I awoke at six to the sound of Tiki accusing me of hogging the bed. Tiki brought me breakfast in bed to eat whilst she showered. We were lying in bed, with me tickling her back, when “Mum” rang to say that “Dad” was on his way here to finish erecting the side fence.
By eight o’clock we had begun to nail on those palings that remained. Our progress on this almost perfect sunny day was, however, impeded by an entanglement of roots which, we decided, had to be cut through. Tiki observed and encouraged us in this endeavour.
Our neighbour’s young son came across and informed us that while he liked the fence, his father did not. It seems that the lengths of steel pipe, which we used as posts, are, from their perspective, noticeably of differing heights. Due to the fact that his father had done so little to help, word of this criticism really irked us.
We adjourned for lunch just after noon during which time I watched Demis Roussos in the hope that he would sing his hit of 1975, “Happy To Be On An Island In The Sun”. However, he did not. In fact, the huge, bearded Greek who was dressed in a white caftan, sang only one, instantly forgettable number.
“Dad” and I joined the fence at right angles to the end of our garage and it stood in its completed form by ten minutes to three. He left for home to shower and change his clothes because Tiki and I had agreed, between ourselves, that we should take he and “Mum” to K’s Snapper Inn for dinner.
We arrived at their place at twenty-five minutes to four, just before friends of the family came to look at the new tiles and cupboards in their kitchen. Once we finally managed to leave, I drove to Tania Park on Dobroyd Point in the now chilly, windy conditions to show the pair the view of Manly, the city’s centre, South Head etcetera. We passed the clock tower above Manly Wharf at twenty minutes to six and parked in the car park in Wentworth Street.
Upon entering the already busy restaurant we were seated near the cutlery draws as well as the toilets. This wasn’t going to dampen my evening and so I ordered Tasmanian scallops as an entree and joined Tiki in ordering a whole lobster mornay, at a cost of eight dollars, for the main course. This was followed by my usual pavlova and ice-cream for dessert.
The four of us consumed half a litre each of the restaurant’s house wine. The bill totalled forty-eight dollars and forty cents, which Tiki and I paid in full.
I walked outside while the others were in the toilets and happened upon a former schoolmate, who conveyed to me the result of today’s trifecta: “Tricman”, “Jester Boy” and “Little Ben”; which had paid approximately one thousand eight hundred dollars. We hadn’t had a chance to lodge our entry and had, therefore, saved a dollar. He concurred that the pop music of today is, in general, rubbish.
After the four of us had walked up and down The Corso and departed for home, “Dad’s” flatulence became all too much when the pungent smell of rotten-egg gas pervaded our nostrils. We feverishly wound down the windows simultaneously before all-out pandemonic uproar could gain the upper hand.
I returned us to Tania Park so that the four of us could gaze upon the lights by night before we made our way back to Tiki’s parents’ via the Cahill Expressway and the foreshore of Botany Bay. “Dad” kept stirring “Mum” about her haemorrhoids although the pair did take time out from this to express just how they had really enjoyed themselves.
We arrived at their place by nine o’clock and on Channel Two, from twenty-three minutes past the hour, watched the film, “Hauser’s Memory”, from 1970. It stars the Scottish actor, David “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”/”The Invisible Man” McCallum and Susan Strasberg. A scientist injects himself with another man’s cerebral fluid, thereby enabling himself to relive the man’s experiences from the Second World War. To be honest, the movie didn’t impress me!
It was eleven o’clock before we left for our own abode. Although I felt tired, it was to take me until after midnight to fall asleep.