Jenny put on a BBQ lunch for close family on Sunday. I had recently bought her a new space-age gas BBQ for her birthday so this was a first social use of it. The days when a BBQ was just a piece of metal are long past. It is now up there with dishwashers and fridges and stoves and such things.
We sat in Jenny's back yard while the kids ran around there -- and run they did. Dusty, Sahara and Matthew were all more or less perpetual motion. Elise was her usual inscrutable self.
Jenny tried once again to make her own cevapi. We are all rather keen on cevapi but the only place you can get them in Brisbane at the moment is out at woop woop so the idea of making your own is attractive. But although they are simple peasant food, getting them just right is difficult. And, as on previous occasions, Jenny failed again. Her attempt at them made perfectly nice rissoles but cevapi they were not. Since Jenny had gone to considerable trouble over them, it was a real disappointment to her. I am convinced that there is a secret ingredient in real cevapi that none of us knows about. Trip to woop woop coming up.
Towards the end of the festivities, I got the assembled company to take part in a small play I had written. Creating your own entertainments at parties seems to have largely died out these days but I like to revive it. The play I put on was "The King's trip" -- about Edward VII -- and it seemed to be much enjoyed. Russell got to play the part of the King and he really loved it. People were a bit dubious when I proposed that we do a play and I am sure they only agreed to it as a favour to me but in the end they certainly saw the point of it. The play is online here. Susan was very good minding the kids while the rest of us got into the play.
But buying a new carpet turned out to be easier said than done. In its inscrutable way, fashion seems to have decreed that the only new carpet you can buy is in various shades of poop. Different patterns and shades other than brown are just not for sale. So the only way we could find of getting something attractive was to buy an Axminster -- which is not cheap. But the one we got was very pretty indeed so it was worth it. There it is below. "Summer Bouquet" is the name of the pattern. Anne's son said: "But that's an old lady's carpet". But then he twigged: "But I suppose you are an old lady".
I think I see in the matter a business opportunity for Ken or Paul. There must be other people who want an affordable carpet in something other than poo colours so a shop devoted to that should do a good trade. Getting the stock would be a problem but a friendly carpet miller could perhaps be persuaded to re-run some of his old patterns.
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