On Monday, Joe was off work in the morning to allow him to deal with some bureaucratic matters so we had breakfast together at our favorite coffee lounge. Bacon and eggs for both of us. I forget what we talked about but it would probably be about Mr Trump's latest tweets.
Then that night Anne made me a dinner with things I particularly like: Sydney rock oysters to start followed by meatloaf and finished by fruitcake. She made the meatloaf and cake according to her own recipes. And both worked out very well. We washed it down with a bottle of Henkel Trocken, a German "champagne" Anne likes.
And on Tuesday, yesterday, I hosted a big dinner for close family and friends at the Dapur Dahlia, a Malaysian restaurant I often go to these days. They are particularly good for hosting a group. Their tables for two are largeish and can easily be pushed together to make one long table. There were 11 of us so we needed that. And people always make appreciative comments about the food.
I made a special request for Geoff to come down from his perch in the near North for the dinner as it was a long time since I had seen him. I used to see him about monthly when he was my handyman. So I wanted to hear how he was going these days. We had a good chat and he did seem to be in better form now that he has retired. Some stresses have been taken off him.
George was there as he always is when I am doing the invitations. Lewis and Jill were also there and Lewis had never met George so Lewis asked a lot of questions to figure how George fitted in to the family. Lewis has still got a keen and enquiring mind even in his advanced years.
At one stage I was talking to a couple of people and pointing out how much of their religion the Muslims had stolen off the Jews -- even down to "Allah" being originally a Hebrew word (Eloah in Hebrew). Lewis looked a bit uncomfortable about that but he knows I am a fanatical supporter of Israel so he was probably wondering about the attitudes of other people there. For me Israel can do no wrong and I put my money where my mouth is by occasional donations to Israeli charities. Israel has to spend so much on its defence that the government does not have much to spend on welfare work.
Anne spent a lot of time talking to my brother and his wife Kym. I put up some teases to Kym about Aborigines to which she responded well. She does welfare work with Aborigines. I talked a bit with my brother about motorbikes, getting the latest on English motorbikes, an interest we share.
Joe spent a lot of time talking to Lewis which he enjoyed and when I asked him afterwards how he found the dinner he said it was "fun".
Kate was her usual social self and talked mostly to Jenny.
I had pretty well healed up after my Friday surgery so could enjoy the occasion. I talked to George and Jill and most of the people there. At one stage, I announced to Jill in my usual cheerful way that I had recently been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and Jill remarked that she had never heard me complain about anything, which may be true My instinct is to look at the positive.
Everybody liked the food as usual. It was both filling and tasty. I provided a couple of bottles of Seaview champagne to help wash it all down. Below is the docket as a memento of what we had. The overall cost was embarrassingly small. I actually could have paid it in cash
Figure that lot out!
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