Pressed into Service

“Will you come and help?”, our friend Kathryn asked us.  She was hosting a special family 90th Birthday Afternoon Tea for her Mum and needed someone to help with serving the food and making cups of tea and coffee.  Of course we could, and turned up at the specified time.  Luckily for us this was a catered function, so we didn’t have to do any food preparation.  The caterer arrived with the afternoon tea all plated up, and we put the savouries in the oven to keep them warm until required.

Putting the savouries in the oven

We were kept busy setting the food on the table and got the cups and mugs ready for hot drinks.  The big birthday cake took pride of place on the table, waiting for the “cutting of the cake ceremony”.   A 90th birthday is certainly well worth celebrating.  As the birthday girl was making the ritual cut, the family and guests sang a spirited Happy Birthday to her.  Then the cake was whisked back into the kitchen and we cut it up, and walked around the room to offer a slice to the guests, together with a glass of bubbly to drink a birthday toast.

Afternoon tea set out

Cutting the cake to offer the guests

Out went the cups of tea, and in came the dirty dishes to be rinsed and stacked in the dishwasher.  We don’t have a dishwasher ourselves, in fact, we often say that we are the only people we know who don’t own one of these appliances.  So once all the dishes were stacked inside, we were at a loss to know what to do next.  Kathryn came to the rescue, added the detergent and switched it on.  There were plenty of other plates waiting for the next load, we noticed. All the family went outside for the long round of family photos, taken with first this camera, then the next one, as everyone wanted a memento of this special day.  Then it was time for us to go, we were tuckered out after our afternoon in the catering corps,  I can tell you!

Thanks for helping – Robin, Kathryn and Jenny