Boys at Christmas

Christmas again and again and again

We've been 'doing' Christmas for ages now it seems.

The kids have been on holiday since last Wednesday, the teachers having two extra pupil free days at the end of the year - that took me by surprise. Ishbel had to spend a couple of days at Tanderra while Ian and I finished off the working year. Ian is now on holiday until 11th Jan while I will be back at work between Christmas and the New Year and in January until 11th Jan when I'll have a couple of weeks to get the kids through the long holidays - they go back to school at the end of Jan.

Our round of Christmas parties started with a BBQ at Bec and Steve's last Saturday before they piled kids and new pup into the car for Christmas on the north coast. Ishbel also had a party on Sunday at the pool but the rest of us had some respite until Wednesday (23rd) when we went to Janet and Steven's for a BBQ. Steven has been building new decking out the back so we went to admire it. And eat ourselves to a standstill! The next evening we were at Sharon's for dinner. And ate ourselves to a standstill!

It was a relaxed start to Christmas Day with the kids having quite long sleeps until the last one, Rob, got up about 9:30am. Karen, Dan and Xavier came over for lunch and stayed until about 6:30pm. We then had a quiet hour or so before Janet, Steven and their girls came over. That got rid of the Crhistmas pudding and Christmas cake (like we needed to eat anything else) which we worked off with a loud, tuneless, SingStar competition. The Colquhouns did not win!

Yesterday we headed down to Roey and Pete's for lunch with them and Pete's Mum, Pat. Roey and Pete have had renovations done and have opened up the back of the house with a new kitchen/family room with large french doors onto the garden. Looks good.

Tonight we are going out to a local Thai restaurant with Janet, Steven, Sharon and the girls. We started last year going out together on Christmas Eve rather than buy presents for the other families but coudn't arrange a night altogether before Christmas - on the night we were at Janet and Steven's Sharon couldn't come and on Christmas Eve when we went to Sharon's Janet was working so tonight is our Christmas dinner out - a bit of overkill at this stage but we're going through with it anyway.

Can't wait for a night in.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

And here's some Christmas 'singing' for you - the type us Colquhouns should undertake :

A reflection on Christmas and cuisine

Early Christmases in Sydney were a melancholy time for the first few years. The early rulers were Protestants, who encouraged sobriety and believed that too much celebration was a popish thing. Some of the most puritan did not even mark it as a day for attending church, as this was regarded as a practice that belonged exclusively to Sundays. This Puritan legacy helped to keep Christmas a family day - again a cause of sorrow for those who were separated from family.

One element of the traditional Christmas and its pagan antecedents was a focus on food. The scarcity of food supplies in the early years of Sydney's settlement mirrored the general scarcity in the 'old country' winter, but while the northern household might store up preserved fruits and fatten up precious poultry for the special event, there was little opportunity to plan ahead in Sydney.

In 1788, the record tells us that the governor and the officers dined heartily. The following year, with colonial stocks very low, the governor ate turtle, especially bought in for him from Lord Howe Island. As to the rest of the settlement, little is known, though there are rumours of precious flour rations being deflected from use in making common damper to innovative creations such as parrot pie.

1803 is the first year that the public record specified how the whole establishment ate. The Sydney Gazette records that extra rations of fresh beef, suet and raisins were provided for the military and civil establishment while the convicts were given extra rations of salt pork and flour.

This apparently was not considered good enough; the Gazette also recorded that some pigs went missing, and one convict who stole a pound of flour from a private house got 200 lashes on Boxing Day.

From those early days of salt pork and scarcity, by the mid century the food situation had certainly improved. Richard Peck, importer of 452 George Street advertised in 1848 that he could sell you a range of teas - black, flowery Peko, Souchong, green, gunpowder, or Hyson etc. His coffees were roasted daily - java, manila, mocha etc. He stocked muscatels, prunes, candied orange peel, a variety of almonds, brandied fruits, pickles and chutneys, including mango. He had walnuts, pickled onions, French capers, sauces, oils and eight kinds of vinegar - Richard Peck, the Simon Johnson of his day. All this might be washed down with some of his range of wines - champagne, hock, claret, Madeira, port and sherry.

In contrast, the Colonial Wine Depot at the Bulls Head further along George Street had in for the Christmas rush many varieties of spirits, as well as Guinness stout, Barcley's stout and 'every article in the trade at low prices', while 'for the working classes' he had ordered in 500 cases of Byass's Ale at 6d a bottle or 4 dozen for 20/-.

From Shirley Fitzgerald at The Dictionary of Sydney

TGIF - The Broken Mower

When our lawn mower broke and wouldn't run, my wife kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to take care of first, the truck, the car, playing golf - always something more important to me.

Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point. When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house. I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again I handed her a toothbrush. I said, "When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway."

The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.

Moral to this story : Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right, and the other is the husband.

For the kids

We have been using the NORAD Santa Tracker for a few years now.

NORAD is the bi-national U.S.-Canadian military organization responsible for the aerospace and maritime defense of the United States and Canada. NORAD, created by a 1958 agreement between Canada and the United States, provides advanced warning of impending missile and air attacks against its member nations, safeguards the air sovereignty of North America, and maintains airborne forces for defense against attack.

NORAD began tracking Santa in 1955 after a Colorado Springs-based Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement for children to call Santa misprinted the telephone number. Instead of reaching Santa, the phone number put kids through to the CONAD Commander-in-Chief's operations hotline. The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, had his staff check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole. Children who called were given updates on his location, and a tradition was born.

Since that time, NORAD men, women, family and friends have selflessly volunteered their time to personally respond to Christmas Eve phone calls and emails from children. In addition, we now track Santa using the internet. Last year, millions of people who wanted to know Santa's whereabouts visited the NORAD Tracks Santa website.

The NORAD Tracks Santa website helps you count down to Christmas. In addition there is a Kids Countdown Page with lots of fun games and activities and you can follow Santa on Google Earth.

What Jamie did for Karen's birthday

L-R: Jamie, Chase and other climbers on the top of

the Sydney Harbour Bridge on 14 December 2009

Jamie's friend, Chase, had been given a double bridge climb ticket and was going to go with his older brother but the older brother was fiddling about getting back to Chase so he offered the ticket to Jamie.

The boys took the train down to town and their climb started at 12:30 but not before they were all breathylised.

Now he sits during the news, where the newsreaders on most channels sit in front of a pic of the bridge, saying, "I've climbed that bridge," "See that bridge? I climbed that," and "Did you know the bridge is made of only straight bits of metal?"

Going West by Maurice Gee

Just beautiful . . .

Fire watching

I responded to an incident call on Friday afternoon. It was just about 1pm when the pager went off saying there had been a smoke sighting and could crews gather awaiting further instructions. I'd meant to put my PPE in the back of the car that morning but had forgotten so I had to drive all the way home (and wouldn't the roads be just CLOGGED with slow drivers???), get my kit then drive back in to Springwood and to our shed. Luckily the others waited for me.

We then headed back out here to the Winmalee shed (I could have met the others there) and sat there until after 6 when we were tasked to go and relieve Karen's brigade who were watching the fire from Faulconbridge Point. And there we sat, taking regular weather readings until after midnight when we were relieved by a Valley Heights crew. We'd whiled the time away by having dinner - those tightwads at Winmalee didn't think to feed us - we got the generator started and made ourselves toasted sandwiches and cuppas.

Pete L, Tracey and I got ourselves comfy on the rocks and played I Spy (two goes each and we were out of ideas) and The Prime Ministers Cat.

Pete McD. had been banging on about setting up his hammock all afternoon. I thought he was joking until I saw this :
I'd put my name down for the 6am crew on Saturday so was up and out again before 5:45 having got home after 1:30am. Again we were tasked to sit watching from Faulconbridge Point and taking weather readings every hour. I was armed with a book this time which I got a little bit read of and Holly played Uno with Craig. We were relieved some time after midday by Karen's lot again and headed home.

Shortly after we were back on the bitumen again and just outside Robbie's school we came across a car accident. A young girl had gone head first into a power pole and there was a live wire on the ground. No one was hurt luckily. We put witches hats on the road to keep people away from the power line and did traffic duty while waiting for the NSW Fire Brigade and the Police to come.

It was a hot, exhausting day and although we had a street party on and I was supposed to be going out with the school Mums, I just went to bed and tried to sleep.

The boys went with Jamie's friend Scott to their first concert last night - Lamb of God at Luna Park. They had a great time they said. They went down on the train but Ian went down in the car to bring them back, I didn't think it would be wise for them to be travelling home by themselves late at night.

Ishbel was supposed to be going to Carols by Candlelight with her friend Zanny but they had a bit of a falling out and she ended up coming home. She and I watched an episode of The Goodies before we both went to bed.

Tall tales and true

Sportsperson of the Year

We were back at Robbie's school again last night for another award ceremony. We almost forgot about it, Rob had to remind us while we were having dinner. Oops!

When we arrived at the school we were given a programme booklet. Looked through it twice to find Robbie's name and see what he was getting a prize for. Nothing. Looked through it backwards. Still nothing. Eeek! Told Rob to go and find out what was going on. The deputy principal, Mr Burnett, reassured Rob that he was getting an award for Sport, there had been a mistake in the printing. Relaxed again.

Sat through HOURS of prizes. Bum sore. Hot. Tired. That was Ishbel! Finally, the Sports prizes. The kids line up at the side of the hall, waiting to come on to the stage to receive their prizes before they stand facing the audience for a final round of applause. Suddenly had a second crisis of confidence, did the teacher reading out the prize winners have Rob's name on her list? Would he be left standing at the side like a dill when all the others had been called up?

The teacher did have Robbie down as (one of two) Sportsperson of the Year. Phew! She not only remembered him, but she said a little speech about him (the only student to have such a rave review) saying he was amazing, into everything and she listed all the sports teams he was in, a natural athlete and all round one of the nicest people she knows. How about that for a glowing report. So proud!

I was also greatly pleased to see Alex and Claire, my friend Joanne's daughters, get prizes; Alex for English (Yr 7) and Claire The Caltex Prize for Best All-rounder (Yr 12, best student across all subjects). Claire has finished school now and was just back from a week away on schoolies week. Joanne would have been so proud too.

Robbie's Award Day

In complete contrast to yesterday, I turned up early to Rob's award ceremony and had half an hour to kill. It was OK because they gave me a cup of tea and I had time to go and pay the 'voluntary' contribution. With three schools I get muddled about which school has been paid and which hasn't.

Rob got his award for coming second in Legal Studies. Here he is just after getting the award.

And here he is with Kate (his honourary cousin).

Kate seems to be completely incapable of posing naturally - you have no idea how many times this picture was taken - this is the best of a bad lot!

Ishbel

Ishbel with the Teacher's Core Values Award medal

and with the Premier's Reading Challenge Gold Award - this is for participating in the Premier's Reading Challenge for 4 years in a row.

My clever girl

I have been up at Springwood High School this morning because that is where Ishbel's school went for their end of year presentation ceremony. We'd been advised that Ishbel was getting an award, but not what it was for.

I nearly missed it! I saw Ishbel off on the bus to school as normal this morning and came in to work and got so thoroughly engrossed that I was in the middle of a thorny cataloguing problem discussion with Gillian when I realised it was 10 o'clock and the presentation began at 10 o'clock. I hadn't even got around to putting my bag away so was able to just grab it and race out the door. (Ian is up in Queensland so was unable to be there).

I was in plenty of time. Ishbel was called up with the others getting prizes in her class. There were prize winners for the various subjects they do (English, Maths, HSIE, Creative Arts, etc) and prize winners for the school's core values (Learning, Positive Relationships, Personal Growth and Healthy Environments). Ishbel's prize, a medal actually, was the Teachers Core Value Award - Learning.

Yay!

Unfortunately, the battery was flat in my camera so rubbish photo. Will try and get photo of Ishbel and her medal tonight or tomorrow and post then.

And I get to go back tomorrow to do it all again with Rob.

Apparently this sign was necessary at one library in the US!

Because I liked it . . .

TGIF - EU Directive No. 456179

In order to meet the conditions for joining the Single European currency, all citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland must be made aware that the phrase 'Spending a Penny' is not to be used after 31st December 2009.

From this date, the correct terminology will be: 'Euronating'.

Thank you for your attention.

Shakespeare

This was played on the radio this morning.