More Lunching. And Another Birthday

Thursday found us at our friend Pat's place for lunch.  It's ages since we last saw her.  We only live a ten minute drive away for each other but we are hopeless at keeping up with lunches, coffees, general meetings.  mind yo, I work on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and Pat plays croquet on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays so that only leaves Thursdays and Sundays - and neither of us is sitting around waiting for the other to rock up. So it can be difficult to find suitable lunching times.

But last Thursday was free for Pat and me, and Jim can be very flexible about when he goes out. So lunch it was.

We met at Pat's place and she provided us with a delicious shepherds' pie style lunch with fruit, cream and meringue for afters.  It was a delicious lunch and a good catch up.

On Saturday I went to my very first ever house auction.  It was a fascinating experience. There were around 30 or 40 people there but only 5 registered bidders.  Lindsey was one of them!  It was all very exciting. You might have wished that the auctioneer had been a bit less chatty, a bit less theatrical.  But then I suppose they're supposed to be.  Anyway, the upshot was that Lindsey didn't get the house. She had set herself a strict upper limit to what she was prepared to pay for it and more or less stuck to it.  By the end there were only her and a bloke bidding and it was clear that he wanted it. You don't want to spend silly money, and I don't think Lindsey wanted it quite as much as he did.  So she pulled out and Jim, Lindsey and I  (Ian was at a meeting in Melbourne and couldn't come) went for a commiseratory brunch at the Olive Grove.  Eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomato and toast all round.

Then Jim and I went to Mount Martha for the rest of the weekend.

Sunday saw a combination of Lunching and Birthday Celebrations.  It was Tony's 87th birthday on Monday and much of the family gathered for lunch at their place on Sunday. Stella prepared a fillet of beef.  I slow cooked a piece of pork. Lindsey brought barbecued chickens. We had falafel for the vegetarians and vegan. We had roast potatoes and lots of veg. Belinda brought a fruit crumble. Stella had a fruit platter. And I had gone to the shops and got a chocolate mud cake for a birthday cake. You can't say we weren't well fed!

Tony seemed to enjoy his birthday celebration. There were people, dogs, food, wine, and a new iPad for his birthday present from us all.  What more could anyone want?  😁🎁

Hugo, enjoying the company of Sage and William

Rupert has been exhausted!