The perfect relaxation is to leave the thinking to others, if only for a moment…
A quiet Saturday morning is a new experience for me! Before marriage and children, the weekends were simply the best time to work! Kitchen life revolved around four shifts, Friday night, Saturday lunch and dinner services then Sunday lunch. The buzz was intoxicating and the busier it got the more fun I had. While others lost their heads I relaxed into the rhythm of pandemonium, the sound of orders rolling in like confetti from the Remanco machine and the dry heat bathing my face as it billowed out of the grill. Every moment shaped by micro decisions and choices whose outcome either made or broke the service for more than just me! There was a power that was almost addictive.
Then as life flowed its meandering course, kitchen life melted into weekends being full a completely different kind of pandemonium. Standing in freezing winds and driving rain for hours along the side lines of football pitches, rugby pitches or riverbanks. Family gatherings and roast dinners, or hordes of little ones crashing around a play park or crashing around the countryside on bikes. Once again every moment was a decision that sculpted the course of events that impacted more than just me!
… and now… a strange new equilibrium exists, a landscape I do not recognise but one that feels strangely familiar? The familiarity of a distant desire that is now my reality perhaps, I don’t know? It is a landscape of choice, not a one that is forced by decisions that must be made, but one that is allowed to take its own path without agenda or meaning, simply for its own sake.
There is a calming and quietening of mind that comes from letting go, of not trying to shape what will be and just going with the flow. Loosening the grip of control and allowing life to take its course. Not an easy concept to adjust to after nearly two decades of young children and another decade prior to that spend in busy kitchens, but I like it! I’m ready for it! I want more of it!
So red or brown? That’s it for this Saturday morning, that’s all I need to think about. Wow this is great!
My wife is meeting up with an old university friend she hasn’t seen for ages, the eldest is carving out a life of his own in his first year of University which leaves me and my youngest to while away a Saturday lunch. He didn’t even have his usual sporting commitments to think about thanks to some rather epic flooding. So the only question was “what do you fancy for lunch”?
“Can we have a fry up, you know like an all day breakfast? Hash browns, but not your home made ones. Garlic mushrooms. Beans, but Heinz not yours. Bacon and sausages with a fried egg”?
Well that sounds pretty perfect to me and decision made, even better it wasn’t made by me!
After a quick urban forage there was not a frozen hash brown in sight so that was that, fried potatoes in the sausage pan it was then.
The butcher had a load of field mushrooms on the counter, choice made its own call there then. Perfect!
A fresh loaf of white sourdough had made its way out of the oven last night which was perfect, and the coffee machine was already on!
I literally had nothing to do! Everything came together all on it’s own, shaped by destiny it seemed.
This left only one decision… red sauce or brown sauce… you know what, I just had both!
Heritage | Environment | Craft
Thank you for visiting this blog!
If you found this article of interest and would like to delve a little deeper please get in touch !
Did you enjoy this article? Why not let others know by sharing on social media.
Comments