Wednesday, 14 February 2018

The Morning After

💜Happy Valentine's Day💜

Hi there everyone

I know, it's not a Monday ... I did warn you in my last post that you might start hearing a bit more from me, I hope you don't mind.

This Saturday night just gone we had very good friends round for dinner.

I've been good friends with the very lovely Jackie and Phil for over 35 years. I first met Jackie when I was working as a Saturday girl in Bambers, a ladies fashion shop in Tamworth. 

I remember one Saturday lunchtime, I was 17, going on 18, and there was a 'boy' at college that I fancied like crazy and Phil was away at university, and we nipped into Woolworths, yes we are going back a bit I know, and Jackie rang this boy and did the 'my friend fancies you' kind of thing and I rang Phil to do something very similar. 

Well, it was a pretty successful exercise as we did all end up getting married, though Jackie and Phil have lasted far longer than my first marriage did.

Our friendship has also lasted far longer than the Bambers chain of stores ever did. Just out of interest I googled 'Bambers' and they definitely must have been pre-Internet as I could only find the name of the company on a list of defunct retailers on Wikipedia, there was absolutely no other trace that I could find anywhere.

Anyway, I digress ... back to this weekend. 

Martin was working last week and I spent a leisurely Thursday afternoon trawling through cook books and recipes planning our feast.
I had decided we were going Chinese and ended up settling on a menu of Yuk Sung with ice berg lettuce to start, followed by gunpowder pork, honey and lemon chicken with asparagus and mango and Szechwan prawns, finished off with a Millionaires shortbread cheesecake, something I have been wanting to have a go at for ages.

Shopping was done on Friday ... and Saturday was spent, with Martin and I both in our tiny kitchen, chopping and preparing and bemoaning the fact that Chinese can’t really be cooked ahead, trying to work out a timeline of what to cook, and when ... and wondering why I hadn’t opted for a slow cooker dinner.

Fortunately it was freezing outside and we were able to avail ourselves of the ‘outdoor’ fridge as there was no way all of the prep would fit back in our indoor fridge as that was full of cheesecake and beers and wine chilling ... you know, the important stuff.

Anyway, all went to plan and we had a lovely evening, the food was good, the company even better and we even managed to drag ourselves from the dining table at the end of the evening to enjoy a comfy seat in our recently decorated lounge on our new sofas ... the first real time they’ve experienced company.

It was a fairly late night for us and we can never face a big tidy up at the end of an evening of entertaining. So, whilst we did manage to load and run the dish washer I knew Sunday morning would bring a necessary tidy up session.

As much as I am not the greatest fan of housework there is something I quite like about these Sunday mornings. It reminds me of an advert I saw for a furniture polish on the TV once, where a lady was cleaning her home and as she was doing it she was dreamily visualising what had happened to create the mess, so you got to see a bit of a rerun of a romantic evening in, with lots of sticky fingerprints on the banisters, which were being polished in the advert, as the evening ended.

There wasn't much to do in the lounge ... just straighten the sofas, cushions and throws, which came in handy for snuggling under as the heating went off and the house started to cool down and get rid of the evidence of a very non-Slimming World end to a fairly non Slimming World meal, though the starter and the mains were pretty much on plan ...
In the dining room there was the table to clear and candles to put away for next time ...

And in the kitchen there was a dishwaher to empty and definitely enough for another load ... 
Condiments to put away and just a few bits for the recycling bin ...
Oh ... and flowers to arrange. Jackie often will turn up for dinner bringing me flowers and these were just lovely ...
And not to mention the fridge full of leftovers ... Chinese mash up for Martin for Sunday lunch. Not for me though, I couldn’t imagine anything worse.
I’m not so fussy when it comes to cheese cake though. That was shared with mum and dad and went down very nicely indeed and it was definitely just as nice second time around.
I don’t think we will ever be the kind of people that clear up before we go to bed. Our friends are the opposite, they much prefer to have everything ship-shape to come down to in the morning.

Having been friends for over 35 years and entertained each other regularly for all of that time they know us well ... they were surprised to hear me say I was even going to load the dish washer before I went to bed, normally I am straight up the stairs and into bed before they’ve managed to walk to the end of the street (Yes, we live in very easy walking distance - how fabulous is that?) ... mind you, it could be because I hadn’t really had anything to drink so didn’t feel quite as sleepy as the rest of them.

What about you? Do you have to clear up before yo go to bed? Or do you also like that reliving of a lovely evening as you clear away the morning after?

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Clearly, there was just a little bit too much Chinese made for Saturday night as this managed to stretch out for Martin's Monday lunch too ...

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And my flowers look just lovely ...
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Thank you to those of you who took time to comment on my last post. It really made my day. After having no comments for such a long time, it was lovely to know that you are out there reading my ramblings. It makes it all feel a lot more worthwhile 😀

10 comments:

  1. This is an interesting post. And I am cleaning before i am going to sleep.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Elena. It seems like I am in the minority when it comes to leaving it till the morning after 😂

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  2. Carol, how did you get 'smile' in your comments?

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  3. Happy Valentine's Day, your feast sounds very tasty.

    Always clear up before bed unless absolutely cream crackered, hate getting up in the mornings and to get up to clear up ahhhhhhhhhhh

    Alan

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    Replies
    1. Hi again Alan. Looks like I am definitely in the minority on leaving the cleaning till,the morning after ☺️

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  4. I'm with you Carol, definitely tidy up the morning after 😊

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  5. I'm with you Carol, definitely tidy up the morning after 😊

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    Replies
    1. Yay!!!! At last someone else who leaves it till the morning. Thank you for reading Netty and for taking the time to comment 😃

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Thanks for taking time to comment on my blog. I love to hear what people think about what Martin and I have been up to.