Box brownie, memories and old friends

Hello Peoples,

Dry and warm, people of the northern hemisphere? Cool and away from bush fires, people of the southern hemisphere?

I have had a pleasant Sunday. Petite Fille and her Daddy drove out with some of her toys and other such necessities of life, as they are moving in during stage two of their house renovations.Tomorrow. The renovation could take up to five months. We will say no more.

Lunch was with two of my ladies who do lunch. One is nursing her teenage university student daughter who suffered burns to her hand in a hot cooking oil accident. Second friend has been suffering a mysterious ailment for several weeks now, for which the doctors are yet to name a reason. It may be ross river virus, though she has tested negative for that. Ross river has reached epidemic proportions in Queensland in recent years and it often returns a false negative result before final diagnosis, but either way she is quite ill and in great discomfort. My 2016 is looking pretty good so far!

I ordered a smoked salmon and crispy potato salad and it was soooo good. I wanted to lick the plate, but luckily had not yet succumbed to the desire when a gentleman approached our table to ask if we were long term local residents. I have dipped in and out over the years, but my companions have lived their entire lives in the area.

He explained that his father had been the local policeman about fifty years ago. At this stage, he gestured towards our ill friend and commented, “You would of course be too young to remember.” Third friend and I rolled our eyes at each other. I am one month older than said friend, the other some months younger! He was lucky I didn’t stab him with my dinner fork there and then.

He started to recount his memories, including seeing his first movie, Tammy ( the original one), with his aunt at the local movie theatre. Then he produced some small box brownie, black and white photographs and pointed to his then best friend. He was hoping to make contact with that friend.

Serendipity as it is, his friend is our electrician and lives two houses down from us! Search completed. He was overjoyed, but he didn’t top up our glasses for us in gratitude though. Hopefully, electrician will be happy to see him, or our future accounts for repairs may be somewhat larger!

Back home, I searched the back of the freezer for the sachet of lemon vodka sorbet that had been a Christmas gift from a colleague and spooned it into a glass. I had promised myself the pleasure of consuming it when I had to go back to work, and today seemed like a great time.

Tomorrow night, when I arrive home from school, our little house will have three more residents. I may need a lot of lunch dates with friends during the next five months!