If some set of behaviour has been going on for long enough then it can seem completely normal to everybody involved, but odd to an outsider. I'm not in a cult or an abusive relationship, I cook for a small group of friends every Sunday evening. It's been going on for about 15 years, and it has incrementally evolved to the point where it has a name, a schedule, entrance criteria, traditions, and a rival chapter in another part of the country.
A friend of a friend who has recently moved temporarily back to the UK asked me what I was doing on Monday evening. My three word answer "Pseudo-Sunday Club" didn't really mean much to her, nor the fact that she could come along but only as a "special guest".
"Sunday Club" takes place on a Sunday evening, except on bank holiday weekends when it usually moves to Monday and takes the name "Pseudo-Sunday Club".
Entrance to Sunday Club is limited to Founder Members, persons sleeping with Founder Members, and Special Guests. You cannot join Sunday Club although we did give special dispensation to "Paying a mortgage with, but no longer sleeping with a Founder-Member" and "Living in the house where Sunday Club takes place."
The meal is served at 7.00pm sharp, more than 30 seconds variance from this is a serious breach of etiquette.
A far inferior version of the club exists in Guildford, theirs is common, boozy, badly organised, and mildly sexist. It takes place in a pub, they drink a minimum of 4 pints (a maximum of 5), they admire the dizzy barmaid, and they turn up pretty much whenever they want. It should properly be called "Renegade Sunday Club" although they call it "The Real Sunday Club". Our own (treacherous) Rob Mccarthy has been to Renegade Sunday Club a few times, and he chose it as the best Sunday Club without even bothering to come to the original.
Richard "The first rule of Sunday Club" B