Temperatures have been in the mid twenties for some time now and thoughts of stockings by the fire seem a bizarre activity to pursue despite Christmas cards here depicting the traditional images befitting a northern hemisphere celebration!
Bernie, as you can see, is doing remarkably well, and is showing remarkably well too! Young Whitaker keeps bouncing around, much to his/her mother's delight as can be seen below (recipe in hand Liz!):
Bernie isn't knocking out as many as Liz and Georgie (her Mother and Aunt respectively) do each year, but she is working single handed due to me going for a blast on my road bike with mates instead of slaving away in the kitchen - horses for courses right?!
Tomorrow is the first endurance swim - a 2km swim from the beach towards the top left of the next picture, to the point from which the picture is being taken. In Feb there is a swim from the same beach, around the island to the right and all the way back to the far beach - 3.8km!
The garden is churning out more spinach, lettuce and Pak Choi than we can consume. Beetroot has been pickled, peas, tomatoes, rhubarb, broccoli, cauliflower etc etc all coming through too in various waves... I've still got a long way to go to match the steady stream my father produces, but I'm getting there slowly!
Poor old Bobby had a freak accident - so freaky nobody knows what happened! He ended up with a couple of dozen stitches and an inevitable scar - we think he wants to shake off the reputation his boyish good looks has earned him in the neighbourhood!
Just to add insult to injury, he has had 4 days recuperating inside and was taken for a check-up today, only to be rewarded with a lampshade to impede his ability to move around... the hyperactive behaviour has been replaced by an inability to move more than 6 inches without getting caught on a piece of furniture!:
You can tell that Bobby-Dazzler (as uncle Mike calls him!) is having a great run-up to Christmas!
We have 3 days of lessons next week, followed by a prize giving morning, followed by a drunken golf session, followed by a drunken leaving speeches / BBQ day.... then school's out for seven weeks of summer!!
As if we aren't enjoying enough sun, sea and summer fun, we're off to Sydney in two weeks time - we fly from Christchurch so it will be interesting to see the destruction down there first... we are staying with the friend who seems to be the only person who was unaffected by any of the quakes... which are still occuring!
Love and festive cheers to all family and friends - we hope that you have an awesome Christmas... we'll try to remember to update this from Sydney but if not have a great time! We're both sorry to be so far away from most of you... you'll all just have to make sure you come and visit soon!
Love from Chris Bernie (and bump) and Bobby-Dazzler X X x X
You know what, with a bit of DIY and electronics I am sure you can use Bobby to check the next West-Ham game!
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