25 November 2018

Sunday

It's Sunday morning and I am alone in the house. Shirley, Frances and Stew are in Tideswell attending a church service. It's another one they can tick off as they seek to fulfil attendance requirements ahead of their marriage.

Last evening we moseyed on down to the Urban Choola Indian restaurant just down the road. We tucked into splendid curry meals but avoided starters as experience has shown that in Indian restaurants, starters will often spoil consumption of main courses. So no basket of poppadoms with chutneys and no onion bhajis or samosas.

Afterwards we strolled back up the hill to our local pub. It was noisy in there - but mostly because of televisions on the walls - blasting out historical Christmas hits. We didn't want this and other customers were also struggling to converse because of the din. Stew asked the bar staff to turn the volume down which they did but later it crept up again.

Terry, a carpenter, who has been a pub regular for fifty years came across to me and said, "It's bloody awful in here nowadays. The manager is useless. No idea about hospitality and looking after his customers!" He was in despair as I sometimes find myself - longing for times before the big refurbishment that changed our comfortable local into some sort of bland sports pub with waxed floorboards where once there were homely carpets.

Anyway, we enjoyed our drinks and had a nice long chat about wedding things - including the contentious guest list.
"A man shaped like a barrel"
A man shaped like a barrel came in for pints of lager. It was Colin the bus driver. Lord knows how his chubby hands manage to reach the steering wheel. Then Sue came in with some of her family. It was her birthday and they had been out for a celebratory meal in the city centre. I noticed how her thirteen year old grand-daughter is already starting to look like Jennifer - Sue's daughter. Jennifer was with her new man - a fellow she met on the internet. She now lives with him eighty miles away  in Middlesbrough and so her two children have had their schooling disrupted. Thankfully, they seem to be settling in well in their new school.

Back home, Shirley and Frances wanted to watch "Strictly Come Dancing" on the BBCiplayer. This show has become a national obsession but I find it mind-numbingly tedious  so it wasn't long before I dozed off. I sincerely hope that I was snoring like a fat bus driver during its transmission. 

The morning is advancing. Tony Blair is talking about the stupidity of Brexit on the television but I need to make another mug of tea and head upstairs to perform my ablutions before the churchgoers return.

17 comments:

  1. I guess with Colin the barrel-shaped bus driver asleep and snoring over the steering wheel his passengers are alerted it's time to take control of said bus!

    I hope your Sunday progresses peacefully, Yorkie...with music playing softly in the background...

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    1. Music playing softly in the background...yes...Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Thanks for visiting once again Lee.

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  2. Only once so far have I approached staff at a clothes shop because the music was way too loud. It wasn't a store for teenagers, but a well-established fashion house my Mum and I have been frequenting for decades, and she and her mother before that. The young woman at the counter sighed with relief and thanked me - she said the store manager thought customers wanted and exptected the din, she and her colleagues hated it, and now that she could tell her manager a CUSTOMER had asked to turn it down, something could finally be done about it.
    I've been to the same store numerous times since, and it has never been too loud again.
    As for Indian starters, I am not at all keen on poppadoms, but I like samosas. One or two are enough to not want me make to eat much more, though, and I usually skip starters at restaurants anyway for that reason.

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    1. That last sentence is an interesting grammatical construction...

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    2. In Yorkshire we have some pubs that are owned and run by the Samuel Smith brewery from Tadcaster. In Sam Smith's pubs there are no televisions and no music - just peace. Unfortunately, I don't think there's a Sam Smith pub in Ripon.

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  3. I find it odd, to say the least, that a church requires x-number of visits before a wedding can be held in it. It's not like training to be a midwife where you have to attend, assist and then perform a certain number of births in order to qualify to get your license. But I have never understood religions and their rules and I never will.

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    1. It's all historical - to do with the times when people got married in their own parish churches - but like you, I find all religions puzzling. Arguably, the world would be a better place without all that medieval tosh.

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  4. When is the wedding Mr Pudding?

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  5. And you didn't support the troops with your presence at church, YP?! (not that I blame you but I would see attending as more of an act of solidarity with the offspring than a personal affront)

    Ah, yes, CHANGE. I don't do well with it. I don't do well with loud music or TV either.

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    1. I have been once with them Jenny but they both understand that I am an ardent atheist.

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  6. Noise is everywhere these days except in the woods. The malls have become extremely noisy. The music is cranked and it doesn't help when your hearing is bad.

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    1. I am a big fan of peace and quiet and if I am in conversation I do not want to battle with amplified music or TV shows.

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  7. Most restaurants here are much too loud as well. When we get together with friends or family in a restaurant we like to be able to visit with one another and often that is difficult now. I'm glad you and Shirley got to spend time with your daughter and her fiance.

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    1. We should not have to battle with music that is in the foreground when it should be in the background.

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  8. Not all churches have rules about attendance prior to a wedding.

    There was a chaplain to the courts who attended my church years ago. One day we had our regular service and a woman who was a visitor that day ducked out toward the end. Next thing they announce a wedding is about to take place and the woman comes back in full bridal regalia.
    The chaplain had arranged a last minute wedding for this couple. The groom was to attend court the next day and was sure to be locked up. We never saw either of them ever before or since.

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    1. That could never happen in The Church of England. I hope that Frances's young man isn't locked up the day after the wedding.

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