The Baynhams

We got a very unusual Christmas present this year. Instead of a "thing" we were given a book and a receipt. The book was all about the life of a famous Australian artist called William Dobell. The unexpected twist was that he lived down the road from our house and his home has been preserved since he died in 1970 by a group of volunteers. We had been given a voucher for our entry to the house any weekend in January. There was some smallprint though. The admission was only valid if we brought Anne with us, the friend who gave us the gift!

There is a long rambling story about our morning leading up to our trip to Dobell house. I'm blogging it here for us to look back on and laugh in the future so go have a cuppa and come back to read again in an hour if you just want to know about the cultural part of the day.... You're still here? Sucker for punishment. Here goes...

We went today and decided to go for lunch first. We found a very nice looking cafe with modern tables and umbrellas outside. It looked quite trendy and had a chalkboard menu that was just lists of words run together like egg, ham, toasted, open, melt etc. We could barely make out what anything actually was or what prices things were. Overall our impressions were of a hip and trendy kind of cafe. We wandered inside to get a table and we couldn't have been more surprised. The cafe was being run by a couple that were easily in their 60's. The man was busy in the kitchen and the woman was taking orders on a little paper pad. The inside was quite old fashioned (in a nice way) It had plaster moulding around the walls, original flooring, 70's style coffee table next to a modern sofa and a gathering of small cafe tables and chairs.

We took our seat and waited. When the lady took our order she basically told us all the possible ingredients, asked us which we liked the sound of and then told us what she was going to make us. We had no idea of cost and not much point asking from what we could see. Anne commented on how lovely and cool it was inside compared to the scorcher of a day outside. The woman said it was all thanks to her ceiling fan, then walked away and turned it off?! We were left wondering if Anne's comment had been misinterpreted as the fan being too cool?

As we waited for the lunch and coffees Anne moved her chair a little and it promptly collapsed on the ground leaving Anne looking at the ceiling from her new position on her back on the cafe floor. We got a fright and jumped to help her but luckily she was fine. The man came to see if Anne was ok, got her a new chair and went away back to the kitchen. We were discussing what a bizarre morning we were having and laughed it off.

Finally after an hour of waiting 5 of the 6 lunches came out. They were so tiny we all dropped our chins on the table and had to stifle laughter. My breakfast muffin with egg, ham and wilted spinach looked about the size of a small cookie. When she asked if I wanted a knife and fork I wanted to say it would be easier to pop it in my mouth in one go! It tasted delicious and I really wasn't complaining because I wasn't starving. Anne's and the kids lunches were equally simple, tasty but wouldn't leave you stuffed! We all finished our lunches but poor Byron was still sitting waiting for his. When he was close to getting up and leaving the lady came across to serve him. I was so glad he had his back to the kitchen because you can read Byron's face like a book and I was laughing at what I was reading!

When we went to pay they said that they only took cash. We only had a card. When Byron seemed surprised that they didn't have a modern till with a swipe machine he asked the lady where the nearest money ATM machine was (Surely a frequent question if they only took cash) She looked at Byron, shrugged and said she had no idea...

Poor Anne had to rescue us with cash she had in her wallet which Byron really felt bad for because she was already treating us to the Dobell house trip. Anne just laughed at him and said she had always planned on paying as it was part of the Christmas present.

We left the cafe laughing and talking about how the lunch would be one we would remember for a very long time! The funny thing is that the couple looked like they were so busy. Even though they were really slow they had faces that looked like they were trying to juggle many tasks and we could imagine them putting their feet up at the end of the day and chatting about how they had been run off their feet!

Now I'm going for a cuppa myself and will be back with part two: The batty old volunteer ladies who couldn't work out our pre paid entry voucher and the wonderful trip into the life of William Dobell...