Cups and the King

27th March 2012 Tuesday

I’m feeling as fat as our new water butt which is squatting outside the back door. It’s all that sampling of potential cake for my father’s thanksgiving service. And how much milk, how much coffee do you need for 250 people? At least 10 litres of milk says my friend who knows these things.

There aren’t enough tea cups at the church hall where my father’s thanksgiving is being held in London. At least the sink is very small we are told - paper cups are advised. In Tesco polystyrene cups cost £1.50 for 10. I don’t buy them.

Later when the sun is high in a blue sky and it’s as hot as August, my husband and I drive back from Homebase, the water butt wedged in the boot. We pass a huge catering wharehouse and I say,

‘Stop. Let’s go in there’.

What for?

Paper cups, of course.

The woman behind the desk says if you aren’t a business you can’t come in.

Where can I get paper cups then? I say. They cost £1.50 for 10 in Tescos.

What do you want them for? She asks.

My father’s funeral, I say.

I’ll give you a day pass, then, she says. And lets us in.

We find the cups - £2.20 for 50. And 200 bright daffodil yellow napkins. My father would be cheering at our bargain.

I think he’d also be chuckling to know that on Saturday we have to finish his service by 4.30 as the King of Tonga is having his memorial service in the same church immediately afterwards. I wonder what the king's family is going to do about the small sink and the dearth of tea cups.