I can certainly reassure you that the dessert in the picture (a great Aussie pavlova covered in a huge array of seasonal fruits) was prepared especially for John's birthday (and not by me...). John has been lucky enough to be working for an artist and her family. Apart from painting, she runs a bed and breakfast and loves to cook. He has been getting three course meals for lunch and very flash morning and afternoon teas as well - seems to be dragging the job out as long as he can (which suits them both, as she is enjoying his company too). He's had salad platters with smoked salmon, freshly made bread, fresh berries, whisky icecream etc. etc. I think he thinks it's pretty dull around here...

Another bonus with meeting this family is that their son-in-law is a musician (sings and plays guitar) and is just cutting his teeth as a local band promotor. He's one of the organisers of the Paul Kelly show on 24th June and it looks like we'll get to meet PK and attend the after show do (as long as the girls can manage to stay awake). We could have gone back after the Rob Hirst/Paul Greene show too, but Karina was sooo tired that we couldn't let our selfish ambitions override our parental obligations - bugger! Having said that, I'll be making the girls have an afternoon sleep for the first time in years so my chances of getting to the party improve...