Social Butterflies

It's been a couple of weeks since the last post so time for a quick recap about what we've been up to. There have been a couple of Saturday night parties - an engagement celebration for one of Steve's PwC colleagues, Anne Marie to a former PwC'er who has crossed over and now works at one of Steve's clients so double connection. There was even a live link to Ireland where Anne Marie's family are which was really quite sweet.

Then it was Kylie Francis' 30th and  that was one fun party thrown by party girl extraordinaire! It was great to see some of the crowd again.

Last year we did a lot of camping and also going to the local farmers' markets and this year we've really not had the chance to do this. So one sunny Saturday we made it and really enjoyed the morning out and coming back with a huge haul of goodies to cook up. Steve made dinner that evening and I made soup for the rest of the week.

We've had some really mixed weather. There have been days of rain and a real wintry chill in the air and then other days it's been blue skies and sunshine. Last Sunday was a wild and wet day and we spent it in a tin shed in Northcote learning how to make salami. It was a wonderful insight into Italian family culture and given the need to cold temperatures it was pretty authentic with the rain and wind howling outside. Apparently Italian family tradition means that we're entering into salami season and it involves getting up at dawn when the the temperatures are low to work on the pork so it's kept cool and safe and then it's all done by midday. Luckily we didn't have to meet up at dawn and Mother Nature played ball by sending the wind and the rain!

We were trained by the best! Our instructor was former butcher and last year's salami making winner and he demonstrated how to break down a pig and made it look so easy. We worked with an young Italian couple who both have families that have their own tradition but they wanted to learn more hence signed up to the class. It was a lot of fun and we really learnt a lot about pork and curing it but I don't think we'll commit to this tradition. It's a big investment in machinery and we don't have the space. Somehow I think hanging the salami in our storage cage in the underground car park where the bins are also kept make a successful recipe!

I've had a couple of post work dinners and drinks with work colleagues, with Kirsty, with Stef for her birthday and Steve has moved away from being extremely busy with work to being extremely busy with client entertainnment! I guess after the hard work comes the socialising.

Only 3 weeks until our UK trip, It's coming round quick. From the photos I've seen the weather is not unlike what we've been experience here. Days of sunshine, days of rain. Amelia has been taking advantage of the Spring weather and fresh air these couple of weeks and has spent time in the garden and at the beach. Not sure it's the weather for ice cream though!