Mahinda’s Little World

Sunday was Goonie Christmas. I’m going to have to explain…

Back in May, the regular Platt Fields hockey session was taking place on Wednesdays. After one such session, Linden, Pete, Rosy and I decided that we needed more beer. And pizza.

So we ended up back at Pete and Rosy’s place, for (qu’elle surprise) more beer. And pizza.

We ended up playing I Have Never until about 3am, and watched some of The Goonies. Pete was in a bit of a contrary mood, so was arguing that Sean Astin (aka Sam Gamgee) played the part of the non-Mikey Goonie. Which was clearly wrong. So, the next day at work, I look up the cast list on IMDB, and email it round to prove Pete wrong. With “Goonies” as the subject line.

Several dozen emails later, with the same subject line, and it had turned into a sort of informal mailing list. I really can’t remember how, but Alison joined the gang at the start of June. It might have been Rosy’s fault.

Since then, we’ve really become a very close-knit little clique. We made the decision to keep it at just the five of us, excluding other friends and even boyfriends from the “Goonies List”. We pretty much make up our own little blogring, too - it’s always interesting when the same event gets written about by five people!

We decided a while back to cook for each other on Sunday evenings - Linden and Pete’s places have become the de facto venues, thanks mainly to ease of use and housemate stuff. I’ll have to get us all over to my place at some point.

But I digress, yet again.

We decided that we should all have a good Christmas dinner together, along with Ed, Justin and a few others.

This, of course, meant that I had to wake up FAR too early on Sunday. 11.30am, to be exact. This, unfortunately, meant four hours of drunken sleep. Not good.

So, dragged myself out of bed and phoned Linden, who was the central organiser of it all. She came round and picked me up, before getting Pete, Rosy and Alison, dropping a bass guitar back at her place, and taking us to Sainsbury’s.

Sainsbury’s. Fallowfield. I bumped into Andy, one of the Didsbury hockey players - he played on the same Hulme Hall team as me, back in my student days. Turned out that he was out with the Didsbury bunch at Jabez the night earlier - I’d spotted some of the others, but must have missed him. He’s only little, though. Alison and I then spotted Gareth on one of the tills, looking particularly bored, but not as bored as the cute blonde at the till behind him - she looked astronomically bored! Chatted for a while, and quizzed him on the location of various items. He did reassuringly well, failing only on “How many different kinds of pea do you sell?”

While I was picking up some mustard, an old lady asked me if I worked there. I was wearing brown trousers and a very shiny burgundy shirt. Not exactly Sainsbury’s uniform!

Finished shopping, went back, and started cooking. Ably assisted by the others (mostly Pete and Alison), it took FIVE HOURS to get it all done! Too many dishes, too small an oven. Not good.

Still, it was a lovely meal, and all were suitably stuffed by the end of it. The main course comprised:

• Roast turkey joint (properly stuffed, though)
• Roast gammon
• Roast potatoes
• Posh pigs in blankets (Lincolnshire chipolatas wrapped in pancetta)
• Meaty homemade stuffing
• Paxo-based veggie stuffing
• Linden’s homemade fruity stuffing (fnarr)
• Potato, swede and carrot mash
• Roast parsnips
• Yorkshire puds (Alison came to the fore once again)
• Sprouts with almonds (very nice!)
• Carrots (plain boiled)
• Meaty onion and mushroom gravy
• Veggie onion and mushroom gravy

The starter was freshly baked bread with wild boar pâté, smoked salmon and cream cheese.

Alison even made some mince pies from scratch, which were nice. We’d cunningly inserted a sprout into one or two of them. Unfortunately, the recipients didn’t even notice - although Ed did, when asked, complain that it didn’t taste very nice!

Watched Stand By Me after dinner. GREAT film. Pete isn’t a fan, but it really takes me back to the summer holidays back when I was 11 or 12, walking and/or cycling in undiscovered countryside with the other kids from our little row of houses. Those were magical days - the area had a veritable plethora of disused farm buildings, fields of head-high rapeseed, coppices and footpaths. Those were great days, and Stand By Me evokes them more than anything else.

Alison left approximately 5 minutes before the end of the film. Pete, Rosy and I walked Emma home before heading back ourselves.

All in all, a nice little celebration - I’m just thankful that I’d booked Monday morning off work!

MERRY GOONIE CHRISTMAS!