ON A LIGHTER NOTE...

Ramada Reef Resort, Palm Cove...Resort's Swimming Pool

Foreshore...Palm Cove

Ramada Reef Resort

Palm Cove...View across esplanade....in front of Ramada Reef Resort

Me holding court upon a table at a party with some of my Ramada co-workers!  Dancing on tables, not ceilings was my "thing" at the time!  My party trick! 

Top pic with some of my Ramada co-workers...bottom pic...me cooking dinner at my unit for guests over the Christmas/New Year period described below

Andrea (minus shirt) and some ofmy co-workers who were guests for Christmas lunch/dinner at my unit...and me...once again table-top dancing...I missed my true calling!

Same Christmas lunch...afternoon dining....after having spent the morning at Ramada Reef Resort being Santa's helper, handing out gifts to the guests etc.  The young lass in the front and her partly hidden partner to her left were also my guests for Christmas dinner...they were from Italy...visiting Australia.  Andrea ran into them in Cairns...and I extended the invitation for them to join us all for a Christmas feast.  The fellow on the right, along with his wife, were my neighbours who lived in an adjoining unit.   (The paws in the top photo belonged to my ginger cat, Pushkin.  He was at the centre of all parties!)

On a lighter note...in perhaps a fruitless effort to take my mind off the devastating bushfires raging throughout our beautiful country...here is another tale of yore....

After I left Hinchinbrook Island in the late 80s I gained employment as Functions/Conventions Coordinator at Ramada Reef Resort, Palm Cove.  Palm Cove is a glorious northern beach suburb of Cairns in Tropical North Queensland. 

The lead-up to the Christmas/New Year season had been a busy one at the resort.  Therefore it was a busy time for me organising the many various and varied functions.  

The Sunday before Christmas Day the owners of the resort hosted a party for their lawyers, accountants, business associates and the like. 

For the special event, I decorated the large, main function room, as well as the al fresco area surrounding the resort's massive swimming pool in different, individual themes; highlighting the foods of other countries.

For example...one section was set up to reflect a French patisserie; another thrilled and teased offering Italian delights, particularly foods from Emilia-Romagna, the region from where Andrea, my then Italian amante aka lover hailed.   

I picked Andrea’s brains and passed the authentic information on to the resort’s chefs.

 

Andrea and I first met when I was manager of the resort on Hinchinbrook Island...another story...for another day....

Emilia-Romagna’s guilty secret is the invention of ravioli, tagliatelle and tortellini. Lasagne can be added to that list of guilty pleasures, too! And it would be sinful to omit the rich, tasty ragù otherwise known as Bolognese sauce? 

In Emilia-Romagna is the city of Parma, world-renowned for its prosciutto, or Parma ham.  Of course, it can not be forgotten...the area also gave its name to Parmesan cheese. 

And cop this - coppa comes from the region, too.

Not to mention (but I am)...also Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena, aka real balsamic vinegar which is created with love, skill and patience. Patience, because true balsamic vinegar made from Trebbiano grapes comes into being over a period of at least twelve years.

Modena also is well-known for generously giving us the magnificent maestro, the now late wonderful Luciano Pavarotti.  

So when you raise a glass of Sangiovese, a ruby-red wine from the Emilia-Romagna region, don’t forget to toast the region’s abundance of generous gifts.

Not forgetting our own country...and Tropical North Queensland...a bounty of local seafood graced a large area decorated with fish nets, large clam shells, and glass buoys. Even a small dinghy played its role in the table decorations. The area offered guests a wide variety of fresh, local seafood delicacies.

Next to the seafood display a wooden buffet-hutch and country-style dining tables offered typical Aussie tucker such as lamingtons, pavlovas, mini-meat pies, bite-size sweet corn fritters with a mango-chilli dipping sauce, hot dampers, bowls of tropical fruit salad, Neenish tarts and lemon meringue pies.  

With lots of sweet talking and fulfilled promises of promoting his work, I coerced a Cairns furniture-maker to loan the resort, free of charge, some of its wares for the day. It was quite a spectacular and grandiose exercise getting the furniture to and from the resort, but it was worthwhile for all concerned!

Outside on the paved courtyards, shaded by dense, verdant palms, the area had been transformed into a miniature Thailand. Thai Airlines had been very generous when I asked them for decorative pieces and large, glossy posters. Colourful paper umbrellas competed with the beauty of the lush tropical foliage surrounding the function room and resort pool. The quantity of tropical flowers and orchids Ramada hired fortnightly from a local nursery to decorate the foyer and lobby etc., was increased for the day to add to the Thai theme. Samples of Thai food were on offer as guests wandered from theme to theme.

The plant nursery came to the aid of the party, not only in supplying the orchids and tropical flowers but also in supplying halved, empty, wooden wine barrels, some of which I lined with hay and filled with bottles of red wine. Others were lined with thick, heavy-duty plastic sheeting, filled with ice to keep the champagne and white wines cold. Beer was kept icy-cold in large ice-filled eskies strategically dotted around the function area.

I even roped Andrea, my Italian amore - who liked to be called “Andrew” while visiting Australia..and me - in for the day.  He was to be paid on casual rates, to help man the eskies. Andrea spoke perfect English, with a perfectly beguiling Italian accent.

Fritz, originally from The Netherlands, who was the food and beverage manager, kindly agreed to Andrea working for the day.  It not only earned Andrea some cash, but it gave him invaluable experience in a small area of Australian hospitality and tourism.  Andrea's father, back in Milan, was a tour operator.

The “powers-that-be” were very happy with their Christmas party, as were the invited guests. It was a very successful event.

By the time, Boxing Day arrived I gratefully grabbed the day by both hands and held on tightly, as it was to be my only day off from a couple of weeks prior to Christmas until after New Year's Day.

A “No Vacancy” sign, together with “Gone Fishin” and “Do No Disturb” signs were put up on the front and back doors of my rented townhouse in Yorkeys Knob...another northern beach suburb of Cairns...a few kilometres south of Palm Cove.

Andrea took over the reins, not allowing me to lift a finger all day. Late in the afternoon, we strolled the beach hand in hand. A most pleasant surprise awaited me when we reached the southern end of the beach. Andrea insisted we sit awhile on the low sand dunes under She-Oak trees, between the beach and vacant parkland to the rear. Unknown to me when I was taking a nap earlier in the afternoon, he had driven down to the parkland and hidden an eskie filled with ice, champagne, cheese, olives, salami, cherries, apricots and crackers. In a well-sealed container were a couple of crunchy bread rolls.

Andrea, like most Italians, if not all Italians, loved bread. Bread became a staple in my household during his stays, more than it had ever been. Hardly a meal went by without bread as a main part of it.  The only time Andrea didn’t eat bread was with a pasta meal.

You can imagine my surprise when he arrived back to where I was sitting, with an eskie in his arms! I was agog as Andrea opened its lid and took out a bottle of champagne. 

He laughed at the look on my face as he handed me two glass flutes. That was one of the most thoughtful, romantic gestures anyone had/has ever done for me.

With only the mellow, calming sounds of the waves gently lapping the shore and the birds calling their final farewells as they wended their way home at day’s end, Andrea and I could have been the only people left in the world that afternoon...

To be continued...

PS...Andrea and I remain in contact to this day...He lives in Faenza...an Italian city in the province of Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, 50kms south-east of Bologna.