NSW Holiday 2007-2008 – Day 5
Boxing Day!
We woke up late and ate leftovers for breakfast – I raided the rapidly shrinking pile of leftover chipolatas once again. Jon packed up his gear and said his good-byes – he was off to stay with other mates. We would see him back at Bondi on the 2nd of January. Jac and I then got ready to go to her cousin Jodie’s Boxing Day Cocktail Party. The girls lent us their car so we could drive to Jodie’s place, which was about 40 minutes away. The plan was to have a drink or two at the party, catch up with Jac’s relatives and then meet the girls at Birubi Beach at Anna Bay for a swim afterwards.
At cousin Jodie’s, we had cold meats (roast pork and BBQ chicken) and salad (potato and egg, coleslaw, creamy pasta) for lunch, and Uncle R shucked fresh oysters. Cousin Jodie and her partner breed greyhounds, and we took a walk around their property and met some of the dogs. The racing greyhounds looked immensely strong, with shoulders like Olympic swimmers (really!). The greyhound puppies were gorgeous, a perfect example of “puppy fat”! It seemed a shame knowing they would someday lose their tubby cuteness (those tummies begging to be rubbed!) to become sleek and athletic adults, all leggy and pointy-nosed. Friends and family may see the photos from cousin Jodie’s here.
We spent a few hours at the party, and then made our way to Birubi Beach.
We looked for the girls at the designated spot but they were nowhere to be found. The waves looked on the choppy side – not the best for swimming. I ventured shin-deep into the water – it was SO cold! We decided to just walk along the beach instead.
I wonder if they have someone to pick up the camel poo off the beach. I hope they do!
We didn’t realise until we were back in the car and Jac switched her mobile phone on (I must get her out of that habit of leaving it turned off – at this point I will say that I do agree that mobiles should be turned off at the movies, funerals, important meetings etc) that the girls had sent us an SMS twenty minutes earlier to say they were leaving the beach – it was too windy and choppy for swimming. D’oh! Heheh.
Back at the girls’ – their friend T came over, and we all settled down for dinner and another relaxing evening.
We started with PYO cold cooked prawns (PYO – Peel Your Own) – I really like prawns but like whole crab it’s messy work. I always peel prawns the same way – head off first, and discarded (I don’t like to suck the juices out of the heads like some people do – I remove the all yellowy mushy brain bits I can see from the headless prawn). Then I ease the prawn out of the tail and remove the rest of the shell and legs, and last of all, I dig out the big vein. I eat each prawn as I finish peeling it. Jac prefers to work steadily until she has a pile of peeled prawns on her plate, and then she starts eating them. We ate the prawns with seafood cocktail sauce – yummy!
For the main course, we had a de-boned and butterflied piece of lamb flavoured with a minty marinade, which was cooked in a baking tray on the barbie (with the lid closed).
I never eat lamb with mint sauce, but this marinade was surprisingly tasty.
To go with the lamb, L whipped up a couple of salads. First, tomato, red onion and coriander…
…and cucumber, feta and mint salad. The dressing was very simple – splashings of caramelised balsamic vinegar.
My plate: baked potato with butter, the two salads (note: no feta at all for me! Yes, I confess, I’m one of those annoying people who will pick the bits I want out of a salad, instead of just grabbing a random serve like a normal person), and lamb. The potatoes were parboiled in the microwave, then wrapped in foil and cooked on the barbie with the lamb.
