Knowing you can relax, that you don't have to go to work in the morning, that you're free to do what you want for days on end, that's a great feeling.
Having said that, I drove the taxi both Friday night and last night and will be in it again on Christmas Eve, but that is work I choose to do to earn a bit of extra money, and most of the time it's fun. The new laws about drinking alcohol in public mean we have to enforce the no booze in the cab rule a lot more strictly but most people accept it without a hassle. Some of them scull the rest of their drink before they get in which I don't advocate! We have a new GPS based computerised system in the cars now which 95% of the time makes our job much easier and considerably more pleasant. There are a few bugs we're all trying to iron out as we get used to it but it's a vast improvement on the old system.
This afternoon I did a shift in the gallery which was typically quiet until the last ten minutes when there was a flurry of last minute purchases, Christmas shopping with class! I worked on a painting all afternoon while listening to the ABC's Grandstand Wrap, with one more recap of Geelong's wonderful season the personal highlight but I also discovered that a yacht from Busselton is entering this year's Sydney-Hobart Yact Race, a first for the Geographe Bay Sailing Club. In honour of the ABC and for the benefit of Cam, and any other fans, I'm posting this picture of myself with ABC commentator Gerrard Whately, taken at an O.B. in Geelong a couple of days before the Grand Final.
Fashion Boy returned home this morning for the Christmas break from the work on the harvest. He'll be here for 5 days, although already tonight he's gone to stay at a mate's place in Dunsborough. Favourite Daughter and The Heir have also gone to Dunsborough for a party so Mrs Holt Press, Sport Boy and I took advantage of the reduced numbers (and noise) to go and get some chocolate mousses from the 24 hour garage and spent an hour driving around Busselton looking at Christmas lights. Tiredness and a sprained ankle (the result of a bad landing while going for a rebound while shooting hoops) finally wore SB out and we got some respite from his constant chatter and questions! Kids are always 20% cuter when they're asleep!
We're having our own family Christmas tomorrow because The Heir has to work on Christmas Day. After the exchange of gifts (kept to a minimum this year as a protest against the increasing over-commercialisation of Christmas) I'll crank up the Barbie and prepare a feast of prawns and marinated chicken and other goodies. Our BIG traditional Christmas Dinner with the extended family will be at Bridgetown on Saturday night when the Perth-based family members can get away for the weekend.
As Sport Boy said in the car as we appreciated another wonderful light display in someone's front yard, "I love Christmas". Christmas that is kept simple, free of needless extravagance, with an emphasis on family and time spent thanking God for the original and best Christmas present that is.
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