D Day + 24: Sunday 5 September 2010 - En Famille

Up and at 'em this morning as I had a large quiche to make to take to the choir social event tonight - it's a tradition I have for large gatherings, although to date it's only been done for family dos.  It evolved as my mum always used to make this quiche if we had a family party - there's a special large fluted flan dish just for this purpose - so I've taken this up for the same reason.  It involves a lot of pastry - which sadly I have to buy as I have not inherited the pastry-making gene; cakes I can do, pastry I cannot - it ends up like, well, cardboard; ditto batter mix!! There's also a lot of cheese....and that's as much as I'm telling you!!
So while this culinary extravaganza was going on C went off to meet his mate Neil, a former golfing buddy and current colleague and long term friend.  They went to the Roman Villa down the road from us, which does a tasty line in home made cakes and some very nice coffee.  It was good to see C going off on his own, doing 'man' stuff as I'm sure he will have been feeling a bit isolated and stir crazy lately!
While I'm pottering around in the kitchen, No 3 the daughter is upstairs catching up on some zees...she'd been out the night before with Daniel and some friends (as mentioned yesterday) and they didn't get in until gone 4am; she's not brilliant at getting up in the morning (inherited from me I'm afraid) and today was even worse!!
Quiche made, C returned and the daughter up and about, we set off to meet up with other family for a Sunday roast carvery at the Fishbourne Inn - this was arranged by Jill, and it was lovely to have a big get together and not have to do the cooking!!  Being veggie I opted for a mushroom stroganoff (too huge, couldn't manage it all!) while the others tucked in variously to roast dinners, then pudding.  Drinks all round.  It was very nice - see satisfied family below!!

L

L-R Back: Romilly, Jill, me, John, C, Chris Jr, Gemma

L-R Front: Dan, Siv, Bren, Arth

Everyone came back to ours afterwards, which got the dogs excited, and Bren and Gemma arrived with Archibald, sending Sidney into a cacophony of over zealous yapping.  Teas all round (good job we'd bought a big kettle last week!) and then they decided to go off with the dogs for an hour or so to walk off lunch - all except me, Bren and Gemma; I was scanning in music in preparation for next week's recommencement of choir rehearsal, Bren and Gem watched the cricket (well, Bren did; Gem does what I do and tries to look interested in it but we're actually just trying to stay awake - the ipad proved a welcome distraction for her!!)

And so they returned, just as I was getting ready to leave for the choir social event - I got a lift with my lovely friend Tina, and we arrived in time to help set up tables etc before everyone arrived.  The food that was brought was amazing - a huge amount and range of savoury and sweet things, all absolutely delicious and I think everyone had seconds.  So nice too to meet up with most people, although sadly some weren't able to make it, and catch up again - when we're in rehearsals it can be difficult to chat to everyone as we only have a short break, so spending time outside of rehearsal is always nice and much more relaxed.

We had a look through the photos that Chris Wilmott, our official tour photographer, had taken - seeing what we got up to through someone else's eyes is fascinating!!  Unfortunately Kieron had big problems getting the video to render, so it wasn't ready in time, but that means we'll have to have another social!! Brilliant!!

And so I got a lift home from No 3, and rolled into bed shattered but happy; C had a lovely day too with family around.  Another one of those memorable days that in years to come we can look back on and say..."Remember when...."