Anyone who has ever met me or cast a weary eye over this blog will know that Thursday is a special day for me. For the past 20 years or so it has been the traditional meeting night of the Giovedi Club. An institution of dishevelled, disgraceful and dissolute fellows which meets once a week to eat pasta and steak and drink red wine and grappa.
Over the years the dedication of its members has become legendary. People have rearranged holidays, travelled through six foot snow drifts and generally overcome all sorts of obstacles to make a "meeting". Nowadays, however, it seems that things have changed - for the worse.
How's this for a list of excuses? One is on holiday (reasonable but badly planned), one has been ordered by his mother to go to her house for dinner (feeble), one is worried about his waistline (astonishing) and another is packing a case for a trip on Saturday (disgraceful). I'm not even going to start on the people who come along and "really can't manage such a big plate of pasta!".
Has the lure of the grappa become so weak? Is my company really so bad (possible, but not to be seriously contemplated)? Or, as I suspect, has our new recruitment drive brought in some thoroughly soft members?
The club would never have started if people worried about their weight! The boys of the old brigade would not have dreamed of using such a lengthy list of feeble excuses for their absence. Is it time to call the whole thing off? Tonight it is just myself and my dad keeping the Olympic flame alive. Emergency! Emergency! Can anyone out there save the Giovedi?
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7 comments:
Sad, sad news.
Name and shame Ginkers. These people deserve public ridicule.
As for the last question there may just be an Irish/Scottish wannabe Italian scemo in Edinburgh that could save the Giovedi......
If it wasn't for the fact that the surname sounds like a sexually transmitted disease I would say you should change your name to Joe Vedi!
I've been thinking about this today. I did notice a change at my last Giovedi where some young guy I'd never met claimed he was there at "the beginning." I thought then it was time for the old hands to reclaim the Giovedi.
As for the four accused my snap judgement would be:
Holiday - excusable as long as you have a grappa on Giovedi while on holiday.
Mother's for dinner - As long as she is cooking pasta followed by a meat secondo then excusable providing you join the club for grappa afterwards.
Packing a case - Aye keep packing and dont come back.
Waistline - Shot at dawn.
I think your judgement is, as always, impeccable. Sadly I don't think grappa was involved in either the holiday or dinner at the mother's.
However, I kept the spirit alive. Fritto misto starter, pollo asparagi as a main and, of course, espresso and grappa to complete the deal. Viva Giovedi!
I wasn't out myself but I raised (and drank) a grappa in honour of the Giovedi.
packing for saturday... on a thursday?? what kind of half-arsed pisspoor shadow of an excuse is that?? I do trust he wasn't ever a close friend, ginkers.
and as for watching your waistline: what an enormous pile of crap. What kind of people are you drinking with? is he a man or a fashion victim? eating and drinking are serious matters deserving of time and commitment! I'm shocked at this evidence in the decline of (Italo-)Scottish manhood. I had thought better of the nation.
Spangly, as you can imagine my disgust was similar to yours. The holiday packer, I am ashamed to say, is my own uncle. This week, he is going to a Burns supper instead of coming out for his pasta and grappa. What am I to do?
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