Yesterday evening my daughter and assorted offspring and I drove home from our big family gathering. Twenty four of us, family, friends of the Spanish bit of the family, boyfriends and girlfriends of younger member of the family, had taken over one end of a large pub near my English sister’s house, a pub where her grandson conveniently works. Ordering drinks for everyone was enough of a hassle - some wanted diet coke - oops only pepsi max available! - some wanted full fat coke - only available in bottles! - some of the younger Spaniards wanted Fanta naranja and were very suspicious of the Fentiman’s fizzy orange they got instead - they clearly didn’t know that Fentiman’s is a good, old-fashioned English fizzy drink company.
I felt the need to verify that last statement. After all, some indignant know-it-all person might turn round and say Fentiman’s comes from Scotland. Here’s what Wikipedia told me:
“Thomas Fentiman, an iron puddler from Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, acquired a recipe for botanically brewed ginger beer in 1905 when a fellow tradesman approached Fentiman for a loan. The loan was never repaid so Thomas became the owner of the recipe. The firm became a door-to-door ginger beer sales company using a horse-drawn vehicle for transport. His ginger beer was stored in handmade stone jars known as 'grey hens', all stamped with the Fentimans mascot based on Thomas' German Shepherd dog 'Fearless' who won the Crufts obedience class twice in 1933 and 1934. The botanically brewed ginger beer became popular quickly and the business grew, with several brewing and production facilities being opened in the North of England.
The company fell on hard times as supermarkets entered the soft drinks market. As a result, sales of the Grey Hens (the stone jars in which ginger beer was sold) slumped and the company closed down in the mid 1960s. But in 1988, Thomas Fentiman's great grandson re-established the business with a mission to produce drinks in the original way, using the traditional ginger beer recipe and 100% natural ingredients. From then, with old-style products and vintage goods becoming more popular, Fentimans has enjoyed a wave of popularity.”
Granddaughter Number Two and Grandson Number One and I used to drink Fentiman’s old-fashioned fizzy pop in the famous and elegant bar at Stalybridge railway station when I used to collect them from school and catch the train home to Mossley. I even have an ancient, small “Grey Hen” with a ginger beer recipe stuck on it on a shelf on my kitchen - a souvenir of my ginger beer brewing days! There’s nothing quite so nice as homemade ginger beer!
Anyway, that aside over and done with, we managed to get drinks for everyone, after some confusion over who wanted or didn’t want ice in their Cocacola/Pepsi/just plain water. And when we got around to ordering food we had even more fun and games. Granddaughter Number One wanted a fancy burger but with NO TOMATO (her emphasis). Granddaughter Number Two wanted a plain burger with NO VEGETABLES OR SAUCES, and she wanted chips. Some of the Spaniards needed the menu translating and even translated it needed explaining! Fortunately there was pizza available for the small people but as it was a children’s menu it came with chips, and peas or beans. And one of them insisted he only wanted sausage, mash, gravy and broccoli, which he had eaten elsewhere the day before! It seemed to take forever just to be sure we had ordered for everyone. And we had to buy crisps as a snack to keep my brother-in-law, who suffers from dementia, from being too hungry and confused!
And eventually everyone was fed and watered and a good time seemed to be had by all. Nobody cried and nobody got into a fight! And fortunately my daughter had brought along a magnetic construction kit which kept the smaller people busy and happy, so that the rest of us could talk peacefully, albeit in a confused mix of English and Spanish!
Finally, a visit to the seaside arcade Funland and a last cup of tea and piece of cake at the house my Spanish sister and her group had rented later, my daughter, the assorted offspring and I drove home through the rain. Fortunately it had not rained too hard while we were out and about but now it was torrenting down! From what I’ve read this morning, this might have been part of Storm Henk, the first named storm of 2024 apparently. Visibility on the motorways was very poor indeed.
And this morning there are yellow warnings out for Henk bringing us more rain! I managed to run round village without getting rained on but things have deteriorated since then. Still, worse s predicted for the south of England. And at least we don’t have earthquakes to contend with.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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