And a good time was had by all

We somehow didn't see George over the Christmas period and Anne and I both always find George interesting to talk to.  He often has something different and interesting to say.  And he was around a lot somehow when I was helping to bring up kids -- so I was missing his cheerful face.  Any family dinner or party I host always includes an invitation to George.  He feels like part of the family.

So sometime around New Year I arranged to host a dinner for both George and Ken.  George and Ken came out to Australia on the boat together so seem in my mind to be some sort of a pair.  They certainly get on well.  So tonight we got together --- including Anne and Maureen -- at my favourite dinner haunt:  The Sunny Doll Japanese restaurant at Buranda.  Meeting at 6:30.

Ken very kindly picked up Anne and myself on the way to the restaurant as he had noticed that I don't like driving these days.  His newish VW car has all sorts of knobs and buttons in it that do things so that was interesting.  The roof was a bit low for my 5'10" frame though. That's the penalty for sportiness, probably.

George got lost trying to find the restaurant.  I told him it was next to Woolworths but "next" was a bit too imprecise apparently, and George at first picked the wrong Japanese restaurant.  There are three of them at Buranda for some strange reason.  So we initially thought he had forgotten but none of us had his mobile no.  Anyway, he arrived just as I was ordering so that was no problem.

When we were arriving, I said to Maureen that she must have been well to come along.  But she denied it.  Maureen is always ill.  She was pretty lively and alert at the dinner though.  She is on some sort of restrictive diet so chose prawn tempura for her dinner because it fitted in with her diet somehow.  She tried bits of the other dishes on the table though so the diet must be flexible.

I brought along a bottle of Wolf Blass "champagne" for drinks and we had a variety of dishes, chicken karaage, chicken teriyaki, omurice, vegetable tempura, Wagyu beef etc.  The grilled Wagyu beef was unbelievable: a symphony in tenderness and taste.  I think it is the best steak I have ever had.  But I rarely eat steak so may not be a good judge.

Ken did his usual job of cleaning up the leftovers.  I like to see that.  "Waste not, want not" was a motto when I was growing up.  A lot of Westerners at Japanese dinners just eat the meat and leave a lot of the beautifully-cooked rice.  But between myself and Ken just about all the rice went down this time.

After the dinner we repaired to my verandah for tea, coffee and Arnott's Premier chocolate chip cookies.  I always buy them for either Ken or Paul as both of them vacuum them up.  If both Ken and Paul are there, the whole packet gets rapidly dispatched.  Anne very kindly got us all our teas and coffees.  She only does that for people she likes.

And during the evening the major topic of conversation was probably the world's most popular topic at the moment:  Mr Trump.  I did my little bit to campaign for Mr Trump, of course, so all conversations about Mr Trump are pleasant to me.  When people are unenthusiastic about him, I assure them that most people find fault with him -- even those who support him -- but his policies have so much appeal to many of us that we overlook his faults.  "Let him who is without fault cast the first stone", anyway (To paraphrase John 8:7).  That Trump offers peace with Russia is alone enough to recommend him in my view.  Any war with Russia would be just too dreadful.

Anyway, Ken thought Trump's policies were just common sense, which I agreed with.  George was more doubtful.  He was against Mr Trump during the campaign but has warmed to him after he won the election.  The ladies just left politics to the men, in the traditional way.

So we wrapped up about 9:30 after much good food and much good conversation.