First BBQ of the Season

There's nothing like a good Aussie BBQ, where the men hover round the hotplate overcooking lumps of meat and women stand in the kitchen and gossip while they toss their salads. Well.... that's how they're meant to go anyway. I think we've just about grown out of that cliche... well, almost.

We went to the first bbq of the season on Saturday and the boys did hover round the bbq, but the meat was far from overcooked. Okay, so the women did make salads, but there was no gathering in the kitchen gossiping and the segregation didn't last long at all. We couldn't have picked a better day for the bbq; the weather was perfect. And the company was great. It was a really fun day!

Of course I took my camera along and got some happy snaps.

Here's an introduction to the people present at the BBQ...

I've posted photos of Giorgia in this blog before. She's such a cutie and so animated. She also poses for the camera, which is even more adorable.

Here she is with her Mummy and Daddy, Stefania and Matt, who have also featured in this blog before.

And like a true model, she decides when the photo shoot is over.

Barry is kind enough to share his lab with me at work. It's a big deal for an electrochemist to let a messy organic chemist encroach on his personal space, but Barry is a generous person, so you'd expect nothing less from him. He and his wife, Jane have a gorgeous baby girl of 7 1/2 months called Monique.

Victor and his wife, Margaret, have 1 year old daughter, Victoria. She's gorgeous, although she's a bit nervous when meeting new people, so she cries at first, but after that initial shock, she brightens right up.

I share an office with Slavica. She and her family are X-Box fiends. One day Paul and I will hook up with them to play Halo online. They all crack me up. Slavica and Allen, her husband, know each other so well and are very quick with their comebacks to each other. It's obviously rubbed off on their son, Aleksa. I haven't met their daughter yet, but I hope one day I'll get to see if she's inherited her parents' quick wit too.

Su May is an RA in our group. She's been inducted into the company and is now working on top secret industry stuff with me. Her husband, Pete is the Maharajah in the tent and Su May is fanning him with a palm (grass) frond.

And here are some more random shots from the day...

The cliche: Sumay tossing her salad and Matt working the BBQ

Paul's trying traditional Serbian plum grappa for the first time. It's powerful stuff, but actually tastes pretty good. I'm so surprised that Paul was upright after that glass!

I'm not sure if Giorgia was too keen on crazy lady cuddles!

And of course, no BBQ is complete without backyard cricket! This was a very international match and really quite hilarious to watch at times. A number of sixes were hit and some fences had to be scaled to retreive the balls. Notice the appearance of the taped tennis ball in some of the shots.

Batting:

Bowling: