The meal is the full English breakfast. The men having departed, the women begin their day. If there are babies or small children, they will have to be kept pacified until the important business of the order books is complete. The delivery men arrive on bicycles, which they leave leaning against trees or gates, and they take the books through to the kitchen where the cook checks them and makes notes. Whichever arrives first he takes to the missus – ‘Madam’ was a later embellishment. The cook, whose real name isn’t used in this household, probably Isaac, or Joshua, or some resounding biblical name, says, ‘Missus, here is the fruit and veg.’ Each delivery boy has a little exercise book with the number of the house on it – let us say 183 Livingstone Avenue. Each page is dated; there is a stub of pencil attached by string to the little book. The lady of the house looks at yesterday’s order. Cook has ticked each item to say it arrived.
