2005-01-04 - 1:16 a.m.

I think this is the first chance I've had to write an entry since I wrote that last one, so it's not bad at all that I'm doing better than usually in terms of frequency. That said I spent a couple of days after Christmas doing very little, so maybe "first chance" is an exaggeration. The apartment is a pigsty as well, although that's probably only since New Year's Eve and I literally haven't had a spare moment since then.

So- Wednesday 22/12: Work in the morning, dinner with Blueshoe, her boy and Cindy and then Bernie (who would you believe ran through a few Christmas carols towards the end with a little help from Brendan Gallagher and his guest Kath Wemyss. And I couldn't handle the idea of being exhausted at work the next day and still having an exhausting 3 days ahead of me so all I drank at the Rose was Coke and Water. We'll just forget the red wine with dinner.

Thursday 23/12: Work, a quick swing past Miranda Fair, which was surprisingly not too insane but I still wandered around in a daze for over an hour looking for a present for my sister. I settled on the Dissociatives DVD which turned out to be an astute choice as she hadn't realised it had even come out. And a frog statue type thingy so I wasn't being too boring.

Friday 24/12: Dropped Jane off at the Fish Markets at 5.15am then went to work. We decided to do a seafood brunch thing at Jane's parents for Christmas Day as a substitute for their usual traditional lunch so we could get across to my parents' place- the irony being that my family would have all been fighting for the seafood, whereas Jane's family were not entirely enthused (come on people, $34 a kilo king prawns and they were fantastic). As it turned out because we were heading over to Jane's place on Xmas eve, the traditional turkey based (or is that turkey baste :) meal was done then- the tradition they were more keen to stick to was the meal and associated idiosyncrasies like bon-bons and the like, not the actual time it took place. Handy to know when planning future attempts at traversing the city over a 24 hour period- neither of our families are that set in their ways.

Saturday 25/12: Woke up on Christmas morning in a place that wasn't my current residence for the first time ever. Last year it was here, 2001 it was all on my lonesome in Jannali before heading off to work, every other year it has been the family home. Did the present thing, did the seafood brunch (aforementioned prawns, oysters, baby octopus which Jane's family looked at like a Westerner cautiously approaching a curious Asian delicacy, and blue swimmer crabs), then headed off to my parents' place.

Did the present thing there, sat around and drank, and then ate the usual Anglo-Indian fusion which makes our Christmas gatherings, a little turkey, ham and pasta salad here, a little korma, basmati rice and hot pickles there. The customary Ice Cream Christmas pudding, iced gingerbread biscuits and a very loud game of Trivial Pursuit to round the night off.

My Christmas haul- Parasailing at Manly for two on a date to be set from Jane, the complete Astroboy and Blackadder DVDs from my parents, Red Dwarf Series 1-4 from my brother, a book on the history of the Australian pop charts from my sister, a cocktail shaker and book and an Espresso maker from Jane's parents, and, well that was most of it.

Sunday 26/12: Set off to Jane's parents place again, this time for a BBQ lunch with her Dad's extended family (which is fairly small compared to either of my parents' clans). We would have been en route when the apocalypse hit South East Asia, although we knew nothing of it until we turned on the computer (and the Sydney Morning Herald homepage) the next day. I'll keep on chronicling and save the social commentary for another entry. By Sunday night we were home, Jane uploading her SIMS expansion packs and preparing for a couple of solid days of computer games, me beginning the journey through my Christmas DVDs.

Monday 27/12: Absolutely nothing. And I think we needed it.

Tuesday 28/12: Decided on a whim to take a ferry to Manly, just because it looked like a nice day outside. Note to self- even in the middle of Summer it is *freezing* on the ferry, you can't get away with a t-shirt and jeans and still enjoy the view from the outer decks.

Wednesday 29/12: Added to my already impressive list of people I've managed to catch up with over who I don't see very often by meeting up with my friend Krys from Uni for lunch, and then having dinner with the Ent. Cent. mob (well Steve, Wendy and Terry who currently resides in the UK and I hadn't seen for a year and a half) at BBQ Kings.

Thursday 30/12: Standard post-boozy night breakfast at Cinque on King St with Steve and Jane at about 11am, then a BBQ in Parramatta (Jane's friends) and a few hands of 500 to make up for the fact that we missed out on playing it Xmas night because everybody had had too much to drink and went to bed after Trivial Pursuit.

Friday 31/12: Work in the morning, then a quick shopping trip to stock up the alcohol cupboard ahead of some New Year's Eve guests arriving.

More to follow- see you in 2005 (yes, yes, it is already but in the sense that this diary in the journal/ chronical sense hasn't quite got there yet- you get it).

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