Feeding the family

Uncle Steve and Auntie Kate have been visiting from Wales this weekend. They arrived on Saturday evening and left today after lunch to go home (via the outlet centre at Bicester). Naturally any family gathering (in our family at least) revolves around food.

Grinning despite the first autumnal day of the year!

On Sunday we decided to be wild and eat out after a long (and very cold) walk around the Peace Pagoda and Willen Lake. Ciaran was not happy when we arrived at the Beefeater 10 minutes before it opened and had to wait; he was cold, he was tired, he was hungry and he wasn’t afraid to let us know.

Once we’d ordered our food the crying began. He was joggled by his Daddy, he was jiggled by me, he only stopped griping briefly to push Ben around on the sofa style seat. The starters gave us all a respite as Ciaran munched his way through ribs, garlic mushrooms, kofta and chicken skewers. Sadly the wait between starters and mains was too much for him and by the time his spag bol arrived he had wound himself into a real temper to the annoyance of all the other diners in the Beefeater.

Needless to say, nobody suggested puddings as we were all keen to escape the glares of our neighbours. When we got home Ciaran and I napped (I had taken a couple of syndol for my sorer neck the previous night and was whacked) while the others tried the chocolate cake that I had made earlier.

Dinner was a less stressful event – chilli con carne and garlic bread. To avoid unseemly food throwing at our guests I fed Ciaran at the little blue table before eating my own dinner and then it was bath and bed time for our little monkey before us adults left Ben with my Mum and headed to the pub for a few drinks.

Bank Holiday Monday was strangely enough our roast dinner day which was very tasty (despite Daddy pointing out as he started to carve the chicken that it was not properly cooked and needed an emergency return to the oven!). The only fly in the ointment wasn’t the kids’ behaviour (impeccable for once) but a loud crunching noise that had everyone staring at me. I crunched away on what felt like gravel or sand and swallowed it before my tongue noticed a sudden sharp jagged edge to my tooth.

Part of a tooth had fallen away from my only filling (I lasted 30 years before having a filling in an adult tooth and look at the trouble the wretched thing gives me) and I had chewed and swallowed it along with my stuffing. Everyone winced in sympathetic pain and shock.

Needless to say tomorrow will (hopefully) see me at the dentists hopefully having a temporary filling slapped on the exposed filling ready for a week of eating sand covered ice creams on the beaches of North Yorkshire!