Belated Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Oh my crumbs..... Wow at last I can write my blog.... I'm using a different computer at the moment because my other computer has practically run out of memory and I'm in the middle of trying to put a lot of the things on a back-up drive device. I'd also forgotten my password and other stuff. I've still got photo's on my camera from the beginning of December 2012 and lost my spare set of batteries. So in short I've been having computer troubles where I'm still learning to sort it out. I'm not a real tech head and just got my very first computer which is connected to the Internet just about two or three years ago.... I'm sorry i can't have any photo's on this blog post yet I can't because I've got no access to them....
Soooooooooo I'm wishing you you all a very belated and very Merry Christmas wherever you are!!! How was for everyone out there? With mine I went up to my parents place where my brother and his girlfriend came up on Christmas day. On Christmas Eve I decorated the modern Christmas tree with my Mum and that brought back memories of my childhood. It also rained and poured while I wrapped my presents on Christmas eve as well watching channel 9's 'Carol's By Candlelight'. Christmas day was no ordinary summer day but it rained, rained, poured and rained some more with a few brief windy patches. Instead of nice shorts, sandals an a shirt I wore a jacket, jeans, some waistcoat vest thing and sand-shoes. With our family we still endured the cold weather and ate outside with a few very soggy birds as visitors throughout the day. In the afternoon we all went to my Uncle and Aunts place and caught up with some other family members which was great. My Dad was showing of this extremely new strong torch that he got for Christmas with some special bulb or lighting device to his brother. My brother and his girlfriend were there also seeing people for the first time in quite a while which was good.
So amongst all the food that Mum made and I helped out quite a bit... as well as the presents which this year I went overboard for buying for everyone... It was a very nice special family Christmas with Rachel my brothers girlfriends first Christmas with us.... Because last year they were both in the town of Bethlehem, the one in America and not Israel which is really appropriate for Christmas...My Mum even got a belated present from them both last year which was 'The Star Of Bethlehem'. Which was really nice of them both to give to her.
Christmas day went of without a hitch yet boxing day was a way different story where something happened..... I'll tell you about it in my next blog post coming soon.....
Until then I hope everyone had a very happy and safe Christmas....

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Well, well, well another Christmas and New year has been and gone so fast. My Christmas was a quiet one. I went up to my parents up on Christmas Eve had dinner then went to a Christmas light street display up in Newport. The whole street nearly had heaps of lights and was also packed with people for 200 to 500 metres or something like that. I took a few pictures with my mobile phone yet they turned out quite dark.

Christmas morning I woke up early and made it to the early morning church service. I got there on time and it was so packed. People were out on the landing bit sitting there also. I hadn't been to a morning Christmas service in years so it was very interesting. After the service I greeted a few people then rushed back up to my parents house who were well and truly awake by this time and sitting on the balcony. We had the traditional blueberry pancakes and icing sugar which was great.

The rest of the day was reasonably quiet yet we did have a big meal which filled all three of us up. My brother was away in America with his girlfriends family which was strange. He'd never been away for Christmas before and I found myself missing him. Mum, Dad and I opened presents ooohing and aahhing over them. We also had a very small dinner of leftovers after the big lunch of duck and other items...

Boxing Day was a quiet day with parents making overseas phone-calls to friends and I replied to quite a few text messages and emails. That afternoon we all went over to my uncle and aunts place to catch up with them. For me I hadn't seen them for about a year and a half so I was excited. The most extraordinary thing happened when we were there which was like synchronicity working. One by one my three other cousins with their new families came walking into the house within a space of an hour or so. That made my day because I hadn't seen them all in ages and I met two of the new kids or babies as well. We all had something to eat and drink catching up all the while. It was so amazing. It had made my day and I found it really, really special.

New Years was another quiet one with seeing the 9pm fireworks down at Dee why beach with some friends of mine. Then went back to their house to chat and watch the midnight fireworks on TV. We all left within the next two hours and I went home. Turned the TV and watched the "Can't Stop The Music" which had the Village People in it. Only having one drink that night I knew that I was not going to have a hangover and I went to bed feeling good about that. I also thought of my brother and his girlfriend who must be tired after coming back some time on New Years Eve.

New Years day or afternoon I went back to my parents for a belated Christmas celebration for my brother and his girlfriend. We had dinner on the balcony and spent most of the evening catching up, talking. Also nearly forgot opening our presents. It was so great to see them back safe and sound in Sydney. I ended up staying the night at my parents which was good. I'm sorry I can't really supply any pictures with this blog post yet my computers memory is running out. Which means i have to get one of those storage back-up thingo's. Yet I'll try to find one.... So you can say that I've already celebrated Christmas this year in 2012 on New Years Day. When it comes to 25th December it will be my second Christmas..... Strange but true....
So I hope everyone had a great, happy and safe Christmas also New Year!! It's a bit late yet I still remembered... See you in my next entry....

Remembering My Grandma

Imagine a bright hot sunny day on Saturday the 13th of December 2003 where the season of summer had started in Australia. I was showing Peter around who was a friend of mine from Switzerland and we were just walking back from a local beach. On my mobile I got a phonecall from my Mum wondering where I was as she was out and about also with a friend. We organised that she come drop in at my place for a visit which seemed fine.

So half an hour to an hour later Mum and Kathy stopped by. It was then that I was informed that my beloved Grandma had died shortly before quietly. Mixed feelings of shock and disbelief rocked my body to a different place. Poor Peter my visitor must have thought he had walked into a family drama of sorts. Yet my Mum said that she wanted to see her body with my Dad and somehow I was to come also. My memory was a blur from then on and we ended up at the nursing home where she was. Walking into the room where she was laying and finally seeing her was really surreal because it brought home the fact that she had gone. My precious Grandma had gone to a better place after so long. I was the only Grandchild to turn up and I think my Uncle as well as Aunt was there also. Holding her now cool skinny bone-like hand was important for me having Asperger's. Seeing her I felt that I could let go better and say "Goodbye" to here in my own way. I also saw my Grandpa a few years earlier when he died and that was really comforting. Yet his body was still warmish at the time I had arrived more quickly at his side then.

Any way the funeral was quickly sorted out with the tumultuous time before Christmas being only less than 12 days away. Plans were disrupted for the whole family with the matriarch holding us all together had gone. I'd even had already bought her a Christmas present of a calendar for her that I realised she couldn't use anymore...or I give her The day of the funeral was a really hot day where everyone gathered at the cemetery up in Cooranbong in the little chapel up there on the grounds of Avondale College. The ceremony was held to remember her where I think I read out a poem or something I wrote for her. If my memory serves me correctly she was led out to the grave with a lone Scottish bagpiper playing. Her proud Scottish heart would have been pounding if she were alive...yet she wasn't.

Now seven years on I still miss her and think of her quite a bit. I've got a couple of photo's of her around the place and still look at them. A month or so ago I also saw her grave for the first time since that time and seeing the gravestone meant a lot to me. After so long I could see her resting place again and remember what a wonderful Christian woman she was. The same blood that beated in her is running through my veins today living on in her memory... Oh Grandma how I still love and miss you...May God be with you...