The carpets were washed today and, while a big old industrial vacuuming shampooing machine rumbled through the house, Mirinda and I went to the Wild Pear Café with Lisa and Jack for a wonderful lunch in marvellous company. Though, poor Jack had to miss a meeting that he’d called because we all talked too much.
I’d never been to the Wild Pear Café before. Surprisingly, it seems to be the place for the second coming.
We have lots of statuary in our garden centres in the UK, but I’ve never seen so many Jesus statues all gathered in one place. It makes me wonder how many full size Jesus statues they actually sell. Mind you, Fi pointed out the blue monkeys which I hadn’t noticed, suggesting it was saying something about evolution.
Given the plethora of Jesus outside, we felt we could forego grace and happily dined on a delicious lunch. I had barramundi, which, as we all know, is the best fish in the world. It was particularly nice on a bed of borscht risotto.
The others went for the hippy options of bowls of stuff. It’s funny how, these days, the thing is to have ‘bowls’ of stuff. The nutrient bowl, the veggie bowl, the toilet bowl, etc. Almost too trendy for words. Obviously, I had beer while the others didn’t.
There was a lot of chat about Europe and where Maggie will study. A big option is to go to a non-English speaking country. The choices are Scotland or the Netherlands. I suggested Scotland as the majority of Dutch people speak better English than native English speakers. Jack agreed, saying he needed subtitles whenever they watched Shetland. Of course, this prompted Mirinda to tell the story of the cake fridge.
There was also mention of the last time we were all together. Lisa reckoned it was in Burgundy in 2015 (which prompted a chat about Sam and the infamous snail incident) but, as this blog clearly shows, we actually last met up here, in Dural back in 2017. Though, to be fair, Mirinda did say that Lisa tends to walk around in a bubble of vagueness, which could excuse a multitude of forgotten activities.
They also mentioned the blog, making the usual excuses about not reading it. I’m writing that in order to remember next time when they ask whether I still write the blog and how they haven’t read it because, yadda, yadda, yadda.
When all was said and done, we left the café and headed back for the cars. Obviously, a pose was required before parting.
I took three but, the one above was the best because they all have their eyes open. Then, not to be outdone, Jack pulled out his phone and insisted we line up for another shot but this time, with a tomte in the middle.
Obviously, there was more stuff to be done back at the house but we left Fi to do that while we gallivanted, ate and drank.
Oh, and QEII died today.
