Cheers.

I'm off to France tonight for a couple of weeks. I'm going via Japan both ways, and it's a long, long flight!
But never mind! Hopefully I'll have a few photos when I get back. In the meantime, have a happy new year celebration, and I send you my best wishes for a wonderful 2010. I hope your year finds you as happy, wealthy and wise as you want to be. And apart from always vowing to lose weight - ha! - I don't do New Year resolutions. I just like to be open to opportunities that may arise. That's enough to keep me on my toes! Talk to you again soon.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all from New Zealand and Australia - where I am staying at the moment with my son and his family, and where it is bakingly hot. But we still cooked a roast dinner! We unwrapped our presents this morning and then ate chocolates. (That's compulsory isn't it?)

The photos are from a common site on the internet, by the way. And are of New Zealand, rather than Australia. (Oooh, why has that underlined itself?)



And so to answer your question Flartopia, yes, our Christmas traditions are pretty much the same as in Britain really. Even to the extent of sometimes sending out Christmas Cards showing red robins in the snow! Crazy really, but it's just stuck from when our forefathers came out to New Zealand about 160 years ago. Australia was settled a bit earlier, but the same thing applies I imagine. Quite often these days people will have a barbeque or similar for Christmas Dinner, but I think that the majority of people still do the whole roast meal thing - turkey/chicken/ham/pork/lamb/whatever, and all the trimmings. Then we are exhausted because it's all just too hot and we've eaten too much and we collapse on the sofa for an afternoon sleep!
Joyeux Noel.

Christmas Lights

Last night a few of us 'gals' had a great meal at SPQR in Ponsonby. It's supposedly where local celebs hang out, but we didn't see any! Great meal though. Then we wandered up and down Franklin Road to look at the Christmas lights. They were really great, and I think I will have to get a flasher camera, as mine really didn't do things justice. But anyway, here a few snaps. Almost all the houses were decorated and there were heaps of people walking up and down the street, as well as cars driving slowly along. A really buzzy atmosphere. It was lovely!

Last weekend

It's hard to believe that I lived in Nelson for 30 years. Certainly, I never thought I would leave. But here I am - in Auckland for 6 years now. But it's always good to go back and last weekend I took a couple of extra days off school and flew down. Nelson has not escaped the horrible late spring/early summer that is haunting the whole country - it was COLD!! But good. I went to my optician because I had an urge to spend $711. Oh well, I will get some new glasses out of it! I had a few other 'business-type' appointments, and lots of coffee and/or lunch catch-ups too. Nice!
Incidentally, for my American friends, Nelson is a coastal city of about 60 000 situated at the top of the South Island. It has a great climate and is often known as Sunny Nelson. It's also very scenic and attracts quite a few tourists. So there you are! It was a great place for my kids to grow up in.
Anyway, one visit I hadn't anticipated was to the A&E department of Nelson Hospital! On Saturday morning I dropped my friend Hilary off at the rehearsal for the concert later on that day. I was chatting to all my Sweet Adelines friends, then was about to head off to the Nelson Market, when Ann tripped on a very low kerb and crashed down on all fours. To cut a long story short, we had to call an ambulance and I went in it with her. My first time in an ambulance! (Ann's too I think!)She was in a great deal of pain and it transpired that she had dislocated her elbow and also broken a bone! So she definitely didn't get to sing with the chorus, poor thing! I was pleased that I was able to be with Ann, and I got back just in time for the concert, which was really enjoyable.
Next day was Carol Singing after the Christmas Parade, and despite the pelting down rain it went ahead. So not much of an audience, but it was good anyway.
A visit to my friend Viv, then off to the airport and home. I caught up with lots of people by design, and I also ran into quite a few unexpectedly which was just great.
So all in all, a great weekend. I was flat out, which possibly explains my tiredness. A kind of "tired but happy!" tiredness I guess. :-)
The photo at the top is the view from Hilary's garden and spa pool! Hilary and Neil live in Mapua, about half an hour from Nelson city, out in the country. And with stunning views, as you can see! And sitting in the spa pool at night with the lights of Nelson twinkling in the distance and all the stars - it's fabulous! The other photos are of Hilary just by the restaurant where we dined on Friday night. Then there's me with my good friends Hilary, Marion and Lois, with Wendy and me in the front. Then there's me joining in with the after-match function (lol), and a photo of the Nelson Chorus (and a couple of guests)singing on the Sunday.

Thanks

Thanks everyone. Chris has had the operation and the surgeon was very pleased with how it went. Obviously Chris still isn't feeling fabulous, but he is going to be fine when it's all over! Then he's got summer at the beach to look forward to with time to recuperate. Thanks again for your positive words. :-)