A good G&T

My mum made the best gin and tonics.  She was scathing about pub G&Ts with half-melted ice and post-mix tonic, served in a middy glass.  She said that there was no point having a G&T unless it was a good one. 

If you’re wondering, a good G&T involves:

• a generous slug of Gordon’s or Bombay Sapphire gin straight from the freezer. Often there was so much gin in the glass that it made your eyes water; 
• Schweppes tonic water from a 300ml bottle.  Pixie didn’t approve of large half-flat bottles of tonic kept in the fridge door;
• fresh ice cubes.  Occasionally, if Pixie really wanted to impress, she made the ice cubes from tonic water too; and
• a generous chunk of lime. 

If a guest asked her to mix a cocktail, she always delegated the task to someone else saying: “I’m the gin and tonic lady”. 

Wet, windy and wild

We’ve had some wild weather this week - about 8 inches of rain over a couple of days.  It was so wet that the airport was closed on Thursday. The airport road closed on Thursday too and hasn’t yet re-opened. 

The airport road is between home and Pinetrees so, obviously, I’ve been stuck at home, right?  Wrong!  I’ve been driving to work as normal.  People often say that Lord Howe Islanders have a “healthy disrespect for authority”.  It’s a nice way of saying that we completely ignore rules.  The LHI Board workers are probably the worst.  Although they’re responsible for the road and made the decision to close it, they were the first ones to drive around the "road closed" sign, tearing up the grass in the process.  One of them told me: “Off you go, Dani.  Just stay in the middle of the road.  You’ll be right”. 

Here’s a photo of the “road closed” sign.  Great sign, very official-looking!  Hang on, what’s happened to the grass on the right? 

Here’s the Somerset bus getting stuck in the water.  That’s happened two days in a row. 

 Wait a minute; here comes a bus tour…  

Lord Howe on Kerri-Anne

A little while ago, I was invited to do an interview about living at Lord Howe on Mornings with Kerri-Anne.  In spite of being utterly terrified, I said yes.  It’s not often you have a chance to talk to thousands of people about Lord Howe.  Also, I have a theory that women, not men, make decisions about holidays and lots of women watch Kerri-Anne.  

In the end, Kerri-Anne was away for the week and the interview was with Sophie Faulkner.  When I looked her up on Wikipedia, I discovered that she was born in the same year as me and has a son who is the same age as Elsie.  That made me feel a lot less nervous.  I’m guessing that even supermodel mums spend a lot of time dealing with poo, wee, snot and vegetable refusal.  Having kids is a great leveller.      

So, anyway, here’s the interview.  I hope you enjoy it!  (Personally, I can't watch it.  It's excruciating.  Ever heard a recording of your own voice and winced?  TV is much worse!) 

 

What you can’t see in the interview is Allan, my father-in-law, who drove me to the interview through very nasty Sydney peak hour traffic and waited patiently in the green room with little Pixie, who fortunately slept through the whole thing.  Thanks Allan!