Christmas 2023 and New Year 2024
We come together as a family to celebrate Christmas and enjoy a family luncheon or dinner.
We spend the day together and refelct on our times and also enjoy the family company.
Jeanette and I attend our Church and then come together to share presents with our family including our sons, daughter in law and our two grand children.
This year Jeanette cooks a traditional Christmas meal and we enjoy that followed by the usual Christmas pudding and custard and ice-cream. It is a joyous celebration and we feel very blessed to be able to get together.
Part of this time of celebration is to enjoy some drinks including Chris and David drinking some craft beers together with a superb Red wine (2010) vintage Shiraz and then a very good 2024 Cab Sav and Malbec from the best of South Australia.
Following lunch there is a period of karaoke which has all of us laughing.
Boxing Day is the day after Christmas and usually is Cricket at the MCG for the Test, this year between Australia and Pakistan.
We have enjoyed a couple of amazing days . The weather is warm and mild with temperatures of 25-27Degrees Celsius so perhaps a little cool to swim in the pool.
Thr following photos reflect thew joy of the day and we do realise how fortunate we are as a family.
Here are several photos including some duplicates of a great day. Ken is absent because he had the camera and was also hiding.
Sebastian has now gone past Narni and Pop whilst Oliver is closing quickly.
David is resplendent in his reindeer ears. We laughed and laughed with him.
A great day was had by all.
New Years Eve Concert at Hamer Hall - A pleasure to attend!
As a Christmas present the fellas gave Jeanette and Ken tickets to the New Year’s Eve Concert at Hamer Hall where we were entertained by the Aussie Pops Orchestra of 60 professional; high quality musicians under the leadership of Jonathan Foreman.
The Singers were Marian Prior, Michael Cormick and Jemma Rix world class entertainers in their own right and a brilliant ensemble. There were also the Dana Jolly Dancers . In addition these brilliant artists were supported by Camberwell Chorale, including Jacob from our Church Choir - Free Spirit.
We enjoyed almost 3 hours of entertainment broken up by a 20 minute interval and then several encore contributions.
We also took several photos of Melbourne on a beautiful day.
A good time was had by all!!
We enjoyed our concert at the superb Hamer Hall.
The3 following photos are from our walk along Flinders Street from the Station to the Theatre.
These photos reflect the southern end of the City of Melbourne. The Yarra River is a centre of activity and entertainment with a multitude of restaurants and river cruises. The wonderful MCG is the centrepiece of the sporting precinct.
Ken visits the MCC and watches AFL and Cricket .
Trams run along St Kilda road past the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) and its regular world class displays.
There is also a theatre and cultural hub area with Hamer Hall, the National Recital Centre and other theatres. The Australian Ballet and Aussie Pops Orcherstra are also housed in this area.
We are about 400 metres from the Retail hub in Swanston and Bourke Street with the Mall.
Our City is a beautiful mix of different spheres of activity and I haven’t commented on the many speaxctacular gardens including The Royal Botanical Gardens.
We have a variety of Tram lines dissecting the city and running to all corners of the Metropolitan area including the beautiful beaches.