At the speed of wit

What a funny night. We (Mirinda and I) took Mum and Denise to dinner at Tides tonight and we laughed…a lot. It was the end of a lovely day spent in and around Caloundra.

The day began with a cup of tea (and coffee) at 6:30 in the morning. Mirinda didn’t want a coffee at 6:30 in the morning but nevertheless one appeared. Unfortunately it appeared the other side of an electric fan which could easily have sucked in the tea and spat it out over her head. I told her to stay asleep but the damage had been done and she was awake.

The reason for the ridiculously early cup of tea was because mum had to make sure she parked in the only car space she is happy to park in at Sunland. We managed to get it. And the reason we were parking at Sunland first thing on a Saturday morning was because we were meeting Denise and Trace for the usual cup of coffee and general chat.

There was some confusion over Denise’s “…cup of hot milk and quarter shot on the side…” but eventually we were all settled with our various beverages (and, seriously, no-one had the same thing) and chatted away, noisily for the next hour (or so).

Mirinda, mum and I then left the girls to go and do their shopping while we went over to Golden Beach to see the spot where dad was scattered. (Of course we can’t say the exact place because we don’t want the council having a go at us…or digging up the beach…or doing something equally silly.)

This was, unfortunately, the saddest part of the day. Not because of dad. I’m sure he would have been well pleased that Mirinda, his favourite daughter-in-law, wanted to see his sending off place. No, the saddest part of the day was the fact that some dickhead thought it reasonable to tread on a long line of nose to tail caterpillars as they crossed the path. Mirinda had said we should wait for them to get across the path and I really wish we had because sometime after us a pathetic excuse for a human decided to wreak havoc among them. Pointless and pathetic.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I mean this is the sort of town where it’s acceptable to crucify teddy bears…

But, apart from that…

…the rest of the day was excellent.

Back at home, we left mum to her own devices while we went for a walk down to my favourite café. I took great delight in introducing Mirinda to the delights of this end of the boardwalk establishment. The hazelnut latte was only surpassed by the eggs Benedict.

Back at home we, basically, lazed around, waiting for the night to arrive so we could go out to dinner. Okay we also had a couple of walks down by the sea…

…and a bit of a snooze in our chairs…but basically we were waiting for Denise to arrive so we could go and eat. Of course, this was only after I assured her that the restaurant did more than just seafood. (Note to self: Denise does not like seafood.)

So, dinner was a bit later than half of our party preferred but then it was a bit early for the other half so, like a lot of things, it all evened itself out in the end.

And what a laugh we had. From mum’s experience of lamb on a ladder to the crazy staff at the restaurant who really wished they’d been at our table, it was a lovely night of laughs and food. Actually, the food was excellent. I had the pork belly and related my tale of the two nights I ate at the Poacher’s Pocket where I had pork belly back in 2005. It was the first time I’d ever had pork belly. We couldn’t remember exactly when it was, though Mirinda thought the fire was lit and Denise was sure Bob and Claire were there. Neither were right.

Actually, we had a very funny and highly enjoyable night. I’d love to say that Denise was drunk…but she wasn’t. No, that was me.

The title comes from the fact that sometimes my humour takes a while to sink in.