A Good Weekend Was Had By All

Friends and Family was truly awesome.

We stopped for supplies in Hopland and visited the Phoenix Bread Company. They make an exceedingly delicious version of fougasse. We were fortunate enough to have arrived shortly after they took a beef brisket fougasse out of the oven. Their website seems to be down but I found an article that mentions the fougasse. Even half a slice was suprisingly filling.

The campsite itself is pretty much in the middle of nowhere (ideal for loud music). Situated on a hill covered in trees and a beautiful ornamental fruit garden, the site is a natural wonderland, complete with a swimming pond.

I was a ring-in judge for the Iron Chef competition on Friday night, which was much more laid back than it's TV counterpart. The food was excellent and the winner, Amber, made good use of the suprise ingredient (limes).

Tanya and I had signed up for some shifts in the kitchen on Saturday and that was heaps of fun. Tanya learnt how to make Spanish tortillas (which looked like a frittata to me) for Saturday brunch. Meanhwile I was on cleanup duty. Everyone was chatting and joking and having a great time, despite a few tortilla spillage disasters.

My dinner shift was a bit less exuberant due to a few people not showing up for their shifts. The people who did show were awesome though and we knuckled down and powered through the food prep. Dinner was even on time.

I'm toying with the idea of signing up to be the cook for a food shift next year. It's quite a challenge to feed 500 people when you're armed only with some variously skilled volunteer labour and a random assortment of kitchen gear. =]

The pre-party on Saturday night was called "Schpank" and you had to be schpanked to get service at the bar. The costumes were many and varied and there was lots of berry infused alcohol to drink (or alcholol infused berries to eat).

The rest of the night was all about the music, with DJs spinning till 10am the next day. Tanya and I lasted till about 4am before we headed back to our tent. Ear plugs saved the day (or night as it were) and we managed to get some sleep.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend and a big thankyou goes out to Matthew, Andrea and Molly who we tagged along with.