Summer Walkies & another Birthday Dinner

Friday 5 September - Happy birthday sis!

Spring sunshine encouraged us to head to the beach so we took Summer for a trial walk at Long Bay - she was mostly a home & garden dog with her previous owner apparently.

She had a lovely time and her Goldie genes had her trotting happily through the waves and woofing at other dogs & walkers! Back at the car she said no thanks so I had to heave her in against her will!!! Such a funny dog 🐕

After a brief trip to the truck stop for fuel and Gilmours for me to buy a kg of prosciutto, I was relegated to the back seat as Summer had taken over the front footwell 🙄

Toasties for lunch in Banjo then another trip to the bank to sort Helen’s finances before a siesta to prep for the evening ahead…

Birthday Dinner #3 for Louis at First Mates, Last Laugh. The view from Westhaven back to the city is stunning at night, and then we discovered that the black masted catamaran in the foreground belonged to Andy Turnbull - his replacement for Makili Kai!

We were for dinner joined by the usual suspects and our Banjo hosts Tim & Mairi for a fab celebration. By a fluke we discovered they were still offering the August Restaurant Month menu so we all chose that and had a delicious meal for $55 per head - bargain!

We supplemented the fabulous Restaurant Month menu with a side of smoked fish pate, then there was salmon & kimchi or prawn & avocado taquitos or salt & pepper squid starters followed by pan fried snapper & yuzu butter or beef cheeks for main rounded off with an exotic selection of gelatos and sorbets

Our waiter Pascal was a real laugh, turned out he was from Annecy and was on his way back there the next day so he was pretty demob happy! Fun times until Louis’ poor system got overwhelmed by the rich menu and we beat a hasty retreat! Recovery can be rough 🥺