A birthday celebration

It's Jenny's birthday soon so Nanna organized a BBQ today for a few of us to help celebrate the occasion.  Jenny had two out of four of her children along for the occasion -- which she was glad of.  Von and Paul were however of course missed.  Russ piloted the BBQ and we got some really good sausages.  It was in Jenny's special BBQ area in her backyard

Suz was in very good form, full of chat.  We all talked a lot of incidental stuff, as a matter of fact.  Suz has always been a talker but hostess duties tend to mean we don't hear as much from her when we meet at her house.  But today she just sat and talked. And everything she said was good-natured of course.

When Suz and Von were kids Suz used to do all the talking for both of them.  Von would just smile and nod. At one time we were a bit concerned about whether Von could talk much at all.  Then one afternoon Suz took a nap while Von stayed awake.  Rather to our surprise Von started talking to us in quite well-formed sentences.  Never underestimate Von!  The quiet types can have hidden depths.  Von is basically a happy person but not many really know what is behind her smiles.

The great joke of the day at our BBQ was sugar. I brought along for myself and Joe a 1.25 litre bottle of Woolworths Lemon, Lime and Bitters, which I drink a lot of.  Suz however promptly lectured me about it having too much sugar in it.  So it was then on for one and all.  We all had various comments about sugar after that.  I kept drinking the stuff and kept calling it  my "sugar".

Most of what we talked about was in fact about food and drink. I have been doing a bit of cooking lately and the ladies were of course full of wise observations about cooking.  Joe didn't say much and I know why.  Joe has a universal recipe that goes for cooking all food:  "Apply heat". Until recently I also had a universal recipe for good food:  "Eat out".  So, as usual, our thinking is not far apart.

Suz supplied the desserts, including a cake.  She also did some macaroons, which were excellent.

The littlies were very good.  Russ was lying down on the grass at one stage and they kept climbing all over him.

Jenny's friend Pam was there but didn't say much.  With big talkers like Jenny, Suz and myself she probably couldn't get a word in. Nanna complained about that a bit but she eventually managed to have her say.  It was a very jolly occasion.

UPDATE:  One of the things that I talked about is well known to older Australians:  Bex -- or as the Becker company used to advertise: "Bex, B.E.X. Bex". I have taken Bex myself in my earliest days.

I made the point that powders should be revived as an alternative to tablets -- as kids (young and old) often have difficulties with tablets.  More on my pro-Bex views here.