Hmm, wonder what day it is today!
Merry Christmas and a Happy Festivus, everybody!
I hope all of you are having a great Christmas Day, or for those of you behind the times and living in the past, I hope you're having a nice Christmas Eve and have everything ready for tomorrow. I've had a pretty lazy Christmas morning; just a quiet breakfast with close family. I got to have my traditional cornflakes with blueberries, so I'm happy. We're having a late lunch in the afternoon and I'm currently just taking a break from helping with the cooking while Mum and Alan pay a brief visit to some of Alan's family. I spoke to Grandma and Grandpa a short while ago and they both sounded good; Grandpa sounded remarkably healthy despite his condition, though his prognosis is poor. I'm pleasantly stunned to learn that the card I sent them on the 20th somehow made it there yesterday! Even at the best of times, it tends to take a week for anything to get across the Tasman, so a delivery time of four days at the height of Christmas strikes me as astonishing.
We've only exchanged a few presents thus far as we normally do the main present-giving before eating the day's main meal, but one present I've already received is sensational. Mum and Alan finally managed to track down the t-shirt upon which my New Zealand icon that I'm using for this entry is based. I saw someone wearing it years ago at a one day cricket international at the 'Gabba in Brisbane but have never been able to find it. Apparently some Kiwis are brave enough to sell this sort of stuff at Carrara markets on the Gold Coast here in Australia - what champions! It reads "I support two teams, the All Blacks and whoever is playing the Wallabies". This is the first time I have worn a Kiwi sporting shirt since that immensely depressing quarter-final loss in the World Cup in October; previously, I wore one of my Kiwi sporting shirts at least once a week! I think this t-shirt has to claim the title of best that I own.
What is really weird is that for the first time in approximately two years, I am updating from my old bedroom. This is where I wrote the vast bulk of my LJ entries. It's now my mother's room, with all of her sewing spread throughout the place and her computer in the corner where my printer and stereo used to reside. This used to be a pool room before I moved in and the pool table is still in the centre; clearly putting it to every use other than playing pool runs in the family, as it used to be covered in all my junk and is now lost underneath my mother's sewing! Suddenly I feel not so bad about how disorganised this place inadvertently became during my time here!
By some miracle, it's not overwhelmingly hot or humid in Queensland at the moment, though I am still jealous of Melbourne's 23 and fine. It is amazing just how fast the Gold Coast is growing; I think that it has changed more in the two years since I left than my Kiwi hometown has changed since I left in 1997 (well Raumati Beach anyway; parts of Paraparaumu border on unrecognisable). I'm greatly looking forward to catching up with my friends over the next few days; a couple I saw a year ago, but some people I haven't seen since the end of high school in 2004. It will be interesting to see how much they have changed; I doubt it will shock anyone that I am even more nerdy than before. In my usual nerdy fashion, I'm sure hoping some of those presents under the Christmas tree are books. I got through over 100 pages of Crime And Punishment on the plane yesterday despite sleeping half the way, and have now nearly finished it.
Damn I wish I had someone to play cricket with today.
I hope all of you are having a great Christmas Day, or for those of you behind the times and living in the past, I hope you're having a nice Christmas Eve and have everything ready for tomorrow. I've had a pretty lazy Christmas morning; just a quiet breakfast with close family. I got to have my traditional cornflakes with blueberries, so I'm happy. We're having a late lunch in the afternoon and I'm currently just taking a break from helping with the cooking while Mum and Alan pay a brief visit to some of Alan's family. I spoke to Grandma and Grandpa a short while ago and they both sounded good; Grandpa sounded remarkably healthy despite his condition, though his prognosis is poor. I'm pleasantly stunned to learn that the card I sent them on the 20th somehow made it there yesterday! Even at the best of times, it tends to take a week for anything to get across the Tasman, so a delivery time of four days at the height of Christmas strikes me as astonishing.
We've only exchanged a few presents thus far as we normally do the main present-giving before eating the day's main meal, but one present I've already received is sensational. Mum and Alan finally managed to track down the t-shirt upon which my New Zealand icon that I'm using for this entry is based. I saw someone wearing it years ago at a one day cricket international at the 'Gabba in Brisbane but have never been able to find it. Apparently some Kiwis are brave enough to sell this sort of stuff at Carrara markets on the Gold Coast here in Australia - what champions! It reads "I support two teams, the All Blacks and whoever is playing the Wallabies". This is the first time I have worn a Kiwi sporting shirt since that immensely depressing quarter-final loss in the World Cup in October; previously, I wore one of my Kiwi sporting shirts at least once a week! I think this t-shirt has to claim the title of best that I own.
What is really weird is that for the first time in approximately two years, I am updating from my old bedroom. This is where I wrote the vast bulk of my LJ entries. It's now my mother's room, with all of her sewing spread throughout the place and her computer in the corner where my printer and stereo used to reside. This used to be a pool room before I moved in and the pool table is still in the centre; clearly putting it to every use other than playing pool runs in the family, as it used to be covered in all my junk and is now lost underneath my mother's sewing! Suddenly I feel not so bad about how disorganised this place inadvertently became during my time here!
By some miracle, it's not overwhelmingly hot or humid in Queensland at the moment, though I am still jealous of Melbourne's 23 and fine. It is amazing just how fast the Gold Coast is growing; I think that it has changed more in the two years since I left than my Kiwi hometown has changed since I left in 1997 (well Raumati Beach anyway; parts of Paraparaumu border on unrecognisable). I'm greatly looking forward to catching up with my friends over the next few days; a couple I saw a year ago, but some people I haven't seen since the end of high school in 2004. It will be interesting to see how much they have changed; I doubt it will shock anyone that I am even more nerdy than before. In my usual nerdy fashion, I'm sure hoping some of those presents under the Christmas tree are books. I got through over 100 pages of Crime And Punishment on the plane yesterday despite sleeping half the way, and have now nearly finished it.
Damn I wish I had someone to play cricket with today.