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Hello,old friend…

No, I’m not referring to the Eric Clapton song,“Hello Old Friend”, last Saturday I attended the 25 year reunion of my primary school class –so the song is apt all the same..

Let me set the scene a little. In the lead up to the reunion I had a few people give me odd looks when I told them that my Grade 6 class was getting together again. The size of our school was such that there was only one class for each grade. As such the group (plus or minus those who came and went) essentially spent seven years together in the same class. It had never occurred to me that people might have gone to schools where there were multiple classes at each level –so of course most people would not have gone through school with the same people in class each year. Personally I’m pretty happy the way it worked out for us,I think it cemented a lot of the friendships and general good will within the group.

So how did this gathering come about? Well,it all started with one guy from the class,sending a Facebook message to a few of us that he was connected to,saying how cool it would be for the old class to get together. (I don’t think the fact that it had been 25 years since we were in Grade 6 came into it,I’d say that was more coincidence.) The response to his message was quite positive.. So from there a Facebook group was created,and one by one,people started getting added to the group.. Some people were easy to track down using Facebook.. and were added to the group accordingly…Some were not.. and a bit of detective work was required…Just about all of the 25 (or so) people in the Grade 6 class were tracked down.. ..and even a couple who had left after Grade 5.  Now I know that for a lot of people the prospect of a school reunion is a horrible thought.. Lots of people I know hated primary school,high school or both and would shudder at the thought of seeing their classmates again. Judging by the turn out to this reunion,this was not the case for most.  Anyway,with pretty much everyone contacted,a date was set and venue chosen…We had something like two months notice,giving people plenty of time to get their act together.

The reunion was held a pub in Collingwood.. we had our own room which was gave us a bit of privacy. I entered the room to find about 16 of my old classmates already there…What a moment.. I was immediately transported back to 1986.. to me the faces were the same.. After the initial shock wore off I was asked to see if I recognised the people in the room…I went round the table and picked them off one by one.. struggled a bit with the last one (Sorry Rachael,I maintain that it was the hair that threw me :-) Others seemed to struggle a with a few faces…and then the moment the face/name clicked …. pure gold..   As I looked around the room,memories came flooding back…Many of these people had been family friends..  It’s amazing how little details from 25 years ago can be so clear –siblings,pets,quirky habits,particular clothes people wore.  As an aside,it was interesting to see how some of my former classmates now bore a strong resemblance to how their parents looked back in 1986.

This was not an officially sanctioned school as might be the case with your average 10,20 ..etc year high school reunion. As such there was none of the “please donate to the school”drive or “who has become the most successful”type discussions. This definitely gave a relaxed and friendly tone to the evening. People were genuinely happy to see each other. It was very cool to see who had gotten married (and divorced),who had kids,who had travelled …and generally what paths people had taken.

The room erupted when our two grade 6 teachers walked into the room –their attendance had been kept as a surprise…It was very cool to see them after such a long time,to speak to them as adults and even ask the odd question you’d never dream of asking as a 12 year old. It was interesting to see the little bits and pieces they were able to remember about us…given that they’ve had so many classes / students since then  - we were all impressed.  Both teachers have since commented that they don’t often get the chance to see how their primary school students turn out.. We’d like to think we’ve done okay.

After a bit of 1986 trivia,we were all asked to share a memory from primary school. It was funny to see what different people remembered.. who played what roles in the school play.. tales of schoolyard “romance”(my first crush was in that class…I took the opportunity to mention this to her,we had a laugh…),wagging school,breakdancing in the playground,lunch orders.. lots of random tidbits that made everyone smile…

Lots of photos were taken,many of which made their way onto Facebook pretty quickly.. Including a recreation of the Grade 6 class photo,with all of us standing roughly in the same position as we did way back when.

We got booted out of the pub around midnight.. The fact that just about everyone stayed to the end demonstrated how much fun people were having. A smaller group kicked on at a bar in the city.. I have no idea how big/late a night it ended up being –since the twins were born it’s not like I’m Mr Party Animal (not that I really ever was anyway…) The evening ended with pretty much everyone having had a wonderful trip down memory lane,and the realisation that even after all this time we all had a tremendous amount to talk about. There were lots of promises to catch up…Curious to see how many actually happen –personally I’m confident a fair few will,there’s already talk of another catch up some time in the next 5 years.. (I suppose given that it had been 25 years since the last time we were together,5 years is as good as tomorrow).

As for me,I had an amazing night. I had a smile on my face the whole evening.. Seeing all these people from my formative years was really special. I was pleased to see that my classmates were pretty much the same fun people they had been back in ’86.  Yes,we’ve all gone our separate ways but the bond is definitely still there.

Okay,so this post has been a bit soppy…but it was just that sort of night –simply brilliant.  It was a great evening, one which we’ll all remember fondly for many years to come. Rachael,Trisha,Silvana,Lisa,Sonia,Mimma,Linda,Antonija,Helen,Melissa,Ezio,Robbie,Anthony,Scott,Sean,Elvis + teachers Brian and Chris –it was really wonderful to see you again. Until next time…

Testing

Just checking to see if this thing still works

Now this is one way to barbecue a chicken…

I have toyed with the idea of owning a non-gas/charcoal barbecue for a number of years.. just never saw it as  a priority given that we already have a quite decent gas bbq which does a great job.. Fate,however,decided to intervene…

A couple of weeks ago my neighbour cleared out his shed…and among the things he was looking to get offload was his near-new Weber Barbecue. I felt it would have been a tragedy to let such a fine specimen go into landfill.. so I did the noble thing and rescued the Weber from its fate..  I gave it a clean.. and was ready for action..

My Weber BBQ

The question running through my head for a few days was “What would be a suitable dish to try out for my first go with the new beast.. ?”Something known and simple? Standard BBQ fare –chops and sausages? No,the occasion called for something a bit more interesting..  So I consulted my two BBQ cook books –The BBQ Bible and How To Grill –both by Steven Raichlen…and came up with a pearler of an idea –Beercan Chicken! Looking back it was an obvious choice…

The general princple behind Beercan Chicken is that you take a whole chicken,season it,insert a half full can of beer into the cavity,and then cook the chicken –standing upright –over coals for about 90 minutes.  As the beer in the can boils,it is forced through the holes in the top of the can,and spreads throughout the chicken from within –keeping it moist and marinading the bird at the same time. Makes for some visually appealing cooking action…

Beercan Chicken on the Weber

Turns out it the actual cooking side of things was fairly easy. My biggest struggle was lighting the damn fire.. I have little/no fire lighting experience –probably why I’ve always used gas barbecues. I’m more than a little embarrassed to say that I used a good half a pack of firelighters before I had a fire that would stay alight…But I suppose you have to start somewhere.

The result? …delicious. I would say it was a fairly decent first effort given that I was employing a style of cooking which was new to me. Olivia correctly pointed out that I probably could have taken it out 10-15min earlier.. but it was very tasty –and quite moist. What more do you want?  For those wondering,the beer I used on this occasion was Matilda Bay’s Beez Neez –a honey wheat beer. Very nice.

The cooked bird

Visually appealing,both standing up on its rack,and on the plate…

Full set of photos is here.

I would definitely make this dish again…There’s a million ways to season a chicken…and a similar number of liquids you could use to marinade from within.. Guinness,Coca Cola.. Chinotto (hmm,I wonder?)…I should definitely get myself one of these –what a great device..

This initial success with the Weber has also given me inspiration to have a go at doing a nice rack of ribs…. mmmmmmmmm

So sunscreen DOES work…

Yesterday I spent a lovely and relaxing day at the cricket…I spent much of the day smothering myself in sunscreen to avoid getting burnt by the sun –being so pale I tend to burn very easily –and here in Australia we’re always getting the sunscreen message drummed into us. Having said that I’ve always been a little suspicious about how effective sunscreen really is.. That is until last night when I got home from the cricket….

I’d like for you to guess which area I missed when applying the sunscreen…

It doesn’t actually hurt –but it does look quite bad..  Lesson learned.. Sunscreen = good.

(Number of times the word “sunscreen”was used in the above:5. 6 including the one in the previous sentence –and 7 including the title –so there…

Special Fried Rice

rice

Apparently Pizza Hut in China do more than just pizza…

Despite being in China where the fried rice is generally excellent.. this was very much what I would expect from Pizza Hut..