On Tuesday 7th we all met at Jenny's at dinner time to welcome Paul and Matthew back to Brisbane. Ken picked them up from the airport. Jenny made a BIG batch of egg-rolled pork as that is the family favourite -- and there were some big eaters among us -- 3 Johnson's no less (Von, Paul and Ken). I think I got a total of five of the rissoles so I did OK too. Jenny of course also provided salads and such things to go with the pork, including Kim Chee and Japanese ginger. I got a fair bit of those things too. Paul had a lot to tell us after a long while away so talked at a great rate.
8th: On Wednesday evening was a dinner arranged just for Paul and me. It was to commemorate the life of Chris Brand. Paul had brought all the way from Scotland a bottle of light Port that Chris had given him so he thought I was the right one to share it with It was a "Cavendish" Port from South Afria laid down in 1956. Some wine guide said it was worth 400 pounds. I cooked meat loaf to go with it as Paul and I have fond memories of previous meatloaves and this one was pretty good. It popped up at Woolworths about 6 months ago so I grabbed one with a view to sharing it with Paul some time So all I did was heat it up and serve it with salad. We were half way through our dinner on my verandah when Joe came by on his way home. We managed to get him to join us as he too had met Chris. So he got an unexpected dinner of Port, meatloaf and salad. Paul finished the Port off and Jenny was kind enough to come and pick him up after the dinner.
9th: On Thursday Paul joined me at brunch. I ordered my special toasted sandwich for Paul. Matthew got a poached egg on toast but also tried Paul's sandwich. He had trouble with it. He struck a hot bit
11th: On Saturday we had Christmas! Both Von and Paul will be gone when Christmas arrives so we decided to have one of our normal Christmases while they were still here. And it did work out as usual, complete with amusing games with presents. Von took on the job of MC and did it very well. I shouted the ham as usual, Anne contributed and iced a Christmas cake and Simon did great work frying lots of small kebabs. The ladies also brought various cakey things which were all enjoyed. It was good to see Timmy with us. He brought along a very presentable girlfriend too -- another Kiwi. One of the more memorable events was when I tripped over but managed to fall sitting down in a chair rather than on the ground. I dropped the fruit salad I was carrying, however. But there was plenty more.
12th: And on Sunday it was Dosa lunch time. We always have dosas when Von is here. We mostly order masala dosas but Kate was feeling bold and ordered a Ghee dosa sight unseen. It was enormous and she didn't finish it. But the dosas were good as usual. Indians have them for breakfast.
Mon 13th was another Monday so we all went again to Nandos -- this time including Paul and Matthew. We took up 5 of their tables between us. Quite a lot of chips were left over after the meal but Paul fixed that in his usual way. There were a lot of good reminiscences, mainly about assertive things I had done over the years -- from my sitting on a glass shop counter to booming my way through a crowd at a Katoomba restaurant. The kids enjoyed such antics at the time and probably enjoy them even more now in the retelling.
There was one memory we were all very hazy about. I took the twins bike riding in the Botanic gardens and hired bikes for the purpose. But one of the bikes had a flat tire and I apparently talked rather sternly to the bike hire people about it. Suz might remember more details.
No comments:
Post a Comment