Poms for Dinner

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DAY 345


I was up a little earlier this morning, just after 7.00, I must have had a good nights sleep, but still well after Andy who seems to be getting up earlier than ever.

I find Andy outside beetling around with the truck and trailer getting bits and pieces ready for the off tomorrow. I find out, as crazy as he is getting up so early, that he sneaked off to the car wash place just down the road to use the vacuum cleaner to finish cleaning the inside of the truck.

We have breakfast, and a little bit of a laze around, I get some washing in the machine and hang some on the line, but soon it is time to get moving as we are popping out for some groceries to replenish stocks for our onward journey, not to mention picking up some fresh bread, milk etc.

We decide to go to Coles, with the recommendation that Marmite is to be found, but we went to Coles at Mount Sheridan not the one in Cairns and sadly they did not have the valuable Marmite, so we will have to pop into the other one at some point.

It feels very hot here again today, people now seem to be dressing for summer, up until a couple of weeks ago, while we are of course still dressed for summer, people were wandering around in long sleeves and leggings, we were baking hot so heaven knows how they must have felt, but I guess at the end of the day it comes down to acclimatisation and what you are used to.

We get back and at some point have some lunch, we relax, read and do puzzles on the Nintendo, which for some reason I have lost it to Andy, he picked up the Nintendo one day to see what the puzzles were like and he is hooked (I know what to get him for Christmas, oh perhaps I should say birthday, that is coming up real soon!)

Before we left Cairns to go to Cape York we started to watch a new serial on TV (big mistake knowing that we would not be able to keep watching), however we find out that it is available online so this afternoon we sit down to watch Flash Forward via Broadband, it seems to be a really good series so it will be great to continue watching it online if we can.

An uneventful afternoon, just a bit of tidying and preparation for the off, but I am finding it extremely hot this afternoon so Andy dampens a tea towel and puts in the freezer for me so that when it is cool enough it will help me cool down a bit.

Eventually it is time to have a shower and get ready for dinner, we are going over to Sens tonight as he has offered to do a barbecue for us, Sen also invited his business partner over, Roberto and his wife Tracey.

We set off across the other side of Cairns, it is still very warm, and we see a lot of smoke enveloping the mountains in the distance, however it does look as if it will rain soon, if not tonight, perhaps tomorrow.

We are greeted by the ever enthusiastic Sen, both him and Julie have enjoyed their weekend in Port Douglas and show us some photos of the beautiful house that they stayed in which is very much Balinese style, very open plan and very exotic. The kind of place that would make you feel like you are on a permanent holiday.

While we chat to Julie Sen busies himself getting the food ready, we have some fresh bread to dip into Olive Oil and then Dukka, which was very nice.

In the meantime, Roberto and Tracey turn up, it is nice to see them again after our brief meeting with them when we took Sen and Julie to the airport, the room becomes alive with conversation in all areas. Roberto is Italian but has lived in Australia for many years, he has a terrific sense of humour and kept us laughing for ages, he mentions the Italian army being second to none, but the only thing with them he said was that they would turn up late, have a long lunch and they are very clumsy. Tracey is also from England but again has lived in Australia for many years, her family is here too so as the years go by there is less to go back to England for.

Sen was highly motivated by British Pub Food when he was over there recently, so his aim for tonight was to do “Pommie Food”. We were trying to work out who invented the Barbecue, but could not decide between the British and the Australians, but the Australians have more opportunity to barbecue and of course many of the National Parks here have barbecue (often gas) facilities and not to mention in towns and cities the parks and recreation areas also have these great facilities, which we have used from time to time on our trip.

Very soon Sen called us all to the table already nicely laid out and our Pommie Barbecue food was presented, we had steak, sausages (snags), corn on the cob, peas, mashed potato and a generous helping of onion gravy.

After dinner, Sen offered a cup of tea or coffee to everyone, of course the tea being of good quality Sri Lankan tea, but served in nothing less than a Harrods mug recently purchased on his trip to England, I think Sen was suitably impressed with Harrods branding.

We had a great evening, we all discussed everything on the planet that needed discussing, we thoroughly enjoyed everyone’s company but all too soon it was time to go.

We thanked Sen and Julie for a great evening, we head off to Julie’s house for one last night leaving Julie at Sen’s.

Just before going to bed, I skyped Mum and Dad for a quick chat, we had not been able to speak in a while but tiredness (& the red wine) was catching up with me so we hit the sack.

Until tomorrow when our journey south resumes.

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Photos

Sen & Julie
This is Sen and Julie, It is Julies house that we rented in Cairns, and who's mum and dad live in our home town of Chandlers Ford

All the Girls
Caroline, Julie and Tracey

Oh Yes
Mash Potatoes and Peas

Dinners Guests
Roberto, Sens Business Partner was just so funny, and Tracy was his wife