The White Horse and the Wedding!

July 28th

Saturday the twenty-seventh of July, 2013, saw, to put it lightly, some shit go down. Shit got real. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiyit. In years to come I will be able to look back at 27/07/13 as a fairly pivotal day in my life. Not because of the violent crackdown on protestors in Cairo, or for Novellist winning the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stakes, or the general election in Kuwait, although perhaps in the future these could become the cause of some form of misplaced nostalgia. No. As keen readers of this web blog may have been aware, my friends Mike and Rosie got married.

Now I've briefly described some of the stresses and worries and exciting bits that were a part of the build up to the big day. It isn't the place of this blog to go into detail chronicling precisely what happened though; such an undertaking would require a novel of some form to do an event of this magnitude justice. What I will attempt to do is summarise some of the key points:

• Mike and Rosie got married
• It rained, but only during points when most people were supposed to be inside
• Nobody got hurt
• No animals were harmed
• A tractor could have, but wasn't, the subject of joyriding
• Robbie Williams' 'Candy' was played and a minority* danced

 This blog is far more interested in what happened next, on the soon to be forgotten day, Sunday the twenty-eighth of July, 2013. Even though Francisco José Garzón Amo was charged with 79 counts of manslaughter in Spain, and the US defeated Panama to lift the CONCACAF Gold Cup, it is destined to be overshadowed by the events that preceded it. I hope that this blog post will prove to be a fitting eulogy to that day and the breakfast that saw it in.

The family table

One of the great things about the wedding was that a lot of the guests opted to camp at the farm where the reception was held afterwards. This meant that, the following morning, after we'd all done our best helping to tidy up as much as our hangovers would allow, we trudged wearily into Ditchling to the White Horse, the pub at which Mr. and Mrs. Sykes had stayed, in order to chow down on a well-deserved cooked breakfast. It was a very welcome situation; never at weddings do you get a chance to sit back, relax and contemplate in a calm, sedate atmosphere. At least, not at any of the weddings I've been to. I'm usually too busy running around drinking everything in sight, being charming**, worrying about whether areas of my body are going to be visible from beneath my kilt, and plotting to expose areas of my body from beneath my kilt.

Happy campers

Now despite several shortcomings, the White Horse was a great success. The pub seemed to house the entire fly population of West Sussex, though these insects were largely ensconced within the pub's interior (probably looking for one-armed bandits and Setanta, the backwards lot that they are). We also endured quite a long wait for succour (some tables more than others) though to look at it in a positive light this enabled more time for chat and reflection. Some of our tables wouldn't see it this way however...

The Sykes Union Breakfast

Sausages, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, beans

S.U.B - £8?

There was a lot to commend about the food however when it did arrive. Chloe was given a whole tray of gluten-free toast; possibly the most generous pro-coeliac provision I have witnessed. The sausages were very stodgy and in the style of a spicy beanburger - a direction I've not yet seen before and one that deserves to be repeated.

Smiles and hangovers

The rest of the dish was solid and satisfying in a routine manner. The egg, very thick, had a light, salted, juicy white, with a thin, fluid and luminous yolk. Exciting. The toms were rich, soft, and peppery. The mushrooms had solid fungal tones though not much else. The beans were room temperature, though vibrant. It was enough to render the wait worthwhile (though some of our tables again wouldn't see it this way...possibly).

Putting on a brave face

It was great to continue the feeling of mass togetherness that the wedding instilled onwards into the following day. From the beginning stages of its preparation it had felt like much more than a joining of two individuals; it was a celebratory event of our entire friendship group. Several family members from both sides of the Sykes and Williams union remarked over the weekend about the remarkable closeness of our group, and there are few better meals to be had that could fittingly end on chapter of our group's life and beginning the next one than a mass cooked breakfast.

This post marks the end of my summer hiatus. Normal breakfast blogging service should hopefully now be resumed in October.


* pretty much just me
** At the time I think I am being charming I am usually offensively intoxicated