Sunday Service

This morning was an opportunity to enjoy worship and to hear LV give the ministry at the Quaker Friends meeting.  This would qualify as the closest to preaching in the Quaker context and he did an excellent job of sharing the benefits of going through difficulties and the place of community in sharing those difficulties.  This was followed by a discussion around a lecture that L and I partially watched before attending and then a simple lunch.  We learned some Quakerish language such as "sense of the meeting," denoting that which the Spirit is leading people to experience and minutes, which is the noting down of significant reflections.  Times of silence are a new experience in worship, but strangely edifying and revealing.

Afternoon naps and relaxing before our walk into Darlington for the long awaited revisiting of the excellent pork belly for me and marinated lamb for the other 2.  This was the place in a previous blip where I recounted the expectant visit we made a couple of weeks ago and found to our dismay that both these excellent items were not available.  Not wishing to miss out this time, LV had phoned twice to book a table and more importantly, reserve the requisite main courses to ensure they were not AWOL this time.  We enjoyed a pleasant cocktail and small starters and awaited the grand arrival of our much anticipated main courses.  Imagine our surprise when all 3 dishes resmembled Sunday roast lunches with a large yorkshire pudding perched on top of the meat and nothing resembling the dishes we had carefully reserved.  I guess we should have known when one of the waiters laughingly said as we arrived, "ah you are the ones who have ordered your lunch."  I replied, thinking he was simply mixing up lunch with dinner that we had "reserved" our meals.  Turns out that the manager had forgotten the very clear disappointment we had experienced previously and thought that we were reserving a lunch each for our dinners!!  Of course, we couldn't believe that after all the trouble of missing out last time and then thinking we had employed belts and braces in securing a guaranteed production of our favorite main courses that we would be sitting looking at Sunday lunch!  Nevertheless, the staff, all who were present at our previous disappointment acknowledged their mistake and not only remade our proper dishes, but also gave us a free bottle of wine to make up for the mistaken identity.  Very enjoyable once it arrived, and once again, temporary disappointment and difficulties ended up having a silver lining.  We will just have to revert to a more ascetic level of consumption when we return to make up for the excellent but rather filling culinary experiences we have enjoyed whilst being on holiday.