Unexpected Guests

Spring came knocking on our door this morning, a little earlier than expected. We were able to open up the house to let the warm air move through each room while we ate pancakes with bacon, banana and maple syrup on the veranda. Hamish is turning into quite the chef.

As I was busying myself with a little housework Hamish's mobile phone rang. It was his father, who has been down in his vineyard in Bannock Burn for the last few months building a barn and working through the harvest. He toughed out the coldest hoar frosts Bannock Burn could through at him over winter, but now he is on his way back up to Auckland and asked if he could stay the night enroute. Cue a couple more frantic hours of housework, but now the house is shining from top to toe, and once again I'm wondering how I could ever have thought about moving somewhere else.

Richard is keen to show off the fruits of his labour, and so asked us to book into a BYO restaurant for dinner. I had read an article a few weeks ago that bemoaned the decline of the BYO tradition, but I didn't believe it true until I tried to find a good, non-ethnic restaurant for the three of us. In the end I managed to book us into the Tinakori Bistro. I've never been there before, but the reviews seem ok.

It seems a shame that restaurants are no longer willing to allow people to bring along a special bottle of wine, although I realise BYO often just means the cheapest bottle of plonk from the nearest dairy. I'm quite happy to pay corkage.

Hamish and I don't get to go out to dinner very often at the moment, so I'm really looking forward to it. It will be nice to see Richard as well, who is a completely different person since he sold off his business and started pursuing his real love.