Christmas.

Yay! I'm tired and it's over. I finished the working week with dinner with D and JK (Skara Bar meat platter!), and then JK and I swam the next morning at Coogee. The waves looked yucky, all sea-weedy, so we went to the ladies pool instead, which is really lovely. Crabs scuttling around and old ladies doing laps. Still 20 cents entry. We had brunch, and JK ordered corn fritters, which we agree is a risky order. They sound good, but they can be so disappointing. Hers were good. I had fruit toast. Then we went home and I finished packing and we went to the bus stop and I went to Central and then Maitland on the 12.15.

Grandma and Julia were already at Maitland. Mum, J and I did Jillian some days, J and I went for a swim at Newcastle with the bro on Monday because it was hot, I bought a dress from Jacqui E (the end of the no clothes shopping thing). I was in 2 minds about it afterwards, but now I think it is a good dress. It ticks all the boxes, it's just that it's a bit different for me.

I introduced Dad to myfitnesspal.com and that was more exciting for him than his actual Christmas present. We both weighed and recorded our food, and timed our exercise, every day. Thus Christmas was not too fat, this year. Life would be so much easier if I didn't have to work, and I could just spend my days doing exercise and weighing my food and doing cross stitch. I made a lot of progress on my bike cross stitch. I have one main section to go, so I can see the end now, and it's much faster. I want to finish it by my birthday. I'm racing my braces.

The piano had 2 sticky keys, so my brother took the piano apart and we fixed it, mainly by just lifting the keys up and shaking them around a bit. That was very good.

This is the birthday cake for Jesus, made by Julia. I accidentally blew out all the candles for Jesus.

I finished listening to my audiobook Spellbound. Book III in the Grimnoir series comes out in August. It's called Warbound so will probably be just as magically gory.

I caught the XPT back on Thursday afternoon, because it can be a bit more peaceful to have more legroom and a table to do cross stitch on. As it happened though my table was a bit dirty, so I read instead, or dozed listening to music, except that I was sitting next to a very friendly young man. I learnt quite a lot about him as he was talkative. Not the whole time, but he took every opportunity. I'll share it with you because I don't meet people like him very often. He is 19, from Tamworth, has good taste in music, and has been working in Sydney for 9 months as a steel joiner (he showed me his hands) and makes about $250 a day and lives in a boarding house in Petersham and recently crashed his Lancer and lost his license and is still a bit lonely and lost in Sydney and still seems overwhelmed by the multiculturalism but can swear in a lot of languages now and is going overseas for a holiday next year. He pointed out the windows at various apartment blocks he built, which must be a nice thing to do, contribute in such a big way to the city around you. He also built the platform awnings on Newtown station. He explained why the carpark at Eastgardens collapsed and says all the Westfields were built dodgy by Adco. The things you learn. The whole world is on the train. I myself don't talk on public transport if I can help it because I don't like being eavesdropped. Even though it's harmless, I find it off-putting having an audience. Answering my mobile and blowing my nose included.

When I got home I went food shopping and bought a half price turkey roast. It's turkey week! And last night I slept terribly. And this morning I got asthma doing Jillian after only 2 circuits. It's a nuisance when occasionally I feel sick and have to stop after I make the effort to get out of bed early. Breathing problems are very unusual, though.

Looking forward to new year's eve and summer school!