Christmas breakup party

from w
Today the party started at Eastern Park barbecue shed about midday and it's still going in our house with the kava drinkers and it's 9.30 p.m.. This is the windup for the year of our Fiji Geelong Friendship Club and we had about fifty people come along and share in a cooked pig, barbecued chicken, sausages, salads, fruit, trifle, cakes and drinks, and there were games of cricket. We shared the large barbecue shed with two other families. There were numerous groups of people throughout the park today. Twelve-year-old Andrew went there at 10 a.m. to 'book' our site/barbecue and tables adn was able to turn away some potential picnickers. Fortunately the weather was fine and hot though the forecast was for stormy weather in the afternoon.

Birthday Party

from w
With three birthdays in the family in one week we decided to make our Fiji Geelong Friendship Club night a bit of a party. The boys made a lovo - an underground oven in the backyard with lots of pork, lamb, chicken, dalo etc. and after two hours took it out. Visitors also brought pots of delicious food so it was a good dinner with about forty guests. There was the usual kava drinking too. A noisy night with children playing but the teenagers were in another room playing with an X box whatever that is.

At a party last night

from w
We have a group here we call the Fiji Geelong Friendship Club - been going about twenty years now, and we meet mainly on Friday nights, once a fortnight or sometimes for a barbecue in a park.Generally there is a bowl of Fiji kava to drink, and plenty of food and story-telling. We have several newcomers to our region from Fiji, mainly young people, so instead of being a group of 'older people' as it once was, now our group is livelier with small children around. Last night we met in the home of a Levuka young woman and it was a good night. Here are some photos. (Next task is to update our Fiji Geelong Friendship Club website after Billy from Bombay interfered with the password before departing!)

Fiji Geelong Friendship Club

from w
Yesterday the Fiji Geelong Friendship Club had a farewell party for two of our members who are leaving us to go up and live in Queensland. Sad to see them go but that's life, coming and going of friends. We met in the home of Ninietta and Joe Cordone for a lovely afternoon of kava drinking, singing songs of the islands with guitars and a ukelele, telling stories and having a delicious meal which included a barbecue. We will miss the friendship of Ken and Selai very much. Here are a few photos of folk who were there. I was dosed up with a painkiller tablet wkhich made me sleepy but I managed five hours of partying. Our club has been going now for nearly twenty-eight years and started about the same time as the Pako Festa, Geelong's annual ethnic festival. We do have a website but haven't updated it for years because Billy of Bombay (Mumbai) offered to update it, changed the password then disappeared. Guess we have to somehow get another password. Our group meets on every second Friday evening and at other times for kava, meals, sharing with one another, helping people out in various ways.