An unusual Father's day

I am one of those people for whom it is hard to buy gifts because they already have everything.  So when my birthday or fathers' day comes up, I make it easy for Joe by saying that all I want is for him and Kate to make me a dinner for us all to have on the verandah -- which suits us all. I have got some good dinners that way.

This year however, I complicated things a bit by inadvertently scheduling something else for Sept., 1st, which is when Fathers' day is observed in Australia.  I scheduled one of my men's dinners for that day

So we had my "day" a little early instead.  I suggested that instead of a Sunday observance I would be happy for Joe to join me at a breakfast on the Thursday beforehand -- to take place at the Gold Leaf coffee shop at Kangaroo point.  I particularly like the Lot burger they do there and wanted Joe to try it too.  We both had other things already on that morning so we set out at 7:30am to fit it in.  And it all went well, a very pleasant breakfast in a pleasant milieu. 

Then on the Sunday Joe and I breakfasted together again -- as we always do on Sundays.

And that evening we had our men's dinner.  Present were myself, Joe, Chris, Graham and H**.  It was the first time H** had attended.  H** is a jolly soul and has political views similar to mine so he fitted in very well and helped the night to roll along as a fun occasion. 

We did talk politics as usual -- with particular derision for global warming -- but a whole range of other things as well.  Speaking from his background in counselling, Graham was informative about pedophiles.  He said that most of them had themselves been abused in their childhoods.  From there we went on to discuss homosexuality.  Graham was again informative there and noted the extreme bitchiness that is often found in "bottom" male homosexuals. There have been two Lesbians in the Ray family so it was a topic of some interest to Chris and myself.  I noted that I had always got along well  personally with any homosexuals in my orbit.

To feed the horde, I made my usual mince dish, Chili con carne this time, which all went right down.  I also provided tinned fruit salad and icecream as a dessert, and that vanished rapidly too.

Chris brought long a replica Gladius for "show and tell" which was much admired.  The possibility of him bringing along a classic machine gun next time was discussed.