Friday, April 18, 2014

Our Lovely Humanity


It's never the perfect dinner parties I remember. You know, where everything is just so. Everything matching, flowers at attention, napkins crisp and clean and even, linen spotless, best silver aligned.

No. it's the wee touches of carelessness. Something the host/hostess forgot to put away or got thrown in a corner to be dealt with later just when the oven beeped.

I am included in these family get-togethers at friends of mine. All festive occasions. Between this couple they have 13 siblings plus their partners (or not), plus cousins and in-laws. I find it hard to talk about it without crying. Happy tears I should add as this huge family reminds me so much of my own when we all pile in together. And by now I'm like this stray sister as they tease me and ball-hop me to a huge degree. Acceptance.

And the food is awesome, this afternoon and into the evening it was all kinds of fish. Fresh crab, a clam chowder that would make you groan in pleasure, fresh cod, brewis, fish cakes and fresh baked rolls. And scrunchions. I don't eat desserts by choice but the selection would make you weep. Layered trifle in a huge bowl, 7 cup pudding with rum sauce, this fancy cinnamon roll that comes out like a swiss roll. And enough to feed hundreds. And masses of tulips and daffodils in jugs and vases everywhere.

The craic was 90, as my people say. But it was when I was in the bathroom that I smiled and felt so touched. We've all had these little slips, these forgetfullnesses. Like leaving the big tube of haemorrhoid cream beside the sink. I'll admit to walking around my own dining room serving guests with a trail of toilet paper floating behind me.

And them? Neatly arranged on three hooks at the back of their bathroom door were his underpants, her knickers and her bra.

Happy season of renewal and rebirth and re-invigoration to you all.

20 comments:

  1. What does ball hop mean?

    The seafood part of that sounds absolutely delicious. The dessert might make me weep, but not in a good way. I don't do puddings or trifles of any sort. But I'd be too stuffed from the crab and fish to care.

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  2. How endearing that must have felt. Such a human touch to make the day perfect. It's not perfection after all that we look for, but the very ordinary touches of very ordinary lives.

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  3. SAW:

    It's an Irish thing and I can't find a definition. But it's when you know someone's pet peeve or whatever and you bait them (always in company) to the entertainment of all. The fun is in waiting for the baitee to catch on.

    Oh you and I would eat well together at such events. And avoid dessert. :)

    XO
    WWW

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  4. Irene:

    Yes, it reminded me of so many other dear things. Our foibles, etc., are the most lovely parts about us humans.

    XO
    WWW

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  5. It sounds like a wonderful time. Food like that is mostly unknown to me but I'm sure I could accustom myself to it!

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  6. A family by choice. How wonderful. I could almost hear the craic from here!

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  7. Freddy:

    Unless vegetarian you would have no problem lapping it up :)

    XO
    WWW

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  8. If I hadn't been so full of Thai chicken curry followed by melon with ginger in syrup when I read this,

    I'd have been salivating at the thought of all that lovely fish. Puddings, generally, you can keep: there are many I love.....too much. Discipline, discipline!

    I laughed at the dangling loo paper - very familiar.

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  9. I agree, those little human slips and imperfections are always more entertaining and more endearing than any amount of "correct" behaviour. It's always reassuring to find that others can make the same silly mistakes as oneself.

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  10. Oh
    how I miss fresh seafood and may just take off to the ocean - solo.
    The food sounds wonderful
    and I the way you write and share
    always warms my heart - please never stop while I am on the planet. I smiled at my lilac and butterfly image - it was a gift to me...

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  11. Pam:

    I make my own Thai chicken curry, isn't it delicious?

    Love our little humanities...

    XO
    WWW

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  12. Nick:

    Perfection is terribly boring.

    I love friends more when they unintentionally show off their "slips".

    XO
    WWW

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  13. OWJ:

    I just may ask you for a print of that lovely image. It quite captured me :)

    XO
    WWW

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  14. It intrigues me as to how you managed to walk around your own dining room with a trail of toilet paper floating behind you. But it is endearing that they accept you as their own and do not bother to go around cleaning up just because guests are coming. I do have friends like that in my life and I do not go around cleaning up before they come nor they before I visit them. I have written about them in my blogs.

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  15. You have it
    Send me an address
    by my EMail
    or you just copy
    if possible.
    Thank you
    for being you :)

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  16. Ramana:

    I rarely look behind me in a mirror and I should have :) Still haven't learned.

    I do believe the underwear placement on the back of the door was completely accidental.

    XO
    WWW

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  17. OWJ:
    I will grab it off your blog and post it as an Easter Greeting to everyone.
    Thank you!!
    XO
    WWW

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  18. I just now understood the guest bathrooms thing modern real estate forces on us. One bedroom condos with two loos.

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  19. True Anon, true.

    I could use one myself:)

    XO
    WWW

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