G'day, folks. Sounds like you're all struggling with the icy weather and the inconvenience of the ice and snow.
We've got a pleasantly warm few days here, tomorrow will be hotter, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day too but Boxing Day is at this stage forecast to be cooler. We're still planning what we'll cook for Christmas, if it's going to be hotter we'll cook the day before so we can have a cooler and more relaxing day. We're going shopping tomorrow to finish our Christmas shopping and also buy some last minute food supplies. Fruit & vegetables, mostly. Our summer fruit supplies are wonderful, we'll need to stock up on cherries, mangoes, strawberries and any other fruit we see that is available and cheap. Lychees, perhaps.
We've had a varied day today. In the morning I went to the funeral of my BFF's neighbour. I am not good with funerals, especially when the person is young and it's tragic. In this case he was 47 and left three little girls; he had been their primary carer while Mummy went off to work as a high-powered executive. Now she's got to cope with her work and also be there for her girls. I suspect BFF is going to be there for them a great deal over the next few months.
After that we drove home (a brief stop at the butcher for Christmas supplies) and I had time to have a shower and some lunch before we headed back out again. No time to shop (I had hoped we'd have a little time) but I did post the last of my Christmas cards.
Then we continued on into the heart of Sydney and the casino - we had dinner there (fabulous smorgasbord, inexpensive because it's subsidised by the casino in their attempts to raise revenue from gambling) and then went to see "Mama Mia!" on stage. We took difficult child 3 who has been highly resistant to seeing either live shows or movies until very recently. He loved it - I'm so glad, because it's a pain to fork out the big bucks for tickets only to have him whining all through the event. Not this time - he was laughing along, clapping, joining in - it's a wonderful show. It felt weird, after the funeral in the morning, to be having fun like this in the evening.
If ever you visit Sydney, a meal and a show at the casino is a must. Just avoid the gambling - they use all the tricks there to get you in and hooked. No windows in the casino, dim lighting that is the same at any time of day or night; open 24 hours; no clocks in the casino floor; the cheapest takeaway food is available on the casino floor so people don't have to leave the casino to get fed. They will even wheel round food on trolleys and take orders, so you don't have to leave your gambling station. But if you can avoid that, the rest of what is there is good value and frankly, I like doing them out of a dollar by enjoying their other subsidised services and then NOT gambling!
Enjoy your Tuesday.
Marg