29th Annual Festival of the Sun

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Yes folks it’s that time again…

The Annual Festival of the Sun, held as always at the home of the lovely Doreen and Rob in Belgrave Heights. This year celebrating 29 continuous years and still boasting many of the original players.

Once again, in the teeth of fierce competition the Festival managed to secure the musical services of the internationally renowned (well I think some guy in Hamburg bought one of their CDs over the Internet) Jack Rabbit and the Pubic Hares. And once again the little red taxi collected my good friends Thatch and Jools and, together with Allan, headed for the hills.

The weather was quite mild and the swimming pool wasn’t attracting the annual marathon water polo match. Hmm…is it a sign of the maturing age demographic of this party that the polo match is losing its attraction? I’ve seen these crazy water babies leaping about the pool in the freezing cold and pouring rain in years gone by.

But, as always, it was a great party! An opportunity to catch up with some old faces that often don’t get to meet except at this one event every year. An opportunity to reprise the Pubes repertoire of songs, listening out for old favourites. And an opportunity to enjoy our annual pretentious picnic. This courtesy of the Thatchers who are second to none in the pretentious picnic stakes. This year’s repast was as delicious as always; progressing gently from a starter course of dips and some delicious feta stuffed olives, through an unexceptionable main course of quiche and cob loaf stuffed with an amazing array of goodies from hard boiled eggs and vegetables to cold meats and then compressed to pack them all together. It was a taste sensation. We washed it all down (in a totally refined manner, you understand) with a delicious muscaty rose which I found at Aldo’s Wine Warehouse in Nicholson St, Carlton.

And then of course came dessert, where the pretentious chip really kicked in as Thatch caramelised the tops of our Creme Brulees by torchlight using his mini blowtorch. Accompanied by a nip of Glenlivet, just to cut the sweetness of course. Now that’s what I call a picnic!

And at the end of the night Doreen showed us her doll and quilt collections. She doesn’t just collect these…she makes them all too. I knew that she did this but I wasn’t prepared for how marvellous her pieces are. Especially her dolls, I was assuming they were traditional porcelain dolls which she made clothes for. But these were wonderful fantasy characters, between one and two feet tall, that she designs and creates herself and makes totally from scratch. We were completely blown away!