Mothers Day

Sunday 11th May 2008
Today is Mothers Day and Ian got the kids ready to wake Carolyn bright and early (early for Carolyn), she had Scrambled Eggs on toast and Coffee in bed and was inundated with gifts made by the kids.
We sent our Mums flowers via Interflora and have received an email back from Carolyns mum to say that she received hers, however Ians mum who is supposed to be taking it easy at the moment, is never at home when he rings and does not possess a computer, which is probably for the best considering she has been in her house a couple of years now and still can’t erase the messages on her ansaphone.
We went to Busselton Jetty today and had a look round the Observatory on the far end, it is like being in an aquarium but the fish are free to leave or be eaten by bigger fish any time.
This is the jetty website and if you fancy getting in training this is the site for entrants for the Jetty Swim next year (2009) only 3.6km around the jetty, any takers?
In the afternoon Ian went out for a bike ride for a couple of hours, firstly towards Dunsborough and then when the Cycle path ran out he turned round and rode back into Busselton where he sat on the sea wall eating an Ice Cream while watching the Sun start to go down, it’s a tough life out here you know. When Ian got back from his ride he had a long discussion with Crocodile Keith from over the road about how much more devastation we wanted him to inflict on the garden, after agreeing that he could chop down another four trees he informed us that he has a weather station in his back garden. In the last two days we had 40 millimetres of rain, which is quite a lot for a place that is supposed to be suffering from a drought or it could of course be that it was the wrong type of rain.
Fliss moved out today, Carolyn helped her move her gear to a house which is a bit closer to town where she is renting a room. Kristian is over the moon that he has got his room back and Fraser is over the moon that he has got rid of Kristian out of his room but they are all going to miss her. When Kristian went to bed tonight he commented on how tidy his room was, we had to point out to him that the reason it was tidy was because he hadn’t been in it.
In the evening we went out for a Mothers Day meal at Busseltons only Italian Restaurant, it was different. We got there and went to the reception area where we rang the bell, a second later a young woman came out and greeted us in the broadest Irish accent we have heard in years, to be sure. There were two tables of four eating and when we asked if they had a table for five available she had to think about it, after a second she said yes and led us to a table for four but which had five seats round it. The area she put us in was like the black hole of Calcutta with spiders webs on the walls, the spiders looked well fed so we didn’t worry too much. Once upon a time the toilets obviously had two entrances because one of them, all be it a locked one was also in the area where we were sitting and every time the loo was flushed we had to listen to it.
We had originally assumed that because the Irish lady had to think about whether they could do a table for five that all the other tables were booked for later in the evening, wrong, despite it being in the worst part of the restaurant we think we got this table because it had five matching chairs and all the other tables had matching chairs in multiples of two. If we ever went there again which we doubt, we would have to take somebody else with us to make sure we got a decent table.
It gets better, when we were asked if we wanted any garlic bread while we were looking at the menu we said yes and thirty seconds later we had four slices of garlic bread placed in front of us, now this girl had managed to work out that there were five chairs (all matching) around this table for four, yet she appeared to be unable to see that somebody was sitting in each of them, thereby necessitating five pieces of garlic bread to keep everybody happy.
We ordered our meals and when Ians came out, the lady who brought it out who also had a strong Irish accent (as you would expect in an Italian restaurant) said they’ve forgotten to put your potato on the plate, now bearing in mind he had ordered Risotto he wasn’t expecting potato, but when the lady came back she brought the Potato with her in a small sauce dip bowl. It was a small new (gourmet) potato cut in half and grilled, presumably to warm it up and she also brought out a small bowl of salad swimming in vinegar, we think it was supposed to be vinaigrette but the chef was a bit dyslexic and missed out the ette.
The main meals for all of us were very tasty and we all enjoyed them, it was the extras, the ambience, the service and the tiny portions that let it down.
On the menu the couple running this restaurant have provided a brief resume, she trained in Ireland and France and specialises in Pasta, Entrees and Desserts while he trained in Perth and Bunbury and specialises in Pasta, Entrees and Desserts. It is just as well that they both specialise in Pasta, Entrees and Desserts because that is all the sell and even then only in small quantities.
Just when we have been saying that this country is 20 years behind the UK this Restaurant proves us wrong, they have invented the same sort of Nouveau Cuisine that we were eating in the UK 30 years ago, only then it was served by staff that at least sounded like they came from somewhere remotely close to the Mediterranean.
We came home, had a bite to eat and went to bed.