Pork with guests

Sophie and Tom usually visit us for lunch on a Sunday so it’s difficult making a roast. I admit this is because I go shopping every day and Waitrose doesn’t open till 10am on a Sunday. Of course, a little bit of forward planning would easily resolve it. Maybe next time.

Anyway, the upshot is that I’ve not made a roast for them before. Being a Saturday, I figured I could easily knock up a roast. Mirinda voted for pork with green butter and so I purchased the requisite supplies and started cooking at the proper time.

Soon the house was full of delicious smells. Mirinda was at guitar, intending to go and pick up our guests straight from class…which she did.

Lunch was lovely, the company excellent as usual, only adding to the succulent delights of the table.

At one point (during dessert of individual rice puddings) I asked them to pose for a photo. Tom thought it would be a good idea to open his mouth as wide as possible and give me a thumbs up. I took three photos but none of them was ideal. Here’s the three in sequence, ending with Sophie cracking up.

All up, it was a lovely Saturday with talk of Young Lawyers, Tom’s inability to solve simple maths questions and Sophie’s assertion that we should leave the blue and red lights up around the breakfast bar.

Of course, Tom and I watched a film while Sophie and Mirinda went into Farnham for a coffee. The film Tom chose was one I’ve been wanting to see (for a change). It was Peabody and Sherman. I’ve wanted to see it because I was a big Rocky and Bullwinkle fan (back in the day) of which, Mr Peabody was a part. I thought the changes were very interesting and were an indication of how children have changed. Or, rather, how our perception of children has changed.

In the original, the dog, Mr Peabody was always superior, was never without an answer and, each week, would basically save Sherman from himself. In the film, this is almost the same except, when it comes to the final crunch, it’s Sherman who comes up with the answer that saves them all. Is it possible that 21st century children have to be portrayed as smarter than a talking dog? How does it hurt them if the dog is smarter?

Also, I didn’t feel that Mr Peabody was superior enough. If anything, he was made a little bit too ‘human’. A shame, really.

That makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy it when I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a great laugh. And I really enjoyed the little street sweeper in the closing credits. (It concerns me that in a lot of these films (not all, as Tom and Sophie were quick to point out) the boy ‘hero’ is usually geeky and the girl is very pretty. I think someone should write a thesis on this. Maybe someone has…)

Leaving that aside, Tom and I had a jolly time, laughing and joking and sharing a bag of popcorn. Though ‘sharing’ isn’t exactly what you have to do with Tom. He insists that popcorn be eaten one piece at a time when most people eat it by the handful. For this reason, we had a big bowl each. His bowl lasted longer.

By the time they left (to catch the 5pm train back to London) I was ready to collapse on the lounge for a spell. Which is just what I did.