Night has drawn the curtain on another Illawarra Festival of Southern Barbecue.

People came and ate. And ate. They left very little food uneaten. I didn't get to talk much with very many people, for some reason, but I'm glad they all came to have barbecue with us. This year the festival was significantly smaller, but that's probably just as well, because there wouldn't have been enough barbecue for too many more. I think I have to find a way to smoke meat more efficiently -- it nearly knocked me over to spend yesterday smoking three chickens, a pork shoulder and a rump roast. But a gen-yoo-wine smoker would cost the earth and be too big to move easily if we were to move house. Sure would like one, though. (Note to all interested in barbecue: rump is not an ideal cut to smoke. It's way, way too lean. Still, it was smoked, and it was drenched with spicy Texas-style sauce, and therefore it was barbecue.)

I really, really like cooking good food for people I care about. And those who tried the beer really liked it, which was also very fun, as we made it ourselves (more or less).

I even managed to squeak out enough words today to bump my word count just over 45,000. Which means I now have five days to write five thousand words. I think it is possible.