JoJo works her mojo

Poor Jo.  Anticipating our arrival, she'd put together an unbelievably delicious Japanese dinner.  The problem was, we weren't around to eat it.  Well, we were, but first Trav had to give me a tour of the shed, which involved serious discussion on shock absorber configuration and wheel/tyre combinations for his MX-5.  Then I was forced to sample a truly delicious Tui pale ale or two, talking bollocks all the while, then we had to have showers because we smelt like boiled foot gravy.

This all took time, so JoJo was left in the kitchen with 175000 sushi ingredients going stale, plus a bowl of okonomiyaki batter slowly solidifying while Trav and I stuffed around.   We finally settled down to the first course at around 8:30.

Trav sits down to eat, at last.

 Okonomiyaki!!

Okonomiyaki is not just a Japanese word for the financial crisis (economy yucky!), it's also a delicious savoury pancake filled with just about anything you want.  Ours were stuffed with fresh veges, smeared with ketjap manis and mayonnaise - amazing work, Jo!

Next up was DIY (Destroy It Youself) sushi with all the trimmings.  We had salmon, crab, omelette and a host of crunchy veges to stuff inside our dried seaweed sheets.  Trav and I both got very enthusiastic with the fillings, which led to him creating a sushi roll visible from space, and me accidentally giving myself a year's intake of wasabi in 3 bites.

 Sushi ingredients.

 Joe carving up her roll.

After this, we were all too sated to move, so we assisted our digestion with some post-prandial libations: scotch for me and cocktails for Trav and Jo.  To his credit, Trav also managed to imbibe a measure of scotch, but not without considerable protest.  There's no accounting for taste...

 This is how you make sure the sugar sticks to the edge of the glass.

 Mixing things up.

 Cheers!

 Trav, deeply unenthusiastic about alcohol.

Later, after a lot of laughter, we retired.

I had the best night's sleep in the spare room.  I think this was because Jo had put hotel shampoos and pillow chocolates out with my fresh, fluffy towels.  I felt very special :-)

Trav pumped out some of these babies for breakfast:

 Eggs royale a la awesome.

 Arty menu shot.

Chowing down, talking smack.

Overloaded with good food again, we got down to our final packing business.  It was time to quit poncing about and go ride some motorcycles.  Destination: the Lakes district to the southeast.

Trav was finding it difficult to get both swiss balls inside his tank bag.

Not long after, we were on the road for real.