Dec 15 - Christmas Numero Dos

Orange Lindor Ball

"Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven."
- W.C. Fields




 
  I did bugger all during the day.  Waking to the news of the mass killing in Connecticut was a bit depressing to be honest.  It did stir me to write an angry facebook post which has since turned into a pretty damn long and sometime argumentative thread.  It did also drive me to check the statistics so please skip the next paragraph if you're not interested.
  There are an estimated 270 million privately owned firearms in America (about 86% of the total population including men, women and children) and in 2008 there were 9,484 gun homicides in America.  That's homicides only.. that does not include injuries, accidental deaths and suicides.  There are by comparison, only an estimated 3.5 million privately owned firearms in Australia (about 16% of the population) and in the same period there were only 19 gun homicides.*  So America has 77 times the number of guns that Australia does and a whopping 499 times the number of gun homicides.
  It's a bloody joke that they seem to see no correlation between people having guns and people shooting people with guns.  My heart goes out to the families who lost a loved one in this vicious murderous attack and I sincerely hope that America takes this opportunity to finally do something about gun control in their country.  I'll move on from that now because thinking about it only makes me feel disappointed in humanity.
  I managed to finish one of my many craft projects but I did not unclutter anything and as far as cleaning I managed only to do one load of washing.  It felt too quiet in the house so I watched Stephen Fry videos on youtube.  I find his voice and demeanor extremely comforting when I feel alone.  I did also retreat back to bed for about an hour and read some more of my book.  I'm not sure how much I'll get read in the next couple of days though, I have to pull my socks up and at least clean up the lounge room so Gub and Co can sit down when they get here very very late on Wednesday night.  It is only four sleeps to go!!  A very happy fact indeed!
  Soon enough it was time to get ready to go out for Christmas Dinner number two.
I threw on a dress, still unusual for me but it feels increasingly comfortable as my body shrinks.  There is in fact a gap developing between my legs!  Rather an exciting development from my perspective, but I digress.  I gathered up Christmas presents and wine and headed out the door, picked up Mr Smart and on we went to the Masterchefs'.
  Masterchef was ready and tapping her foot awaiting the already overdue return of two of the Minichefs and Mr Masterchef who was of course coming with us.  While we waited we were able to see her amazing Christmas tree.  Masterchef has collected over the years, a stunning array of beautiful ornaments and baubles for her tree.  I would have to say it is the most gorgeous Christmas trees I have ever seen.  I was so awestruck that I forgot to take pictures.
  Mr Masterchef finally got home and raced about the house getting ready and ten minutes later we were ready to leave.  We picked up Miss M on the way and arrived at Cafe 58 in Fitzroy only slightly late for our 7:30pm booking.  The upside of arriving slightly late was that Fly Girl and her husband The Man in Black (hereafter known as “MiB”) were slightly less late than they usually are so the whole gang was assembled in record time!
  I've eaten at this place at least a dozen times or more since Mr Smart and I began dating but today for the first time, we were ushered to the upstairs seating!  Not sure if this was a good thing or not to be honest.  It was humid in the room with fans only and no airconditioning and very cramped with another party equally noisy to our own!  It didn't affect our enjoyment of the evening much though so it wasn't a problem.

  We picked entrees and ordered them quick and cracked open the bottle of Moet & Chandon Imperial which I was given last week as a gift from a supplier.
A good bottle ought to be shared with good friends I thought.  Fly Girl decided there should be a picture of me holding said bottle and I'm very glad she did because I've ended up with a brilliant photo of me and Mr Smart!

  Entrees came and went and we ordered mains, the wine and conversation flowed and Kris Kringle time rolled around!  I was told I didn't need to buy a Kris Kringle present as I'd already bought something for everyone (it being my first Christmas with the group I didn't know what the tradition was) but they made sure I received one which was lovely!  Everyone teamed up and got me a beautiful new ornament for my Christmas tree.  It's a Jim Shore Santa Claus!  It's so gorgeously jolly!

  Later on the lovely Fly Girl was telling us all about her latest escapades in Europe.  She did a whirlwind research tour visiting Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic at the same time as Mr Smart and I went to Tassie (but for slightly longer).  She pulled out a bag and proceeded to pass it around the table.  She had attended the Christmas market in Vienna, Austria and she brought back beautiful Christmas tree ornaments too!  One for each of us!  The bag went around the table and each of us picked an ornament to our liking.  Mr Smart and I chose identical ones as it turned out.  A delicate wood cut of a forest scene within a snow flake.
  There were great conversations at dinner, and fabulous toasts, and warmth and friendship.  A very merry Christmas indeed.

Left to right: Fly Girl, Masterchef and Mr, Miss M, Jess, Mr Smart and MiB

  It was really awkward to get in and out of the table as the long side were bench seats but inevitably, with the consumption of alcohol and water, we all needed to get up at some point.  The good part of that was it allowed a reshuffle and at one point it separated out into girls and boys.  I'm not sure how it ended up there but we got onto charities and who we donate to and who we don't donate to and why etc. but Fly Girl made a lovely point.  She said "Isn't it wonderful that as friends we all are charitable and give to better our world?"  And yes, I think it is.
  If any of you would like to make donations to charity, these were some of our top picks from the discussion, the "nice" list if you will:  Amnesty International, Leukaemia Foundation, The Fred Hollows Foundation, Movember and Wikimedia.  Apologies ladies if I failed to remember any other significant charities of note.  I don't think it would be fair to name those on the "naughty" list but needless to say, ones that road collect, stalk shopping centres and endlessly cold call you were not high on our favourites and ones that turn a profit were definitely right out.
  Our rowdy conversations and spirited debates took us to just after 11pm when someone mooted the idea of strolling up the street for dessert.  Perhaps for the best, all three places we tried were closed and so we all hugged and wished Merry Christmases on one another and set off for homes.  After dropping the others off and heading back to Mr Smart's it was about half past midnight.
  I would very much have liked nothing more than to sleep where I was but I knew I had to be up relatively early to make a shopping date with friends so I ended up making the long trek home and got in just before two.  I rubbed my eyes, brushed my teeth, read a chapter of my book because I'm addicted to it, and then rolled over and went to sleep.

  Today's food was:

• Breakfast was Jalna Greek Vanilla Yoghurt with Carmen's Classic Fruit Muesli and flaked almonds and two diced dried peach halves.
• Lunch was leftover Kraft French Onion Dip with fourteen Vita-Weat multigrain rice crackers.
• Dinner was a starter of prawn crackers and a full glass of Moet & Chandon Imperial, an entree of two sugar-cane prawns, a quail drumstick (yes, it was tiny and boney) and one minced beef wrapped in betel leaf and a main of rare beef Vietnamese salad.  I also tasted a couple of the other dishes around the table, Mongolian beef, a fresh chicken mango salad and a boneless pork sparerib hot pot.  Everything was delicious as it always is as Cafe 58.
• Today's advent calendar Lindor Ball was orange.

  Tune in for Sunday's thrilling adventure: Shopping day with HotCakes and Miss Mischief!
  Jess

*Source http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region