23 sleeps to Christmas

 

We made an Advent Calendar to count down the days..... A mixture of charity, romantic, and Christmas traditions.

Safari

We spent four days in the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

"Amazing" doesn't begin to describe it. We saw lions, girafees, elephants, babboons and a whole range of other animals at close distance. Spotting game in their natural environment is such a different experience to seeing them in captivity.



I liked the giraffes the best.


This lioness was lying on the road when we drove up to her. Behind her was the male. Both were unfazed by the traffic.

December wrap up ...... the month that was

Christmas has come and gone, and I am a little bit sad. I have a definite nostalgia for Christmas. I love the lead up to Christmas Day. Every year I put up the tree, and decorate (admittedly, in a rudimentary way). I walk around the stores and streets and admire the lights and decorations. I like the individual efforts of residents who put lights in the front of their homes.

It's only when I am in a hurry and trying to dash into the shops for bread and milk that I get annoyed at the season - the impossibly long queues and a shortage of parking. And I hear too many stories of people completely stressed out rushing about "getting ready", feeling obliged to max out their credit cards and excessively buy presents that are usually not needed by the receiver. (But enough said, this is hardly an original sentiment). Apart from the shopping side of things, I love the season for the memories I have as a child of great family Christmasses, and for the anticipation in the air and the goodwill that seems to be in greater supply this time of year.

Today I'll take the tree down, and I'm reflecting on the past two weeks.




Christmas Eve we had drinks at RM's place. R had organised a 9 litre magnum of champagne. The warm evening was a good backdrop for chilled champagne and sushi. As the evening went on, more and more bottles appeared and everyone got a little more mellow over time.

Christmas Day itself was lovely. It was a fairly quiet one in the morning as J and I opened presents in my apartment. But the day rapidly became more festive with a visit to the cousins in the afternoon for a late lunch.

My relatives are fantastic cooks, and surprise, surprise, there was an abundance of food. While we had traditional Aussie Christmas fare like prawns and ham, we also enjoyed chicken curry, glutinous rice with mushroom, fried rice, a Spanish dish with mince and eggs and a whole host of other delights.

On Boxing Day, J and I went to Mosman to see the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. We had a favourite picked, and periodically checked on her progress on the Yachtracker on the internet.

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Last Saturday, J and I went kayaking in Bundeena, a suburb about an hour south of Sydney and part of the Royal National Park. There were too many speedboats and jetskis for our liking (probably because of the holiday period) but otherwise a nice spot. We hired my kayak for 4-5 hours, but after about 3 hours as we were making our way back, the wind came up against us. So what was meant to be a leisurely paddle became very hard work, especially for me in my rented kayak that was shaped more like a bathtub. I was well and truly worn out at the end of the day!