Mar 10 - Family Fishing

  Earnest rolled in the door at 4:17am this morning.  The sound of the door closing roused me enough to wake and check the time on the phone and apparently the ridiculousness of the lateness was enough to imprint the time on my brain so that I remember it all these hours later.  As a result we had another very late start to our day.  It seems that breakfast is not a meal that exists here.
  Today the plan was to have a birthday lunch for Earnest with some of his friends and family at The Fishmonger's Wife, a specialty fish and chippery.  Sweep was first to arrive having come in via a long train ride.  I had texted Chook when Earnest woke up and let her know it was safe to bring the kids down and about an hour later the hoard arrived, Earnest's Dad, Chook and his two kids, Bugalugs and Caboodle.  I was warmly embraced by the two little monsters.  I must've been away too long I think, because I suspect Bugalugs only let go because he was expected to.
  They are both getting so tall!  It broke my heart to see how much I've missed.  They are blossoming as kids will with their own special talents.  Bugalugs is extremely creative, a really good artist and a story-teller's heart, and Caboodle I'm told is excelling in science and maths.  Buglugs started to tell me about a multitude of things, whereas Caboodle immediately grabbed the Xbox controller and started playing Lego Pirates of the Carribean.  She's her father's daughter alright.
  Lord Koshington was the last to arrive, as usual, and admitted to having been distracted by a game of Plants & Zombies on his mobile phone.  Still, arrive he did and off we headed in two cars.  Earnest, Lord Koshington and Sweep in one, me, Chook, Earnest's Dad, Bugalugs, Caboodle and Pengi in the other.  The kids insisted that Aunty Jess ride with them leaving poor Earnest feeling like second string.
  Pengi got to come out of the handbag and have a cuddle with the kids.  They took to him right away and Caboodle decided that in fact his name should be Penguini, which I said I thought sounded Italian and rather like a type of pasta, but she insisted that it was because he was a painter.  She then asked when was Penguini going to have a baby, to which I explained he would have to meet the right lady penguin first.
  The drive wasn't long and we were soon emptying out of the cars and into the charming little restaurant.  The kids were each presented with a kids kit by the staff, which contained stickers, colouring in sheets and crayons.  This added to their own stash of art supplies kept them very much entertained.  And of course they had a new muse, Penguini.  During the course of long luncheon they produced no less than six original works between the two of them, all penguin themed.

Artists Bugalugs and Caboodle with their newest friend and muse, Pengi.

  While the kids produced works of art fit to grace any discerning refrigerator, the rest of us perused the menus.  I chose a single crumbed prawn cutlet for entree and the lemongrass snapper with beer-battered chips, homemade aioli, and baby spinach and sweet potato salad, followed by the chef's special dessert: a toasted wattleseed and vanilla bean pannacotta served with fresh mint and diced mango.  It was a fantastic meal.  Wattleseed can be a tricky flavour but their chef clearly knows what he's doing.  He brought out all the beautiful caramally coffee flavours of the tricky tiny black seeds.

  After lunch we headed back to Earnest's for birthday cake (which I didn't know about when I ordered the lunchtime dessert) and after cake, everyone headed off back to their respective homes.  It was hard to say goodbye to the kids, not knowing when I'd see them again, especially when Caboodle innocently asked "Aunty Jess, can you come to our house on next Saturday?".  I hate having to explain to them how far away I live.  I wish I could see them whenever I wanted to or whenever they asked.
  I didn't have cake with the rest of them as I was still full from lunch, but I got a bit peckish around 5pm and decided to have a slice then with a Twisted Tea hard iced tea.  A few hours after that Earnest suggested an Indian takeaway for dinner so I ended up having a bowlful with butter chicken, saffron rice, rogan josh and a small seekh kebab.  It was just enough to hit the spot.
  We had a pretty quiet evening, just enjoying a couple of movies, after which of course, the recently sleep-deprived Earnest insisted I get on with the blog so that he could read it in the morning.  I tried to convince him that I could just write it in the morning but he showed me a very unflattering picture of me taking in one of the noisy clubs last night and threatened to post it on facebook, so of course here is the blog!
  Tomorrow is my last day full day here in Brisbane so I have enjoy myself, whilst also making sure I work out how I'm getting to the airport on Tuesday morning!  It's good to be here, but I always wish I could stay longer.
  Jess