Merry Christmas Everyone!
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It's the Christmas long weekend here in Brisbane, Australia. Woo hoo! Everything is moving towards the big day. I am happy to report that I have found my Christmas mojo & that all preparations are taking shape. Yesterday after dropping Gabriella off to work, I went on a shoppping frenzy. I swear I didn't mean to!
First, I called into Milton Road 'Officeworks'. I had hoped to get some wedding photos printed for my parents-in-law, but no such luck. That kind of job at this time of year was going to take until next Thursday. Anyway, I replenished the stationery supplies & bought some more photo storage boxes (the photo project is going really well - you can see the floor again). I'm convinced that some people don't become teachers because of the students. They become teachers so that they have an excuse to go stationery drooling. I do like the kids but I'll admit also that I have a gene for collecting biros, paper & envelopes. LOL
Next stop was to buy milk for my morning coffee (Gabs had used the last on her cereal). Well! This was my undoing. I thought to myself that while I was in the area that I would walk down the hill & pay the paper bill. That done, I thought (what was I thinking? By then I was on autopilot - a woman on a mission 3 days before Christmas) I may as well walk a bit further & also pay the swimming pool repairs bill. You know how the story goes ... One thing led to another. The trip that was supposed to take 20 minutes lasted from just after 9am until somewhere around 7pm.
I got photos printed at my local Kodak Express store, bought my sister-in-law, Jo, yet another Christmas gift (have you noticed that there are people who you could buy 50 things for quite easily whilst there are others you cannot for the life of you think of a single thing? Jo falls into the first category; & so does my sister, Lisa. I have gifts organised for Lisa just about until her 80th birthday), walked back up the hill & discovered that the rather cute 'Paddington Gifts' shop has moved into our local area (woohoo) & so I 'splurged' (we have monetary embargo, for the want of a term, on gift giving of $20AU per person). I am up-to-date with gift purchases. I even managed to buy a star for the tree. I have everyone's Christmas gift organised now, except Paul's - Diana & I bought him the same thing, so I will have to think again. Oh wait! He has me. What more could he want?
The day didn't end there. By that stage it was just after 3pm. Paul rang to say that he was officially on his 10 day break & asked me where I was & what I was doing. Could I tell him that I was currently stuffing my face with ... you don't want to know. I pretend I don't eat that kind of junk food. I told him that I was out spending his fortune and mine. He told me he was on the way to rescue the visa card from exhaustion. Too late! It was extinct.
Friday nights have become 'Pig & Whistle Night', that is, we go to an English style pub up at Indooroopilly for dinner. We call it 'whistling'. Before Gabriella came home from Austria, Paul & I fell into the habit of eating fish & chips for Friday evening dinner. It was easy tea & healthy for Paul from the aspect of his late-in-the-week tiredness. However, he's on a health kick & Gabriella doesn't like them so we had to abandon that & organise something else. I don't know how whistling came about, but we are now so well known there that the waitress (what's the politically correct term these days?) gets us a glass of red, hands over the menus & leaves us to it for half an hour to catch up on the day or week's news. She knows us so well that she knows what we like & don't like on the menu & suggests what to try on what we've previously enjoyed. She also knows to tell me 'no' if I order 2 courses. I never eat the second, so why waste their time & our money. Last week I so wanted oysters that the salmon was abandonned. Silly me.
So, we went whistling last night. We were four of us: Paul & I, Gabriella & Will. Nothing like turning up to eat dinner at 4pm (hey so what? It's Christmas & we got a carpark spot at Indooroopilly - a miracle!). It meant that we could come home early so that Gabriella could get some sleep before she went to work this morning.
And so it's Saturday. I'm going on a cleaning spree (chucking out all that's left on the floor from 'the photo project' - it's all packed away to come out & be scanned etc bit by bit) this morning when I leave here & then this afternoon Paul & I are popping two doors down the cul-de-sac to have Chrissy drinks with the neighbours. This is the first time I have EVER done that at Christmas. After that I will be suitably cheery that making gingerbread men will be a fun exercise.
I hope you have a happy & holy Christams, dear reader.
Bliss
posted by Felicity | 5:19 am
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