THURSDAY 7 JULY     PUNGALINA

The mail plane was a day early this week, due to a NT public holiday on Friday. I collected the mail and groceries from the house, and brought down the foodstuffs I needed.

John mowed the camp lawns and neatened the place up.

He refuelled our Truck – it had done 424kms since the last time.

I worked on the dinner for tonight’s guest: nibbles of nuts, olives, kabana. Made a batch of chilled cucumber soup. Made a beef stroganoff, using a recipe from my Aust Ag Co cookbook. This book was meant to be a resource for the cooks on the Company’s various stations – compiled of tried and true recipes used by previous cooks – geared quite heavily to the use of beef and the appetites of station workers. I had picked up a copy at Adels and found it really valuable, not the least because it used ingredients readily available on stations, not city type exotica.

I thought the stroganoff would be a wise choice, as I did not want to defrost the volume of meat that a chunk of roast would entail. And I couldn’t be sure of the quality of the smaller portions of “steak” if I was to try to pan fry or BBQ same. I had pasta noodles that could be cooked at the last minute, to go with the stroganoff.

Made up a platter of melon and paw paw for dessert. Set the table in the dining tent – for two. I thought John could eat with the guest and keep him company.

Our expected guest did not arrive! We waited…….and waited. Sunset came. It got very dark.

The arrangement had been a little vague, from the outset, it seemed. Went up to the house to check if W had heard anything – no. Discussed with him whether he or John should go out and check the track in, but decided that having one of the men thus occupied, for much of the night would be an over-reaction, if the man had simply changed his plans. Figured we would probably hear soon enough, if some one was missing!

Waiting around and debating about what to do, meant it was quite a late night by the time the meal makings were packed away and the place cleaned up.