Last night’s seafood smorgie completely lived up to its reputation. After eating lightly all day, and drinking plenty of water, my stomach was ready for the challenge that I had laid down for it. And the Rydges buffet delivered! I managed to plough through 2 massive plates of seafood, before taking a rest onto some pasta, then back on to another seafood plate. I was pretty shattered after all that, but topped it off with a couple of servings of cake from the dessert section. Man, was I stuffed! However, for all of my efforts, no-one could out stamina Pat, who was still laughing by the time we were all super bloated.

Anyway, not only was the food fantastic, but the company was even better. Kudos to all the folk who made it up from the Goldie for the occasion. It was especially cool to see Monks & Brooke, and be regaled by their tales of adventure in the USA. Hard to believe that someone thought Monks was Steve Irwiin, the crocodile hunter, but I guess it’s a mistake we’ve all made at some stage or other.

What do you give your son for his 21st birthday? Well, if you’re Monkey, you get an airline ticket to the USA. How sweet is that? What makes it even better was that he got to go to E3 2004 – the world’s largest conference on computer games. Monkey reports that E3 was “kickin’ rad”.

Of course, no trip to the USA would be complete without a visit to Hollywood. The picture shows Monkey with his hand inside the cement cast of California governer Arnold Schwarzenegger. Monkey’s hand has about an inch to grow until he’d be decent competition for Arnie.

Anyway – Monks is currently kickin’ back in Las Vegas, and was off to see The Knight Show (ala The Cable Guy). Lucky bum!

There are few things more exciting than getting a parcel in the post. Ergo, I was quite the excited young gerrod.com today when I learned that there was a package waiting my collection at the Bracken Ridge Post Office. I had suspicions that Santa Claus may have sent me samples of this years Christmas presents, however I was even more delighted to discover that it was in fact coffee! And not just any coffee… Italian coffee! And what better place to get Italian coffee than New York?

Many, many thanks to Craig (picture may not be accurate due to insufficient source of more accurate photos) for sending the coffee through. I was most impressed with the helpful brochure you included, entitled “What can’t be mailed to Australia?”. (Just kidding – me thinks it was added by the Quarantine people). I can’t wait to try this coffee out – stay tuned for a full review!

Saturday night was spent at a reunion BBQ for the old Compaq crew, at Al & Suz’s house. It was cool to see everyone again, especially those that have fallen out of touch.

Thanks very much to Tim for his “organization skills”, getting everything together so quickly. Kudos to Al for bringing back a little Lemkau (“Mini-Steve”) from his near death experience, after he fell head-first from a few rungs up a ladder. I think the shock of hearing Al’s Scottish accent was enough to scare him back to life.

“There’s nothing on your menu that won’t kill me!”

A disappointed Eva looked very disgruntled after an exceedingly quick visit to The Red Dolphin. Traditionally known for a high standard of excellent food, their menu just didn’t stand up to her discerning eye. Speaking afterwards about the experience, Eva said -

“I mean, I know I have a few allergies, but really, you’d think they’d have at least one thing that I could have eaten. I asked about their grilled fish but they said the grill was closed. I could see the grill… how exactly do you close a grill? What are they, Canadian?”

Luckily, Lone Star Steakhouse came through with the goods. Kudos to our friendly waitress, “Sarah”. (Sorry if I spelt your name incorrectly).