That time I had dinner with Thomas Keneally

I wouldn’t normally bore you with the details of our date night because they are not really very exciting. Just parents trying to get out and connect and remember who we were before we became parents and for us we don’t do it nearly often enough. Hubby and I had the opportunity to go out for dinner tonight while the kids were with my folks so we raced out the door quicker than Road Runner in case they changed their minds. We went to a beautiful restaurant called The Waterhouse in Huskisson. It was really great and as I always do I had looked up their menu and decided on my dessert before we even got there! I don’t know about you, but if there is nothing on the dessert menu I like there would need to be something else spectacular on the menu for me to consider it an option as a night out because dessert is my favourite thing!

Well perhaps the only other place I would have considered is House of Guangzhou which is probably the best Chinese I have ever had! They do the most amazing salt & pepper bean curd dish you have ever tasted! It is seriously worth the drive from Sydney for this alone.

I had settled on The Waterhouse and Hubby was happy to just be going out for dinner with me so would go anywhere! We didn’t have a booking and took a chance but I would suggest that you do book because even on a cold, rainy night on the South Coast it was full, well inside was. We could have had our pick of tables outside with heaters and they also provide blankets to keep you warm! Inside the atmosphere was really lovely. There were bench seating all the way around the walls with the most divine cushions to fall into (guess which side of the table I sat on!) with the open kitchen in the middle of the room, bar down one side and at the back a casual dining area where you can sit on the most amazing oversized leather lounge with more fantastic cushions and an awesome fireplace! There is also an outdoor area at the back too which is where the smokers seemed to disappear to.

The menu was great offering something for everyone and is regularly changed I am told by my folks. There was a huge drinks selection if that is your thing but I was excited because they did a great chai latte (I know I am an absolute rager!). We had entrees to share while we sat in the casual dining area waiting for a table in the restaurant to become available. We were comfy and happy to stay where we were but I have to say I am super glad we did move when offered a different table.

Dessert was absolutely AMAZING! I ordered a fantastic chocolate platter there was chocolate mousse, chocolate ice cream and the most divine chocolate fudge cake! It was meant to be decorated with candied orange but I saw the persian fairy floss that was on another dessert and as I am not a fan of candied orange asked for the fairy floss instead. The waitress was great and said that is what she does too!
Hubby had Coffee & Doughnuts which was the smoothest coffee panna cotta topped with vanilla foam and two beautiful doughballs rolled in cinnamon sugar. Being the best bloke Hubby knew that he would be going halves in his dessert with me so it was only fair I shared mine (minus all the fairy floss!)

While we were relaxing back on the cushions people watching and I was generally eavesdropping around the restaurant (my super power is super sonic hearing!) We were trying to work out if the people sitting next to us in the casual section were couples or not. And then I was trying to work out if the family sitting next to us with four daughters had two sets of twins one id set and one frat set or if they were all close in age. Just then hubby says to me honey, is that Thomas Keneally? I reached for my glasses because well anything further than about two foot away and I am blind as a bat, only I didn’t have them with me because no licence means no need to see at night because no driving! We called over our waitress and asked her and she wasn’t sure but would do her best to find out but we also had to explain who he was to her lol. Though once we said Schindler’s List she did know.

Cue fangirl moment it was totally Thomas Keneally. He and his party were getting ready to leave so it was my now or never moment I grabbed my phone raced over and nearly bowled him over as I gushed about how wonderful I thought he was and could I get a photo with him! He was so lovely and obliging. His wife Judy dusted all crumbs off him as he introduced me to his family, they were out celebrating his granddaughter’s 14th birthday. His daughter Meg took the photo for us, he was such a gentleman asking if he could put his arm around my waist for the photo and he joked with his lovely wife that see he still had young girls chasing him, she laughed and said something a wife would say to her husband!

Thomas and I

As we walked towards the door and I back to Hubby we got talking about my favourite novel of his which is The Tyrant’s Novel. Meg is daughter said that hers is A Victim of the Aurora one from the ’70s. I told him I studied The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith at school and he apologised for that we all had a laugh about the fact that a friend of Meg’s at school wrote an essay about The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith and spent time discussing the book with Thomas and failed! Funny how that works sometimes. We had a great old chat and honestly he was so super lovely as were the rest of the family. We could have chatted for ages except that part of the family had the car running ready to go!

Meg and Thomas have recently released a book they co-authored called The Soldier’s Curse. I apologised to Meg for not realising that she was an author she laughed and said it is fine really I haven’t written anything like well Schindler’s List. And just like that my fangirl moment was over.

I doubt our next date night will top this! Well unless we head up to the Bowral local and run into Jimmy Barnes or Peter Garrett like my brother did recently all three of them drink at the same local pub! Though unlike me my brother played it much cooler and didn’t fanboy either of them as much as he would have liked to I am sure given he would be hard pressed to decided who was more favourite Oils or Chisel for him. Though apparently it is not cool at all to fanboy the locals when you are also a local, he often sees Peter because he lives just around the corner from my brother!

Hope you had a great Saturday night!

Kit xoxo