One View as Horrifying as the Next

... at the end of the meal, I am still leaping
up and going over to the buffet to take pictures ...

Wyona was able to get a booking for 8 people for the last buffet for the year at SAIT.

Goodbye good foods for this year.

And Wyona missed the early booking for January and February, so this was really a goodbye.

Dave and Moiya joined us as did Lurene, Tonia and Marcia – so that makes eight of us.

... Dave Wood taking his first view of the pig ...

I wonder what was different about today.

Well, the servers all wore bands on their heads on top of which were ornaments or small Christmas presents or animals.

All of the servers didn’t look that comfortable at first.

3I guess who really wants to walk around as a decoration.

But soon their discomfort left and they got busy with their jobs and we got busy at the salads buffet, the entrée row and the dessert table.

... the server ready to carve the pig ...

I don’t know if the roasted pig was the celebratory sight for Christmas that I had anticipated.

Greg said that he first had a fully roasted pig when they went to Malaysia.

Someone took them out to a posh restaurant for a special meal.

Today the crackled pigskin was optional.

Wyona sat at the side of the table where she had the view of the pig for the whole meal.

I was looking to the other end of the room. I did notice hot grease dripping from its mouth at one point.

... horrifying from every viewpoint ...

Oh, that poor little piglet, giving its life for us. I must have been in shock for I kept taking pictures of it.

And when I went through the entrée line, I filled my plate up with all of the other vegetables so that there was very little room left for the roast pig.

But I did take some.

Delicious of course, but there is something very real about knowing where your food is coming from, when you see a fully roasted pig in front of you.

The conversation at the table was fun.

The Bates women know how to make each other laugh.

And when they get together, the like each other and want to get caught up on the good and difficult parts of their lives.

Marcia is busy interviewing for new jobs. She parked at my house, took the LRT down to an interview and was back to SAIT in time for lunch.

Lurene is busy singing with Sonnebelles A Capella this season and though both she and Tonia love the gigs associated with the season, still there is very little time left over to attend the concerts of their nieces and nephews, for example.

... more of the pig and its body ...

We had a really lovely time together – my time made just a little more sweet by being able to look away for most of the time from that precious little suckling pig.

Arta