We sat around
my brother's house for most of today. We did a lot of sitting and lolling and
lounging about - and eating. We read the weekend newspapers and we talked to
and teased each other in a playful way. The way that families do. We listened
to music and we even danced a bit. I got up and strutted my stuff. We were
friendly and familiar. We were adults and children and we were all shapes and
sizes and ages.
We were
family.
A few of us
had a very good crack at the cryptic crossword but we didn't quite finish it
and I wasn't too confident on some of our words. We got creative after awhile
and it wasn't easy. It was cryptic and puzzling. We drank juice and coffee and
tea and we ate toast as the clan progressively woke up and found our feet this
morning. I cooked a few batches of pancakes and waffles. I fried the batter in
slathers of butter on an old copper-bottomed fry pan which is an old friend of
mine. I added caramelized bananas and toasted shredded coconut and then I
dripped them with Canadian maple syrup. The real stuff from Canada. I made
quite a few of these.
They were
popular.
They were
wicked.
We hung around
the kitchen at first and then we spread across the lounge room. After a while
we moved and sat outside in the late morning sun.
We fired up
the barbie for a late lunch around two o'clock when others rolled in. We cooked
lamb backs on the flaming grill over hot charcoals. We seared them quickly so
they were black on the outside but still pink on the inside. They were medium
rare - the way lamb should be cooked. We grilled chicken and parsley and feta
cheese sausages and a couple of pieces of rib-eye fillet steak as well.
On the bone.
Our grandpa in
Adelaide taught us when we were boys how to cook the perfect steak. Grandpa
barbecued a lot. The secret was to turn the meat just once and only once and then
rest the meat well. Resting is required for at least half the time that the
meat has been cooked. Steaks are at their most tender and juicy when cooked
this way. It is not that difficult.
We learnt this
young. Our grandpa in Adelaide taught us this and my brother and I always cook
perfect steaks.
We ate our
lunch with a little salad and lots of crispy crusted French stick bread without
any butter. We added lots of salt and pepper and home made sauces and relishes
and we had a tomato salsa and a mint and apple cider dressing on the side. We
served it all up on white china plates with matching jugs and laid it out on
the big pine tables that are on my brother's terrace. We set it all out and
then we wolfed it all down. There were a lot us there for lunch. We were a
pack. We were a carnivorous and hungry one.
The food
disappeared.
Quickly and
loudly.
We sat on
benches and on grassy lawns and some amongst us sprawled on sun lounges - the
canvas ones with adjustable back angles. We were spread beneath some snow gum
trees on the terrace of my brother's house. The barbecue was on centre stage
for a while.
My brother
Richard's house is nestled high in the Dandenong ranges that overlook the city
of Melbourne in Australia. He lives on lots of acres of Australian bush and his
beautiful house is set into the side of a hill. I helped him build it. A family
of wombats live on my brother's property. They live in a network of tunnels and
warrens that they burrowed out of the dusty dirt. The wombat tunnels honeycomb
my brother's land.
The wombats
are a family of three. There is a Mum and a Dad and a baby.
Wombats are
nocturnal animals that are unique to Australia. They live nowhere else. They
live underground and only come out at night to feed on leaves and roots. They
are vegetarians. They are vegans in fact because they don't do dairy either. Or
fish. Wombats sleep a lot during the day and they don't attack or bite. They
aren't dangerous or poisonous. Wombats snuffle around in the dark and are quite
loud. I have seen and I have heard them at my brother's place. Wombats are slow
moving and docile creatures and they are round and they are hairy. They are
cute and cuddly and baby wombats are adorable. They are my favorite
animal.
Here is a
picture of two wombats:
The skeleton
of a prehistoric giant wombat was discovered in July 2011 in the north west of
Queensland. It was uncovered during a dig by archeologists on a site near the
Gulf of Carpenteria. This is at the top end of Australia. The skeleton is
believed to be up to two million years old. This giant prehistoric wombat was
estimated at being fourteen feet in length and weighing up to three tons so it
was not so cute or cuddly. Wombats are very much smaller nowadays. They have
been around for eons but they have diminished a lot in size over time.
They have
shrunk heaps.
Wombats are
marsupials. Marsupials are a distinctive set of mammals that are unique to the
Australian continent. They are distinctive because they deliver their offspring
very young and they then succor and raise them in a pouch. The kangaroo is
Australia's most well known and recognized marsupial and their babies are
called joeys. Koala bears and possums are also marsupials and Wombats are too.
The mummies of these species all carry their babies in pouches.
My brother
told me that he doesn't believe that he owns the wombats just because they live
on his property. He said that he doesn't think of them as assets and he is just
sharing the turf with them.
While we were
chatting and eating and drinking on the terrace of my brother's house I heard
the birdsong of magpies and parrots and kookaburras. I heard squawking and
screeching and trilling and amongst all this I heard the noise of cicadas too. Cicadas
are the noise of an Australian summer. If you are Australian you will know this
because you will have heard it before. If you are away close your eyes and
evoke memories of long ago summers when you were lulled to sleep to the
creaking noises that cicadas make and you will think of home in the Summer.
It is a
constant cacophony of bird and insect noise up here.
It is
delightful.
There are
nothing but gum trees and tree ferns in my current vista - for as far as my
eyes can see. The trunks of the gum trees are blue and white and a rusty red and
their foliage is green and grey and white. There are splashes of yellow and red
wattle amongst all of this. The air is perfumed with eucalyptus. There are
little white puffs of a few clouds in what is an otherwise bright blue sky and the
sun is yellow and it is warming. The hue of the trees and their leaves shift
and change with each breath of the wind and as the clouds brush past the sun. I
am witnessing an orchestra of dancing colors.
It is
stunning.
I pointed to
the trees and the birds and the breath-taking views and told my brother that I
thought that to live amongst all this must be wonderful and serene. He shrugged
his shoulders and he told me that it was and he said that they probably took it
all a bit for granted though. Seeing it every day and living in it.
I told him
that I understood and I told my brother how I thought that I might have a
better appreciation of everything like this about home when I had been away
from it for a while.
I am flying
back to Singapore tomorrow where there are no gum trees or kookaburras or
wombats on my back terrace. I don't have a back terrace and so I am appreciating
what I have at the moment.
I am soaking
it in and I am lapping it up.
I told my
brother Richard that I thought that this feeling of greater appreciation was a
natural one and it was to be expected. He told me that he thought he knew what
it was that I was feeling and what it was that I was trying to say. He told me
that it wasn't going anywhere either and that I could come back anytime that I
wanted to.
I told my
brother that I found this very comforting and that it gives me a sense of
peace. I feel an anchor point knowing that all this is here waiting for me - for
whenever I want to come back home.
Or just to
visit.
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