Christmas 2008 Part 2

View from out tent Christmas morning.


Just to take a step back...this is the pool at the family home of the friends we visited the Tuesday before Christmas. This property is spectacular. This pool is built overhanging a steep ridge which drops right down into the rainforest below. There are about 100 steps wrapping around the giant boulders leading down to this pool. The view from the house was breathtaking.



These children were so patient waiting, waiting, waiting until someone gave the go ahead to tear into those presents. They were like patient puppies ready to dive into their bowl of biscuits.



So now that I have that out of the way, Christmas Day was hot, not unbearabe but plenty hot enough for the massive water pistols to have been put to good use. The temporary inflatable pool also got quite a work out and all of this before lunch which was not served until approximately 4PM. Because there were so many of us (23) we kept it pretty simple - turkey, chicken, ham and salads. My sister's new oven was christened with Ben in charge and they both did a fine job. Later the guitars were pulled out, the drinking continued and the voices got louder. I guess it's fortunate my sister lives on several acres of land and the neighbours are far enough away not to have heard how bad we all were.



Boxing Day we all piled into several cars and headed to the beach. The weather was perfect for it and the waves were just big enough to enjoy. Henry is not at all scared of the surf and would happily stay in there all day. The bigger the waves the more he loves it. That's a little scary for me as I know what the surf is capable of having been badly dumped quite a few times in my life. All Australians like to think they need to teach their children to have a healthy respect for the ocean and I'm hoping Henry develops his sooner rather than later. I did not take my camera that day so have no photos of him screaming with delight or building enormous sand castles and digging holes to wait until they fill with water so he could lie in them.




The following day my brother in law took advantage of the manpower around the place and finally got his wood fired pizza oven built. In his usual form he had collected some bricks free of charge from the worksite of the old hospital in town. He also had some type of giant concrete tank that was a remnant from the school his children attend. The only thing he had to purchase was the mortar.



The old bricks had to be cleaned of old concrete before they could be used and this job took many beers to do. In fact the building of the entire oven was probably about three cartons worth. I think it was the consumption of so much beer though that contributed to the few design faults that saw the smoke escaping from places it shouldn't once it was lit. Still, it cooked a damn fine pizza just like it was.






What leak?



See, it works just fine.

After all that fun it was time for most of the family members, including Ben, to head home in preparation for their return to work or to enjoy the rest of their vacation elsewhere. Henry, Maya and I stayed for a few more days and visited the beach a few more times and caught up with old friends we hadn't seen in a while.New Years Eve was completely uneventful for me. It was incredibly hot that day, the hottest and the last day of the year. The temperature rose to almost 40 degrees (over 100f). We tried to stay cool in the air conditioning of the local shopping centre but everyone else had the same idea and it was still hot in there but considerably cooler though than outside. That night we went to celebrate with pizza and a swim at a friend's house but the pool was like a warm bath. I promptly fell asleep while watching a movie with Henry and was back home in bed by 11PM.

It was hard to return home after being in vacation mode for almost two weeks but I returned home to a much changed work enviroment (for the better) and Henry was keen to get back to his friends at daycare. Maya is making the most of her holidays and has spent perhaps all of about one hour per day at home so I've seen very little of her. When the school year resumes at the end of January life will get hectic and stressul as Henry starts at his new kindergarten and Maya starts her last year of highschool. Stupidly I've opted to be on the committee at the new kindy and I'm pretty sure they're going to make the most of that.