Date: 07 October 2008 14:49:43
I have always had a rather ambivalent relationship with the word "companion". On the one hand, it conjures up a rather dowdy and spinsterish sort of image of an impoverised unmarried woman in her 30s condemned to spending her life being put upon by a demanding crotchety older woman with nothing better to do than be irritable.*
On the other hand, it is a lovely word when pared back to its Latin roots: con = with and panis = bread therefore meaning the one with whom you share bread.
This past weekend I shared a lot of bread and other delicious foodstuffs with some dear friends. I returned to Manchester (where I once lived for four and a half years) for a quick visit. I stayed overnight on Friday with M who cooked a delicious shepherd's pie, had breakfast and lunch with C1, afternoon tea with my German friend H, and J and C2 (tomato soup, brie pastry puffs, German cheesecake, lemon cake and cherry cake - all with Schlagsahne) on Saturday, breakfast (smoked salmon with scrambled egg on toasted bagel) with D+M on Sunday morning, and after the Christening we were treated to lasagne, treacle pudding with butterscotch sauce or fresh fruit salad on Sunday.
It was a great weekend with a short walk, chatting and meeting three new little people (there's been a bit of a baby boom in my absence!) and lots of companionship.
*I may have been influenced by reading too many Barbara Pym novels!