Paul and Susan very kindly invited Jenny, Anne and me to lunch today. Susan put on another one of her usual masterful spreads with the curried prawns being particularly good.
I took over a donation to Paul: My complete library of books about Sir Johannes Bjelke Petersen. "Joh" was a very influential and hence controversial figure in recent Queensland history and Paul had expressed regret that it was all before his time and he hence knew nothing about Joh. My collection comprised about 7 books so that is a lot to be written about a non-national politician.
We talked a lot about politics with the other major topic being the future education of young Matthew. Paul wants to get him taught German from Primary school on but is finding that not many schools offer it. It is certainly easiest to learn a language when you are young.
At one stage we were lamenting that Susan knew not one word of Dutch despite her Dutch ancestry. So I told her how to pronounce Gouda cheese in the correct Dutch way -- complete with the initial guttural. I can't remember her exact response but it was something like "Good Heavens"! Dutch pronunciation does sometimes have that effect!
The party below:
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