... well half one!
Not much stitching got done this weekend. The progress on 'Open House' was achieved on a long car journey on Friday afternoon.
We were off to Pickering in North Yorkshire, one end of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. This weekend no train travel was involved. We were attending a carriage restorers convention. Although I own a carriage myself I'm not really in to fixing them, until it gets to near the end when they require curtains and stuff. This was not always the case, but having fallen through the floor in one of The Other Half's derelict vehicles, he has many, I'm not quite so keen!
All these carriage restorers needed feeding and I had volunteered to help out with the catering. So on Saturday three of us laid on all day coffee, tea and cake. A buffet meal for 82 people and in the evening we put on a four course dinner for 26. On Sunday we did another buffet but for half as many.
The kitchen was in railway carriage and was about 5 to 6 foot wide and about three times as long. Not only did we cook on gas, a six ring gas hob, with gas cooker we also had a gas plate warmer and the two fridges were gas cooled. It was hot! The washing up facilities consisted of a domestic double sink unit with single draining board. OK for normal pots and pans but too small for the commercial variety. All I can say is that I am glad the whole thing was not on a train that was moving. Here is a picture of the facilities!
It was the first tome the kitchen had been used to cook in and there were some teething problems which will need to be fixed. Not least how to stop things like dirty dishes and the clean ones on the drainer falling onto the floor whilst the train is in motion.
Anyway despite the heat and the lack of space good fun was had by all. We were complemented on our efforts on a number of occasions. One I found particularly amusing. I was complemented on my egg sandwiches. Now I do not eat eggs and have, to my knowledge, have never made an egg sandwich in my life until this weekend.
Back to the stitching. On the way home I stitched on the Horrid Halloween Biscornu until, despite using 'glow in the dark' threads, I was forced to stop.
