Yesterday was Stuffing Wednesday, not to be confused with Stir-up Sunday. I went to the Chairman’s elegant but untidy residence in Maida Vale.
There were five of us: the Chairman, the Editor, the Chairman’s consort, the baker and the blogger. We usually stick on address labels but the Chairman had done this, so we only had to stick on stamps and stuff and seal. Should you get a peerage you might consider choosing to be Lord/Lady Stuff and Seal. There already is a Lord Saye and Sele, a Barony going back to 1313. If I may digress, if I haven’t done so already, I remember visiting Lord S&S at Broughton for an Irish Peers’ Association picnic. It was one of our most successful Gatherings. Children and some grown-ups enjoyed punting on the moat, I enjoyed being shown round Broughton built circa 1300, and was mighty impressed that Lord & Lady S&S every year or so commission furniture from British designer/carpenters like David Linley, as he then was. There was a spectacular bed that appeared to float; a pair of bedside tables, that went to show that you cannot hit the mark with every commission, and other more impressive pieces. I’m probably being jolly unfair but although those bedside tables must have cost a packet, they did look like NHS surplus.
Now, where where we? Oh yes, our tasks were repetitive and simple so there was plenty of time for wide-ranging chat – something I enjoy. I remember when I was picking grapes in the 1972 champagne vendage at a convent, I was paired with different Sisters. It improved my French and my thinking-up something to talk about with nuns that would not be unseemly. The Chairman kicked off with an interesting aperçu about the Leader of the Opposition. She asked me not to blab/blog so it will have to wait until she’s not listening/reading. The Editor has recently got a rescue dog and they are both happy. The baker has got a contract to make scones for a place built in 1067 that is open to the public but she is also a fund of abstruse knowledge. When prisoners were taken from Newgate prison to Tyburn to be hanged they were allowed a drink; “one for the road”. The driver of the cart was not; he was “on the wagon”. The numerous spectators who came to watch such a gruesome entertainment overdid it; they had “hang-overs” afterwards.
If you are a member of the PG Wodehouse Society you will get Wooster Sauce in a day or two – unless you are in Bhutan, where one member resides.