Marguerite
Active Member
I thought we could post this as each of us reaches midnight and turns over to 2010.
I know we are early for most of you but as husband says
"The world cannot end today because it is tomorrow in Australia..."
Right now it's next year! We've just got back from a fairly quiet night at mother in law's. She's pretty frail having spent most of the last week in hospital with heart problems so our plans to go out and celebrate with the rest of Sydney had to go on the back burner this year. Maybe next year, when we hope to get to Sydney Observatory, right next to the Harbour Bridge with a top view of the big fireworks display.
It's nearly 2 am now, definitely time for bed!
I had wanted to do things a little differently this year; for some reason, the adult kids don't want to spend new year with us (yeah, I know, it's obvious - it's too often been deadly dull with us).
So taking mother in law's frailness into account I knew we wouldn't be able to do much after all.
BUT - we bought a new TV which husband installed yesterday. And today we were meeting with the electrician about installing our new induction cooktop. Talk about busy - the electrician said we're going to have to put in new wiring, we need to do some carpentry (ie husband needs to do some carpentry) and we have a hole we need to fill (and decorate somehow). So we went out to get tiles and hopefully some timber. We dragged mother in law along too (to have the new year's outing I wanted). The tile place turned out to be a fizzer, can't get any tiles i want for several weeks (due to the summer/new year shutdown) and the timber place was closed. So we found the supacentre hardware, looked at all the finishing options (tiles; stainless steel; aluminium; glass etc) and have decided we'll simply use paint for now and then later on we'll use laminex. But at least husband got the timber - because for now, our old cooktop is disconnected and on the woodheap in the backyard, the new one is in a box in the living room and we have no cooktop until the new one goes in. Next Tuesday, I hope.
All this is a longwinded way of saying - tomorrow husband is planning on working on the kitchen cooktop bench area. I've promised to take mother in law to the beach for a simple lunch picnic, I'm hoping to get husband to join us (wish us luck with parking!). It's only five minutes down the road to the beach, it shouldn't interrupt his day too much.
And today with the drive to the hardware? We had planned on going to the coffee shop on the mainland - but it was shut. They were all shut. On the way home mother in law suggested the coffee shop in the next village, it's run by a friend of ours who catered for difficult child 1's wedding. So we drove there, not expecting her to be open - and she was! So after a steamy, hot afternoon feeling mostly frustrated, we sat overlooking the bay (tide was out) and enjoyed the cool sea breeze in the afternoon, sitting in the shade of an umbrella while we drank the best coffee in town.
We went back to mother in law's, took our coffee machine down there, cooked a roast veal dinner for the four of us and drank good coffee all evening, finishing with a bottle of French champagne at midnight. We watched the Sydney Harbour fireworks on TV and outside could her fireworks in the distance. We don't think it was Sydney fireworks, it could have been a town closer to us, but we have in the past heard them all the way from Sydney.
If you get to see our fireworks on your telly, I hope you enjoy them. There were some wonderful colours this year, it was wonderful seeing the water of the Harbour lighting up with the colours.
difficult child 3 has been good, cooperative and not argumentative. We rang sis-in-law at midnight (our time) which was 9 pm her time. Because husband finished off the champagne (SUCH a sacrifice!) I drove home while difficult child 3 drove my electric scooter. The night is very bright tonight with the full moon - the pall of smoke from the fireworks probably helps diffuse more light as well.
Right now it's hot and muggy - 80% humidity and 24 C (75 F). And that's 2 am! feels like flakeout time under a single sheet with the fan going.
Enjoy your New Year, in whatever form it takes for you.
Marg
I know we are early for most of you but as husband says "The world cannot end today because it is tomorrow in Australia..."
Right now it's next year! We've just got back from a fairly quiet night at mother in law's. She's pretty frail having spent most of the last week in hospital with heart problems so our plans to go out and celebrate with the rest of Sydney had to go on the back burner this year. Maybe next year, when we hope to get to Sydney Observatory, right next to the Harbour Bridge with a top view of the big fireworks display.
It's nearly 2 am now, definitely time for bed!
I had wanted to do things a little differently this year; for some reason, the adult kids don't want to spend new year with us (yeah, I know, it's obvious - it's too often been deadly dull with us).
So taking mother in law's frailness into account I knew we wouldn't be able to do much after all.
BUT - we bought a new TV which husband installed yesterday. And today we were meeting with the electrician about installing our new induction cooktop. Talk about busy - the electrician said we're going to have to put in new wiring, we need to do some carpentry (ie husband needs to do some carpentry) and we have a hole we need to fill (and decorate somehow). So we went out to get tiles and hopefully some timber. We dragged mother in law along too (to have the new year's outing I wanted). The tile place turned out to be a fizzer, can't get any tiles i want for several weeks (due to the summer/new year shutdown) and the timber place was closed. So we found the supacentre hardware, looked at all the finishing options (tiles; stainless steel; aluminium; glass etc) and have decided we'll simply use paint for now and then later on we'll use laminex. But at least husband got the timber - because for now, our old cooktop is disconnected and on the woodheap in the backyard, the new one is in a box in the living room and we have no cooktop until the new one goes in. Next Tuesday, I hope.
All this is a longwinded way of saying - tomorrow husband is planning on working on the kitchen cooktop bench area. I've promised to take mother in law to the beach for a simple lunch picnic, I'm hoping to get husband to join us (wish us luck with parking!). It's only five minutes down the road to the beach, it shouldn't interrupt his day too much.
And today with the drive to the hardware? We had planned on going to the coffee shop on the mainland - but it was shut. They were all shut. On the way home mother in law suggested the coffee shop in the next village, it's run by a friend of ours who catered for difficult child 1's wedding. So we drove there, not expecting her to be open - and she was! So after a steamy, hot afternoon feeling mostly frustrated, we sat overlooking the bay (tide was out) and enjoyed the cool sea breeze in the afternoon, sitting in the shade of an umbrella while we drank the best coffee in town.
We went back to mother in law's, took our coffee machine down there, cooked a roast veal dinner for the four of us and drank good coffee all evening, finishing with a bottle of French champagne at midnight. We watched the Sydney Harbour fireworks on TV and outside could her fireworks in the distance. We don't think it was Sydney fireworks, it could have been a town closer to us, but we have in the past heard them all the way from Sydney.
If you get to see our fireworks on your telly, I hope you enjoy them. There were some wonderful colours this year, it was wonderful seeing the water of the Harbour lighting up with the colours.
difficult child 3 has been good, cooperative and not argumentative. We rang sis-in-law at midnight (our time) which was 9 pm her time. Because husband finished off the champagne (SUCH a sacrifice!) I drove home while difficult child 3 drove my electric scooter. The night is very bright tonight with the full moon - the pall of smoke from the fireworks probably helps diffuse more light as well.
Right now it's hot and muggy - 80% humidity and 24 C (75 F). And that's 2 am! feels like flakeout time under a single sheet with the fan going.
Enjoy your New Year, in whatever form it takes for you.
Marg
