Christmas and a Shortened Vacation
06 April 2014
Christmas was a quiet family affair hosted by my aunt and uncle. It was a hot sunny day and we ate outdoors in the shade.
Christmas night we went to Sorrento for a few days. I had invited Chris, a friend of many years, to come down for a few days with his partner and their children. It was fun going to the beach with children despite the overcast weather.
Chris and I had spent a number of Summer holidays there thirty or more years ago. The beaches and the family holiday house haven’t changed all that much. The town itself is almost unrecognizable. We did our best not to go into town as it is so busy during the Summer holidays.
For New Year’s Eve we stayed in Melbourne, going to drinks with friends at their house which had a good view of the fireworks. We spent New Year’s Day at an event at the newly refurbished Emerson.
This year Jay and I did not volunteer for the Midsumma Festival. Instead we went to the Carnival day in the Alexandra Gardens just to meet friends and enjoy the afternoon. We had drinks with friends and left before it got dark. The tea-dance which had been such a success on the previous site at Birrarung Marr was much less of a focus this year.
As in previous years we made it to one evening of the Australian Open Tennis. We saw Wawrinka defeat Djokovic before he went on to win the tournament and Sam Stosur lose to Ana Ivanovic. We had a chance to look at the incomplete construction of the new roof over Margaret Court Arena while we were there.
We went to two 40th birthdays in quick succession, for friends Luke and Chris. The first was a strictly-costume affair with a “music icons” theme. Here Jay is a Pet Shop Boy posing with a Gerri Halliwell and Kenny Rogers in the background. Obviously our costumes were home-made, with components from KMart and Bunnings.
The second was a more conventional party which was documented with Polaroid photos of which this is one. Polaroids do a great job of failing to document wrinkles.
The third 40th celebration I went to was at my old secondary school. They were putting on their 40th annual Quad Play, and invited back all the previous casts. As I had been in the 11th, 12th and 13th productions, I went along. It was good to see so many of the teachers I remembered still involved in the production and those who had retired returned for the celebration. I was reacquainted with some school contemporaries and we arranged to have a dinner later in the year to have more time to talk.
Melbourne’s White Night was the same evening as the Quad Play reunion, so I skipped out of the last bit of Antony and Cleopatra to meet up with Jay and our friends Chuck and Kerry to walk around the art installations in the city. It was uncomfortably crowded which limited our ability to see some of the exhibits. We stayed until about 2am before heading home on the tram. It was Chuck’s and Kerry’s last weekend in Melbourne before returning home to Chicago from their six years here, so it was a fitting send-off.
My father had been scheduled to be in hospital for treatment early in the new year. His treatment was delayed a little by the low activity period over Christmas and New Year and as a result his admission was in February. Unfortunately this meant that the end of my father's hospital stay ran up to the planned departure date for our trip to the US. It was only likely to be a matter of a few days, so Jay departed as planned and I delayed my flights until after my father's first follow-up appointment. This meant I missed our planned visit to Orlando with Jay's parents, but I arrived in time for the drive from Orlando to Miami.
We were unlucky enough to drive through a tornado warning area and while the weather was wild, we got to Miami unscathed and with the rental car intact. The weather cleared in time for our flight and stayed clear for our time in the Caribbean.
A day and a half was enough time in San Juan for us to explore the old town and the Spanish fort while playing "spot the other Atlantis guests". We boarded the Celebrity Summit on the Saturday for a week's cruise. It was a slightly smaller boat than the previous Celebrity cruises we have been on: 2100 passengers instead of 2800.
The cruise was fun and relaxing with the weather, islands and activities exactly as we were hoping for in the Caribbean at this time of year. We knew only ten or so people on the boat before the cruise, but we also met some new friends. We visited Barbados, St Lucia, Martinique and St Barth. This time I remembered to bring euros for the French territories. I have posted an album from the holiday online.
The return home was something of an exhausting race: from the port in San Juan to the airport and then to Miami, Los Angeles and Melbourne with layovers between the flights which turned out to be only just long enough. It was straight back to work for both of us and also time to prepare the house for the arrival of Jay's parents to stay four days later.
They stayed with us for a week, through to my birthday, seeing the Flower Show and coming with us to the football. We also made some tentative plans for Christmas. After leaving us they travelled to Sydney to see the Hunter valley and then back via California to see Jay's nephews in Palo Alto.
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Christmas night we went to Sorrento for a few days. I had invited Chris, a friend of many years, to come down for a few days with his partner and their children. It was fun going to the beach with children despite the overcast weather.
Chris and I had spent a number of Summer holidays there thirty or more years ago. The beaches and the family holiday house haven’t changed all that much. The town itself is almost unrecognizable. We did our best not to go into town as it is so busy during the Summer holidays.
For New Year’s Eve we stayed in Melbourne, going to drinks with friends at their house which had a good view of the fireworks. We spent New Year’s Day at an event at the newly refurbished Emerson.
This year Jay and I did not volunteer for the Midsumma Festival. Instead we went to the Carnival day in the Alexandra Gardens just to meet friends and enjoy the afternoon. We had drinks with friends and left before it got dark. The tea-dance which had been such a success on the previous site at Birrarung Marr was much less of a focus this year.
As in previous years we made it to one evening of the Australian Open Tennis. We saw Wawrinka defeat Djokovic before he went on to win the tournament and Sam Stosur lose to Ana Ivanovic. We had a chance to look at the incomplete construction of the new roof over Margaret Court Arena while we were there.
We went to two 40th birthdays in quick succession, for friends Luke and Chris. The first was a strictly-costume affair with a “music icons” theme. Here Jay is a Pet Shop Boy posing with a Gerri Halliwell and Kenny Rogers in the background. Obviously our costumes were home-made, with components from KMart and Bunnings.
The second was a more conventional party which was documented with Polaroid photos of which this is one. Polaroids do a great job of failing to document wrinkles.
The third 40th celebration I went to was at my old secondary school. They were putting on their 40th annual Quad Play, and invited back all the previous casts. As I had been in the 11th, 12th and 13th productions, I went along. It was good to see so many of the teachers I remembered still involved in the production and those who had retired returned for the celebration. I was reacquainted with some school contemporaries and we arranged to have a dinner later in the year to have more time to talk.
Melbourne’s White Night was the same evening as the Quad Play reunion, so I skipped out of the last bit of Antony and Cleopatra to meet up with Jay and our friends Chuck and Kerry to walk around the art installations in the city. It was uncomfortably crowded which limited our ability to see some of the exhibits. We stayed until about 2am before heading home on the tram. It was Chuck’s and Kerry’s last weekend in Melbourne before returning home to Chicago from their six years here, so it was a fitting send-off.
My father had been scheduled to be in hospital for treatment early in the new year. His treatment was delayed a little by the low activity period over Christmas and New Year and as a result his admission was in February. Unfortunately this meant that the end of my father's hospital stay ran up to the planned departure date for our trip to the US. It was only likely to be a matter of a few days, so Jay departed as planned and I delayed my flights until after my father's first follow-up appointment. This meant I missed our planned visit to Orlando with Jay's parents, but I arrived in time for the drive from Orlando to Miami.
We were unlucky enough to drive through a tornado warning area and while the weather was wild, we got to Miami unscathed and with the rental car intact. The weather cleared in time for our flight and stayed clear for our time in the Caribbean.
A day and a half was enough time in San Juan for us to explore the old town and the Spanish fort while playing "spot the other Atlantis guests". We boarded the Celebrity Summit on the Saturday for a week's cruise. It was a slightly smaller boat than the previous Celebrity cruises we have been on: 2100 passengers instead of 2800.
The cruise was fun and relaxing with the weather, islands and activities exactly as we were hoping for in the Caribbean at this time of year. We knew only ten or so people on the boat before the cruise, but we also met some new friends. We visited Barbados, St Lucia, Martinique and St Barth. This time I remembered to bring euros for the French territories. I have posted an album from the holiday online.
The return home was something of an exhausting race: from the port in San Juan to the airport and then to Miami, Los Angeles and Melbourne with layovers between the flights which turned out to be only just long enough. It was straight back to work for both of us and also time to prepare the house for the arrival of Jay's parents to stay four days later.
They stayed with us for a week, through to my birthday, seeing the Flower Show and coming with us to the football. We also made some tentative plans for Christmas. After leaving us they travelled to Sydney to see the Hunter valley and then back via California to see Jay's nephews in Palo Alto.
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