One Day Away

Well, departure is rapidly approaching. Determining how much we can take with us has consumed more worry and re-packing than I care to think about.
Checking the Etihad website indicates we can take 30kg each plus carry-on plus hand (man)-bags which is at odds with the ticket which states 23kg. We opt for the greater amount and rely on having an iPad at the ready with the website pre-loaded to argue any case we may need to run.

Swimmers

Sunday was the final, full, Swimmers Group get-together........

....at the Beach Hotel, Byron Bay.

NOTE: for those not in-the-know, the hotel serves coffee from 8am so that, the conversation and the pseudo-religious experience of swimming across The Bay, is what we are there to enjoy.

A Merry Xmas and best wishes to all were exchanged along with statements of envy expressed for the adventure upon which we were about to embark.
Personally, I was still caught up in the packing, moving, lifting, separating, fitting-into-storage aspect of the whole thing to really feel at ease, but that will come once all is done, I hope.

Christmas Day

Was spent, initially at Chris and Pam's house in Ballina before loading the car and heading to Duncan's friend, Bianca's family place at Clark's Beach (Byron) for brunch. Once there, I absented myself to have a final swim across the bay while others prepared the brunch, with me arriving back just in time to sit down and feast.
Bianca's brothers had arrived in from China late the day before and so we were able to gain some insight into how business is done in China. Loads of potential there me-thinks.
Following brunch we headed up to Duncan's house in St Lucia (Brisbane) to have our evening Christmas dinner. And it was there that Father Xmas appeared bearing gifts of food and good cheer.....

....well it was Duncan's school-friend Alex, who had allegedly been feeling rather lonely and been invited to join us.
I lost track of events not long after, due in no small measure to the cheer Alex had brought along plus the pudding and game of Trivial Pursuit which followed.

As I write this on Boxing Day we have been to David Jones in order to acquire a set of electronic scales so as to ensure we are within weight limits as proscribed. Plus we have enjoyed a lunch on Mt Coot-tha with the vista of Brisbane laid out below. Most enjoyable, although I do feel that $54.00 for a coffee, a wrap, a burger, two Pepsis plus 15% holiday surcharge is a tad on the exxy side. Looking forward to $5 meals-for-two in Singapore.
Lau Pa Sat here we come!!

Preparations

Here we are, eleven days out from departure and fully into the packing up/preparing for Xmas/sorting out the little things like health insurance and banking stuff. It all seems so easy when you first know it is happening and it probably is, but the great procrastinator within likes putting things off until the absolute last minute.

The storage shed is in the process of being arranged with shelving so as to facilitate easier finding of all those 'important' things when the time/need arises.

The cat - 17y.o.+ and named Bastille - has been dispatched Friday to the nice lady at the cattery who offered to take her if we could find no-other. Miraculously, it was Pet Adoption Day yesterday and an even nicer lady allegedly came in, saw Bastille, fell in love with her and has taken her home "to Nashua". Which could become an alternate term for what I am going to call 'pethanasia', should I take the trouble to investigate it. But I probably won't. Sometimes it is better to just believe.

And so hopefully we will go from this:

                                                           to this:

in a blink of an eye. With the contacts we already have in SG together with the research done on the net we hope be settled quickly. This will be a necessity as Heather gets into it on the 2nd Jan. No summer break this year.

The Final Week....

 ......has been pandemonic. It is just as well I decided to focus on the packing as it would not have been achievable without it.
Removalists were booked for Friday initially, but when we attempted to change it to Wednesday morning things went a little pear-shaped. The original team were unable to make the change so we had to swap to another, local mob. That was the easy part.
The difficulty came when an attempt was made to move the sliding-topped, extendable, very heavy, glass dining table.
Step 1: lift and turn on side.
Result = a bent and almost broken leg.
Step 2: exit through the font door. This proved difficult due to the width and weight.
Result = one dropped and shattered glass-topped table.

Currently we are in discussion with the company to determine what can be done to rectify the situation.

 

 The Last Supper and the Tooth

Friday the 21st December was the day chosen to bid farewell to some of the group of friends we have here at home and the Gateway Motel in Lismore was the only venue that could fit us in.
All went reasonably well until desserts were on the table

I had chosen the Lemon Citrus tart as depicted above. (At the bottom of the picture!). Note the toffee artfully placed atop the dessert.
This toffee was, moments later, to result in my needing the services of a dentist with only one working day remaining before Xmas and days before our departure. PANIC!!!
According to the lovely dentist-lady, Lindsey, I am suffering a case of Baby-Boomer's Crack. Something which is becoming quite prevalent, has not much at all to do with builders and everything to do with aging bodies and early, amalgam fillings. There you go.