Aye, laddie

My palate has been on quite an adventure over the last few days. On Sunday I paid a visit to the Cuckoo, Olinda's famous home of Bavarian cuisine, in the picturesque Dandenongs. Part of the afternoon was spent enjoying food, reasonably pleasant conversation, and a floor show featuring accordion music, bell ringing, yodelling, and bawdy jokes. This was a function put on by Club Solo, which is a ministry to Christian singles. This is only the second event of there's that I've ever attended. My reason for going was to find out more about their forthcoming camp in Brisbane in January, which I plan to attend during my annual leave. Before committing to attend, I wanted to hear from others who may have attended in previous years what they thought of it, and also what sort of crowd was likely to be there. In any event, I'm looking forward to seeing more of southern Queensland and surrounds, and hopefully hearing some good Christian teaching. The only parts of Queensland I've visited to date are Surfer's Paradise and Brisbane.

Last night it was time to immerse myself in my Scottish heritage. I visited my family to partake of a hearty dinner of haggis, vegetables, and Yorkshire pudding. The key to eating haggis is to try and ignore its ingredients, which aren't very pleasant, and focus on the taste, which is. In other words, close your eyes and think of Scotland. In any case, it would be unadvisable to eat this dish more than occasionally. The accompanying beverage was Irn-Bru (pronounced "Iron Brew"), Scotland's top-selling brand of soft drink. Irn-Bru is known for its distinctive bright orange colour and excessively sugary flavour. According to the Lonely Planet guide to Scotland, one glass removes all the enamel from your teeth. Regular untramelled consumption of it would allow my dentist to continue to indulge his hobby of amateur motorcycle racing, but that's another story. This drink is also reputedly quite effective as a hangover cure, not that I'd know anything about that.