Men Only, Supposedly

Edgar organised the Men's Breakfast for many years until he became too poorly and had to give it up and, as nobody felt able to take it on, the event fell into abeyance. On Saturday the members organised a special one-off gathering in Edgar's memory, close to his birthday on Candlemas Day, with his wife Jill at the head of the table. All very splendid though my venture back into carnivorous habits by partaking of a convivial bacon butty failed to convince me I was missing anything - unlike the leftover bits of ham and beef I took home after my mum's Christmas lunch (those were worryingly pleasurable).

When I went on the New Vicars Course many years ago one of my fellow sufferers had already been in his parish for a couple of years, and when he arrived there was a well-established Men's Breakfast. He went for a couple of times before noticing that while the chaps sat down to partake, as we too did at Swanvale Halt, of bacon butties, toast and cereals, in the kitchen the wives were doing all the catering. My colleague was outraged. 'If this is the Men's Breakfast, the men should do the work', he maintained, and insisted this should be the case. The members stopped the event rather than do it themselves. 

It was understandable and in fact very good that Jill was present on Saturday, but I was perturbed to find Susan and Renee in the kitchen doing the washing up. 'We don't mind, it's all for Edgar and just the one', they smiled. It had better be!