Christmas and beyond...

I've survived Christmas but if I ever see another prawn again it will be too soon! Cooper had a wonderful time tearing up paper and shoving it in his mouth and, of course, being the youngest there, was made a big fuss of by his grandmothers, aunties and uncles and numerous cousins. My daughter and her partner had rigged up a couple of trestles for everyone to sit at and, as there were about 40 people, we needed most of it. The teenagers all tended to congregate in their own corner, catching up on each other's news and meeting one granddaughter's boyfriend. I felt sorry for him, meeting all of us in one hit, but he seemed to cope quite well.

Unfortunately, we didn't get the promised storm (which is the first time for years) but on Boxing Day and the next, it rained on and off - lovely soft gentle soaking rain, but not a lot fell in the dams. However we are promised more rain in a few days. Apparently, according to the weather boffins, the El Nino has peaked and we should get more rain from now on. We shall see...

Boxing Day, Oscar and I curled up together - he slept, I read and had the odd snooze and the 27th was much the same, although I did salve my conscience by doing about three hours of work. Yesterday, I braved the shopping mall and stocked up on groceries - real food like bread, cans of tuna, potatoes, onions, coffee - you get the picture. Actually I went in very early and got a carpark under cover easily, however about an hour-and-a-half later when I went to go home, people were cruising around looking for empty spaces, of which there were very few.

Today, I went to a farewell for my old boss. I used to work in a veterinary laboratory, was there for over seven years, then the family operated company was purchased by an American outfit and after having a big row with the lab manager (who was an arrogant so and so, not an American, I might add - the Americans were lovely and very courteous), I left about 18 months later. Anyway, one of the friends who were at our Christmas party earlier in December mentioned that Richard (my ex-boss, the chief pathologist for Queensland) was going to England to work in the Yorkshire branch of the company for a couple of years. They had a farewell for Richard and his wife today and I was invited along. It was great to catch up with old work colleagues and they appeared to be pleased to see me, too. It was a lovely time and I was very happy to have participated.

I have nothing planned for New Year's Eve, but that means nothing. We're a rather spontaneous family and no doubt something will happen somewhere.

Tomorrow, I feel I need to get back to the mundane things like laundry and housework and maybe Jane and I will get back to our early morning walks, although we will probably leave that to next week, when she will be back at work - we're still in holiday mode.

Ok, who's got any idea of what their New Year Resolutions will be??? I'm not going to make resolutions per se, but instead concentrate on what I want to achieve in the coming year and go all out to achieve them. However, I'm not going to verbalise these achievements but will let you know as they occur.

In the meantime, I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday break and are ready to go back to work refreshed and enthusiastic! ;-)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that your credit cards didn't get too much of a hammering! Bye for now...