Last Update for 2009

This will be it for 2009, the final communique via this medium. What a year, what an ending to the year! Our garden is a bit dry at present, like everyone else's in Brisbane, but it is growing well considering it has only been planted since last February.

Last night we attended yet another delightful dinner party, this time not only with great food and company, but also mango daiquiris. Seriously, deliciously wicked concoctions contrived by the wonderful hosts Edwina and Frank. Thanks folk for a gorgeous evening, yet again.

The very small back garden is coming along well with its small lemon and lime trees and olive bush. Once again, quite dry, but still thriving...and not yet 11 months old.

Some of our first lemons, still with a way to go, but still - our very first fruit is on its way.

Lovely colour. We have endeavoured to have a variety of colours and heights in our small garden.

A friend gave us this climbing plant around last March and it has produced its first blooms this week.

Last Monday friends and family gathered at Hamson Terrace for a lunch in the park. Our home is immediately behind the group. Mosquitoes were annoying, so be bathed ourselves in repellant. The food was terrific, and we later adjourned upstairs in the air conditioned house and partied on until the final guests left around 10pm.

Little Griff, my god daughter's 4 month old, looking quite animated at the camera phone. His grandmother, Di, is holding him. Griff's Welsh grandmother and grandfather are arriving on Monday to spend Christmas and New Year Down Under. I can only imagine the degree of spoiling this little chap is going to get over the next few weeks.

My newly oiled deck plus revarnished railing. A lot of work, but a great result. Three coats of varnish on the railings, two coats of oil on the decking.

Sunday we depart to Amsterdam via Taipei and Bangkok. My new phone weather ap shows me snow showers in Eindhoven NL, and even Boulogne in France where we spend Christmas (actually, Condette, just outside of Boulogne). We have an appointment in Rotterdam for dinner with the gallery owner where Rene has some of his art on exhibition there. On the eve of the wedding we are having dinner with an uncle and aunt of Rene's who live in a house across the road from where Rene was brought up. We have New Year's Eve planned in Utrecht where we meet the old friends from the cafe around 6 then go to dinner at the apartments where Rene once lived. We meet the wedding official on Tuesday morning in Son. After that we go to a family Christmas party - we have four small gifts each to place in the middle and take turns throwing the dice and selecting and swapping the presents. Spain is arranged, the flights from Germany and back to The Netherlands are booked, and the Taipei stopover is organised. Add to that the wedding day on the 30th, then you could say we are packed and ready to fly.

The photo above was the first one taken with my new phone, and of course it features dearest Rene. Here he is distracted by the ever present Nintendo DS. Upon our arrival back on these shores January 20, he is going to receive his Australian Citizenship at the Convention Centre on Australia Day (26th). The City Hall is closed for renovations, so this coming year everything is transferred to the very large Exhibition and Convention Centre. There is no limitation on the number of guests one can have at the ceremony.

Many members of our trivia team recently attended the Singalong Sound of Music at the Lyric Theatre, Brisbane. This slightly blurry photo is from a website where various audience members were featured. A fun night all round (see a previous entry about it below).

Well, this is it, have a brilliant Christmas plus a fantastic 2010 complete with happiness, good health and perhaps, even, peace on Earth. Next update after January 26. Thank you for your comments and taking the time to read this. I really appreciate the newsy emails and phone calls generated by this blog.