Smoke gets in your Thighs

James has been tending to the food all day with a Spit for tonight's meal and smoked pork for tomorrow. Mind you we did also have a barbie lunch so there is no shortage as long as you eat meat.  We moved the big outdoor table to the front to make more room for the cooking and to seat the hordes in close proximity.  This spit and smoker temperature is monitored on your phone.

 

Barbecue

We had the world's biggest barbecue back in Essendon, plumbed for gas, plumbed for water with in built sink but we left it behind.  It is a bit of a down grade here with a small weber to work with. Daniel upgraded the court yard lights  months ago and we have not made much use of them.  The area has had a tidy up with the plant lady being moved and redressed and also we carried the barbecue down from balcony to its new spot under the flood light.  The idea is that Winter barbecuing can resume.  We may yet get a second barbie or carry our snags up to the balcony.  We gave it a go last night, the only issue being that the light attracts the bugs. 

two plant ladies

lighted snags

Asher tags a long

Whatcha doin Pa?    That's how it came out most of the time with a screwed up nose as well.  You can't get away with much when a two year old is on the scene. I was mostly caught out eating eg If I was eating fruit when she was supposed to be eating her sandwich well that did not work out at all. The best trick was bribery eg you finish your dinner then I will get out the ice cream, except don't pack the cone with ice cream like I did the first time. We had a balcony barbie last night as the weather has been perfecto. Asher had a swim this morning and as the tide was in it was good snorkeling.  We saw a small ray doing some feeding and some quite large fish. They may have been Perch.

Cool Dude

Balcony Fare

Clean Up

 It is a good thing the garbage man paid a visit today. We used three large yellow bins and three brown garbage bins to cram in our two day feasting refuse.  The clean up went well and the few bath towels from next door were washed, dried and back in position before they knew it. Some clumsy foot person fell over during the clean up and laid down for a rest on the driveway. How inconvenient. All up the weather was good, the food was even better and a good time was had by all. 

I was expecting a parallel step - that's my excuse.

Seafood Snapper

Food Vans

We returned to the Food Van park which is the best kept secret of this little Maui neck of the woods. Last night we tried the Hula Grill as they do not take reservations but were told the wait was an hour and fifteen minutes. This was at 6pm. We squeezed in at the Monkey Pod.  Tonight's was the best meal we have had so far on the trip. We had a half smoked chicken with rice delivered to our table in a bamboo container. It was the best and there is no queue to be served and empty tables as well.

Van Food

Who's getting wet?

A Ferry tale

The clean up took two hours to vacate by 10:00am but we were ready by 9:30am. So in plenty of time for the brunch of bacon eggs toast and more bacon eggs toast. The Quinn car was the most impressive Santa effort I have seen this year. After various games of UNO and babies and Smart Ass (Question Game) and more babies we ran out of time for any beaching.  We thought 50 mins to go, maybe we can get the 2:00pm ferry. That is the Ferry Tale.  23km took 1hr 20 min but we did get the 3:00pm so made it home around 4:30pm.  Just in time to sit on this deck.

In like Quinn

Asher drives it home

                                                        Now that is a meat ball!

The Spit is a Hit

Spitting takes some skill and a lot of preparation. You need the right environment. Enough room for it to draw back and judging the volume before hand is essential. It also depends on whether you want leftovers or not. 250g per person is a guide so this 5 kilo ball was just enough for everyone. James and Heidi have planned this to perfection. Then there is the five or six hours of the rotation over the specially chosen coal lumps.  Nothing like a good spit to end the day.

Heat gun starter

Chicken and pork on a big fork

Noisy Deck what the Heck

Slide Show extraodinaire

Cruise Party

We decided to have a cruise party on our deck as the Seven Seas Mariner was cruising past. It was supposed to be a 6:00 o'clock departure but eventually it left around 7:00pm.  We can see the mooring site clearly through the spy scope so can tell as soon as its starts up. Also there is the Shipping App which tracks movement as well. Good thing we decided not wait, as a storm was brewing.  Everything was dead calm for around 2 hours and 32° and in that time we cooked our barbie and just finished eating before a huge gusty change came thru.  Nothing stops these ships, so we still had a good view of its passing.

Just Cruising

Misty Yu Yangs

PB Barbie

Santa doesn't come to the PB end of year barbie but Kookaburras do.  Lots of them.  Eltham is a leafy treed location that suits bird life. We do have a flock of rosellas now that screech in the street.  The Style Guru visited today and gave us the run down on how to present the house for sale.  It's mostly rearranging furniture and finding a bed from somewhere.

Kookas

Surburbia with an outdoor kitchen

Toast the Coast - Day 1

Those calculating, devious, entrapping,

Taylors have led us astray with their beguiling entreaties urging a quiet day out they say. We'll drive you they say.  We've been here before they say.  I have heard of pub crawls but Toast the Coast must be a  definition of Winery Crawl.  Two out of the three winerys we visited had a sloping view down to the water.  The first was Basil's Farm, with stretched out lambs on a spit. Very tasty. The third one was Baie Winery also very picturesque. The day finished with a wine on the beach down by the jetty.

Baie

A Streaming Live Site

Lamb Roast

GF Bulldogs v Swans

We hosted another GF viewing and barbecuing day. The group has grown smaller over the years but smaller can be better. It could be called the day of the desserts. I made a choco cake but the vanilla blocks plus Debbie's apple pie and Franster's berries were a highlight. I guess the Bulldogs breaking a 62 year drought should be mentioned. The Blues for next year.

with roast potatoes