No, really.

The weekend was nice. Jindabyne is such a sleepy little town in summer. Daniel and I stopped at the Sundance Bakery before heading home on Sunday, for the best chicken pies in Australia - they make them fresh in-house and the crusts are so crispy and the sauces are so tasty and the prices are... well, that's probably their weakest point. But they're worth it.

Daniel was bitching about how the pies were too hot, so he had to wait till his pie cooled down before he could eat it. My response was "yeah, boo hoo" or something equally sensitive. It's not like my pie was any different... but *one* of us had to take it like a man! Before I knew what was happening he was suddenly on his own little tangent - the conversational equivalent of chasing the white rabbit down the rabbit-hole - about how coffee is served too hot, and then he said this:

"...and they serve coffee so that it's still boiling hot too, even when you ask for milk, so all I can do is sit there and look at it until it cools down. (*Now staring into space and directing his sarcastic muttering more to himself than anyone else*) Because that's why I buy coffee - to enjoy its company."

I laughed out loud.

"Anything else to add there, Basil?"

A slow smile spread across his face. Daniel goes on the best little rants sometimes.

Anyway, he liked his bonsai and he liked his jumper (his birthday is today). We're going out with his family tonight for a birthday dinner, which should be interesting as his brother is briging his new girlfriend along. Poor girl. Daniel has a huge family, and the way it seems to work is as follows:

1) New girlfriend/boyfriend meets the parents & siblings over dinner

2) There is a huge family gathering coming up where there will probably be at least 30 family members and close friends. ALL of these people have heard all about the newcomer... but the newcomer knows nothing about any of them. Newcomer is introduced to what seems like the population of Mexico but cannot correctly assign more than three names to faces.

3) Newcomer either sinks or swims. If you can't deal with socialising among a whole lot of people from someone else's family... you might want to reconsider.

I'm kind of rushed here (lunch break has run out). I'll try to update properly soon.