Life in Retirement: 30th December 2012

30^th Dec 2012

How was your Christmas, if it was anything like ours it would have been a great success I am pleased to say.

Twenty people sat down to a splendid setting for Xmas dinner around 1:30/2:00pm. Over the past few weeks Nancy and I have been doing a lot of preparation gradually and particularly Xmas Eve, the last minute things that could be done before hand to minimise the workload on Xmas day itself.

Even so my day started around 5:30am and was pretty constant all day but it was a good day and I for one, thoroughly enjoyed it.

I prepared a 10kg pre-cooked smoked ham, removed the skin, did the diamond pattern thing with cloves and baked it for several hours to coincide with lunch, basting it every 15minutes or so with a glaze concoction I developed from several recipes. I must admit I was bit nervous as to how it would turn out but it tasted fabulous and received rave reviews so it was quite a relief and I was quite chuffed about it all. At the same time I roasted a roll of pork in the Weber and Nancy did a Turkey breast with a mango conserve and roasted macadamia nuts once the ham was finished.

In the meantime Nancy’s sister and companion arrived from the Gold Coast followed closely by her family of Brett, wife Merl and daughter Dannie and Mark with his son Matt whom we hadn’t seen for quite some time. They were doing their own thing for Xmas lunch, but wanted to catch up for a bit of Xmas cheer before hand. I guess it was about mid morning so corks were popping and glasses clinking as we took the opportunity to have a quick swig between chores. We called our new neighbour (John) over to share a drink with us and meet folks and he arrived with a whole platter full of freshly cleaned sand crabs ready to eat, kidding that didn’t go over well so we added a few oysters to the spread which was basically morning tea and there may have been a few prawns in there as well.

By this time the remaining family members arrived and it was starting to become quite a gathering. By the time everything was ready for lunch our morning visitors left and niece Susan with her schoolteacher voice and skill managed to organise everybody to their particular seating arrangement. Lisa had organised the tables three in all, with beautiful linen table cloths and napkins, all the very best of cutlery, crockery and glasses and Xmas bon-bons, it certainly looked as good as any high class restaurant or hotel.

Once they were seated and for those that enjoy the gastronomic delicacy Crassostrea gigas (Pacific oysters), luncheon commenced with an entrée of a dozen delicious delights of this popular mollusc. Then the main course food was set out buffet style along the bench separating kitchen from lounge area so everybody could take what they wished and there was plenty of it, including potato bakes, special rice salads, various different green salads and coleslaw to name a few. This was followed by pavlova, sherry cake, ice-cream, Christmas cake, rum balls, home-made mini Christmas puddings and other delights including a large variety of beautiful fruit and here we all were trying to stuff as much as possible into already overloaded belly’s. I was eager to take some photos and managed to get a before shot and a shot of the glazed ham and then my pocket camera disappeared only to be told on boxing day that it had been put in the study because it was on a table and in the way!! I’m hoping someone else had the presence of mind to take a few.

Late in the afternoon several of the family members had left, a couple of friends plus neighbour John had re-joined us and we remaining sturdy soles were relaxing downstairs having a quiet Xmas cheer, so as if we hadn’t had enough to eat we cleaned up the remaining oysters and prawns washed down with all sorts of things ranging from French Champagne to home brew rum, it was all very pleasant, no dramas and surprisingly enough no hangovers on Boxing Day (or at least none that were admitted to).

Lisa was to go sailing for a few days from early Boxing Day morning but the day started with quite a heavy downpour and threatened to set in for the day so social was postponed for a few hours and they eventually got away just before lunch, in the meantime we managed to get the place pretty well shipshape before she went (thank goodness) it did look a bit of a shambles when I ventured upstairs early in the morning. Lisa was lucky with the weather, as they had predicted showers and storms all week from Xmas, they actually had perfect sailing weather and only copped one decent downpour the night before she came home.

Saturday 29^th we went down the Gold Coast for the day to Nola’s (Nancy’s sister) to celebrate her birthday. Lisa came home from sailing in the afternoon and today we ran her out to Brisbane airport to fly down to Orange in central NSW, travelling via Sydney to spend a couple of weeks with her best friend and family. Nice that she is getting a holiday before she starts her new job later in January.

Well I think that is just about up to-date, over the last couple of days I have been feeling very tired and lazy, I haven’t been feeling too well either with pains in the lower abdomen and numerous visits to the bathroom, I wonder why? Must be the water.

Oh! Did I mention Nancy and I were deliberating as to what we would have for dinner the other night, when there was a knock at the door and John next door had sent his daughter over with a sand crab and mud crab all cleaned ready to eat, what a nice neighbour.

Happy New Year to you all

Cheers

Nigel