The Funky Chicken

Quiz for the day.

 

Which animal was Jack, Jarrah and Fletcher absolutely dying to see today?

 

Rosa's wonderful pet pig?

The magnificent pelicans on the Murray River?



Rosa's pet dog, Angel, who barks a lot?  A real lot.

The Funky Chicken down the road?

Answer:  None of the above.  It was Einstein, Dr Emmett Brown's dog in Back to The Future.  When it became known that I had bought the entire Back To The Future Trilogy from JB Hi Fi, (and after having seen bits of Back to the Future 2 on the houseboat some weeks ago) there was much excitement.  So much excitement that when it also became known that they would not be watching it last night, there were tears, foot stomping and an equal but opposite level of disappointment.

The boys had mistakenly 'overheard' that I was going to put the movie on if they got themselves ready for bed without a fuss.  So, after dinner, they all snuck off under Jack's leadership, got themselves into their PJs, brushed their teeth, went to the toilet, climbed under the doona and waited for the adulation and praise that would ultimately end in the prize of staying up to watch the movie.  Alas, there was never any intention of screening the movie at 10pm and when this was explained to them, the behaviour described above flowed freely.  Jarrah punched his pillow and said aloud, "Well that was a complete waste of time!" meaning that they shouldn't have wasted their time being so good.  Kid logic. 

So when we decided to put the movie on for them the next day, the excitement level instantly went to full noise like an F111 taking off on full thrust, afterburners on.  The relative excitement of seeing the wonderful animals we encountered later that day paled into insignificance.  Even the Funky Chicken that was part of a local theme park in Mildura but is now rusting away in a scrap-metal yard down the road from Rosa's house merely raised an eye-brow.

It happened to be a great morning for monopoly and movies, as a wicked and unexpected thunder storm had developed outside overnight.  And anyway, we needed some downtime.  Perfect.

You just can't keep a good woman down, and amidst mumbled apologies that she "can't do much anymore" Rosa produced the yummiest Napolitan spaghetti meal that I've had since I was last in Napoli.  Complete with polpette and braciole, homemade Italian sausage and Provolone, it was Rosa's special Sunday lunch on a Thursday.  How lucky are we!!!

Later we all headed off to Jonathon and Leyla's house for a BBQ dinner.

Andrea watched the baby...

...while I watched the sausages.

 

The whole gang!

 

I'll try to get this right.  Daniel is right at the back.  He's Frank's second son.  Then left to right in the back row there's Jonathon (Frank's first son), Leyla (Jonathon's partner), Uego (Leyla's Dad), Rhonda (close family friend), Diane (Jonathon, Daniel & Anthony's Mum), Carla (Frank's daughter), Mario, and Anthony (Frank's third son).    At the front is Rosa with Sofia (Jonathon & Leyla's daughter), and our crazy gang with Frank.

 

We all had a fun night, enjoying a great meal, a few drinks and many laughs trying to work out how everyone is related!  Needless to say it was a late night once again, for young and old!