Family fun

Here's my list of recent events

Sat 30 Nov - Paul & family arrive in Bris, welcome dinner at Jenny's

Sun 1 Dec - I breakfast with Joe, Paul & Matthew

Mon 2 Dec - I breakfast with Paul

Mon 2 Dec - Dinner at Nandos with Jenny, Paul & Elise

Wed 4 Dec - Breakfast with Paul and Susan at Buranda

Thur 5 Dec - welcome Dinner for Von at Jenny's

Fri 6 Dec - Breakfast with Paul and Susan at Vietnamese cafe

Sat 7 Dec - picnic at park next to Ken and Maureen's house

Sun 8th - Dinner at the Dapur Dahlia with Jill and Lewis

Mon 9 Dec - Breakfast with Von at Vietnamese cafe

Mon 9 Dec - Dinner at Jenny's with all visitors Paul, Von and little Suz

In detail

On Saturday evening 30th Nov. Paul arrived in Brisbane from Scotland together with his whole family.  It was 5 years since we had seen Susan and it was good to see how his children had grown too.  Jenny put on one of her excellent dinners for his arrival and there was a bit of a  crowd to welcome the family:  Susan's father Mark plus his lady plus Ken and Maureen.  Anne couldn't come.  So it was a lively occasion as we all got to know the littlies, Matthew, Elise and Primrose.

The next morning (1st Dec.) we arranged a breakfast at the Phams for Paul, Matthew, Joe and myself.  The idea was for me to get to talk to Matthew but he was a bit shy so that did not work.  We did however discuss Matthew's probable translation to Fettes.  I will be helping with the costs of that.

Von arrived late on 4th so her welcome back was on Thurs evening the 5th --  again at Jenny's. I managed a bit of play with Elise and Primrose.  Whatever school Primrose goes to she will be the naughtiest girl in the school. At age 4, She has got a really mean look most of the time

On 6th I shouted Paul and Susan a brekkie at my usual Vietnamese coffee shop.  The food was as usual good and Paul said the Banh Mi was the best he had ever had.  It turned out to be about a 2 hour breakfast as we were looking at all angles of Susan having another baby.  I said to her that her first 3 had been so interesting, I really wanted to see the 4th.

Both Sue and Paul are very keen to have another one.  The problem  is that Susan has a very time-consuming job, and babies are VERY time-consuming.  And her job is part of how she and Paul make a living. I offered to pay for any arrangement that would give her time off but nothing firm emerged. I was impressed when Susan said her life was for her kids: She's real female, not a feminist.

We also discussed more about Matthew and Fettes.  It seems highly likely that he will get in but I did outline a Plan B in case he does not.  There was even some talk of him going to Eton for secondary school.  He has the IQ and other attributes for it so he would be looking to become a "Scholar" and Eton does offer quite a lot of bursaries.

On Saturday 7th we had a big BBQ at Ken's place. Timmy, Dave and Avamarie turned up, which was good to see.  At age 11, AvaMarie has got a very pretty face, great skin and an athletic body.  She will go far. Her great skin comes from her Chinese mother but her eyes are only a touch narrow. You can see that not all of her ancestry is from the British Isles but the difference is quite subtle.

The thing that most amused me at the BBQ was the margarine supplied for our bread rolls.



A regular spread of what??  It is in fact a perfectly good canola-based margarine but margarine must sound bad, I guess.  It is a quarter the price of butter so it is a very clever product.

Jenny kindly picked me up for the party and drove me home.  I don't like driving any distance these days.

Joe arrived very late and neither of us felt very lively so we both ended up having a lie-down in Ken's living room.  Sometimes just being there is the point.

On Sunday 8th, I had a long-arranged pre-Christmas dinner with Jill and Lewis at the Dapur Dahlia. I had gone down for a nap around 5pm so was rather horrified when I woke up at 2 minutes before 6  -- the appointed time for us to meet.  So I jumped into some clothes and did a demon drive to Buranda.  I got all the lights my way, happily, so I did that drive in 5 minutes flat and arrived only 7 or 8 minutes late.

Jill and Lewis had previously been favourably impressed with Dapur Dahlia so were pleased to take another trip there.  We all ordered the Nasi Goreng Pattaya and it was again excellent.  I also ordered some samosas to start and they comped us with a strange salad that included bits of tofu. Jill and I caught up with one-another's family news. She seems pleased with her two grandsons and does some caring for them -- despite being in her 80s.

For lack of preparation, I had to go to the toilet during the dinner.  The toilet was however in the middle of a real rabbit warren so I got lost coming out.  I eventually found a way out onto the street, however, so ended up going out the back door and coming back in via the front door!

On Monday morning 9th., Von and I got together for a brekky at my usual Vietnamese. To start, Paul kindly dropped Von at my place and picked her up afterward. Before we set off to the Viets, I showed Von all my recent acquisitions of old furniture and she seemed to like them.

Paul and Susan had liked the Viet place so I wanted Von to try it too.  She had the Banh Mi and I had a hamburger.  For drinks I ordered iced-coffees, which was apparently a rare treat for Von. Von and I have always been good mates so the conversation was animated, with lots of reminiscences.  I was delighted to hear that Hannah and Simon have a real "Daddy's girl" relationship.  That is tremendously positive for a girl growing up.

I also noted that Von writes very well on her personal blog -- with very rare spelling and grammar mistakes.  As she was a duffer at school, that is a little surprising. I had a put her poor marks down to her simply being uninterested in schoolwork but she told me something more at our brekky.  She told me that she just did not agree with all the feminist-influenced stuff they were teaching.  So she just ignored her lessons as a whole.  She had me at home telling her quite different stuff and that was what she related to

Monday 9th was the welcome home dinner for little Suz. Bad weather delayed her flight from New Zealand so she arrived a day late. It was good to see her plus her kids.  Dusty had changed little since I saw him last but Sahara was definitely more of a lady -- at age 10.  The ladylike genes are definitely strong in that family, with both Suz and Von having girly girls.  I was pleased to hear that both Sahara and Dusty are going well at school.

Big Susan appears to have done most of the cooking for the night as Jenny was unwell. But cooking is one of Susan's many talents so we had an excellent lasagna that was even gluten-free!  I got a fair bit of it onto my shirt so you could tell it was a good one!

I had catch-you games with Elise and Primrose and Joe had hand-games and so on with them too. It was quite a riot there for a while.  Joe plays the same sort of simple games with the littlies that I used to play with their mothers and father.  It's emergent continuity: unplanned.