TheBanyanTree: The night before Christmas approaches.

[peter macinnis]

It's Christmas Eve here in Sydney, 10 minutes off noon, hot and sweaty, 
overcast and promising sprinkles.  The birds that were active earlier 
are all quiet now.

Chris and I just walked up to the shops, about 1 km, with a shopping 
trolley for her and a large rucksack for me.  She says I get impatient 
when she is shopping, so I was parked in a coffee shop, reading, while 
she circulated, shopped, and brought stuff back to me to sort and pack.

The best part was watching the family groups who came and waited for 
photos with Santa and then slouched off despondently, but not grouchily. 
  I think the elves threw a spell on him for eating venison pie.

I have started into 'Game of Thrones' book 1 on Bolinda, with all of 
books 1-4 in one file.  I don't know how far I will get, but I tired of 
it and reverted to checking the page proofs of bushrangers. Chris 
decided I was settled, so she kept shopping, and then got all of the sea 
food (for Australians, Christmas is oysters and prawns), and came back 
with a supermarket trolley that she would have to return, but I said the 
weight of the seafood would balance the rucksack, so we hiked home.

Then I hauled up the hill the other way to the local shops for milk and 
bread (the use-by dates on the milk are 1 and 2 Jan, 2015!), and now I'm 
sweaty.

I count my blessings: I don't have to wear socks for months and months, 
I can always have a cold shower to wash the sweat off, we can buy nice 
food, we can eat everything we want, my knees are working (near enough 
for government work), there's beer and wine in the fridge, there's 
cheese, chocolates, smoked salmon and capers, olives and fruit of many 
kinds.

May you have as many blessings and more.

peter

On 24/12/2014 11:25 AM, GraceAnne Andreassi DeCandido wrote:
> Bless us, every one.