Been pretty busy on various things. Dad’s 58th over the weekend, we hosted a dinner party. I cooked a three course meal for fourteen people and somehow it all came off without a hitch. The menu was selected from the recipes I’d had most experience with, so starter was pumpkin and cumin soup, mains was pastry wrapped chicken breast stuffed with parsley, mushrooms with white wine sauce, taters on the side. Dessert was a mixed berry and coffee custard trifle, a coffee cake, coffee tea etc. I only got burned twice and didn’t drop anything, and everything was timed just right. I’ve never cooked for that amount of people before but I guess that proves I can! The volume of food meant that I had to do a lot of stuff in advance; almost two days in the kitchen actually. Also I’m sure I couldn’t cater for any bigger number in a kitchen of that size, with an industrial sized place I’d be able to do a lot I think!
The very next morning instead of sleeping after all that, I was out at Piallago paintballing. It was a lot of fun, a well run day with about 50/50 guys and girls a mix I can recommend and probably prefer for that kind of activity. Took a minor amount of damage, really the killer has been my legs; I’m not usually running through rough terrain for hours on end. Lisa got into it, maybe that’s an understatement. A paintball marker should be the only weaponry she’s ever allowed to touch. It’s Wednesday and I still haven’t recovered from the weekend!
Today has been about the garden. My peas have come on strong and were ready to harvest. Also, three leeks that grew in a wild patch (self seeded, not touched by me) were ready to come up, so I’ve got about 1.5kg of vegetables to work with for tonight’s soup. Which will likely involve peas and leeks. I have a large new garden bed that took weeks to dig (about 3×3, half a metre deep) that will provide a lot of tomatoes and corn, come summer (hopefully).
Away from recreation we’ve had a few good weeks over at CASE; finally took position of a fancy card printer and learned how to use it, now just have to come up with a nice design using relatively limited software. The office is coming together slowly, put on hold for our AGM which turned out to be a great event. The guys from Woden Community Services gave a great presentation detailing how they performed a major IT overhaul for their group, with great results. What’s more, they brought copies of all their high quality documentation to share. Brilliant! Then we surprised Tridge with Kate Lundy dropping by to do a small presentation bestowing to him life-membership and a new Sonic Screwdriver. A heartfelt speech for someone who has helped a lot. The business end of the AGM concluded quickly with me being reelected to the committee for another year. How about that!
Now, I have some peas to shell…
