Australia for Christmas and New Year
10 March 2016
Christmas was a low-key event this year. We celebrated at my parents’ house where I cooked a roast lunch. It was a hot walk bringing mum home from the nursing home in a wheelchair but it was well worth it for Christmas together.
A few days later we headed to Sydney. We had previously wanted to see the fireworks in Sydney for New Year’s Eve, but the tripling of hotel prices over that time had meant that it didn’t seem reasonable. Since Beau moved to Sydney, he invited us to stay with him and Simon over New Year, so we went for a few days.
We swam at Bondi with Beau and Sammy and had booked tickets for a catered event at the Opera House to see the fireworks. It was a pleasant walk from their house in Surry Hills. The event was well-organized: there was no wait to get in, the view of the bridge and the fireworks was excellent and the food and champagne were plentiful and of high quality. When I read in the newspaper the following day about the disaster unfolding at a poorly-organized event nearby in the Domain, I realized how lucky we were to have picked the right event.
On New Years Day we went out dancing with Beau and Simon and met quite a few friends. It was a fun weekend and we were looking forward to doing it all again for Mardi Gras in March.
Melbourne’s Summer party season included Midsumma Carnival which drew a big crowd as the weather was perfect. It was maybe a little too sunny as people were gathering in any patch of shade by late afternoon to avoid sunburn. The following week we went to the Australian Open to and watched victories by Serena Williams and Tomas Berdych.
The tenants in the Moor St house were keen to get the bathroom renovated, and we took the opportunity to do that at a time that suited them in February. Brian has done a great job of coordinating the work which has meant minimal disruption for them and no missed rent for me. Brian has also released an EP with his band. The cover art is a photo by the pool at Moor St.
The building work next door is also almost complete. The building is a great improvement on the empty lot and has greatly reduced the heat in our middle floors during the Summer. We should be getting 12 new neighbours soon. The other new apartment buildings in the street are already being occupied and the businesses on the ground floors will be opening soon.
Mum has become unable to walk or transfer without assistance, so for any kind of travel she needs a wheelchair. This has been very limiting for activity outside the nursing home, as she is no longer able to transfer in or out of a car. To overcome this, we tried renting a wheelchair-accessible van during January and February. This made it possible to go to the Botanic Gardens and to visit friends. She seemed to get a lot out of this, so we are looking at buying a wheelchair van to make it easier.
A friend who recently moved here from Canada, James, invited me to go with him to one of the MSO concerts at the Myer Music Bowl in February. There were about ten thousand people there, but we had excellent seats thanks to his contacts at the University of Melbourne.
At the start of March we travelled to Sydney again for Mardi Gras. We caught up with a lot of friends, not only from Sydney but also from the US as it seemed to be a popular year to come for a vacation (the cheaper Australian dollar must have helped). We stayed at QT Hotel in Sydney which was excellent. We went to the main party and saw a couple of the shows, including Conchita. The highlight of the weekend was the Apollo party which had a very fun mood.
The vacation plans we were going to make at the start of the year still aren’t finished and the year is already almost a quarter gone, so we will be concentrating on plans for later in the year before we go away in April to Tahiti.
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A few days later we headed to Sydney. We had previously wanted to see the fireworks in Sydney for New Year’s Eve, but the tripling of hotel prices over that time had meant that it didn’t seem reasonable. Since Beau moved to Sydney, he invited us to stay with him and Simon over New Year, so we went for a few days.
We swam at Bondi with Beau and Sammy and had booked tickets for a catered event at the Opera House to see the fireworks. It was a pleasant walk from their house in Surry Hills. The event was well-organized: there was no wait to get in, the view of the bridge and the fireworks was excellent and the food and champagne were plentiful and of high quality. When I read in the newspaper the following day about the disaster unfolding at a poorly-organized event nearby in the Domain, I realized how lucky we were to have picked the right event.
On New Years Day we went out dancing with Beau and Simon and met quite a few friends. It was a fun weekend and we were looking forward to doing it all again for Mardi Gras in March.
Melbourne’s Summer party season included Midsumma Carnival which drew a big crowd as the weather was perfect. It was maybe a little too sunny as people were gathering in any patch of shade by late afternoon to avoid sunburn. The following week we went to the Australian Open to and watched victories by Serena Williams and Tomas Berdych.
The tenants in the Moor St house were keen to get the bathroom renovated, and we took the opportunity to do that at a time that suited them in February. Brian has done a great job of coordinating the work which has meant minimal disruption for them and no missed rent for me. Brian has also released an EP with his band. The cover art is a photo by the pool at Moor St.
The building work next door is also almost complete. The building is a great improvement on the empty lot and has greatly reduced the heat in our middle floors during the Summer. We should be getting 12 new neighbours soon. The other new apartment buildings in the street are already being occupied and the businesses on the ground floors will be opening soon.
Mum has become unable to walk or transfer without assistance, so for any kind of travel she needs a wheelchair. This has been very limiting for activity outside the nursing home, as she is no longer able to transfer in or out of a car. To overcome this, we tried renting a wheelchair-accessible van during January and February. This made it possible to go to the Botanic Gardens and to visit friends. She seemed to get a lot out of this, so we are looking at buying a wheelchair van to make it easier.
A friend who recently moved here from Canada, James, invited me to go with him to one of the MSO concerts at the Myer Music Bowl in February. There were about ten thousand people there, but we had excellent seats thanks to his contacts at the University of Melbourne.
At the start of March we travelled to Sydney again for Mardi Gras. We caught up with a lot of friends, not only from Sydney but also from the US as it seemed to be a popular year to come for a vacation (the cheaper Australian dollar must have helped). We stayed at QT Hotel in Sydney which was excellent. We went to the main party and saw a couple of the shows, including Conchita. The highlight of the weekend was the Apollo party which had a very fun mood.
The vacation plans we were going to make at the start of the year still aren’t finished and the year is already almost a quarter gone, so we will be concentrating on plans for later in the year before we go away in April to Tahiti.
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