Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Road to Wycombe

Today is Sunday, and my last morning in Faversham. No more Sarah, Helen and Simon?!!! I am going to miss them terribly, they have been so endlessly accommodating and such great fun besides. I feel so incredibly lucky to have begun my trip with them.

My sadness at leaving Faversham is mitigated only by the fact that I will be spending time with Penny and her family this very evening!

I have my last morning in the living room with Helen, Sarah, coffee and cats, and ask if I can get a picture with them. They laughingly refuse but my obnoxious begging eventually wears them down. Simon has left to work on the house and there is no one to play photographer, so I do what I can.


I look pretty fang-tastic but Helen and Sarah are so adorable it is impossible to care.

We say our goodbyes and Sarah wisks me away to a train station that will get me to High Wycombe with maximum speediness for a Sunday.

The train ride is lovely and my two transfers go so smoothly that I arrive at the Maidenhead Station early. Penny picks me up with her two children in tow (awesome!) and we head for the hills. Literally. Her house is up an exquisite tree-lined path perched on the side of a hill. I promise myself I will take copious pictures once I've settled in.

Penny expresses her plan to make " a real English Sunday Roast" for that evening-I offer to be her sous chef- and within an hour a chopping and prepping extravaganza has begun. Penny's two children Chloe (nine years) and Ben (four years) come in sporadically, basically to say adorable thingsand then leave, mostly Ben naps and plays with his cars and Chloe plays a car racing video game. I sit down for one race against Chloe but I am so bad that she can't stop laughing at me so I admit defeat and withdraw to the kitchen for more chopping.

Soon Penny's husband, David, returns from golf and Clara, their au pair, returns from spending her day off at Oxford, and we all sit down to dinner.

Dinner is absolutely, overwhelmingly magnificent. Penny's "Sunday Roast" rivals the magnitude of a Thanksgiving dinner. I am CERTAIN the English do not eat this well every Sunday. Crazy Wonderful Penny. Unworthy Lucky Me. Dinner is Roast Beef, Carrots, Brocolli, Sweet Corn on the Cob, Beef Gravy, Roast Potatoes, Roasted Yams & Parsnips, AND Yorkshire Pudding. AND THEN THERE'S PUDDING. (Which confuses me until it is explained that that's what they call "Dessert" here...suddenly Pink Floyd makes much more sense...) For our Pudding tonight Penny has made fresh Apple Crumble which is served with Hot Custard that you pour on top and Ice Cream. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PENNY!!! Everything is Amazing. Over dinner we primarily discuss the awesomeness of the food (Clara and I have fun rolling our eyes in taste-ectasy at each other across the table) and David helps complete my Cricket education. What an excellent end to an excellent week.

Coming soon: Bay Area Vagabonds do Absurd Person Singular!

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