Saturday

We had breakfast with Sy and An and M at Daniel Stuarts. M's Deep Water Running class had been called off early because of storms - or, more specifically, the concern about possible lightning strikes while they were in the pool. An hadn't gone to class - I garnered the distinct impression Sy had talked her out of it - because of the storm.

Breakfast was up to its usual high standard - in fact it was the best I've ever had there.

Syl in obviously in search of a Project - she keeps wanting to come out to Latimers to "do jobs" and while we have one for her to do - I need to do some prep work first. Of course, she wants to do jobs for M too but, like us, M has to be ready for that to happen.

I'm not sure what it was but there must have been something from the tsetse fly in my breakfast because after a quick visit to Australia Fair (finally my yellow watch has a new band and my heiroglyph watch has a new battery), and the drive home, I was exhausted ... put my head down for a minute and the next thing I knew Sooz was waking me hours later at 4:15pm so I could start getting ready to go out to dinner - Mouse's 88th birthday celebrations.

It was fantastic - which you'd expect at Food Fantasy at The Big House. We had two large tables - one for the boys, one for the girls, and there was plenty of food choices for everyone. Fl excelled by bringing over some already peeled and de-veined prawns to our table ... the pity was I had already just been to the buffet and was about to peel my own. They were amazing though, and the oysters were good too. I was just very lucky I was in a seafood mood tonight otherwise it all would have been a bit wasted on me!

Mouse's birthday cake

The birthday cake was magnificent! The chefs at The Big House had done an amazing job of transforming M's concept into reality. When they carried the cake out, it was one of the few times I have seen Mouse cry. She was obviously very touched by the love and care for her in that room - and around the world ... Melija and Hamdi skyped from Turkey while we were at dinner.

Az's pic of Mouse and her cake

Even though we had been told that we wouldn't have to hurry through dinner (we were at the early sitting), some of us hadn't even finished our cake before we were being told that they did, indeed, need our tables and we had no other option but to leave. That was the plan anyway, but as we were saying farewells in the foyer, a huge flash of lightning rent the sky, and an enormous thunderclap rumbled over us. We decided it might not be the best thing to drive home through the storm - so, when we couldn't get in to Spinners - the line for there was almost as long as the line for Food Fantasy - we moved upstairs to wait out the storm ... except for An who was off trying to separate The Big House from its money. It's not an easy thing to do ... the only one to win with the Great Card Swipings tonight was Mouse - fairly appropriate because it is her birthday!

Broadbeach wasn't the only place to get hit by the storm this evening. Latimers was on the list as well. The wind was so strong it tipped over B's tank that has been sitting, empty, on its side, against their house. When we arrived home, the tank was sitting on its top and B and someone else had placed a car next to it to try to secure it - or maybe it was to climb onto to secure it to the power pole with ropes. They didn't say there had been hail but when M arrived home after dropping Mouse off, she said it looked like there had been - because of the amount of leaf litter and the holes punched in the grape vine leaves.