91 Years Achieved Through a Vale of Trouble «

91 Years Achieved Through a Vale of Trouble

Tuesday 3rd March 2015

In the end the Gay Mother and myself were the only survivors for her 91st birthday lunch. ‘I’m still here,’ she declared on arrival at the venue. We had fought our way through a vale of trouble with about six (too many to count) relations and friends, both young and old, in a various bad ways. But the set lunch menu at a Michelin One Star bought us to a sunnier upland for the time being. We managed to have the birthday. Some condemn menus, frockage, detail in the home as trivial. No, wrong! The chef’s art, the shopper’s drive – you start with nothing, then there is something. Even stain removal – all are gestures of hope against the odds as is all human life.

The Gay Mother was thrilled with the crispy fried quail parts with a dipping sauce and hot coleslaw. Coleslaw we are usually totally against but this was made new. Then there was lime-marinaded red mullet, with salt cod balls, broccoli and quails’ eggs. Finally a rhubarb trio. Only when I got home did I realise it had leaked over my light bone slacks through being served on a rimless bobbly glass platter. So I went straight into soak but not caring because style is all.