled plastic wine corks that was resealable – who reseals fizzy wine? Between a qualified teacher, GP, radiographer and an engineer it took us nearly 10 minutes to crack into the bottle of the Blanquette du Limoux. We all agreed that it wouldn’t be fair to the bus driver who would be charged with chilling and opening all twelve bottles on the bus on his own. To have to grapple with such an ordeal as opening twelve of these unyielding corks before driving a rowdy group across Greater London would be too much - so we could rule this wine out straight away.

We had seven sparkling wines to try including a champagne, a prosecco, a cava, an Australian sparking chardonnay, a crémant, the Blanquette du Limoux and a curve ball sparkling wine from Romania.

For an hour we deliberated, initially scoring blindly keeping our sheets covered like we were back in primary school doing a spelling test. Then scoring again a joint score with open discussion. There was one clear winner which had been top of all our blind tasting and we all agreed it was the best… It turned out to be the little rascal the Blanquette! By this point our steadfast elimination of the Blanquette had softened and we concluded that it wasn’t our problem and the Blanquette was what we needed.

When we reached Bickley I did apologise furiously to the lovely driver about the dastardly bottles and he agreed that “The first one was a swine to open, but then I worked out the knack and the other eleven all succumbed to my charm!”

We will be drinking the same wine at Mel's leaving do in Hollybank House. 

Mel was a prominent fixture in Girlguiding Sussex West, I met her on many occasions since I Joined Sussex West County from Croydon, where she had also lived. 

She always spoke highly of Girlguiding wherever she was and everyone knew her name. 

That’s a legacy we want to keep, Mel Ford will always be part of Sussex West and LaSER.