It definitely felt that there was a change in the air.  Although it was still cloudy, there was never a question of the showers that had been a prominent feature of the previous few days.  

The main feature of the day was to be the dinner party for Alistair, a work colleague from CTN who had escaped to go travelling.   When he had indicated his intention of spending some time in Australia, I had put him in touch with Justine as a contact.  With Justine’s usual generosity they had met, were now in touch and a date had been set up for him to come to dinner when the Gregory’s were in town.  If you want anything done, give the job to a busy woman!

Alistair’s arrival had been much heralded because, since I had met him, he has grown a beard and become an Ed Sheeran look alike.  Those who know me well will of course know that I hadn’t got a clue who Ed Sheehan was – I know now and have to say Alistair has an uncanny resemblence to him!

Our contribution to the evening was to the food and ‘front of house’.  With that in mind we took off to find Dan Murphys, the bottle shop (off licence), to purchase some Devil’s Corner fizz that we enjoyed in Tasmania and get the ingredients for Keith’s Asian ‘slaw.  All kitted out we decided on ‘at home’ afternoon……. 

I had a very nice few minutes by the pool before it got too hot and then a bit of a read – unheard of in these travelling, blogging, experiencing times – and then the girls were home and other duties called. 

Justine and Tony collected our guest in the City and brought him out for one of his first experiences of the northern beaches – albeit a dark one!  We were all dressed and on parade for his arrival and settled down to a very jolly evening.  Alistair took ‘en famille’ in his stride and against the backdrop of the world wall, talk flowed effortlessly.  Alistair’s biscotti rounded off the meal in fine style and Tony’s Australian sensitivities were acknowledged by our dipping them into the Australian version of Lemoncello – ‘Mangocello’…… who’d have guessed?

A great evening, ending with the boys plotting to carry ‘Ed’ off to beer tasting on Saturday …..,,