Welcome home to Vonnie and family -- and Timmy's birthday

Von arrived back in Brisbane from her happy home in New Zealand on Tuesday and Paul and I tried to arrange a Welcome Home dinner for shortly thereafter.  But work commitments and such things meant that today, Saturday, was the earliest date that suited everyone.

It so happened that today was also Timmy's 30th birthday so Timmy elected to join in the Welcome Home dinner rather than have something of his own.  And he certainly had a real family birthday.  Not only were his mother and father present but so were both his brothers and both his sisters.  In these days of people moving around, that was pretty good.

Seeing it was a 30th., I decided that it was a good time to tell stories about Timmy's childhood.  Nearly everyone has heard them all before but Jade (Timmy's colourful partner) had not and everybody enjoys hearing old stories about their past anyway.  So I told the story of Timmy being knocked over by Pepper the dog, of his dash for the biscuit barrel, of his squeezing his scratches to get blood, of his wonder at being talked to by a fireman, of his hatred of being "little" and his cartwheel on reaching 3ft. tall.  Paul and Ken also told a few stories.

I forgot to tell of his delight at getting splotches of "red stuff" (mercurochrome) over his bumps and scratches.  It is only meant to be an antiseptic but with Timmy it cured everything!  I was a sort of witch doctor who could dry all tears.  He was a great little kid and we all have fond memories of his childhood.

We went to the Bollywood as usual and the curry was good as usual.  There were about 16 of us all told.  Nanna and Anne were missing for health reasons.  I sat beside Suzy for about half the time so that was a good opportunity to hear something from her.  Dusty and Sahara were both being charming so she was a rightly proud mother.

In fact the kids spent a fair bit of time running around the restaurant with much squealing etc so it was a proper family occasion.  We all like seeing the little ones enjoying themselves and for most of the time we were the only ones in the restaurant so I doubt if the kids bothered anyone.  The restaurant is quite nicely set up but most of their trade is takeway.

And I was greatly privileged in that Sahara came and wanted to sit on my lap at one stage.  Not long ago she was always frightened of me.  But now I get lots of smiles.  Times change!

Von came and talked to me for a while but we had already had long chats on Thursday so it was more important that she talk to others -- which she did.  With her usual wisdom she seated herself in the middle of the table where she could talk to most people.  Aside from Suzy, I mostly taked to Ken, as I usually do.  We predicted the result of the next Federal election!  Despite Kevvy's strong showing at the moment, we foresaw a close Abbott win.

I have used the word "usually" rather a lot above and I imagine that some people might think it boring to keep doing "usual" things.  But our dinner was in fact nearly identical with lots of previous such dinners and we always enjoy them so the familiar can have its charms.

UPDATE:  Something I should have mentioned above:  I had of course been told that Saturday was also Timmy's birthday but when I arrived and sat down near Suz she was very quick to remind me of that.  She clearly wanted that to be acknowledged.

So when I got up to do the toasts, she got up too to say something in case  I missed out.  I did of course toast Tim and it was as  soon as we had done that that Suz led us all in the "Happy Birthday" song.  She really is a little dear heart, full of love.  She went through a fiery furnace in her teens but we are very lucky to have the original Suz back among us.