Fish day

I've heard from the hospital. The appointment is mid-November so I've a while to wait. But I've got a date, a definite date when I should start the next step forward, to count the days to. I am somewhat bemused to discover the appointment is for 9.30 on a Saturday morning. I didn't even think they did out-patient clinics then. I can see we will have to set off early to get across Lancaster through the Saturday shopping crowds, though at least we won't have to contend with the child drop-off at the school we pass on the way.

Today it's fish day. So far I've parboiled some of the Fox's new potatoes ready to saute up later. I've made an unusual sauce made from spinach cooked in coconut milk, then blended. This evening I will add some prawns & chilli to the warming sauce to complete it. This afternoon I will marinate some haddock in various spices - cinnamon, paprika etc - & lemon juice before frying the fish. It should be different. Somehow, even these days, Friday seems like fish day.

It's amazing how long it takes for tradition to die out. I suppose the idea of Friday as fish day began with the medieval Catholic view that one day a week & on holy days meat was not to be eaten. Certainly my father continued with the view that fish should be eaten, or in his case, endured, every Friday. My mother wasn't bothered at all. When Dad ate at work, during school holidays, we had whatever we fancied, whether it was fish or not. We were not a particularly religious family, protestant if anything, so not ruled by any Catholic edicts. But then I wonder how many Catholics continued with the regime by those days, or even still do. I know the fish shop & stalls always seem busier on Friday. The display always looks more elaborate & varied. There remains a vague bell that goes off in my head that says "It's Friday, fish day". I wonder how many other people hear the same bell. Certainly many of the pubs around here seem to make fish a speciality for Friday so presumably the demand for fish must go up on Friday. I wonder if that bell will ever cease to ring in this country or is the thought so ingrained, even bred into British consciousnesses that the bell will continue to ring as long as there is fish in the sea & rivers to be had.