Our monthly youth events this year have all been extremely enjoyable, but if I name all of them you all might want to move here, and since there’s sooo little space in WA, I will only mention the three most recent ones.
Cake decorating night
After church and young people’s, we all made our way to the Payet’s house where we enjoyed chatting and participating in a conversation starter game. Once Sabbath had closed and we had eaten tea, we were separated into teams of two, and then the real fun began! We had a choice between twenty round cakes, which Jade made, and some square, shop-bought sponge cakes. You can guess which ones got taken first. (Jade’s). Once we had chosen our cakes and decorations, each team found a spot either on the kitchen bench or the table and got to work.
I will take you on a tour of the Payet’s kitchen and dining room. First, we have Team Johnny and Emma crumb coating their cake with black icing! Upon realising that this is not a good idea, and that they don’t want their cake to look like a mud puddle with sand sprinkled on it, they opt for a quick fix and cover it with fondant. In the meantime, we have moved on to Team Luke and Kieran at the table and witness some expert plastering being done by Luke. Moving to our right and we see Team Josiah and Cyrus kneading a very suspicious looking lump of green fondant. We are informed that ‘’it’s going to be a frog’’ and withdraw our suspicion. Next up is team Chloe and Isaac artistically placing gold leaf on their cake in the shape of a crescent moon. Next to them is Team Hannah and Jhana, who while attempting to artistically place silver leaf on the sides of their cake, make a permanent addition to the Payet’s dining room table. (We were informed that it needed a sand any ways. It’s still there though.) We move past this team and see Janina and Imogen, whose cakes are definitely not lacking in decorations. Now we are back at team Luke and Kieran. The plastering completed and a layer of fondant over the cake, Kieran is decorating it with gel pens. Not wanting to squeeze past everyone around the table again, and seeing interesting happenings in the kitchen, we return to team Johnny and Emma. They have now given up trying to cover their mistakes and are decorating the wrinkly fondant with bronze dust. While this is happening, Jade realises that she hasn’t made a cake yet, and due to the deceptiveness of a food colouring bottle, dyes some fondant red instead of black. Taking the comment that it looks like a heart as a suggestion, Johnny and Emma insert it into their cake by a skillful, but gruesome operation and announce it “perfect!’’ They then turn it into a message about mental health. (Consult the picture for details) We now turn back to the table, where Hannah is attempting to create a flower, at Luke’s suggestion, on the unadorned top of our cake. Luke and Kieran are making the finishing touches to their cake and Josiah and Cyrus’s frog is looking quite realistic. Chloe and Isaac have finished their cake ages ago and are already cleaning up. Ooops, due to all this excitement I’ve forgotten about Team Jacques and Michelle. They have made a turtle cake. I’m not sure how the making of it went because there was so little drama involved. Once we had cleaned up as much as possible, we lined up our cakes for a picture. And since it was Jade’s birthday the next day, we were all about to sing her Happy Birthday. Then Johnny appeared with their lovely cake, adorned with candles. Jade answered the question on the cake and blew out all the candles except one! We had questions.
Now that all the cakes are lined up, let’s review them. Team Chloe and Isaac were doomed from the start to have the fanciest looking cake. Team Johnny and Emma on the other hand won the grossness award. Luke and Kieran have the most fascinating cake and Josiah and Cyrus the coolest. I have to say that Jade’s is the prettiest along with mine and Hannah’s. (no vanity here) Team Jacques and Michelle’s is the most, umm, not cake looking and Janina and Imogen’s the most sparkly. All the credit for this event goes to our amazing youth leaders! Also, a big thank you to the Payet’s for hosting this event, and for putting up with the destruction left behind.
Youth Social
For this event we were promised a fire and lots of mosquitoes. Who wouldn’t want to go? Just kidding, Jade’s cooking was incentive enough. With the usual Sabbath program ended we took a walk along a creek and then headed to the Kneebones’ house where the social would be held. Upon arriving we all duly admired Josiah’s nicely mowed lawn and set up our camping chairs. Once we had set up and sung for a while the sun had set and we closed Sabbath. While we waited for the food to be warmed up, the fire was lit and we, naturally, formed a circle around it. After we had eaten, Chloe, who had promised games, produced a pack of cards, and we were all required to choose one. Written on the back of these cards was a question about ourselves which we had to answer.
At this time Luke and Jade’s neighbour had joined us, so we each said our full name, how we were feeling, and answered the question on the card. A lot of us hadn’t heard each other’s middle names before, and there was considerable amusement when we heard some of the stories behind them. Once we had answered the questions and couldn’t laugh any more, we handed the cards back. While doing this we were warned to be careful with them, as they were borrowed. Unfortunately, as one was being passed to Chloe it fell into the fire! While most of us were gasping with horror, Luke saved the day, um, night and snatched it from the flames. The problem was that it was already half burnt and not much use other than proof that we hadn’t stolen it.
After things had wound down and some people had left, we all began to tell of our most embarrassing moments. Some of us had quite spectacular ones, while others, including myself, had only minor things, like being accused of stealing sheet music. While one of our number, vowing not to tell their most embarrassing moment, was compelled to tell it by peer pressure and a campfire, both of which were very compelling. By this time, it was close to ten, so we all thanked Jade and Luke and headed home.
Sushi making day
This is how I believe this event came about. Jade, Johnny and Chloe, the Guildford youth leaders, receive word that that Sabbath lunch is being disturbed by Dina’s cries of misery when she realises that Jacques, yet again, hasn’t brought any sushi. Realising that neglecting to address this problem may end in disaster they hatch a plan which was probably intended to cure us of loving sushi once and for all (it didn’t work).
Jacques Payet, being the resident sushi expert, and not having learnt from the cake night, kindly agreed to host this event. We were told to arrive sometime between nine and ten, so naturally, most of us arrived near ten thirty. (Indefinite time setting will always have its consequences) Jacques started with how to prepare the rice. Probably the only thing most of us will remember is how much sugar was in it and Jacques’ admonitions of “Don’t bruise the rice,” “Be gentle to the rice,” “Treat the rice with love and respect.” Fortunately for us using half the sugar was acceptable. Unfortunately for the rice, our “love and respect” was not quite up to Jacques’ level. After Jacques had demonstrated how to roll the sushi, we prepared our ingredients and had a try ourselves. Be informed that eating the equivalent of half a tofu block and half a cucumber in fillings is not conducive to a raving appetite at lunch time. (Surprise! Surprise!) The rice ran out before everyone had a go, so we all played a game of Articulate while waiting for some more to cook.
During the extremely long game that ensued which involved more yelling than I would like to mention, Jacques and some others made the rest of the sushi and observed from the safe distance of the kitchen. Fortunately for our stomachs a team had won by the time all the sushi was made.
Once we had gathered around the kitchen Jacques demonstrated how to cut the sushi, which can either be done with a cutting frame or freehand. The frame seems to have been more well used, as the freehand sample ended up being in some interesting proportions. Then it was time to eat!
I can safely report to our youth leaders that this event was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone involved and that our love of sushi will probably need a little more curing. A big thank you to Jacques for teaching us, and for putting up with the aspects of our sushi making that must have hurt his soul.
~Jhana Lausevic