Happy New Year

Ian and I had a quiet Hogmanay. All three kids were out for the evening. Jamie went into the City with some of his friends, Rob was at a Scout friend's house and Ishbel was at a sleepover birthday party. Both Ishbel and Rob had not been well, Ishy with a cold and Rob with a stomach upset so we weren't surprised when we got a call sometime after 11pm to come and collect Ishbel. Up until then Ian and I were at home with Sharon and Holly. Holly had been planning to be in the City with Jamie and his pals but she and Sharon had had the same stomach upset as Rob and were feeling a bit weak and watery so they came round to our house and we played board games.

I have been sitting up in Ishbel's room most of today, listening to a book on tape (hers is the only stereo with a cassette player). I have book group on Sunday. Usually we have a late Christmas lunch early in January where we organise what books we are going to read in the coming year, but don't discuss a book and have our discussion meeting on the third Sunday as usual. This year, however, there has been a change of plan which passed me by and we're having the discussion this Sunday and the lunch on the 17th! The book shops are closed and all the library had was the talking book. It's been a nice relaxing day, I did some cross stitch too - a Peter Rabbit alphabet I bought when Ishbel was an infant!!!!!

On Wednesday I was in town with some girlfriends. I won two tickets to a play, The Book of Everything, at the Belvoir Theatre in the City. I'd invited my friend Heather to come too. I'd initially rung Sharon to ask her to come with me, she'd recently taken me to something at the same theatre, but she and Holly already had tickets so I invited Heather instead and we arranged to go to the same performance and arranged to go all together and to have dinner in town afterwards. Unfortunately, as mentioned already, Sharon and Holly were unwell and couldn't go so she gave up her tickets and I asked Catherine along and Heather's mother (who is over from Canada) was able to take advantage of Holly's concession ticket.

The Book of Everything is a book we read together for book group in early 2008 so we were pleased to be able to go. And it was really, really, really good. We were a bit concerned to see lots of children in the foyer - the book, while ultimately about optimism, features domestic violence and we wondered how the children would deal with it but the production was a very humorous one and I'd really love to take Ishbel, if not the other two.

As planned, we went in search of dinner after the play, the lady sitting next to Catherine suggested we go to Crown street where we would find lots of restaurants. Fortunately Catherine had brought Ken - her TomTom navigation thingy - because we hadn't a clue where we were going. We thought a Wednesday night would be quiet - we were sooooooo wrong and ended up waiting 20+ minutes to get a table at a Thai restaurant. Luckily it was a good meal and worth the wait in the end. It was after midnight before we got back to Springwood.

TGIF - Three Men on a Hike

Three men were hiking through a forest when they came upon a large raging, Violent river.Needing to get to the other side, the first man prayed: 'God, please give me the strength to cross the river.'Poof! ... God gave him big arms and strong legs and he was able to swimacross in about 2 hours, having almost drowned twice. After witnessing that, the second man prayed:'God, please give mestrength and the tools to cross the river' Poof! .. God gave him a rowboat and strong armsand strong legs and hewas able to row across in about an hourafter almost capsizing once. Seeing what happened to the first two men, the third man prayed: 'God, please give me the strength, the tools and the intelligenceto cross the river' Poof! .. He was turned into a woman. She checked the map, hiked onehundred yards up stream and walked across the bridge. 'If at first you don't succeed, do it the way your wife told you!'

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 . . .