A lunchtime concert at a church in a nearby town showcased a very talented professional viola player. There was no entry fee and a light lunch was provided before the concert. How can I pass up free food and a free concert?
On offer were triangle-shaped sandwiches with what I think was pimiento cheese filling, ham sandwiches, cheese and crackers, fruit, welsh cakes, and orange juice. It's very common here to drink orange juice for lunch. Of course coffee and tea were provided as well. We ate on cute little plates and drank from stemmed glasses. The food was laid out in the back of the church and we sat in the pews to eat. There was a ledge on the back of the benches just wide enough to set your dishes on. It seemed strange to me to be eating in the 150-year-old church.
A lady came around with a tray offering jam-tops, homemade tea-bread, and apple-blackberry pie. These cute-sounding English sweets made the experience of being there feel so authentic.
It was an older crowd except for the young Rector who had recently transferred to the church. He was friendly and came by to talk to me, I think our mutual non-gray heads stood out in the crowd. He detected my American accent but I'm glad my Catholic religion didn't come up as we were in a Church of England congregation and I didn't want to risk losing my before-mentioned head. Okay, so the Catholic/Protestant dispute was centuries ago, but it's fresh in my mind as I have been learning about it in my English Experience history group.
Sitting in the church, I wanted to take pictures of the scene because this blog posting was already forming in my head. But it would have felt intrusive to do so. I didn't want to impose a touristy feel on what was an ordinary occasion for the locals.
I did find a website with some photos of the church: Christ Church, Esher, Surrey
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| Photo by Jacqueline Banerjee |
I enjoyed the concert and I did make a donation to the "retiring collection" as I left. I'm not entirely a mooching freeloader!
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