Housebound

Plans for this weekend included a barbecue on Sunday to mark the birthdays of numerous Geminis in our circle of friends, the almost obligatory weekend cinema visit on Saturday with Cs and the almost as regular emergency visit to sort out another friend's computer 'difficulties'.

All of that went down the drain - almost literally - when a huge rain and wind storm affected pretty well all of the eastern seaboard of Australia from Southern Queensland to Tasmania.

Some damage in Sydney and surrounds has been horrendous. I am lucky. No damage or injury suffered although rain and wind forced water somehow through windows or brickwork and lay in small pools on my kitchen floor.

The house next door, sold only last week, lost a tree which landed on our property. The volunteers of the State Emergency Service were on our grounds in horrendous conditions late Sunday removing the tree.

Those volunteers are wonderful and I thank them for all that they do.

The barbecue was cancelled. The cinema visit was cancelled too and Ae's computer difficulties have to wait for a calmer day.

All in all, from Thursday night to Sunday night I only went outside twice, for about thirty minutes each time, to shop at the nearby Woolworths.

Christmas present tango

Video CHICAGO - Cell Block Tango - catherine... by tanemsu

Last year on my Christmas Day visit to Brisbane the two married daughters of my local friends gave me Christmas presents. Their generous gesture was unexpected as they had never given me presents in previous years. I was embarrassed that I had not come armed with presents for them especially as I was in no position to conjure up something in exchange.

In preparation for this year's visit I mentioned last year's embarrassment to my Ballina friend (who was there last year and would be there again this year) and said that I would make sure I had presents for the daughters this time.

Unbeknown to me, my Ballina friend mentioned my embarrassment to the parents who passed this information on to their daughters but she must not have added that I would be bringing presents for them this year. As a consequence the daughters, in deference to my feelings, did not have presents for me this year and were in their turn embarrassed when I handed over presents to them.

We'll have to work on our dance steps.

Chocolate overdose

One of the nice things about volunteering is the generosity of employers, workmates and others who show appreciation for our efforts with end of year gifts.

This year at both the hospital and the nursing home I have received an embarrassing amount of gifts. I've even received a gift from an inpatient simply because she felt I put her at ease on her admission; that is, just for doing my job. The gifts include several hampers of goodies and far too many chocolates, the latter testing my sweet tooth addiction to the limit.

I'm sharing the chocolates around and trying not to get too big a head in awareness (to paraphrase Sally Field) that 'they appreciate me, the really appreciate me'.