My wife, Vicki, and I help organize a monthly free meal for our local community. It’s a great time to meet people we might not regularly rub shoulders with… and just give back a little.
This time around, Vicki is away in Auckland (7hrs+ drive) with my 18 year old daughter… off to see a visiting K-Pop artist.
Now…
K-Pop’s not quite my thing
(K-Rock on the other hand… Rolling Quartz anyone?)
So I stayed at home to manage the kitchen at the community meal.
And my dearest, long-suffering wife… knowing I’m not the most creative or efficient chef… helpfully offered to cook a couple of massive Shepherd’s Pies before she took off. 👩🍳
With a huge sigh of relief I said: “Yes, please!”
Well, yesterday Vicki had the kitchen humming along.
But after the mouth-watering smells had wafted all around our house…
Vicki poked her head around the door to my office.
Her face said it all.
You see…
The disposable aluminium[1] tray had buckled while transferring one of the Shepherd’s Pies to the fridge.
And the state of the kitchen floor… well!
(It’s times like this I wish we still had chickens 🐔)
Is there a moral to this story?
Erm…
Don’t cook? …
Don’t use aluminium trays? …
Have chickens on standby just in case disaster strikes?
I think I’ll run with…
Sometimes your best efforts just end up splattered across the kitchen floor.
And that’s one of those life things. Disappointing. But not the end.
And there’s always learning opportunities.
Next time? We’ll use smaller trays so they’re not so heavy. And they’ll be easier to maneuver when hot.
I’ll leave the parallels with freelancing up to you to figure out today.
What? You were expecting me to spoon feed you everything?
Heh… sorry pal, no time for that… I’ve got my cozy-looking Sunday-afternoon bed calling my name.
A nap will do very nicely I think.
And, y’know… have to be well-rested… my tong-wielding skills have gotta be Olympic level for tonight’s community meal!
(And we did do a bit of a scramble and picked up a bit of extra salad and stuff to make up for half the meal disappearing — phew!)
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Chris Milham
[1] And don’t tell me I spelt (!) this wrong… going with my natural British English spelling here. “Aluminum” just sounds SO wrong! 😄