Australia Day

As you'll maybe know the 26th is Australia Day here. We didn't do any Australia Day stuff this year, saving ourselves till tomorrow, and we are also busy painting our hallway.

Because Australia Day fell on the weekend this year we are having the public holiday on Monday. Like last year we are having haggis and kangaroo with friends, Kim and Graham Walker. We are being joined by the Birkners - Klaus is German and Mary is an Ukrainian Aussie. She has threatened us with stuffed cows udders!!! Karen and the gang are coming too (I may have omitted the cow udders bit when talking to Karen so shhhhhhhhhh).

The Birkners had haggis with us a couple of years ago when Klaus' brother Michael was out on holiday. Michael is back again this summer and Mary requested we do it all again. As she ate the haggis last time she sat saying, "this is so Ukrainian, this is so Ukrainian". She said when she was young they always had a pig fattening in the garden. She said her father would love that pig and make sure it had the best of everything until slaughter time. She said they used every part of the pig - even the snout!

We did go and have dinner with my friend Joanne and her four children. I made a yummy chocolate mousse which I will have another go at for tomorrow although yesterday I thought it was going to be a disaster. The recipe said to melt the chocolate which I did beautifully but then the recipe called for water to be added to the chocolate - as soon as I did so the chocolate went all stiff. I managed to beat it a bit softer but expected it to be a bit lumpen. I never noticed the lumps and it tasted great.