Friday to Monday evening with friends
Friday Evening – Grants, Carstairs and Susie
It’s Friday evening and Maggi has prepared a wonderful meal for our guests. We look forward with trepidation to the arrival of Kay, Ian, Sarah, Euan and Susie. We haven’t had the Grants over for a long, long time. Maggi decided she wanted to be hospitable at Christmas. I didn’t object too much.
Maggi has made seafood gratin consisting of prawns, scallops and white fish in a sauce of leeks milk cream etc. The recipe came from a Rick Stein book. Before that she has planned a starter that she ate at the Portrait Gallery Restaurant with lettuce Romesco sauce and parma ham and a touch of parmesan shavings on the top. The desert is a mouse made with white chocolate. All very delicious and everyone compliments her on her culinary skills except Ian Carstairs who as usual just accepts what’s offered and eats it.
We sat down and Euan accepted every offer of alcohol as it appeared. At one point he talked about a particular wine that he highly rated which Ian then proceeded to point out was available in virtually every supermarket in the country. Euan tried to prove that he is superior to others by his choice of music, what he watched on TV and any other cultural activity. He usually fails to impress me. I just find him boring.
Ian remained quite placid all evening. Perhaps because he had been assigned to drive the whole company from their homes and back again. This obviously restricted his alcoholic intake. He has lost a lot of his enthusiasm for life. Maybe he is bored.
Sarah has to talk even if no one is listening. This evening was no exception. She talked to me from the opposite corner of the table overriding whatever else anyone had to say. I really couldn’t hear her but that has no interest for Sarah.
Kay remained fairly quiet for much of the evening but then started in her usual way to talk about people I have never known. She upped the distance by now telling a boring story about a friend or relative of someone I didn’t know. Why she should assume that we are at all interested in these unknown souls I do not know.
I sat next to Susie and we had a normal conversation about everyday events in a sensible manner, no pretensions no need for glory.
Saturday Evening
Saturday evening we walked down a couple of doors to Sheila and Sean. Maggi had made a curry consisting of fennel, potatoes and a bunch of spices. We also took the normal bottle of wine and some flat breads.
Sheila greeted us. She pretends to give you a hug, but it remains distant and somewhat unwelcoming. I think she does the same hug but not a hug with Maggi so I don’t take it as a personal affront. Sean had asked what half-time cocktails we wanted and Maggi said Margarita, and so when we arrived at half-time of the Arsenal match, cocktails greeted us. During the evening I had two of these highly potent drinks and that was enough for me. Of course I had already had a stiff whiskey at home during the first half.
I am pleased to say that Arsenal won the match against Crystal, at Selhurst Park, 1-5. The disappointing aspect to the game came with the injury to Saka who will be on the sick bench for several weeks. The team need him.
We had a very pleasant evening that terminated around 10 o’clock so I was able to get back and watch match of the day, but unfortunately when I went to the loo for a late night poo I started bleeding quite badly and lasted for about 40 minutes. I showered to help stop the flow but only when I’d wrapped a towel around my under carriage did the blood stop flowing. I slept with the towel between my legs with underpants and pyjamas over and lay on some plastic an another towel.
In the morning when I awoke the towel was drenched in blood but it had not weeped through to either underpants or onto the bed.
Sunday Evening
After a day of more or less messing around Pat and Tom came over for a pre-Christmas drink. Pat brought her sister Anna who resides in Sacramento along as well. It surprised me that they didn’t come with a bottle of wine in their hands, but a small bag of chocolates with plums in the centre. These sweets are quite tasty, but if you bring an non-invited guest I thought protocol demanded that you also bring a bottle. Between Maggi, Pat, Tom and Anna they managed to finish two bottles of wine. At one point Anna announced that she didn’t really like the second bottle that I had opened. In the meantime I drank whiskey.
Conversation centred around Pat, her dental problems, her holiday, her house and everything else related to her. Never did she say OUR HOUSE, or OUR HOLIDAY even though Tome sat facing her in the room. Pat as usual did most of the talking Tom and I stayed quiet for most of the time. I expect I could have made myself heard among these chatty females but I just wasn’t in the mood to add to the general noise level.
They arrived at 7:30 and left around 9:15
Monday Evening
An exhilarating walk in the cold morning air took me to Streamside and into Roxbourne Park. I then wended my way down to the bottom of Field End Road. I caught the bus back to the top end of Eastcote and walked the final stage back. I really enjoyed the walk and listened to a series of documentaries on BBC Sounds, one concerned the discoveries of more than 25 feet on the shores of British Columbia and Washington State over the last 18 years. All from people who have committed suicide, but their feet have remained more or less in tact because they are incased in the floating shoes they wore. Another show told the story of the Watermelons in Myanmar. Watermelons are people who profess to be loyal to the army’s illegal regime but really support and help the rebels. They are green(regime colour) on the outside but red (rebel) on the inside. Finally the last documentary centred around a competition in Tunisia to find the fastest Morse Code operator in the world. These morse code world championships take place every year and are usually won by Rumanians or Belarusians. A 13 year old boy was expected to win this year’s competition.
Tonight we are off to Suzanne and Miles’s abode for drinks between 5:30 and 8. I wonder how strict they will be on the timing. I will report back later.
We set off by tube to Northwood and the Miles establishment and walked from the station towards their house. As we approached I looked at my watch and realised that we were about to arrive at 5:30. We turned around and walked back up Murray Road to Maxwell Road and then down to Rickmansworth Road instead. We arrived at 5:45. As we entered I thought we were still the first to arrive. Plenty of glasses sat on the table but no noise or sign of movement came from the house. We entered and found Miles in the kitchen. Maggi asked if we had arrived at the appointed time or on the right day. Miles assured us we should enter.
In fact another couple had beaten us and sat on the sofa with Kit, Suzanne and Miles’s son and Sally and Pete. I introduced myself and then tried to make small talk with Pete. After quite a bit of probing I managed to discover that he played guitar in a band and their next gig inn March will be in St Albans. He didn’t ask anything about me or seem at all interested.
A few more people arrived and I decided to extract myself from Pete’s less than scintillating chat. We talked to a number of other people who arrived and then Sheila and Mike Orchard entered and we had plenty to say to them. He’s always easy to chat to and has plenty to say. Another guy who I would have liked to have talked to more called Ruan, but each time we started talking someone came and interrupted us.
All in all we had a very pleasant evening mostly amongst strangers but plenty of people who had something to say who are actively engaged in the world.
We left around 8:15 but we never felt that we were being ushered out. I wonder what time the last people disappeared.