Sunday lunch with old friends, more bloody marys and yorkshire pudding

Sunday from 11am was spent at an old friend and her husband's place for lunch. There was K and J. I lived with K in my last year of law school up until I went to England with P. So from 1987 to 1991 (with one year off for good behaviour when I fell out with one of the other flatmates and moved out). J was in the year below me at law school. So I guess I have known them nearly 18 years. Another friend F was there with her husband T (they are both lawyers too) and F and I went to law school together so I have known her 20 years. V and her husband B were there and I met V when we worked at a restaurant when I was a law student and she a communications student earning extra money so I think she falls within the 19 years and finally M and her husband R (another lawyer) who I met in 88 (and shared the same house as K with her) so she falls in at around 17 years.

All except F and T (they have 3 boys) had their children there, between us we have about 11 children with another one on the way for M and R. It was a very pleasant day and there is something quite relaxing about being with people you have known that long - because there isn't much to prove anymore we all are who we are I guess. We only catch up a few times a year and except for F from day to day we have nothing to do with each other.

In the last couple of years F and I have really renewed our friendship with daily emails and regular lunches. In fact F is my new boss next week which we are looking forward to as we have worked together in the past and neither of us have these enormous egos we have encountered more regularly with men.

Got home in the afternoon and needed a kip before waking up in time for ..........you guessed it... PT making Bloody Marys again. PT and V put on a traditional roast beef with yorkshire pudding and brussel sprouts the crispest roast potatoes and sweet potato and P made a beautiful red wine gravy. The cooking odours were just gorgeous and when my sister, her son and her guest dropped in to take my son home with them, I could see she would have loved an invite but I really couldn't do it as we hadn't made enough for 3 extra people. To be fair I had asked her a few days earlier if she wanted to come over for dinner on Sunday night and she had declined saying she wanted to get her son M home to see the new house ( they have moved to Brisbane from the coast) as it was his first time living in Brisbane instead of just visiting us.

Because V is an English expatriate the roast beef dinner was the best and I have been learning from both PT and V how to prepare roasts - though I wish I had paid more attention to her making the yorkshire puddings in the traditional Gordon Ramsey manner. I put out some lovely cheeses left over from the portions I had taken earlier to Sunday lunch - there was a beautiful blue, a double brie, a spiced gouda and vintage chedddar. We also had some great reds of course a Penfolds 407 2000 and a Penfolds Chalimabar 2000 as well.

We ended the night by eating the cheese drinking red wine and playing a hilarious game of Taboo.