Deb's Digest
Debbie Atkinson’s family life column, as featured in the Southport Visiter.

Saturday 26 July 2008

DINING AL FRESCO



What a gloriously hot and sunny day - hurray. To celebrate summer we decided to christen our new patio set and eat outside. Whenever we watch travel programmes on the box we see whole Italian families eating outside at long tables - it all looks so placid, unrushed and relaxing. Whereas with us it's a half-day's work to sort the umbrella out. The advert for the patio set stated that the price included a market-sized umbrella. This sounded great - bigger surely meant better. Not always. It took three people to lift it and screw it into place and before we could wind the umbrella up, my husband had to get our biggest set of ladders out, climb to the top and wield a brush to poke the protective cover until it fell off. By that time everyone's nerves were shattered and our al-fresco meal stuck in the gullet. We haven't yet worked out how the cover is going to be put back on.

1 comment:

  1. Your garden looks very inviting! I can't manage our umbrella. If I need it up when my husband is not at home I have to sit in the shade or indoors.

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