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| Hazelnut Lindor Ball |
"I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month."
- Harlan Miller
Today I shall focus only on the most important event of the day, the arrival of Gub and the Cambridge Rower! We shall start with a heartfelt thank you. Thank you Mr Smart for lending me your huge car with which to pick up my sister and her partner in comfort including easily fitting both huge suitcases in your mammoth boot. Also thank you for coming with me to meet them for the very first time. You know what it meant to me, you know how much I appreciated it and you are a wonderful man.
Gub's flight was due to arrive at 22:35 and I checked the Melbourne Airport website regularly during the evening to check for any adjustments. I knew coming through customs would take a little while as the Cambridge Rower is of course not an Australian citizen and I didn't want to get there ages early and spend the whole time waiting so I was trying to time it as carefully as possible. Others might call it 'cutting it fine' but I was conscious of not wanting to cut it too fine given what happened on a previous occasion when I was in charge of picking Gub up (I was late and she was already through customs, waiting outside and calling my mobile to see where I was).
I left home at 21:45 and headed to the end of Hoddle Street to pick up Mr Smart. He was having a Christmas break up dinner at The Terminus but unfortunately I overshot the car park and ended up about 200m further down the road with no easy was of U-turning. Luckily Mr Smart is not fussy about things like this so when I called his phone he said his goodbyes to the group he was with and headed up the street to meet me. Of course I also walked down to meet him because I was too excited to sit still. I had estimated that I'd pick Mr Smart up by 22:15 but we were a little over and set off at 22:30.
As I drove up High Street, increasingly frustrated at finding myself behind a tram, Mr Smart checked the flight arrivals on his phone. "They landed ten minutes ago" he said. "Oh god, don't tell me that" I squealed anxiously. Not one to let an opportunity to tease me go by he began gently poking for the duration of the trip in. "They'll be off the plane now for sure", "They'll have their luggage now", "They'll be in customs", "Maybe they'll do him first because he's with an Aussie", "She'll be standing in the rain waiting now", "Any minute she'll call your mobile wondering where we are". Mr Smart didn't know about last time, but it made me laugh, albeit nervously.
When we got to the end of the arrivals corridor I nervously looked all around to see if Gub was milling around waiting, wondering where I was. A sigh of relief when I realised we had most likely made it in time. People from her flight though, were already coming through the doors.
Mr Smart had my camera and was waiting to catch a photo of the reunion of two sisters. He continued tormenting me unmercifully, a big goofy grin stuck permanently on his face. "Is that them?" he'd ask cheekily whenever anyone came through the door nearest us. As time started to march I began to get worried. "I hope we didn't miss them and they are just sitting somewhere waiting for us. She'd ring though".
Sure enough, thirty seconds later as I continued to scan the faces of the outcoming public, my phone rang. Gulp. "This must be her now", I said as I fished my mobile out of my bag. Mr Smart giggled as I realised he'd just pranked me. "You rat!" I laughed. And moments later, Gub and the Cambridge Rower sauntered through the door.
It's so good to have my baby sister home and to get to finally meet the man who has been making her so happy. They loved the glittery sign and laughed at my having laminated it for safe keeping (and glitter containment). "This is so coming back with us" she guffawed as we caught up on sister hugs. Eventually we'd done enough hugging to allow us to make our way back to the car.
Once we were in the car and on the way back to my place Mr Smart presented Gub with a small present wrapped in Christmas paper. "Happy Birthday" he grinned. She unwrapped it and found a very pretty stone penguin. She loved it and told us that we had best make sure that the Cambridge Rower gets to see a real wild penguin this trip as he's bordering on obsessed with them.
As we drove over the Bolte Bridge and around the city we passed the time pointing out various Melbourne landmarks to the Cambridge Rower. The Rialto, Eureka Tower, the Melbourne Eye (accompanied by stories of its tremendous failure), the Westgate Bridge, Crown Casino and the Arts Centre spire. And then of course, into the tunnel with not much to see after that until we reached home.
A quick tour of the house, kettle on and I asked if anyone was hungry. Mr Smart had eaten dinner out and was the only one not in need of sustenance. This turned out to be quite lucky as I was famished as were Gub and the Cambridge Rower and my container of soup only had enough for three serves! I was famished because in my desperate last minute cleaning between finishing work and leaving to collect the happy duo, I'd neglected to eat any dinner. So it was pumpkin soup and toast and cups of tea for any that wanted them, a Rainbow Paddlepop for Gub, and after some chatter and calming down after the excitement of coming together, we all decided that at 1am, bed was an excellent idea.
Today's food was:
- Lunch was a bowl of saffron rice with Creamy Potato Curry and Butter Chicken and a Vegetarian Pan Roll from Mild 'n' Spicy.
- Afternoon snack was a Bulla 225g Yoghurt Crunch: summer berry with honey oat crumbles.
- Dinner was homemade slow-roasted pumpkin soup with two slices of toasted Bürgen Wholemeal & Seeds Bread spread with olive oil spread.
- Today's advent calendar Lindor Ball was hazelnut.
Jess
we could take the to granite Island when they come to Adelaide there's fairy penguins there. I think we may have some at the zoo too.
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