Christmas Roundup

This post may be a little self-indulgent, so to those averse to self-indulgency read no further.

I always look forward to a couple of weeks off at year's end as a time to unwind, relax and shed the latent stress that seems to build up over the course of a working year. Christmas Day is a highlight with children, and now grandchildren, dropping in, accompanied by the usual panic from the wife as to whether we have enough food only to find, as usual, we could have easily fed three times as many. 

Christmas was a lovely day and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. However, as the day wore on I began to feel increasingly "off". The catered food which I had criss-crossed Brisbane to collect the day before and which had looked so good when I picked it up now began to look unattractive. At around 2pm Tracey looked at me and suggested I have a lie down, which I thought was particularly generous as it left her being the single hostess for around the fifteen remaining people. Around 4pm I did the test and, of course, on Christmas Day of all days, my first dose of COVID was officially confirmed. Thank you, Universe.

Now, as much as I like Christmas and my wife's supreme efforts to make it as enjoyable for everyone concerned, I always look forward to some downtime on boxing day in the form of an extended painting session while listening to the Australian cricket team take on the current year's touring side. This year I woke up to a mass evacuation as Tracey and the kids decided to hightail it out of here to holiday in Noosa, citing health reasons as they exited. To be fair, we had all planned to go, but of course the most sensible course of action was for them to avoid the current infection. That said, I'm not sure I would want to be caught on a desert island with that lot if there was no obvious food source.

Speaking of food, my wife pointed out how well provisioned I would be. Which is quite correct although as most reading this would know COVID has a way of destroying the appetite. I have just cleared out the fridge and tipped the equivalent of a Perry 28mm Napoleonic Danish eight battalion and three cavalry regiment army in the bin. I suspect the profiteroles and left-over croissants which I will round up tomorrow will be enough to cover the artillery.

Not that the last few weeks have been bad. Quite the opposite. I finally managed to complete the law degree I have been chipping away at over the past seven years and achieved a decent Honours result (an upper second to those familiar with the English system). I have attended two previous ceremonies in the form of a BComm at the University of Auckland and an MBA at the University of Queensland, but I ended up asking QUT to just post my degree out, not wanting to be the old bugger that stumbled up on stage to grab his piece of paper among a crowd of twenty-somethings. 

Aside from the above, I have managed to complete 20 elements of German Knights and sixteen elements of German spearmen. I'm hoping to photograph these before the year is out. Until then, take care all.