Welcome To Quayside
Frankie makes a suggestion to help all the residents of number one, Quayside . . .
IT’S impossible to burn a salad, Mum. You’ll be fine,” Hattie told her. Tanya wasn’t so sure. “Time speeds up or slows down as soon as I start cooking: that’s why my dishes get burnt.”
Hattie rolled her eyes and shook her head.
Tanya dropped the Parmigiano cheese into the bowl full of lettuce.
“I wish I hadn’t invited the Dalamos to dinner.”
“What you mean is, ‘I wish I hadn’t invited Giacomo to dinner’.”
That was true. Giacomo’s daughter, Frankie ate with them almost every night when her dad was at work.
That was the crux of the matter – her dad’s work. He was an Italian chef. Tanya and Hattie had already sampled his everyday cooking on their first night in their new flat, and it was delicious.
Tonight’s invitation was to pay them back.
“If those pine nuts are for the salad, they should be toasted,” Hattie said.
Since Hattie had made friends with Frankie, she’d picked up lots of tips. “Fine. I’ll toast them.” The Dalamos were bringing the main course so, unless Tanya produced the most elaborate salad, she would remain in debt.
Hence the pine nuts, the Parmigiano shavings and the sun-dried tomatoes. The doorbell rang. She asked Hattie to let them in and ran to her bedroom to get changed.
She got into a clean dress, sprayed on some perfume and joined the others in the living-room.
The Dalamos hadn’t just brought the main dish, they provided the entire meal!
“This is an Italian glazed lacerto. It’s a bit like roast beef but cooked in a casserole instead,” Giacomo explained.
“How are you settling in? I hear a lot about Hattie from Frankie, but not much about you,” he asked her as they sat down to eat.
“I’ve got to know a few people in the building.
“There’s Charlie, who lent me the tools to assemble my furniture, Ziva from the flat upstairs, and Becky with little Kieran.
“She told me that you often help her carry the pushchair up the stairs.”
“Not often enough. I wish she would ring my intercom when she needs help,” he said ruefully.
“I feel for them. It’s hard to bring up a child alone, especially with little money.
“Becky ends up parking him in front of the ipad more often than she’d like to.
“They do have a few library books, but wouldn’t it be nice if they could borrow toys, too?”
“They need a library of things,” Frankie said.
“What’s that?” Tanya asked.
“It’s a library which lends all sorts of stuff, mostly things that people don’t use often enough to own.
“Things like chocolate fountains, gazebos, pingpong sets, DIY stuff . . .” Frankie said.
“Do you mean that I could have borrowed a power drill from them?”
“No. The nearest one is too far.
“My friends and I wanted to borrow a canoe to go down the Thames and out to sea, but the library was too far,” Frankie said.
“I’m glad it was,” Giacomo muttered. Tanya sat up.
“Well, how about we start one here? A library of things for residents of number one, Quayside.”
She imagined Kieran playing with new toys, Ziva and Ajay cycling on a tandem, and new residents borrowing all the tools they needed to get their homes up and running.
“Then I could borrow an ice-cream maker for when we have dinner together,” Giacomo said, and Tanya liked the sound of more dinners together. Giacomo turned serious. “I guess it’s going to take quite some work to set up.”
“We should have a residents’ meeting to discuss it,” Tanya said.
“But as far as I know, the only common spaces are the car park, the lobby and the bins storage area.”
“The car park is exposed to the rain, the lobby is tiny, and the bins storage area is usually locked,” Giacomo said.
“We could hold the meeting in our flat,” Giacomo offered.
“Talking about smell . . .” Hattie said, sniffing the air.
“I’m sorry, I think I’ve overdone it with the perfume,” Tanya said.
“This isn’t perfume. Is there something on the hob?” Hattie asked. Tanya jumped to her feet. “The pine nuts!”
She dived into the kitchen, while everyone chuckled.
“I knew that even a salad could be burnt!” she called.
More next week.