Untitled-in-sydney

So Christmas has come and gone for another year and although the weather here wasn’t quite good enough for the famed “prawn on a barbie” we did a quick swim and 10 minutes or so on the beach before the wind picked up again and sent our part of 9 back into the apartment and the tender embrace of alcohol and later, turkey and albeit non-traditional trimmings.

Initially Gillian and I had planned on a quiet affair after a few years of large family gatherings (we love you all, but…).  As it turned out we had 7 extra bodies and a lovely day.  It was nice to be surrounded by friends that we’ve made since arriving here in the country.  The guests brought the wine, cheese and sundry other items and we provided the bird and bits so it was something of a collaborative effort which all worked out very nicely.

We both had boxing day off but were back at work on the following day (though I did documentation from home).  Friday saw the water cylinder replaced as discussed elsewhere and then we met Matthew and Romi at the airport after flying up from Melbourne.  Tomorrow we’re all off down south for Michele’s 40^th on the weekend.

New Year’s eve saw us in town at Sarah and Greg’s for drinkies, dinner and fireworks watching.  That all went  very smoothly, though Sarah spent Boxing Day in hospital after nearly detaching her finger in a food processor related incident (it’s still a mystery quite how it happened), but 90 minutes in surgery and a fat bandage and things are as well as can be expected.  They have an apartment that they let out in a building around the corner from their current home and as a result have roof access.  We all trotted up there to have a first class view of the fireworks without suffering the great unwashed masses at the harbour, botanical gardens or elsewhere.

So, our first Sydney fireworks which were everything that I’d heard about and then New year’s day rolled past in a languid manner before heading back to work for today only.