Leon and the Century Egg

Lovely day today in some unexpected hot sunshine, fresh red AURORA tomatoes gleaming in the salad, if slightly mushily, Steve showing my how to clip the car seat into the car, which I achieved albeit clumsily (...if a baby had been sitting in it, it would have had its small face crushed against the nylon fabric of the seatback), and the titular new arrival - Sir Leon of Cadwallader, fresh from the steaming lakes of the North Island, affable and latterly tired, having uncranked his limbs from an overnight jumbo, spending shaded time in repose with a bottle of wifebeater.

There's always a changing clan around at our place, when the family came over, but the great thing is that they're always nice and they're always friendly. This time we had Leon, Pat - memorable in a tartan-reversible - and the whole of the Khoo-Giles pod (Charlotte, Steve, Ava and Sharon - Ava mischievous, sniffing lavender and padding around on slightly stiff stilt-like legs - she has trouble negotiating stairs but has become mobile incredibly quickly). To my delight Sharon had made good on her promise to treat me to a Century Egg, a vile-looking fermented egg with a black albumen and a sticky, grey, melting, oyster-like yolk. It smelt repulsive, like some decaying fish, but slipped down easily with a sliver of pickled ginger. Apparently it will either elongate or dessicate the penis depending on the flavour of the moon.

The Century Egg is a Chinese delicacy. Chinese traditions always loom large when the clan come over, and today was no exception - I stumbled into half a conversation about the Chinese lunar calendar and learnt that our baby's going to be born into month 7, the month of Hungry Ghosts. This seemed to be an altogether bad thing. All I know is that it clashes with the Oval Test - something which will surely see me howling like a rudderless banshee.

Took some photos too with a black and white film camera, museum piece, my Praktika hierloom - thanks dad! I bought loads of black and white film to take some lovely arty soft-focus (out of focus?) shots of Rach and Manuel, but I'm in the habit now of rushing through the reels because the urge to get them quickly developed and rip open the photo wallet is almost unbearable. Hopefully I can stop myself taking five 'atmospheric' pictures of the net curtains 'just to use up the film' this time round, though.