Weekends of Fridays, Impending Holidays and Champagne!

Hi!

Well. Here we are. The sun is shining, it's a bit hot and humid but not nearly as bad as it was last weekend - whew! There's a little bit of a breeze blowing..... The birds are all out there running their errands - thankfully the Lorikeets (and at night, the bats) have eaten most of the seeds the palms put out so there hasn't been the usual frantic sunrise freakout we've had over the last couple of months - handy on days one would like to sleep in! The laundry is happily blowing around in the breeze, as so happens every Sunday...... Also have the very nice cool glass of standby white wine (soooooo nice on a day like today - not too hot or humid), most of the chores are done, and, as always, have the hip n' groovy jazz tunes from SkyFM........ Yes, life is good!

So work. Yep. Is good. Not as busy as it's been, which is nice, but I can always find stuff to do. Although tomorrow and Tuesday will be kind of a struggle as I'll be the only one there - everyone else has taken time off for Xmas! Ooooooh the attention-span will be sorely challenged! But, again, I can always find stuff to do. I'd take the time off too but am saving all my vacation time to come up there for a visit this coming July.......... And they're already forcing us to take three days off between Xmas and New Year's, which really burns my hide............! Three days is like three little gold bars for me - precious and they take forever to accrue! And no further word about the PR application. They have all my stuff except for one little thing, word is they're waiting on HR to get their info together - typical. This is exactly what happened last time, and at this same time of year too. Here's hoping they don't drop it again now that I've held up my end of the bargain - again. Sigh. HR. Never a more useless department existed........... Ahhhhhh, will quit complaining - am just happy to have a decent job that even comes with paid vacation time! Otherwise, work is good! Yay for gainful employment!  

And then there were a few weekends in there........... I know they've been quiet for the most part...... Fridays have been fun..... A couple Fridays ago we had our teeny little group's Xmas lunch - we went on a tour of the XXXX Brewery followed by lunch in their restaurant. Man, the tour was actually really good and interesting (tho no cameras allowed) - the facts just flew by! When you come down thisaway, we're totally going! And the lunch was really good too, but then by the time the tour finished I was starving. I actually cleaned my plate (I had the steak and mashed potatoes - nom)! Although I didn't finish the unscheduled little French-themed "garnish".... Poor little guy/gal must've been caught up in the bag of spinach and got steamed with everything else. I didn't see it and somehow mistakenly ate some of its shell and its head! Eeeeeeek! Well, I didn't notice until a little bit later when my fork hit its shell and I had a look for it, but by then I was kinda full anyways.............. We all took it in good humor, even if the waiter and kitchen staff were a little put off. I didn't mind........ Although will forever be checking those "wilted greens" before diving in! Then the few of us continued on to the Caxton Hotel which was, amazingly, dead quiet (if you look at the photo in the link - yeah, it looked a lot like that - and on a Friday night!). That place is usually overflowing with people and music - a place I generally avoid at all costs like the plague (unless peer-pressured to go). But the evening we went, the place was a morgue. Weird. So we stayed for one drink, or maybe it was three......... And then we headed to our homes and that was that! And the rest of that weekend, from hazy memory, was rather quiet....... Literally..........

And then that next weekend was much the same.... Friday we all headed out to another lunch at a really cool little place called O Bar/Restaurant, which happens to be the bar/restaurant of a really nice little boutique hotel called Diamant, (which is coincidentally right next door to where my hand therapist is!) to celebrate Phil's non-birthday - he swears he's never having another birthday ever again. I guess that can happen when you hit 62............ Me, I don't mind - one more year of successfully dodging life's hazards! But this time we were all much more responsible and headed home before the sun even went down. Hooray! And yet the weekend was still quiet. And super hot and humid, which was the main reason I didn't/couldn't check in - poor little laptop. And it was hot and gross until well after 5pm......... Which is kind of unusual and really disgusting.

But here we are now...... This weekend has followed the same pattern as the previous few - Friday afternoon I met a couple gals at the really nice bar/restaurant at the Hilton for a few too many glasses of champagne and a good long gossip session. It was really nice and even made it home at the respectable hour of 8pm! And then it's just been the usual chores with the odd nap thrown it. Yesterday was hot and gross but today is thankfully a bit cooler......... I really need to investigate a better/more efficient cooling pad for the little laptop.....................

And there you have it! Xmas is upon us tho, so that means I will be spending the day (or maybe two) with the Adcock family - my foster family over these last, what, 6 Xmas'? Last year I spent it with my friend Jan and her family (it was lovely and perfectly low-key despite the kids, dogs and a pool!), but the previous years, bar my first one, have all been spent with my former boss from my days at Fire and his very nice, and equally low-key family. This year will be a little different tho in that they've moved about an hour and a half south-west of Brisbane to Toowoomba, where they originally lived for like 30-some years. So that'll be a lovely excuse to give the poor car a good run! And Toowoomba is nice, though I've only been there once, briefly........... Been meaning to get out there to see them anyways (and their newly-built house!) ........... So that will be Xmas and probably Boxing Day (it's a holiday here, no idea why, really. But hey, who am I to argue with a national day off???!)

So here's hoping those of you who give a rat's backside about Xmas, have a good one! Eat lots of ham and pie for me! And down here, seeing as it's the middle of summer, we'll throw another shrimp on the barbie! Yay!

BYE!

J!

P.S. Forgot to mention, the poor little wrist is doing better, slowly but surely. The scar is looking better, more or less, still a little red, and with the regular visits to the hand therapist, the range of motion is gradually improving. Tho most of the time the tendon is stiff as a branch in wintertime. Ultimately, the original problem is gone (YAY!), but this recovery business sure is taking forever! But hey, at least it's getting better!

P.P.S. I like to hyperlink the hotels we go to for drinks juuuuuuuust as a hint of where to stay whenever you guys get down thisaway....! Hint hint!