Badger Galore
Staying ‘Up Over’ for a while.
Yum cha!
Today I ate a chicken's foot!......I didn't wake up and make that my aim for the day....it just happened.We went for Yum Cha (Dim sum) with Danny, Xiaoling and Lesley over at Slack's Creek.It was a popular restaurant and was full of Chinese people. Xiaoling did all the ordering and sat there and chuckled as I looked in disbelief at the bamboo baskets filled with Chinese delicacies.We had chicken feet, beef tendon....which was just like a glutinous jelly, abilone, prawn gyoza, a strange pastry wrapped in a white rice paste, pork dumpling, a lovely flaky pastry custard tart, a hunk of plain sponge cake and tripe, washed down with never ending cups of Chinese tea.It was different. I don't mean to be rude but I think I would prefer to call it 'Hmmm cha' rather than 'Yum.'
Olé Moses!
So...........last night we went out to South Bank and had an anniversary dinner at 'Olé', a Spanish restaurant. We had tapas and chose calamari, octopus and chorizo, spicy chicken wings, empanadas and patatas bravas. It wasn't the healthiest meal we have had but it was enjoyable though I doubt we will be rushing back to dine there again. It seemed a popular place with a constant stream of people coming in and out. We were seated on stools at a table on the footpath but it was a pleasantly warm winters evening.A young woman and her mother came and sat at the table next to us. The mother asked the waitress where the nearest toilets were and the waitress pointed over the road to the South Bank gardens and then said or "there are some inside."We were too busy munching on calamari and octopus to notice what happened next but the next we were aware was that the young girl was alone and the mother was gone. The food they ordered arrived and the girl started to eat. After about 15 minutes the girl started to look around worriedly and then got off her seat, placed her bag on her chair and wandered off over the road. She was gone more than 5 minutes before she came back and stood by the table with her phone to her ear but getting no reply on the other end. She waited a few more minutes and then wandered off in a different direction."I'm getting worried now," said Will."Yep, me too," I said.Five more minutes passed and our meal was over and we were ready to go but stayed to keep an eye on the girls bag and their food. We were having kittens!Finally they both came back. The girl was not pleased."You've been gone over half an hour" she said. It appeared the mother had gone in search of the toilets and got lost and couldn't find her way back. She had asked someone where "Ole" was but they couldn't help her.I couldn't help it and leaned over and said "We were flippin' worried too! There were lots of people eyeing up your food as they went past."We were glad it had ended happily and went for a walk through the city before going to see the film 'Trainwreck'. It was quite amusing, but your mother wouldn't like it.Happily I was satisfied that there were no terrorists in our screening as it was mostly women and a few hipster boyfriends who had been dragged along, but there were four Indian men who seemed to have wandered in by mistake. There was a moment where the father of the woman in the film dies and they have to clear up his house and belongings....typical.......there just seems to be no escape at the moment.
The Life of Riley.
I cannot remember the last time I struggled to get a disinfectant wipe out of its packet. I haven't seen a hoover in weeks. The washing machine has gone into hibernation and the dust pan and brush are gathering dust themselves without any intervention from me.I went for some retail therapy on Tuesday afternoon in the great shopping metropolis that is Garden City and ended up booking an appointment, for the following day, at the opticians. I have finally done something about getting some prescription sunglasses.Tuesday night Will and I went out to the cinema.......'Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation'. It was our first time at Hawthorne Cinemas and to be honest the screen in Cinema 4 was not much bigger than out new telly but we were out and about so it didn't matter. The film was OK. I did love Rebecca Ferguson (who?) though. She is Swedish and was in The White Queen on TV but here was a very British spy called Ilsa Faust. Such a British sounding name....scriptwriters are so clever.There were only 6 of us in the cinema but I wasn't exactly at ease as the two lads sat behind us appeared to have all the attributes needed to be lone wolf killer gunmen. The chunkier of the two, obviously not the brains, was as lithe as a Neanderthal and the thin one spent most of the film talking on his phone........"I do care," I heard him say at one point.......I didn't believe him.Perhaps the Neanderthal had forgotten to bring the guns but anyway we got out alive.I went back to Hawthorne Cinemas yesterday on my own......because I could........and watched 'Mr Holmes' with Sir Ian McKellen. It was in cinema 1 which turned out to be massive and quite a shock after cinema 4 the night before. The seats were faux leather and made a loud 'Pfffttttttttt' sighing sound as you sat down on them and the air escaped. I was the only one in at first but I was joined by a few other pensioners soon after.........'Pfffftttttt'........'Pfffftttttt'........'Pfffftttttt'. A young couple came in............'Pfffftttttt'.............'Pfffftttttt'.The film started and then three middle aged ladies tottered in...........'Pfffftttttt'......'Pfffftttttt'....'Pfffftttttt'........but they weren't happy with their seats so they moved three rows forward...........'Pfffftttttt'......'Pfffftttttt'....'Pfffftttttt'.......but then, you would not believe it, got up and moved back again!.......'Pfffftttttt'......'Pfffftttttt'....'Pfffftttttt'.......It was all I could do not to cry out "Oh, for Goodness sake!"So, Ian McKellan was an elderly Sherlock Holmes, in his 90's, facing death...........it was, I decided, not the best choice of film under the circumstances. It was a bit slow, tottering along as fast as Ian McKellen did.......but it passed a few hours.I returned unto Garden City in the afternoon for my opticians appointment. I was a bit early. There was a smartly dressed gentleman behind the desk and I assumed he was the optician.He asked if he could help and I told him I had an appointment but was a bit early. He called over a small, giggly Asian girl who laughing, said something that I did not understand but took to mean 'follow me please."Ah, she is going to puff air in my eyes I thought before I see the man later......but no, it turned that out she was the optician!She looked 12.I have to say she was very thorough and turned out to be very professional. The smart man was just the 'till boy'.....but following my eye examination he took $750 off me for my new thin varifocal lenses with anti scratch coating and my new Ray Ban polarised sunglasses.I do need them....he writes, as he sits looking out at the dull, grey, rain laden sky today.
Return of 'The Mole People.'
It was very strange to watch Julie and her hubby cut the grass next door this morning. They used to always cut ours first but Will had told them that we will cut our own grass from now on.......if we can get the old mower started that is.I tried to keep myself to myself.......not actively avoiding bumping into them but not helping it either.I was lurking in the shadows folding washing when I thought I heard a knock so dashed upstairs to see but there was no one at the door. Perhaps the knock had been downstairs on the Man Cave door. I rushed back down again no one was there. I went back up again and out of the front door as I could see Donna next door and Julie's hubby looking my way.It had been Julie knocking but we had missed each other and eventually she came around from the back of the house. She gave me a hug which wasn't necessary and I didn't really want due to how much she was sweating.We had a lovely chat about death, funerals, euthanasia and suicide; her Uncle gassed himself in Ballina, before I finally got back to wondering what the hell to do with myself today.