It had been a loooong day!

We went to Castlemaine yesterday for a HUGE auction and clearing sale. We sort of underestimated how long it would take to get to the bits we were interested in (well that Si wanted to bid for anyway) and how cranky our children would be. So it was a looooong long day in more ways than one, though not a bad day really.

On the way home we decided to splurge a little and have dinner out at the nice Chinese restaurant in town. Yes that is two Saturdays in a row we have eaten out and totally blown the budget but anyway!

The people at this restaurant are really lovely and we all love the food so we stopped in early for a quick meal of all our favorites…. home made dim sims and spring rolls, special fried rice, chicken chow mien and chili squid with 5 spice seasoning. We all chowed down until there wasn’t much left but the squid.

I am not big on chili, in fact anything even mildly spicy makes me lips swell and blister, but the chili was just chopped over the top so I carefully checked over a piece or two for hidden seeds and really enjoyed it. The girls don’t mind a bit of spiciness so we weren’t too worried when they wanted some ‘camalari‘ as they call it and just checked them over for large bits of chili and let them go to town. All was fine until the last few bits which were really REALLY covered in chili.

I did suggest that Zoe might not want anymore because it might be very HOT. Si explained about the chillies on the plate and that it might hurt her mouth. We both suggested other things she could eat…but she was insistent! SO we checked over the squid as best we could and handed it over… I figured the only way she’d really understand the ‘spicy hot’ concept and whether she liked it or not was for her to try it, so if, on the off chance, there was a bit of chili well… we’d see what happened.

She happily munched away. When we asked she admitted that yes it was a bit spicy but she liked spicy. Ok. But after she’d shoved the whole bit in her mouth, chewed and swallowed she suddenly stopped. Her eyes just about fell out of her head and she made a kind of gurgling strangled yell and whispered ‘hot mouth’.

Si passed her a drink…. I giggled.

Zoe sculled her drink of cold water, eyes still wide. Si asked her if she was ok and she squeaked out a tiny ‘no.. more drink’ and she sculled another full glass of cold water.

Meanwhile I was giggling uncontrollably.

Zoe drank 3 more glasses of water and tried wiping her lips with a damp serviette as well as eating some plain rice…. all the while he eyes were huge and a sweat had broken out across her forehead… and all the while I laughed, uncontrollably, with tears running down my cheeks.

I know… I know.. it was probably a tad mean to laugh at my own child while her mouth burned from a chili attack that she didn’t really understand. But it was funny. Her face! Her eyes! The little croaky voice.. the bead of sweet…. I was chastised by both my darling caring husband and my other daughter who gave me the evil finger of shame and told me ‘not funny!’ but I simply couldn’t stop. I was tired… I am pregnant… bugger it….. it was funny!

It’s ok, Zoe survived her brush with chili and still claims she likes it.. and I managed to pull myself together enough to pay the bill and go home… but ah… I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time!