Holiday Roundup
A quick holiday roundup:
We drove down to Mount Gambier for Christmas with my family. We also took a friend from overseas down with us for the experience and the sightseeing - she became part of the family instantly and everybody loved having her. My parents say I seem to surprise them with a new face every time I visit! I think it’s a great way to mix things up a little every year, show off some great country-town hospitality, and its also a good opportunity to slow down the drive and re-appreciate some of the familiar sights we tend to whiz past. We ended up staying a week, eating piles of great food and drinking lots of beautifully cellared wine. Including a sublime 1990 Zema cab sav that I picked up at the cellar door on the way down.
Another thing that made Christmas even better this year was the use of Kris Kringle among the family. Each person first announces their wish-list, and then is randomly selected to buy a gift for one other person. So not only was there much less shopping torture, but much more satisfaction in the giving and receiving, and inherently, a better quality in the actual gifts! We’ll probably continue to use this system, exempting children of course so that they continue to get loads of goodies.
One of my most enjoyable experiences was the one day camp-over with friends at Clayton. Going out in their small sailboat on Lake Alexandrina reminded me how much I love sailing, and I think I started to pick it up pretty quickly. I got to a point where I could almost “sense” the envelope of wind in the sails, and how you can actually sail “close to the edge” and keep it there via mainsail, rudder, or weight. I found I preferred sailing into the wind, because its harder work on the ropes and so in a tactile sense it feels more full of energy to me, and it “seems” faster, even though it may not actually be.
Back at work now!