Broken oven

Saturday:

My oven seemed to be working ok, a bit hotter than usual maybe, since the repair man came and did nothing. Until this morning, when Tim noticed the oven clock wasn't lit up. So we tried the oven, the grill, checked the powerboard outside, checked other appliances -- just the oven unit (including grill) not working. Completely dead. With Easter dinner for 14 (not including babies) to cook tomorrow and no chance of getting a repair man before then.

My menu included roast lamb with roast vegetables, garlic bread cooked in the oven, roast tomato soup, lemon tart (cooked in the oven)... I went into a bit of a panic. I knew the shops were open today so I could buy all new stuff, but catering for 14 isn't easy with just frying pans. Luckily Tim remembered we have an outdoor BBQ! We only use it a couple of times a year, but tomorrow will be one of those days! It's not one I can do a lamb roast on, unfortunately.

So I'll be off to the shops soon to stock up on meat and a pre-made dessert.

We decided not to go to the Royal Easter Show this year. It started life as an agricultural show but it's huge now; show animals, rides, sideshows, showbags, show jumping, pig races, best fruitcake, best quilt, dress made entirely of rose petals, petting zoo, alpaca wool fashion show, motorbike trick riding, giant robot dinosaur that eats cars, fireworks, more rides, food pavilion with lots of tastings, cooking demonstrations, shearing demonstrations... it's fun but exhausting. I now understand why my mum would only take us every second year - and it was a lot smaller then! Anyway, instead last weekend we went to a little "family show" with my brother-in-law's family, it's in competition with the Easter Show and apparently isn't allowed to use "Easter" in the title after a fight with the big Show; it was tiny and mostly sideshows unfortunately but there was a petting zoo and a Lego exhibition and a little circus so it was an ok day. I'm kind of wavering a bit about still going to the real Show, no one else cares but I still have happy memories of it.

It is school holidays, I took the kids to see Beauty and the Beast last week, it was pretty good. We've been having lots of treats, I think I've put on a kilogram and it's not even Easter yet. The Easter bunny is usually pretty generous in this house!