Get stuffed

Justine and Michael came for a small reunion at Paddington and we celebrated with our own tapas meal - including stuffed onions from the recipe at the restaurant 'Origen 99.9%' in Barcelona, stuffed tomatoes, and the four of us stuffed with tapas. To substitute for the cruise from tapas bar to tapas bar we cruised from vodka to Spanish chamnpagne to sherry (held for display by Michael wearing the apron from La Boqueria market, with a recipe for tomato-smeared bread), beers (me) and wines (all) before sitting to eat.

Justine's late birthday

Justine and Michael struggle to put together her late birthday prsent, an art deco lamp from the shop at Gaudi's La Pedrera and hand-carried from Barcelona.

The Abbot of Shaolin Temple

Last week via Luhua we went to a dinner for the Abbot of Shaolin Temple who is in OZ to purchase a huge piece of land in Shoalhaven for several million dollars which he and his party brought with them, for building a branch of the Temple and teaching the martial arts that started in the very same Shaolin Temple 1500 years ago. The event was in the restaurant on the top floor of Market City in Chinatown, and the food was all vegetarian and pretty grim, which is unfortunate because some of the best meals I've ever had in China have been vegetarian in Buddhist temples. Anyway, when they discovered I had been the first Ambo there were many photos and references in speeches etc. Julie and Adam and Saywells also went. It was all a bit of a hoot.





You can tell from this photo that we were nothappy with the meal. We had to scavenge in the fridge when we got home



Accompanying the Abbot for reasons unkown but which can be guessed, was a textile manufacturer from Xi'an. Hence the while silk jacket and spiv chick. Julie Martin and I could not resist getting photographed with him