WordPress Daily prompt: Drawing a Blank

When was the last time your walked away from a discussion, only to think of The Perfect Comeback hours later? Recreate the scene for us, and use your winning line. 

Photographers, artists, poets: show us HEATED.

This is quite a professional grill at our local first aid association where I was a member for many years. We often had a b-b-q in the summer evenings at a get-together.

The only time today I get heated today is if someone somewhere decides to have a b-b-q which is a common state of affairs in Switzerland in summer. The evening air is not filled with smells of nature’s flowers, not even cow dung on the fields, but, yes, you have it. Almost every garden, and even apartment on the balcony, has meat sizzling over a hot charcoal/gas grill. I remember when a new neighbour moved in and her first proud possession was a gas grill in her garden. She was still an amateur so the smells were not so refined as the full professionals. She still had a lot to learn and this was the result.

I sneaked the photo from my garden, an event never to be forgotten. Needless to say it was her first and last attempt. The smell of burnt meat lingered in the air for a few days.

And me, not really, I cannot be bothered. We did have a little electric grill when we moved in to keep up with everyone else. Being on the ground floor, we had a garden with patio so plenty of room. We I cooked a few meaty dishes, grilled to perfection, but the cleaning of the grill was too much bother. Where is this grill now: long gone to the eternal rubbish grounds? It was stowed away in the cellar for a few years and eventually I threw it out. Prefer to cook my meat in the kitchen which borders onto the patio in any case and does not attract all the livestock in the area, including insects with wings and felines.

I know I am a bit off the subject, but at my age the discussions are usually harmless like “What shall I cook for lunch”, or “What book are you reading?” upon which follows a discussion on literature. Yes, we are quite an intellectual couple. It might get heated up if we discuss sport, but there we are usually the same opinion. If Switzerland plays again England in an international football match I take the side of the Swiss. I always feel sorry for the “underdogs” and Mr. Swiss supports the Swiss in any case. Mr. Swiss might be interested in a boxing match on the TV, but that is no cause for discussion. I do not bother to watch.

We both like a programme on TV called Master Chef, where you have contestants cooking dishes for the first place. At home I usually cook and Mr. Swiss eats, so there is not a large basis for a discussion about who wins. I decide who should win and Mr. Swiss agrees.

It seems that we have the perfect system. No-one walks away and comes back later with the killing sentence. At our age we have a long distance memory, so can only remember discussions that took place many years ago and not a few hours ago. Mostly the subject matter is already forgotten. Of course we have slight disagreements now and again, otherwise life would really be boring, but the place for details is really not a blogging site and life is too short to think about the hit line.

When I was a working woman, there were not really disagreements. The boss made the decision and it was accepted, even if you did have a few teeth-gnashing moments afterwards or found what a stupid idea he had. The best policy was say nothing and eventually he would realise that another decision would have been better. You just had to twist it so he was convinced the the alternative decision was his idea in the first place. Oh, the wisdom of experience and years!

You want a winning line one way or the other? I have a winning word “whatever” or “it is not important” which leaves the opposite party wondering what it was all about in any case. The best method is to let the arguing party just argue into emptiness. I learnt that one at a work course about “how to keep your client cool and calm on the telephone when he is annoyed” and it worked.

So after this blog I will now relax. We have had almost two days of non-stop rain and everything has now cooled down at last, so nothing heated at the moment. 

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A grill party with the local 1st aid group

On our annual plan of the first aid group in the village there was the title „Grillabend“ meaning lets all go and have a b-b-q together. I once mentioned in a blog that I am not the grill type, but being probably the only one, I did not want to spoil the evening. The weather had been super during the week up to Wednesday. Thursday was reported to be dull and overcast, which was the evening we chose. However, not wanting to be the odd one out I religiously bought my marinated steak and bread in preparation for the culinary evening.

We usually go up on the mountain in the local hut where there is a fully equipped kitchen and grill place outside. However, due to the change in the weather it was decided to spend the evening at the local school. This sounds strange probably, but Swiss schools in villages are usually settled in the middle of fields and nice green places. At this particular school house, the grill was outside. An enormous fixture fitted with a lever for adapting the height of the actual grill. Seating was provided on suitable stone benches, but the evening being rather cool we decided this would not be very healthy. Luckily the grill was just near the entrance to our room where we met, so the table was laid out inside.

One of us was quite professional when it came to grilling and she had a roaring fire going after ten minutes. Roaring fires are not good for grilling, so we waited another ten minutes until it was a glowing mass. There were about 10 of us that plucked up the courage to go grilling on that evening. So there we were standing in our warm cardigans and jackets waiting to grill. The command was given and we put our meat over the glowing cinders. We do have a man in our group (the only one actually) but he did not come that evening so it was a woman only thing. It was quite a grill mixture. We had sausages, beef, pork and someone even brought fish. The fish was quite a sticky opportunity so we rescued it by putting aluminium foil underneath, otherwise half would have remained on the grill.

Eventually the “cooking” was finished and after piling our grill goods onto plates we took them to the warmth of the room. Actually it didn’t really rain outside, the heavens just looked a bit threatening. A bottle of wine was opened (or was it two bottles) and we washed our meal down with the wine. One of the women brought a self backed damson tart which went down very well with whipped cream (from an aerosol canister).

A detailed and prolonged discussion started about the local news from the village which made me realise how much I miss when I am at work all day. Arrangements were made for who will go to which occasion for the next life saving duties. There is an open day at the local agricultural college which needs the presence of first aid help in the case of something happening. Then there is the village Olympics where our help will also be needed. I decided there were enough to help out so I will just make myself busy dealing with the accounts. Most of all I like being on duty when there is a pop concert in the local school house. You get to hear some good music sometimes (although I did not really enjoy the hip-hop concert and the punk music concert).

In any case we all went home tired but happy and hope that next year’s grill evening will have some better weather. During our grilling this little cat got curious and observed the situation, probably hoping for something falling out of the fire.