The Festival of Rob began on Saturday as we celebrated his birthday with a lunch at home with family and other interested parties. One of the things I loved about our house in Lilyfield was the vast family room that made events with large groups easy - this is much harder to pull off in a house where the dining and living spaces are spread over two floors. Still, I was thrilled to be able to fit my trusty trestle table on the end of the dining table in the kitchen, even if it went in diagonally. After Champagne and canapes of tuna 'cooked' in lime juice, we squeezed 13 around the table. I made two huge roasting pans of five hour roast lamb. There were dramas in the preparation (I realised one of the roasting pans wouldn't fit in the oven - enter Rob, stage left , with a new pan he raced off to Sainbury's to buy). The resulting melt-in-the-mouth lamb, and vegetables that had soaked up all the flavour of the wine and herbs was pretty amazing, even if I do say so myself. It was a lovely long lunch with the last guests still here at 6.30pm. Thanks to everyone for coming, especially those who made the trip down from London. Anyhoo, here's a little film of the lunch.
Another one of the reasons we came back to Britain is that Christmas here cannot be beaten. Even the build up is exciting. The Christmas ads have started appearing on Tv now. The following one is the latest from John Lewis. Rob and I watched in silence before looking at each other at the end to find we were both in tears.
A final note to Lenka whose latest blog entry was a clearly blatant attempt designed to make us want to move back to Sydney - it almost worked! Speedboats to islands on Pittwater, and the coffee boat sells ice cream now! Hard to beat.
3 comments:
As far as that John Lewis ad is concerned. I think someone needs to call the RSPCA about that dog freezing to death at the end.....
Don't worry. A woman will be along soon to pop it in a wheelie bin.
You can't blame a girl for trying!!
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