Happy Holidays

(This is the version of my holidays without the complaints about being sick)

On Christmas Eve, my parents and I headed down to Canberra in my dad's new Honda CRV. It's things like my dad buying a Honda CRV on a whim that make me wonder whether I have any environmental influence whatsoever. My parents bickered all the way down, but fortunately conceded to playing the CDs I'd brought down with me. Otherwise it was Skeeter Davis.

We also stopped at Goulburn to see the new location of The Big Merino and eat lunch at The Bakery of Goulburn, supposedly NSW's most successful bakery. There was nothing too special about it and my parents say the coffee was terrible (and when my parents say that, it must be TERRIBLE). Clearly, 'most successful' did not equate to 'good'.

We reached my sister's place in the mid-afternoon and proceeded to take over her new apartment, with my mum offering her an assortment of homewares that we'd prodigiously packed into the car that morning. Rach was steadfast enough to refuse a great deal of it for reasons of space and dubious aesthetics.

Christmas Day was a pleasant affair; we opened our presents first and then had lunch. I'd brought all my presents from my friends down with me (my parents always give money), including a box from my friends in Finland, who always somehow manage to get the parcel to me on the 23rd December. (When I picked it up from the post office I joked with the lady "Should I open it now or should I wait until Christmas?" and she said "You MUST wait until Christmas" and took out a marker and scribbled out the customs declaration, which had the contents listed on it so I couldn't read what was in the box).

After lunch we watched 'Life of Brian', followed by 'It's a Wonderful Life', DVDs I'd brought with me (both of which are growing traditions) and then took a walk out to Lake Burley Griffin once the summer heat had died down. Here's a cool pic of a pelican:


On Boxing Day we drove down to the mountains, stopping at Wild Brumby for lunch and stocking up on schnapps. We got to Thredbo, but by then it was too late to catch the chairlift and walk to Mount Kosciuszko (also known for being the world's shortest tallest mountain) and be back in time for the last lift down. Instead we drove to Charlotte's Pass, a place I've never been before, went to a lookout and then walked down a great big hill to cross the river. And then had to walk all the way back up again.

Crossing the river

The next day my parents left first thing in the morning for Sydney. My sister was coming up to go to the Peat's Ridge Festival and was staying at my place for a night so we were to follow later. I spent the morning at the National Museum's Darwin Exhibition, which was quite cool, if only because they had original letters on display (as well as a live iguana and blue tongue lizard). I can't believe how close a call it was that Darwin might not have gone on the Beagle had his uncle not convinced his father to fund the trip.

I also feel compelled to go on a ship journey now, what with all the Mysterious Cities of Gold and Beagle images floating through my head. Although I have harboured a desire to go to the Galapagos Islands for over a decade, so I guess it is down to time and money, as always.

By the time Rach was ready to head up it had started to rain, and an hour into the journey it was pelting so hard we had to pull over. The three-hour trip took four hours in the end.

Most of the rest of the week until NYE was spent moping around trying to get better. On NYE we had our condiments party (this is a great concept whereby the main ingredients are bread, crackers and other 'foundations' + any type of condiments you can think of: salsa, jam, relish, tapenade, dukkah, you name it) and went down to Larkin Street for the fireworks, which were pretty, as usual.

(Apologies: I didn't get any really good shots because I was too busy trying to keep my balance on the slope I was standing on, while keeping my eyes on the pyrography).

On New Year's Day I read 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao' right through. On the 2nd I watched 'Beautiful Boxer' and 'Muppet Treasure Island' (another ship omen!). On the 3rd I got off my arse and sorted through a large pile of paper on my desk and created a vague financial tracking sheet, arranged to see a mortgage broker and visited my parents who needed someone to install the printer on their new laptop (my teenage cousin is currently overseas).

Yesterday I watched Clarke score 100 then went shopping for new curtains with my parents (found and bought some but they totally failed - too short, even though I measured our current ones - because they hung differently).

I didn't get home until 9pm, had to do laundry, and then tried to remember what I did for a living so I could pretend to afford the properties I've been looking at lately. Surprisingly, there are still quite a lot of two-bedroom places under $450K in the area, which is encouraging seeing as it looks like I'll only be able to borrow $300K. (The rest will be government grant, my life savings and my parents' contribution seeing as they are virtually marching me to the broker).

Back to work today, just getting back into the swing of things. Tomorrow I get to find out for how many decades I will be in debt.