Z is flattered

Lunch was, as predicted, very jolly.  We had roast chicken - it so happened that Ro phoned when we were on our way there, asking about making more gravy than enough for two, as Dora's sister and her other half were going to join them for lunch and he was also roasting a chicken.  I always make thin gravy and never add flour, but Ro thought that thickened gravy would be the thing, so I explained how it's done, and I received a text a few hours later to say that it had been a success.

I had promised to take a pudding and we stopped to buy it, choosing a sticky chocolate and a sticky toffee pudding from the supermarket in Boringland, between here and Norwich.  They turned out to be jolly good - each was supposed to serve four, but between four adults, a little girl and a baby, we scoffed the lot.  Zerlina and Gus are easy to feed, it has to be said.  Little z will eat most things, including vegetables (lots of carrots for preference) and Gus looks to be going the same way.  His father had already given him his lunch by the time we arrived, but he accepted bits of carrot and so on to keep us company.  He sat on my lap afterwards and tucked into small spoonsful of my pudding with Gusto (see what I did there?)

There had been two small children in church this morning, a little girl slightly younger than Zerlina and her brother, who is at the fast-crawling stage.  They got about a bit (we're having services in the church rooms during the winter for warmth) and it was very entertaining, they're lovely little children.  The girl wanted to take a Communion wafer to her mother.  She had her eye on the chalice, I suspect, too, but that was kept firmly away.  During the last hymn, she came and fixed me with a beady gaze.  I found it hard not to laugh, which isn't ideal with a clarinet.  Afterwards, she said "More, more!"  So, after the service finished, I played another verse of the last hymn and everyone good-humouredly applauded.  "More, more," she said again, so I agreed to play one last verse.  She asked for more again, but I pointed out that no one could leave until I finished, so it would have to wait until another day.  In the kitchen, I rewarded her with a chocolate biscuit.  It was terribly flattering.  Two encores and asked for a third!