Australia Day

Well, it was a delightful, if slightly boozy, day yesterday, starting with champagne - 3 bottles' worth - for brunch at 11am. Chris' Dad David's specialty is devilled eggs so we had these with smoked salmon pancakes, followed by large shell-on prawns/langoustines/shrimp - delete as appropriate, depending on which country you're from.

Earlier on, I'd taken Miller for a walk/carry down to the beach, to allow his parents to get on with the preparations for the big day. The table was set:

Even the front door had the flags up:

Miller was waving the flag too - check this video out - http://youtu.be/HsSfwGIk_fY

Miller loves the beach - his eyes widened when we arrived there - http://youtu.be/GOIVcdn5kok

He looks a little sad - thwarted by the wall of seaweed - here, however:

Chris' brother Matt belied his apparent reputation and arrived not too long after his parents, armed with a pile of bacon and promising to do the barbie, putting his young brother out of his usual job. Before that, however, a couple of beers and then, in deference to the previous day's Burns Day, Chris got the whisky out - the bottle Ross gave him last year:

Perspective is a wonderful thing. Matt is quite big and David is quite small, but the photo above exaggerates this somewhat. Drams - and it's not even noon yet!

Meanwhile, Miller is in heaven, getting the full attention from both his Grannie and his Nan:

Matt's barbie consisted of bacon, large mushrooms, tomato and fried eggs and we had large rolls as well.

Later on, we thought it would be a good idea to go for a short stroll and find a coffee somewhere. Matt took Miller in his stroller:

We had been led to believe there was Aboriginal/original/indigenous Australian dancing and music going on down the shore and sure enough there was plenty of activity, but it was mostly rock/blues music. We then wandered off to the Palais for coffee, where Miller was again being spoiled:

Back at the ranch, all that was left to do before David and Lorene set off home again was for a team photo. There's always one of the Steele's does something a little silly - but it wasn't Matt this time:

OK, let's try again:

We were still sipping red wine in the evening and nibbling away at leftovers when Kelly decided she wanted an ice cream - so we all had to have one. Connoisseur is a bit like a Magnum, only better. Salted Caramel was popular.