May 8 - Dinner At Tuahine's

  This morning as I packed up my things tonight, Pengi stowed away in my overnight bag.  Apparently he misses Mr Smart as much as I do.
  Once more, work is a blur, not that it matters.  By and large, I figure that although I find my work interesting and challenging, it is probably pretty boring to others and of course confidentiality agreements prevent me from over-sharing anyway.  Mr Smart met me after work and we headed off to dinner at Tuahine's place (Mr Smart's sister's... I finally found a nickname that I felt suited).
  We were greeted by a very cheerful little nephew and had a glass of red poured for us each by Tuahine.  Mr Smart had brought four Little Golden Books for his nephew: Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk and my favourite, The Tawny Scrawny Lion.  I was immediately seconded to the sofa and instructed to read Thor, followed by Iron Man.  Mr Smart, who had been outside getting the fire going, was up next with The Incredible Hulk and The Tawny Scrawny Lion never got a look in!
  It was another lovely warmish autumn evening so we sat outside.  Mr Smart's nephew brought out his own plate and one for me, one of his very own.  I was very touched so I kept using it, even after the adult plates were brought out.  He's such a bright little happy kid.
  At one point during dinner and conversation Mr Smart's nephew started a little game with me.  He climbed down from his chair and tapped my knee then started crawling away towards the safety of his uncle's feet.  My part in the game was to try to tap him back before he got away.  I succeeded, and the game continued, with escalating squeals of delight.  I like that 'auntie' duties include getting kids riled up right before bedtime.  But bedtime came, and after he'd been put back into bed about three times, his door was closed and the adults were left with conversation.
  Movies came up, as they invariably do, and I started a list of movies I want to watch but haven't seen yet.  It rapidly ran out to several dozen long and it just keeps growing!  We decided to keep it from getting one bigger though, and we tidied up the table and went inside to watch 50/50 which is a Joseph Gordon-Levitt film about a young man who gets cancer.  It was mostly good, a few plot holes here and there, but moving, saddening, thought-provoking, funny and charming.  It made me wonder how I would go coping if someone close to me had such a serious illness.
  After the movie Mr Smart and I headed back to his place for the evening.  It was a somewhat complex evening after that.  I have been having trouble resettling into things after the issues Mr Smart and I had in early April so we ended up having a fairly productive chat brought on by my feelings of paranoia.  Fortunately, talking things out always makes me feel better, so no sleep was lost.

  Wednesday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 45g Carman's Original fruit-free muesli bar and a 35g Carman's yoghurt apricot and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a green nashi pear.
• Lunch was a 300g tomato, lentil and bacon skinny soup with a toasted wholemeal English muffin spread with one portion of The Laughing Cow cheese spread (17.5g).
• Afternoon snack was an Imperial mandarin.
• Dinner began with a glass of shiraz accompanied by some blue vein, quince paste and pumpernickel bread.  The small hand you see in the photo is a big fan of the pumpernickel bread, he was less enthused when he decided to try the cheese.
• Next course (not pictured) was about four or five barbecued marinated chicken wingettes.  Very succulent and tasty.
• And finally, the delicious main course, tasty barbecued steaks with a cajun spice rub, broccoli with flaked almonds and chilli and barbecued corn.

  I may have to leave it there for tonight.  It's getting late on Sunday 12th as I write this and I do have to remember that I have work in the morning!  More blogs tomorrow!
  Jess