Day +81: A Lovely Unexpected Dinner Party

We had an awesome meal with some friends today, but it wasn't who we expected.

Early this morning, we received some bad news from Charmaine about the health of her family members. Christian had brought home a cold from day care earlier in the week, and as he got better, Charmaine caught the bug and was laid low. She was just getting better and was feeling well enough to socialise today, when Sam started showing symptoms of the cold. In light of Sean's lack of immune system, we felt it best to postpone our lunch to another day.

As much as Charmaine and I missed each other, we all felt it best that Sean was not exposed to any cold or flu-like germs for the time being. We made arrangements to have lunch next weekend, and hoped everyone will be well enough by then to be in the same room.

The day was dawned cold and miserable, and it rained all day long. It was best for those who were not feeling well to stay in bed all day.

With our plans shifting to another weekend, we had a whole day to do whatever we wanted or needed to do. We decided a trip to Top Ryde Shopping Centre was on the cards, for Jonathan and I to have massages and to do a touch more shopping afterwards. We had a leisurely breakfast before packing our bags and heading out.

Sean was ever so cooperative and fell asleep in his pram within 5 minutes of arriving at the shopping centre. We headed straight to Massage Link where we were greeted warmly by the owner Emily. Jonathan went straight through to a cubicle for his full body massage, while I took a seat to enjoy my foot massage.

Just as my lovely foot massage was concluding, I could see Sean wiggling in his pram, signalling the end of his nap. Sean stayed quiet until my massage was finished, and as I went to pay, Jonathan came bounding out of the cubicle, feeling refreshed from his massage. I asked Emily about Lucy, our previous regular massage therapist, and Emily very politely told me that Lucy was no longer with Massage Link. It seemed Lucy had left the franchise and had opened up her own rooms. Reading between the lines, the parting was perhaps not as amicable as Emily was making it out to be. I would have liked to have seen Lucy again, but without knowing where she went, chances of me running into Lucy again were slim.

As it was lunch time, we headed up to the food court to have some lunch, before making our way to Dan Murphy's to buy some wine. I wanted to stock up our red wine selection as we were using red wine in our cooking and drinking a little bit more red wine than before. We had really enjoyed the Tempus Two Merlot, which was recommended to us on our last visit to the shop, so we grabbed a case, along with a few "cleanskins" for cooking purposes. Armed with our purchases, we left the shopping centre and headed to David and Kirsty's house to drop off their coffee.

David was so happy to see the Nespresso pods that he immediately offered to make us coffees. We happily obliged and chatted for a while. We had only meant to stay for a quick chat, but a couple of hours later, as the skies turned dark, David and Kirsty invited us to stay for dinner. They were going to order pizza, but since we had plenty of food at our place which I'd prepared for our lunch with Charmaine and Sam and Christian, I offered to go home and bring the feast back. David and Kirsty accepted, so off in the rain I went.

It wasn't until I was pulling into our driveway that I remembered I didn't have any house keys. I had left the house without putting my house keys into the nappy bag, as I was with Jonathan all day and didn't need to carry my own set of keys. Fortunately, there was a way into the house - it wasn't easy, or pretty, but there was a way in. From now on, I'll be sure to carry my own set of house keys at all times.

The pork chops I'd marinated for lunch today were still happily steeping in the yummy Asian style home-made marinade, so I grabbed those and all the Asian greens and put them in to a plastic bag. I grabbed a pouch of food for Sean, and locked and secured the house before driving back to David and Kirsty's house. It was dark by the time I got back, and Kirsty had started to prepare some dinner for Lachlan.

I took in a couple of bottles of our Tempus Two Merlot to have with dinner, and we all enjoyed a tipple while we waited for the chops to cook under the hot grill in the oven. I blanched the vegetables just as the chops were about ready, and we all sat down to enjoy my simple meal.

David and Kirsty heaped praises on my cooking. The pork was tender and succulent and the sauce was tasty, and they were pleasantly surprised by how good the chops tasted. They went so far as to say my pork chops were better than any pork chops their mothers had ever cooked for them - in fact, my pork chops were the best pork chops they had ever eaten. I was quite chuffed to hear that compliment. Kirsty asked for the recipe for the marinade, and I happily wrote it down for her.

Kirsty was thrilled to have someone else do the cooking for a change. She did all the cooking and I got the feeling she would prefer David to take a turn in the kitchen and produce a meal every now and again. I told Kirsty I was more than happy to cook for her another time, provided she didn't mind me commandeering her kitchen!

The wine kept flowing well into the night. I made myself the designated driver so Jonathan could keep drinking and blow off some steam. I’m glad Jonathan was able to enjoy a few glasses of wine tonight as he had a full day at home tomorrow, with no need to drive anywhere or be any place at any time.

We went to the upstairs lounge room where the fire was roaring and the rugby was being shown on the TV. David watched the rugby while the rest of us chatted and watched some of the game. We watched Lachlan and Sean play, sometimes with each other, and sometimes against each other. They played well past their bedtimes and seemed happy enough to continue playing while the adults chatted and drank wine and watched football. Kirsty and I are very much looking forward to the day when the boys will play together with the same toys.

It was almost 10pm by the time we finally tore ourselves away. We had had an awesome night - so unexpected but so much fun. We really feel David should drink more coffee, so we could make another delivery soon.

Thank you, David and Kirsty, for your warm hospitality and a most fantastic evening. I have a feeling someone (no names mentioned) is going to feel less than chirpy in the morning. It's a small price to pay for such a wonderful evening.