GOING INDIAN

SUNDAY 20th FEBRUARY

  Jeannette was invited to a birthday party of one of her work colleagues and the invite was extended to Rob and myself.  It was in fact the 1st birthday party of the couple's son Darsh, for which they took over an Indian restaurant in Granville.  Robert was feeling a bit under the weather and I must admit I wasn't at my brightest.  We sat at a table with other work colleagues of Jeannette's and the party then started.  There was dancing by young children dressed in Indian costumes and then Rob and Jeannette were invited out to perform the opening dance.  I must give him his due, Robert gave it his all, with his new streamline haircut!

Silver balloons spelling out the name DARSH were put up on the wall behind the buffett but resolutely refused to stay up, collapsing in various stages letter by letter.  Eventually the sign writers gave up and the letters were dumped in a pile.  Various games were organised, there was quite a bit of dancing, plenty of Indian music and loads of helium filled balloons, which amused all the young children no end.

  Our table contained Jennette's predecessor who is on maternity leave and came with her husband (on left of  above picture) and her baby, as well a very attractive German raised Muslim lady with her husband and two children (in the middle of the picture). Rob and Jeannette can be seen in the background.  There was also a Maori couple with their son (I guess around 9 or 10) who seemed to be totally bored by the whole proceedings and probably wondering why he couldn't be at home playing on his X-Box as usual.  They can be seen in the centre of the picture below at the back.  There was also a young white Australian couple sitting to my right.  The appetisers were served and I have to admit that I was one of the first in the queue helping

myself to a sort of bean salad, pakoras and delicious samosas.  The appetisers remained out for some considerable time, and indeed more were brought out when the initial stocks ran out.  I paid more than one visit back to the buffet table to replenish my own personal stocks!  Robert remarked to me in a disappointed kind of voice that it looked as if the appetisers were all that was going to be served.  (He had accepted the invitation in the belief that there would be loads of superb Indian curries on offer, and had wangled an invite for me as well).  However no sooner had he said this than the main courses arrived on the buffet table.  A portion of each curry on offer was more than adequate to completely fill me up, although I noticed that my plate was the only completely empty one on our table when they came round to collect the plates!

  We were among the first to leave at about 2.30, but we had to get back to Oakhurst to collect Robert's car and drive over to Carlingford to allow Jane to go into school and get some jobs done there whilst we looked after Nick.  He was in much better spirits today and back to his normal cheeky self.  Robert had quite a job getting him to do his homework which was about a week old.  Nick kept up with a stream of excuses, but Robert was having none of it and forced him to do it in the end, although he was far from happy with his standard of handwriting which he frequently told Nick was utter c--p.  Nick was very taken with my little trick of falling towards him with my arms outstretched and palms together pointing at his face and then at the last split second moving my hands apart to land on the palms of my hand either side of him.  "Do it again Grandad", he kept on pleading, and when I finally told him that that was it, he insisted I did it to Robert, which was a trickier task as there is a lot more of him!

It was a relatively quiet night after returning to Oakhurst with just a few beers to finish off the day.  It had been a pretty warm day but tomorrow is forecast to be much cooler with showers.