Seonaid had a flight to Queensland on Friday, so I drove her down on Thursday.  Mereth was supervising some work being done on her house, so she didn't come with us.  It was so funny when we got to John's place, he hugged us both and was chatting away for quite a while before he said, 'Where's Auntie Keryn?'  Seonaid and I just stared at him, and he finally twigged that I wasn't his mum.  'OMG!!!' he kept saying 'You really got me!' as if I was deliberately trying to trick him.  The last time he got us mixed up he was 5 years old, and burst into tears when he realised the person he'd been talking to was not his mother after all.  It's very confusing to children.....

We went shopping with John and Liz, met up with Seonaid's mate Angus and all went to Sushi Train, where we demolished about 15 plates between the five of us.  I tried to master chopsticks, I really did, but I would starve if it weren't for a fork.  Angus gave me a  lesson in the correct way to hold them, and I brought a pair home with me to practice with; it's not important in the grand scheme of things, but it would amuse me to be able to eat a whole meal without the benefit of western cutlery.

Seonaid's flight was 6.15am, so it was an early night for me, I was paranoid about sleeping through my alarm and not getting her to the airport on time (we have been there and done that before...).  All went well the next morning, and I triumphantly waved her off into the terminal in the the predawn light.  I arrived back at John's for a much needed cup of coffee, only to get a text from her saying the flight was delayed for two and a half hours.  For crying out loud!!  At least I could crawl back into bed for a sleep, she had to sit and wait in the airport lounge, poor girl.

John and Liz took me to a wholesale food warehouse as a treat, and it was thoroughly overwhelming. 

 Even the carpark smelt of coffee, spices and smoked meat; inside were aisles of cooking equipment, tinned food, loose and bagged spices, imported foods, restaurant supplies, industrial cooking pans, a huge deli and freezer section, 20 kilo bags of rice and flour, supplies for brewing, bottling and preserving.  It was fantastic.

  There was shelf after shelf of white restaurant china, and also pretty coloured cookware, it was so tempting. 

 

 Pretty pink.......

I asked John to stand next to these stockpots, to show how huge they were.  He adopted his standard photo pose, eyes shut and cheesy grin and rabbit ear fingers.  That boy!

 I wasn't real keen to try these sugar coated Chickpeas; I like roasted chickpeas as a savoury snack, not sweet.  I think they were Turkish.

  The spices were wonderful, so many different ones, I spent ages choosing what I wanted. This is not even a tenth of what was on offer, and everything came in different packages, from 100grams to a kilo bag.  Wonderful stuff.

 
  I could bottle my own beer, or press fruit with these gadgets.  There were industrial tomato mills, and sausage meat grinders and pressure cookers, it ws fascinating.

  We got a trolley full of things to try, including mint haloumi and chili mettwurst and different curry mixes.  I really wanted this bag of rice, just for the bag;  It's so pretty!

Alas, we had a lunch date elsewhere, so we couldn't stay as long as I wanted; we will go back with Mereth on our next trip.  I had a great time, but after lunch I was so relieved to be on the road home.  I'm not really into all the hustle and bustle of the city.  Dolly was hysterically glad to see me, and I had just enough time before sunset to water my garden and set it all to rights.  Hopefully life will calm down a little bit now, and I can settle into my new house.