BurgerMeister

We rise early again at half past six, the terriers are still sleeping in the lounge, but wake up when I open the patio doors in the garden room and let everyone out onto a bright but chilly morning. Dolly and Teddy are going home today, they have settled in as if they have never lived anywhere else. After breakfast, Baker's for the dogs and smoked salmon and cream cheese for me, we set off for a walk round the fields. The terriers are on their best behaviour and come back when they are called, the wind is still quite strong, blowing out of the southwest and quite chilly, across the fields the dozen wind turbines at Esk are turning slowly, I find they have a strange, almost hypnotic beauty, the sails moving almost in synchrony. When we get back around eleven, I load the terriers straight into the back seat of the car, then leave Norman in the Garden Room and pick up my swimming gear, before driving to Cherry Burton, where I deliver the terriers back to Pip. Then I drive to Tesco's, to pick up some panini, in order to make something different for Louis' tea this afternoon before driving on to Saint Mary's school for cooking lessons with Class one. The other two adults from last week are waiting in reception, a grandmother and a Dad, who it turns out, is actually a chef. At five to twelve we are asked to make our way to the classroom and when we arrive, we find that three electric ovens have been set up and separated from the children by a row of chairs. Mrs. Wildbore and her assistants welcome us and explain that class one are to make hamburgers today. Louis waves to me and then comes over, as I am assigned to teach him how to make the dish. We all wash our hands, put on our aprons and then are given an onion to grate and about half a pound of lean beef mince in a mixing bowl. The children are warned to keep their eyes away from the onions when grating them and cautioned not to rub them if they start to water. Louis and I peel the onion, which he then grates enthusiastically, ignoring the advice about his eyes, which then start to sting and run, before he can rub them, I hand him a tissue from my pocket and tell him just to dab off the tears and that the stinging will soon go away. I finish off grating the onion, my eyes protected by my glasses, and then we put our hands in the bowl and break up the mince, before pouring in the grated onion and mixing it thoroughly with the meat. Mrs. Wilbore brings a dollop of ketchup which she adds to our mixture and a little salt and pepper, which we rub into our bowls. The class is then instructed to make patties from the burger mix by dividing it into six roughly equal portions, rolling these into balls and then patting them thin between flattened palms. I go first and show Louis how to do it and then he makes the rest. They look quite reasonable lying on the baking tray, the teacher brings a piece of paper with Louis' name on it, which she places on the tray and then the burgers are put in the ovens to cook. We all wash our hands and then the children eat their packed lunches, whilst the adults clear away and fold up the aprons. We are finished by twenty five to one and leave the children eating, the smell of cooking burgers wafting in the air. Next Monday is the last cooking class, we are to make a dessert. I drive to the leisure centre, change and enter the water by five minutes to one, the lunchtime crowd has thinned out and I share a lane with Terry, on the far side of the pool. There is enough room for me to swim medleys, so I put in another 2,000m, in 4 sets of 5 x 100m Individual Medleys, but make the mistake of setting off too quickly on the first set and then pay the price as the session progresses. Nevertheless, I get it done and then warm down with a couple of hundred easy metres on freestyle and backstroke, before changing and making my way to the cafe. The girls in the kitchen hand me my sponsorship form back and all of them have chipped in to support the Swimathon, after thanking them profusely, I order a pot of tea and a teacake, which I eat in the bar. A text arrives from Sam to tell me she has procured a ticket for me to see Rebecca in her school play on Wednesday and I text a thank you back. At three o'clock it is time to leave and drive back to Saint Mary's to collect Louis, I sit in the playground for five minutes, waiting for his class to be let out, the sky has completely clouded over and the weather feels cold and wintry again. Another grandfather, sat next to me, tells me he is on Warfarin for his heart and feels the cold quite intensely, he is about my age and tells me that he lives in Hornsea, which is twelve miles away. Louis emerges, dishevelled as ever, carrying a package which contains three of the burgers we have made. We drive back to Tickton and he eats a couple and gives me one to try, they are quite nice, but a little under seasoned for my taste. Louis plays a computer game called "Temple Run", that Rebecca downloaded into my iPad, while I make panini, with cheddar cheese chorizo and sweet peppers. After the burgers, one panini ought to be enough and is. As ever, Louis wants to play football, so we drive to the swing park but find it empty and drive on towards Beverley, but then notice some older boys kicking a ball about on the basketball court. We park up and I tell Louis to ask them nicely if he can play football with them. The boys are good natured and agree, they like the fact that Louis volunteers to be in goal. He plays happily for an hour, I join in from time to time, trying to run as little as possible, when the numbers of players fall low, but am rescued when two girls ask to play. They are very good and the kick about continues until half past five, when everyone has to go home for tea. Louis tells me his side won seven goals to three, I think he may have been the only one keeping score. We arrive at North Bar just before six and I hand him over to Alice, Sarah has still not got back from work, before driving back to Tickton. All the exercise and activity of the day catches up with me and after a tea of more panini and a glass of wine, I crash out around half past seven, apologising to Norman for missing his evening walk, he has to make do with a quick run in the garden tonight. I wake again at midnight and pour myself a glass of cream soda, which I drink in the kitchen. It will be a relief to get this Swimathon out of the way and to take things a little easier for a while.