Yesterday, we were privileged to be invited
to celebrate Christmas Russian style with Olga and John Hawkes – no not in St.
Petersburg just in case you are wondering if we have made a lightning trip
there and back, but in deepest
Meadowbank. Despite, or perhaps because
of its Auckland venue it turned out to
be a decidedly different mode of observance.
Olga and her friends had, for example, spent most of the morning in
Church as is the custom and lunch was eaten after 2pm. What a glorious table of festivity greeted us
as we entered the dining room, with an astonishing range of meats and salads. Decidedly different from the usual New
Zealand Christmas fare which in most cases mirrors that of the Northern
Hemisphere. I can even remember in
years past, actually ordering a goose to roast for what turned out to be a
blisteringly hot December 25th.
And there is always plum pudding – often with rum butter.
But yesterday the dessert course presented
us with extraordinarily delicious hazelnut merinques and an assortment of fresh
fruits. The husband told me later they were a great improvement on the above and Philippa's Barry agreed whole heartedly.
We were still sitting at the table and
chatting after five pm. As part of the
division of non Russian guests Philippa and I agreed that there are much worse
ways of spending a Wednesday afternoon in early January.
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