Christmas and New Year 2023

We have enjoyed a great Christmas and New Year with a range of interesting activities .

We commenced on Christams Eve and watched Carols by Candlelight from the Myer Music Bowl with a number of excellent artists and carols from a large choir.

Christmas day commenced with Ken singing with Free Spirit Choir at the 8.30am service, which was well attended. The Choir of some 22 people sang well, despite so many absent. It was a lovely service.

Then we had lunch at our home with David joining Jeanette and Ken for a lovely lunch with a lovely bottle of red wine. In the afternoon Chris, Peita and Seb, and Oliver arrived after lunch with Peita’s parents and family. We enjoyed a lovely 2 hours swimming in the pool and the boys had a great time. We then handed our presents. Subsequently enjoyed a meal of salads and meats as well as lovely desserts.

Boxing day then came quickly and Ken joined friends at the MCG ( Cricket Ground), there was a good crowd of some 65,000 watching day 1 of the boxing Day Test between South Africa and Australia. The day was dominated by Australia and the South Africans were dismissed some 45 minutes after tea time then Australia batted to stumps with the loss of only one wicket.

Ken has been attending this test match at the MCG in the MCC Members section, with this group of friends for approximately 35 years.

Jeanette shopped and did well with several specials.

We are also preparing for our upcoming short cruise from Melbourne to Adelaide and return via Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island on Grand Princess. This is on 3rd January 2023.

On the 28th of December, we had Ken’s brother, Neville, and his wife out to our home. Neville was looking at a damaged motor in a blind but found that the motor had failed. We then went out to lunch at the Wheelers Hill Hotel and enjoyed a lovely afternoon. We had only recently celebrated Neville’s 70th birthday at RACV club at Healesville and had enjoyed the celebratory party and dinner.

Ken played golf at Kew Golf club, which was severely damaged in the November floods of the Yarra river. several holes still are closed and the course has been reshaped to a set up with 8 par 3 holes. It will be several weeks if not months until the whole course is repaired and back to its beautiful self. Golf was good and our foursome started at 10.24 am and finished at about 1.30 pm, Ken played well with 35 Stableford points.

On Saturday, which was New Year’s Eve, Jeanette and Ken went into the city by Train and walked along to Southbank an area with Restaurants overlooking the Yarra River in the centre of the City. We checked out several restaurants and selected a Greek restaurant and enjoyed an excellent meal.

Melbourne on New Year’s Eve is a very busy, cosmopolitan outing for many thousands of people with something like 600,000 people attending the New Year’s Eve fireworks display. We chose to go into the city earlier,(late morning) and enjoy lunch, watch the people and then attend the Australian Pops Orchestra at Hamer Hall with about another 3-4,000 people. It is an outstanding concert with wonderful lead artists, and the Australian Pops orchestra of 60 musicians, conducted by the famed John Foreman, and with singers Marina Prior and Mark Vincent it is a cast to ensure a successful concert. We had an outstanding afternoon. The music was wonderful and the singing and dancing were just great. The Australian Pop Orchestra took to the stage and played with Australia’s leading Lady of song, Marina Prior and tenor extraordinaire Mark Vincent. The Choir was made up of Camberwell Chorale led by Doug Heywood and then the Dana Jolly Dancers consisted of 4 female and 4 male dancers, adding a beautiful touch with terrific costumes.

Marina and Mark teamed up for duet highlights including The Prayer, Brindisi ( from La Traviata), Music of the Night and Time to Say Goodbye.

The Pops Orchestra also added to the usual favourites of The Blue Danube, Radetzhy March and plenty more. It was a brilliant concert. This was our Christmas present from Peita and Chris and David paid for our lunch.

We came home with friends from the Church on the train from the city to Glen Waverley. Home for a swim and then watched cricket on the television. It has been a terrific New Year’s Eve and a great way to see out the old and bring in the New.

We are also contemplating watching the evening fireworks from Melbourne and then the world-famous Sydney fireworks from the Sydney Harbour and with the Sydney Harbour Bridge festooned with fireworks and displays. However, as the time approaches we feel more likely to retire at 10.45 pm.