Mainly because I haven't got the digital photos developed so I can post them here. My memory is fading, but I guess a fair bit has happened in the last week and a bit. So, with a great deal of further ado, I should wish the blog reading public a Happy New Year before someone else does. They've probably done that already so I'm buggered.
I'm also buggered because it was 45 degrees here in sunny Sydney today. It was the hottest New Year's Day ever, and 2005 was the hottest December ever and I think the hottest year ever. It must be all those polluting trees...
I, er, got up too late to go for a ride, so I started the New Year with zero kilometres. We (Lucy, Pete and I) started our NYE celebrations on the rooftop of Nick Riemer's flat in Kings Cross. Nick wasn't there, but Cousin Ant was, so we didn't have to break the lock. The roof afforded a great view of the dual fireworks over the harbour, and an even better one of the party on the adjacent rooftop, which we didn't get invited to.
Not to worry, because Lucy's friend Louise had a do on at hers and Anton's place in Chippo, so we saw in the New Year then, courtesy of Channel 9, Richard Wilkins, and Steinlager, which is a Kiwi beer. That shocked me, but then I also learned that Kylie has breast cancer and that Martina Hingis was making a comeback. We ended up fairly relaxed.
We also played SingStation.
Scroll back to Friday, December 23, where we celebrated Lucy's 30th birthday at the Australian Youth Hotel, which is one of several pubs managed by her friend Karen. We were in the Nude Bar, which was full of paintings of nudes. Surprisingly, our moderately sized group was the only one there. Normally it's packed. A good night was had by all and I stuck to safe beer.
Christmas Eve was another warm one - 38 or so - so I limited myself to a two hour ride in Centennial Park without suncream. Amazingly, I didn't get burned. That can't be good for you.
Christmas was about 30, so 100 km was possible, followed by much eating and Christmas cheering and cleaning up. We had about 15 people over at our joint and they were appreciative of our new pond and garden in the shape of a fish feature. I did receive many good presents, most of which were readable, some were edible, and one was an Einstein action figure given to me by my uncle. How cool is that?!?
From Boxing Day until the 30th I went up to Nelson Bay and visited Jim and Joan, which was great as always. We only had 10 of us there, so it wasn't quite as crowded and there was less cleaning up to do. It was very humid so I limited the riding a bit, but managed Lily Pily Hill once (900m, well over 10 percent grade). Swimming too - some half decent surf at One Mile Beach enabled me to catch a few waves and generally have fun.
I was gunna go up to Bluey's Beach on the way back to see Janelle and Tom, but the way was stopped by an inkblot. Actually it was more serious than that: a four car pileup near Buledelah had traffic banked up for kilometres. I waited an hour before the police told us to go back and go round another way. But by then it was too late so I headed back to Sydney, sans aircon, on a very hot day.
That more or less brings us up to the present, which is not actually the present because I've already written this.
Movies: Good Night, and Good Luck, with George Clooney and David Strathairn. About a TV journalist speaking out against McCarthy in the 1950s. Very good, topical, and I could relate to it too. Four and a half stars, or nine, depending on how you want to measure it.
Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Loved the books as a kid, and this wasn't a bad movie version. It had extra humour, which was good because the kids were a bit painful at times. The white witch was a bit insipid, I thought. But seeing a snow covered landscape when it was 41 outside was nice. Three and a half stars or seven.
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