Madam and I were the last two onto the bus, and were scanning the seating options when Guitar Fred summed up the situation, motioned us into where he was sitting and proceeded to occupy the seat beside his mandolin case....
It was well and truly into the small hours by the time we’d made it back to the townhouse at Belongil, but there was no chance of sleeping in on the Sunday morning since the game plan involved hosting a typical Aussie barbeque for the band, the Hoy Rollers and whoever else had managed to wangle an invitation.
Tony had organised the catering through a local providore, and I was delegated to look after liquid refreshments. Someone had laid in supplies of various soft drinks, but you can’t do the typical Aussie barbeque without beer.
A visit to the liquor barn produced a range of boutique beers, and since I was working on the basis of boutique beers that I thought might turn out to be interesting I may have over-catered, but there was no way of telling how many people would turn up, and no way of knowing which way their liquid preferences ran.
Cheryl Payne had expressed an interest in wine, so I threw a bottle of de Bortoli Noble One into the mix for good measure. These days I probably would’ve thrown in a bottle of Clare Valley Riesling in as well, but the renaissance of Hughesy’s interest in Riesling was still a couple of years off.
Arriving back at base the caterers had delivered the food and fridge space was consequently at a premium. The town house didd not come with much in the way of insulated storage once you took the fridge out of the equation, but anyone who knows the typical Aussie barbeque would have found instances of the sink or the bathtub as a beer cooler.
The bathtub was upstairs, and the sink in the laundry wasn’t going to be big enough. Then inspiration struck.