Hike Norfolk – Social Day

Last weekend was one of the most important dates in the Hike Norfolk social calendar, the annual summer get together. Richard’s house has been replaced with a more decadent affair this year, adding extra excitement to the mix. There’s usually a walk to go along with the social element, but I couldn’t be bothered with that. We can go walking any day after all.

I decided to put myself in charge of the catering for the event, which was handled very professionally I thought. I was fortunate to have Bev come along to Morrisons to assist with the purchasing of essential supplies, which was rather useful. I let her push the trolley as it’s important to involve everyone in the project. We were going to start with purchasing bread, but noticed that the fruit and vegetables were being reduced in price. I thought getting this at a bargain price was a very good idea, I begrudge spending money (albeit not mine) on fruit and vegetables.

I got bored of the fruit and vegetables quite quickly. The kind man at Morrison’s also didn’t seem annoyed that he had to place six loaves of bread in the big cutting machine, so that was helpful and saved some cutting later on.

And a behind the scenes photo of the food preparation arrangements, with strict food hygiene procedures in place. I spent most of the time supervising arrangements, fortunate to have Richard buttering bread, Bev neatly arranging salad around sandwiches, Dave slicing things and Susanna putting the filling in to the bread. A very handy little team. It was also apparent that we had purchased too many 25p bags of salad, a reminder that it’s best to buy it when cheap to avoid expensive waste.

Crisps and fruit, what more could people possibly want?

And the sandwiches all neatly compiled, collated and ready for service. I have to say, I’m really very good at this food organising I think. I mentioned that to numerous people. We had a whole Smörgåsbord of sandwich options, including cheese & pickle, cheese & onion, ham & mustard and beetroot salad. Despite Bev’s best efforts to make the beetroot salad sandwiches look tempting, they were the least popular which is no real surprise.

We were lucky to have some members bring their own cakes, including a Victoria sponge, a meringue and numerous other delights. And they were all excellent, much appreciated by everyone in attendance.

And the party in full swing. Well, the photo that I can safely upload anyway, it’s fair to say that some members of the group are quite rowdy and so photos later on wouldn’t be appropriate to post. There was plenty of gossip and I thought that it went really well and we received some lovely feedback after the event. Which means that there seems to be more than enough demand to do all of this again. Anyone interested in attending just needs to join Hike Norfolk   🙂