A Happy Birthday to Me!............('and me!' says 'Elaine'.)

My day began with four cards from the UK. Thank you to Anne, Margaret, Auntie Joan and Andy, Julia, William and Maisie.I went for a walk in Toohey Forest, though I forgot my phone and feared getting lost without my satnav, but happily didn't.

Grass tree incineration.

Dulcie, 'Elaine' and I shared half a Charcoal Chicken for lunch, 'Elaine' had more than her fair share as you would expect.

When Will returned home I opened my presents and got a lovely new rainbow umbrella, games , minstrels and a tee shirt and a Custard tart cake!

Wendi, Will's sister came for tea with Dulcie and Will and I went out for a meal to 'Blackbird', a restaurant in the city by the river over looking the Story Bridge.

For starter I had warm citrus cured New Zealand king salmon with baby squid, garlic, saffron and ink linguini.

Will had silk purse from a sow’s ear with Glasshouse Mountains snails and green goddess dressing.

They were both fantastic and so delicious, though 'Elaine' grumbled at the portions.

For mains we both had a 300g Darling Downs - Black Angus – Scotch fillet. All served with a selection of house made mustard, sauce and Blackbird coleslaw.

We both had a caramelised red onion sauce and shared shoestring fries with lemon myrtle aioli and saltbush, truffled cauliflower ‘mac-n-cheese’ gratin and beans and pulses, cracked grains, salted ricotta and caperberries.

We were well and truly stuffed!......even 'Elaine' was grumbling.

Afterwards we drove to Balmoral (no, not that one.....the suburb of Brisbane...tut) to see a film.

We had a private showing (yes, we were the only two in the whole cinema!) of 'Boy Choir' with Dustin Hoffman, Kathy Bates, Eddie Izzard and Debra Winger.....such an illustrious cast but one of Dulcie's descriptive phrases comes to mind to sum it up:

"A heap of crap!"

No matter, I have had a very lovely day.