A Burns Supper

A slightly late but never-the-less enjoyable Burns Supper is the highlight of this posting. There were twelve of us round the table - most of whom originally hailed from Scotland - and it was interesting to note the Australian-ised accents starting to slip away as the evening progressed and stories of "back home" emerged.

The Selkirk Grace was followed by an enthusiastic address to the haggis where various people took a verse each with the "coup de grace" being left to me as I managed a vigorous thrust into the entrails of the beast. A range of Burns poetry was recited with iPads providing an endless source of material - although I thought my rendition of Burns' little known verse "Tae a Penis" did not go down as well as usual!

"An cut you up with ready slight - warm-reekin,rich!"

 

 

Long term readers of this blog will, I hope, appreciate that I try to amuse as well as to inform, and, whilst a small element of exaggeration may occasionally creep into the story, what you read is nothing but the truth. However tonight I am struggling with this post to find anything amusing to report as the last few days, apart from the Burns Supper, have been an endless round of IKEA, DIY Superstores and decorating. One bedroom of Steven's house is now completed and the action has moved on to the master bedroom where Ana, my daughter-in-law, has started the unenviable task of sanding the floorboards whilst I put endless amounts of filler into cracks in the plaster.

In between DIY tasks I have booked the Honda into Opposite Lock, a company specialising in preparing vehicles for off road trips - although with the Honda being a bit lightweight in the 4WD department I'm not anticipating anything too demanding. None-the-less I thought it prudent to totally replace the suspension system as well as a full service and brake check. We are also equipping it with  large fridge (mainly for beer but Sandra will probably think of other uses) up-grading the electrics with an auxiliary battery, an 80w solar panel and inverter for re-charging our host of electronic gadgets. With limited space inside the car, a large rack to hold bulky but light items on the roof will complete the upgrade.  The car will be ready by the end of the month and then we should be on our way - although where that will be we as yet have no idea.

Sydney has been hot and dry over the past week or so and all the parks are starting to look rather brown and desiccated -  however, as I type, thunder is rolling over the city and rain is falling.