We are way too early for picking up Bennie’s mum from the airport.

Chronic earliness is a Weir family trait, but this is much more than a sometimes unhealthy obsession with punctuality or a matter of 10, 20 or even 30 minutes.

It’s a bungle – I got the time wrong, so we left home an hour before we had originally planned.

So after going around and around a few times in the endless dance of avoiding extortionate airport parking fees, we embrace the moment, relax and head up the highway to Sunbury a ways just for a look-see.

Just past the roundabout we come across what appears to be a new and improved parking spot for those watching the planes go by – well, it seems more organised than the last time we were hereabouts.

The wind today has contrived to have planes departing in flight paths that take them right above the parking spot.

So close you feel like you can reach up and pick them out of the sky.

Whoosh!

Of equal interest to us, though, is the magnificent soft-serve ice cream vehicle and one of its slightly smaller siblings.

Interestingly, both are flying flags of Australia and Turkey.

We leave the road test for another day, upon which we will doubtless find out exactly what constitutes “soft-serve gelati” and whether, indeed, it is any different from your standard soft-serve fare usually heralded by the chiming muzak of Greensleeves arriving in our neighbourhood.

We dig the hell out of the artwork and signage on both vans, though.

Note, for instance, the image of Pinocchio getting ready to tuck into a hot dog!