Ian's Christmas 2007

Ian got some books from Santa, Tools of War: the weapons that changed the world by Jeremy Black and Richard Hammond's Car Confidential.
He also wants to do a motorbike cornering course (??) so is investigating that.

Oh yes, but we can't show it because there might be children watching, he also got a banana guard!!!

Heidi's Christmas 2007

I put in my order for a Bushranger Firefighter helmet. Although we get issued with a free helmet, I wanted this one because it has a pull down visor which means I might not need to wear goggles with it - I can't get the regulation goggles to stay on my face no matter how tight I pull them. I think I might have to do my firefighting in swimming goggles otherwise!

Ian also managed to get a sticker with my name to go on the back. I just have to make sure I put it on straight now.

I also bought for myself a copy of a new picture book, Puff the Magic Dragon. It's a beautifully illustrated picutre book and comes with a CD of the song and a few others by Peter Yarrow.

I remember fairly well having Puff played on BFBS radio for my 5th birthday so it's very special to me.

Jamie's Christmas 2007

Jamie also got the same backpack and will get Japanese Yen for his trip to Japan on 8th January. He also got a copy of Matthew Reilly's latest novel - signed by the author. Jamie has been on the library reserve list for this title for ages so I thought I'd get it for him for Christmas. When I went to the bookshop in Penrith last Thursday there was a huge queue wending its way through the shop. Turned out Matthew Reilly was coming to do a book signing. I stood in line for about 3/4 hr and got it signed. Jamie was rapt.

Rob's Christmas 2007

Robbie requested and got a new backpack and a tent. The tent is a one man one, only about 50cm tall at its highest point, 2m or so long and very claustrophobic looking. He put it up in the living room - the cat thought it was marvellous.

Ishbel's Christmas 2007

Ishbel got books (cute Jack Russell Dog Detective - we also have a few on talking book in the library so I'll get her some of those too) and a pink unicorn (from the social club at Council). Named Sparkle, the unicorn is her favourite toy of the moment.

Christmas Day 2007

We had a really nice Christmas day yesterday.

Had a chat on Christmas Eve with Mum and Dad and Fiona via Skype. Spent a lot of the time we were online trying to fiddle with getting the webcam to work (without success) and then with the NORAD Santa tracker on Google Earth. Sorry I wasn't very chatty. It's not easy skyping when the kids are trying to watch something on TV as they were at the time.

I had been worried we hadn't very much for the children. I had been unable to bring myself to buy anything for Ishbel when out shopping the other night; she has so much junk in her bedroom, none of which gets kept tidily and I couldn't bring myself to add to that junk. As always, however, as I wrapped up the bits and pieces I realized we had plenty.
Christmas morning came (not too early thank goodness) and everyone happy with their presents.

I will do posts for each of the family with their favourite Christmas thing separately, youngest to oldest.

We headed down towards Roey and Pete's place just after 11am. There we had the full traditional Christmas dinner, not usually bearable in December but this year the weather was cool and we were in jumpers most of the day. There were oysters, prawns and various dips and cheeses to start followed by roast turkey, ham, tatties, salad etc. and later, quite a while later an icecream Christmas pudding and a 'normal' Christmas pudding. We tried hard to get the brandy to flame but just succeeded in blackening the spoon and wasting lots of matches and gave up in disgust.

During the late afternoon we went for a walk round the bay. Pete's mum Pat was with us. She's in her 80s and not used to walking much because its not flat round where she lives, but she managed the walk really well. We walked round to some rock carvings done by some of the early white sailors to Sydney - the ships would be dragged up in one of the bays near where Roey and Pete live to be shaved of barnacles etc and while there the sailors carved messages on the rocks.

We discovered it was almost 8pm by the time we got back to the house! Had no idea it was that late, the day passed very quickly. A last beer for Ian and we were on the road home by 8:30 and home by 9:30pm.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Set in 12th century England, this is the story, told from numerous points of view, of the building of a cathedral in the fictional city of Kingsbridge.

Follett is better known as a thriller writer but tells us in the foreward that he became fascinated by cathedrals after a visit to Peterborough Cathedral which 'enraptured' him. The writing of this book took over a decade, during which time Follett continued to publish in his usual genre.
I only got to the end of Chapter 1 (p. 84) before giving up on this book. It's a shame, history is my thing and I was looking forward to settling in with a nice big tome for the Christmas holidays but I found the writing dull. The main character of that first chapter is Tom, a stonemason who, like Follett, is enraptured with cathedrals and longs to be the master mason in charge of building one. However, when the story opens, despite his skills, he is out of work with two children and a pregnant wife to get through the winter. The little family is robbed of a pig as they travel through a forest and Tom's daughter is knocked unconscious by the thief. A mysterious outlaw, Ellen, comes to their aid. Despite his wife, Agnes supposedly being his soulmate, Tom is attracted to Ellen. When Ellen reappears later, with Agnes dead only a short time after giving birth to a baby boy, Tom makes love to Ellen who declares she loved Tom from the moment she first clapped eyes on him. Tom gets over the death of his soulmate very quickly and I got over this absurd story.
In the introduction Follett writes, "Clowns should not try to play Hamlet; pop stars should not write symphonies. I should not have risked my reputation by writing something out of character and overambitious." How true.

Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer attempts to rehabilitate Ann Hathaway/Shakespeare who has not been treated sympathetically by the bulk of Shakespearean commentators.Little is known of the life of Shakespeare and even less is known about his wife, but people are willing to speculate and fill in the vast gaps and Ann Shakespeare has not come well out of the speculation. Her advanced years at the time of their marriage (she was in her late 20s, he in his late teens) has led the commentators to assume Ann tricked her husband into marriage and that he later left her for many years to bring up their family alone in Stratford while he persued and acting and playwriting career in London not only for ambition's sake. His bequest in his will of the second best bed has been interpreted as evidence that William Shakespeare hated his wife.Germaine Greer, who gained a PhD from Cambridge University with a thesis on Shakespeare's early comedies, looks at the scant documentation regarding William and Ann Shakespeare and, with a good measure of social history to put their lives in a 16th Century and not 20th or 21st Century context, gives her opinion that William and Ann Shakespeare's marriage was not hate-filled and presents Ann Shakespeare as probably a shrewd housekeeper respected in her community, in her family and esteemed by her husband.
An interesting read although her detractors may argue that Greer vehemently defends Ann Shakespeare's reputation on as scant evidence as Ann's detractors do. Most of the book is fairly accessible, although I found myself skipping bits.
I do love the cover.

I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson

In the late 1990s Bill Bryson returned to his native America after 20 years in Britain. Bryson was asked by a colleague to document his thoughts about America for a British newspaper. This book contains those column pieces in which Bryson holds a mirror up to American culture and wittily exposes its absurdities.COMMENTS : Do not attempt to read this book on public transport unless you want your fellow passengers to arrange for the men in white coats to greet you at your destination. This is laugh-out-loud, lose-your-breath, tears-streaming-down-your-face funny.

Bad Hair Days by Pamela Bone

In 2004 former Melbourne Age journalist Pamela Bone was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, an incurable cancer of the bone marrow. Her prognosis was poor, with an estimated life expectancy of between 1 and 8 years. Bad Hair Days is best described by the author herself: 'This book is an account of a journey with cancer: two years of my life in which the state of the world at times seemed to be reflecting the state of my health, or - to be less solipsistic - my state of health seemed to be in a similar condition to the world's. It is not an autobiography, though there are elements of that in it. It is not a textbook for cancer sufferers, although there are descriptions of cancer treatments and the various philosophies involved in treating cancer. It is about cancer, war, journalism, chocolate cake and a few other things.'
A very moving read. As she writes above, there is stuff about her cancer, which she so aptly describes as a 'sniper' picking off one in four people at random, but also about many other things. There is no self-pity here, Bone does not rail "why me?". There is a lot of humour and a lot of hope, Bone comes back time again to the theme of the inherent kindness of strangers. We are exhorted at the end of the book to take pleasure in the here and now, not to seek for happiness somewhere else and to live life to the full.