WE WOULD LIKE BEEF ON A STRETCHER FOR 40

We had the most amazing celebration on Sunday.  


It was a dual celebration thanking the out going team and celebrating the contract signing.  A great deal of preparation had gone into the dinner.  There is this castle north of Wick that is generally not open to public.  Everyone says that it is primarily used by famous people that feel like taking a break from being seen.  There is a dock for their yachts and a helicopter pad so they can whisk in and out without anyone ever knowing they have been there.  We rented this place for the weekend.

Everyone dressed up, and we started the evening with champagne, oysters, and smoked eel.  All of it was stunning.  

Tiny blog time out: my family will be thinking Dyan doesn't eat oysters - she says no filter feeders - and in this they are generally correct.  However, my boss at Hanford was really into food and oysters were one of his favorite.  He got me to try all different kinds, prepared all different ways.  I've learned I do like them, and I prefer the little one that are generally from this part of the world.  These oysters were from Tongue, which is just west of the Site.  Now the lovely lady that explained all this to me saw my microscopic hesitation in grabbing the oysters, but then I thought oh well, I am sure it's fine.  And were they fine!!!!

We moved into the dining room that was set up like a big U with assigned seats.  I had the best seat between two very funny gentlemen from the previous team - lucky!!  We started dinner with Haggis - seriously did you think I was going to say anything else?  It was piped - like with a piper - into the hall, a bard recounted the merits of haggis through prose before stabbing it with this fancy knife.  It was gorgeous - like couldn't stop eating it gorgeous.  It was served with a wee dram of whisky that I was forced to taste out of etiquette, but I did make a little face and I know that is rude, but I don't like it, and thankfully Jason finished it for me.


Then we had smoked salmon with potato pancakes and caviar - can the food get any better here?


Then it was time for our main course - I know what you are thinking - main course after all of that, but in it came accompanied by two drummers - on drums.  It was two great joints of beef on a wooden stretcher.  It was paraded into the hall, down the little corridor in the U table, then back, then onto this big table where the haggis got stabbed.  


That's where it all went wrong.  


You see the gal in the back of the stretcher was at least 4 inches shorter than the guy in the front.  Her face throughout the parade was panic and stress.  She held that stretcher, she prayed to the beef presentation god - seriously how busy could he have been that night...well as the guy in front was pushing the stretcher up over his head to set it down, one of the great joints of beef rolled right off the back of the stretcher.  Like a pro footballer, she held the stretcher and tried to knee the beef onto the table, missed it, she tried with her foot, but alas it splatted on the floor while we roared and clapped.


Interestingly, this has never happened before...in the hall.  It has happened in the hallway on the way to the hall, a point that was made to her repeatedly before she came in with the beef.  We thought it was great and still had plenty to eat.  I felt bad for her as she must have been mortified, but it was entertaining.


We finished the meal with a lemon tart and the lightest, creamiest - almost frothy lime ice cream.  Then I made a hasty retreat to home so I could get some sleep before the big day tomorrow.