Lamingtons

Mel, my room mate: I have a surprise for you guys tonight.
Me: I hate surprises.
Mel: I'm not telling you, you'll have to wait.

Well, my surprise was a cool one. Do any of you US'ers know what a Lamington is? Well, neither did I. It's basically a sponge cake covered in dark chocolate and coconut flakes. Yes, it is as heavenly as it sounds. Mel and I had gone to the food market about a week early, and as usual, she had had a good laugh at my stupidity regarding Lamingtons, among many other foreign food items. (They have these huge tubes, like tubes of out Bob Evans sausage, only larger, of dog and cat meat. I'm talking friggin' HUGE tubes. Who does that?)

Well, Mel had gotten the whole 8 of us a package of Lamingtons. We were all hanging out in the "family room", as we call it, and she appeared with dessert. Jer-Bear, my fellow wine science-er, came up with some ice cream. We dished it up. Distributed it, and all sat and watched TV. I looked around the room while everyone was sitting there, mostly in awe. A month ago, I was just leaving my home. Since then, I've covered a few miles, shed a few tears, and seen a lot of things. And there I was, surrounded by people who I already consider friends and care for, but never envisioned. I felt very fortunate.

It's remarkable how quickly things move sometimes. Sometimes it takes a quiet night of TV, a foriegn dessert, and some perspective to realize just how lucky you are.

Oh, side note. Wine people. Did you know that Phylloxera originated from North America? They think it probably rode over on a boat and then did some major damage in Europe. This funny vision of a note going something like this popped into my head:

Dear World,

We're writing to apologize for the phylloxera thing. We didn't mean to cause any sobriety. We hope you still love us.

Yours,

North America




I couldn't help but think that all of the Australians in the room were looking at me as if I were the vessel that brought them to Australian vineyards. :-P

Cheers