Party Time - Before

On the Big Day, aka the day of this year’s blogger BBQ, I woke up at seven o’clock. I opened the shutters to find myself staring up at a milky sky; not at all the blue I had hoped for. I activated the ‘mobile roaming’ function on my smartphone and ‘dialled in’ to check the weather forecast.

Waking up to a milky sky!

It looked promising but not really reassuring: clear blue skies, some cloud around 2 p.m. (just our luck!), temperatures around 16°C, a risk of precipitation of 10%. Not brilliant, but it would have to do. Ever since our 2009 barbecue attempt, when we had lunch with Ken and Walt baking the steaks on the gas cooker in their kitchen because it was raining outside, I have become a bit nervous when it comes to organizing a barbecue.

While J.L. took out the tables, chairs and barbecue grill, B. prepared the glasses and cutlery. In the kitchen I washed the lettuce, cut up two of the four melons and placed them on a large plate with slices of cured Serrano ham. I wasn’t too happy about the ham though, because it was rather coarsely sliced and a bit tough to the bite. I also shelled the hard boiled eggs, crushed the yolks in a bowl and added two generous tablespoons of mayonnaise and chopped chives from J.L. herb garden. I then ‘reconstructed’ the eggs by putting the yolk-mayonnaise-chives mixture in the halved egg whites. I rummaged through B. cupboard (with her permission) to find a nice oblong platter on which I placed the eggs on a bed of lettuce. Et voilà, my ‘oeufs mimosa’ were ready to be served.

One more table, and we're ready to go!

My job was almost done, except for preparing the nibbles that would accompany the aperitif. We had bought three types of crisps and then there were the two sausages we had bought at Amboise market the day before. I cut these up in thin slices. A few glass bowls and some tooth picks, and yet another job done.

A typical French village scene ... 

encoutered while on my way to post my picture postcards. 

By then it was half past eleven. Ken, Walt and Charles-Henry had promised to come slightly earlier than the rest of the crowd, in order to give us a hand, if necessary. I just had time to change and walk over to the letter box down the road to post the postcards for my mother, family and friends. By the time I got back to the house, J.L. was about to take a shower after mowing the front lawn.

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P.S. It's really hot today in Belgium and I'm sitting here in the semi-darkness of my apartment with all the curtains tightly closed to keep the sun and heat out. I did go shopping this morning, but came home with my clothes sticking to my body and drops of sweat dripping down my spine and face ... Not a pretty sight! I would happily exchange these temperatures for those we had on B-BBQ day!