Christmas Day

We all ventured out on Christmas Eve for a meal at a favorite Malaysian restaurant here in Melbourne. It was fine, but they have changed their Chicken Curry recipe and we think we prefer the older one! Christmas Eve was spent enjoying the Carols on TV. The two children, Charli and James slipped off to bed leaving Santa some milk and bikkies and some water for the reindeer!

The kids did not wake early!

It was about 8 am when Charli emerged with a look of gleeful dismay on her face at the range of gifts Santa had left. She had a quick ride on her new bike, then a quick scoot on her new scooter before delving into her Santa Sack to retrieve everything she could.

Dad (Arj) then put the new doll's house together. He was a study of concentration as he carefully followed the instructions so the 25 included wooden pieces fitted together to create the new Doll's House. Some nerves were tested as the product slowly but surely reached completion.

James actually had to be woken after 8 am but he soon was fully active checking out his Santa Sack as well. This checking out is a big deal when you are only two and the Santa Sack is so full! But he managed OK!

Nanna was put to work putting the train set together for James. There were great looks of glee and surprise on all faces as the morning progressed!

Christmas Day had got off to a great start.

Funeral Update

After some discussion the funeral for Trish's eldest brother who passed away on Wednesday morning will be conducted at 10:30 am on Thursday December 31st in Nelson Bay. It is over 1000kms to Nelson Bay from Kate's home in Melbourne so it will require an overnight stop for us as we drive up.

At this stage we are hoping to make a quick visit to Canberra to visit my uncle who is now in his mid 80's. This will mean we will need to leave Melbourne Tuesday morning and drive about 650k's and stay overnight possibly at Yass. The next morning we will drive the final 70k's into Canberra for the quick visit. Then it is another 450+k's to Newcastle where we will stay if possible with friends Michael and Janet on Wednesday Dec 30th.

We would then hope to spend two further nights with Michael and Janet in Newcastle before setting off for another 1000k's back to Caloundra.

Great Night Out Soured By Sad News.

Last night we caught up with good friends for our annual Christmas get together. The ladies share the meal preparation and the venue is rotated from year to year. This year it was a June and Keith's turn in Berwick so it meant this time we did not have to travel far. We had plenty to eat, heaps of laughs, enough to drink and exchanged Christmas Gifts Kris Kringle style. We seem to start a little earlier these days which allows us to finish a little earlier. We don't seem to drink as much as we used to either. This means we either have more sense nowadays or we are growing older!

We arrived back home at Kate's place well before midnight.

One of the reasons for driving down to Melbourne this time was so we could visit Trish's eldest brother Bevan in Nelson Bay. Bevan has been suffering from Parkinson's these last 10 years or so but only recently he started to deteriorate quickly. He is 75 years of age and is in full care.

Another of Trish's brothers, Billy, rang last night at about 8 pm to say Bevan had suffered a turn for the worse. Bevan passed away at about 1 am this morning.

At this stage no arrangements have been announced so all our plans for our trip here to Melbourne are in limbo. We will just have to wait and see.

Christmas Day Approaches

Days have been reasonably quiet while here in Melbourne. Some of the time has been spent keeping an eye on the grand kids while last minute shopping is being completed. The Cricket has been on TV too so I have been occupied. I bought myself a 500GB external USB powered disk drive which I have 'set up' to be my new place to keep movies for the Media Player. It has taken some time but all is up to date now.

The internet connection has had a battering, this morning I downloaded 6 movies in just an hour and a half!

We had our family Christmas get together on Sunday here at Kate's. Our three kids and their families (where appropriate as Kim doesn't have kids) were all there along with my brother's wife Jeanette. Presents were exchanged and there were shouts of glee from those receiving them. James (seen here) is just 2 years old and really enjoys presents. We enjoyed a great meal consisting of baked fish, ham, prawns, chicken and salads. Everyone brought some food offerings and we had a sumptuous feast.

Monday night saw us head out to friends of Kate and Arj's home for a BBQ. Her parents were there too so the oldies sat and chatted while the young ones cooked, prepared and cleaned up! Spicy chicken, prawns, salmon and good old sausages were there as well as several salads. It was a sumptuous feast yet again!

Tonight it out for a meal with other friends and Wednesday night we will see our daughter Kim for a meal at St Kilda. Kim is heading to Thailand for her Christmas hols and won't be here Christmas Day.

I must contact Tony back home to see how all is there. Tony is keeping an eye on 13 Kilbride for us.

The weather is warming up at last and 36 is expected here tomorrow. Today will be about 26 while Christmas Day looks like being "Clearing Showers" and about 20.

In Melbourne

According to my car trip meter it is 1866k's from our home to the home of our daughter in Melbourne. Trish and I did 900k's the first day and the rest on day 2.

We left Caloundra just before 5 am on Wednesday and arrived in Gilgandra 900k's away after 10 hours travel. The temperature on arrival was 40 degrees with a stinking hot wind blowing. The motel room had a new air conditioner fitted a few weeks earlier. The air con was effective and quiet. We enjoyed a meal at the local bowls club. Because of daylight saving we 'lost' an hour after crossing the border into NSW. We were on our way the next morning at about 5:40 am. The temperature was still 28 degrees at that time of the morning.

As the trip continued the temperature continued to rise until it peaked at 42 degrees. The car and its climate control worked perfectly all the way. We stopped for a bite to eat for lunch at 40 degrees just south of Wangaratta which is in northern Victoria.

We arrived in Melbourne three hours later where the temperature was 20 degrees and heavy rain was falling, the cool change had arrived. It wasn't much fun battling the peak hour traffic and wet weather through the suburbs. We collected Trish's car from where she had parked it in St Kilda the week before and through stop start freeway traffic eventually arrived our destination at about 5:30pm.

Some quick observations, the grandkids have grown, the tap water is cold and it is strange to again be wearing track suit trousers first thing in the morning. There is a chill in the air when you put your head outside first thing in the morning!