Hello Reader,
I hope you are well. If you live in eastern Australia, I expect you’ve been experiencing a wet weekend. The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts this weekend in Southeast Queensland to be the wettest this year. I love La Niña, although I don’t love the destruction and mayhem caused by the floods. The last time it rained like this was about seven years ago. I was there for a special event, and it got washed out.
The last time I was in Brisbane was Christmas 2021, which is more than 12 months since the time before that in December 2020.
In 2019, I visited my parents and daughters six times. COVID-19 has made a significant difference. I telephone my parents every few days and Group FaceTime my daughters weekly to compensate.
I love living in the 21st century—better communications tools 😊 not to mention flushing toilets and heating.
When I landed in Brisbane, I went to the car rental place to pick up a car. I had asked for a small compact car and discovered a large Mazda BT-50 4✖️4 in the bay. I was taken with the luxury of wireless Apple CarPlay plus many other features.
When I got to my parent’s place on Friday night, I was in time to watch the footy with Dad. It was joyful to watch Brisbane defeat Manly convincingly. I also ate about ten of Mum’s jam drop biscuits.1
Saturday breakfast
Café 63 at Westfield Chermside
Rather than buy some spinach leaves to cook a steamed egg and wilted spinach leaves2, I went out by myself and enjoyed breakfast at a local café near my parent’s place.
I had intended to eat some muesli and fruit. I saw liver and bacon and went with a plate of potato rösti, liver, bacon, onion rings, poached eggs, hollandaise sauce, and barbecue sauce.
It was pretty filling. The liver would be gout inducing if I went overboard and ate a lot.
Saturday lunch
Aspley Oriental yum cha
We had planned to go to Sandgate for fish and chips. The driving rain, the need to bring Dad’s walking frame, and the general frailty of my parents meant it was easier to drive to the Aspley hypermarket. I could stop the car, engage the hazard lights, help my parents alight from the BT-50 with Dad’s walking frame and then find a car park.
It also meant Mum could indulge her passion for bargain shopping at Aldi. Mum rarely gets to an Aldi, and she prefers the cleaning products from there.
The lunch was okay. As far as yum cha goes, it has almost everything I would need. It had the waitstaff who seemed most interested in getting us in and out quickly, the deep-fried foods, the usual dumplings, and the egg tarts. What we didn’t get were my favourites, i.e., a turnip cake3 and rice flour noodles.
The shopping more than made up for the yum cha disappointment. Mum and Dad are hilarious. Dad goes off with his walking frame, confident he won’t fall. Mum likes to look around. Dad will be off in the distance, and Mum is looking at shoes she will never wear. We get into Aldi, and it’s on for young and old. Mum is piling the shopping trolley with cleaning products like no tomorrow. Then she changes her mind and puts things back after having misgivings. It made me laugh out loud.
Saturday dinner
Kinn and Derm, Takeaway dinner
Mum thought I might want to cook. I didn’t. After an afternoon of eating jam drop biscuits and drinking coffee and chatting, I didn’t want to cook. I wanted takeaway Thai food.
One of my daughters and a brother came along, and we all enjoyed chilli jam soft-shelled crab, red duck curry, crispy pork belly, chilli jam crispy pork, and crab fried rice. Mum cooked some noodles, and we were content.
After dinner, Mum surprised us with ice cream and jelly. The jelly had been “leftover” from when Mum had her last colonoscopy. She bought red instead of yellow and couldn’t use it, so we enjoyed it Saturday night.
The food from Kinn+Derm is always delicious, albeit expensive. It was worth seeing happy faces as we cleaned up our plates with yummy food.
Sunday breakfast
My Mistress café, Clayfield
I caught up with my eldest daughter and partner, plus my youngest daughter.
I am no longer an Açaí bowl virgin, although I’m sure I’ll become an Açaí bowl convert. I’m susceptible to “brain pain” with cold foods. The taste was okay. I’m grateful for the granola I also asked for with the Açaí bowl. The granola added a delightful crunch to the dish.
Thoughts
It’s been a wonderful whirlwind weekend with my parents and two of my daughters. It was good to celebrate, to some extent, Mother’s Day and Dad’s birthday.
The weather was soaking wet, which meant warm and moist conditions and anyone who knows me knows how much I love everything warm and moist.
How was your weekend? Tell me what you did.
Footnotes
- Not Mum’s recipe.
- My usual breakfast.
- Usually not made with turnip. My maternal grandmother made the best turnip cake.
What a fabulous weekend Gary. Family is so important. Love turnip cakes too!
Thanks, Sue 😊
What a delicious weekend of eating Gary! And I love turnip cake too but it doesn’t seem to come around as often as the other dumplings. Hehe I don’t think I’ve ever driven a car that big and it’s definitely not a small, compact car!
Thanks, Lorraine. It was a good break from Canberra. Perhaps we need a campaign for more turnip cake in Yum Cha restaurants 😊
Ah, I see! Hopefully, you and your mum are both okay.
Thanks, Emma. It was touch and go with Mum. So far she’s remained clear. I’m grateful we have the ability to check regularly with colonoscopies (as awkward and uncomfortable as they are).
What a joyous weekend visiting your parents and daughters plus partners. You certainly ate well starting with that salmon bagel, next stop a decadent breakfast which is nice to have for a change. Beautiful Thai and Yum Cha some of the best things about dining in a city. How wonderful that you had a great time with family, these last few years have sure changed our family visiting habits. Who cares if the scales were a bit enthusiastic this morning, you will even out over the next week or two. Left over colonoscopy jelly is something my mother would have on hand as well. This was a cheerful post, thank you for sharing.
Thanks, Merryn. It really was a lovely weekend. Now I’m back and it’s sunny in Canberra 😊
Sounds like you had a wonderful visit! We grilled steaks out last night, which was fun. It’s raining today, so we’re getting a bit of work done, and then we’ll watch movies–I have lots of movie-watching to catch up on, so I’m looking forward to it. Cheers!
Your weekend sounds joyous, and grilling steaks! What can be better? 😊
I absolutely loved loved reading this post ..just delightful . So glad u got to have a nice time and see yr family members Gary x
Thank you very much, Michelle. Much appreciated. It was a joyful time.
Before a colonoscopy you have to take lots of laxatives and eat low residue meals such as jelly. I don’t know how you pack it away Gary! Glad to hear you had a smashing weekend.
I really need to stop packing it away. This morning I weighed in the heaviest I’ve been in two years.
Gaz, I’m trying to make sense of this sentence… “The jelly had been “leftover” from when Mum had her last colonoscopy.” ????!!!!
The preparation for the bowel before a colonoscopy requires a day or two of changes in diet. White foods rather than coloured foods. Then clear liquids, including jelly. Then the laxatives clean out the faeces and residue. Mum had some jelly leftover from when she had her last colonoscopy. She has them regularly after her colectomy for bowel carcinoma. I have them too.