Summer and the Christmas season!

It's basically mid-December and the main reason for this post is to show off the personalised stocking which was knitted for me by my very talented mother-in-law! Please see below - beside it is Jeremy's stocking which he has had since he was young. I think they look rather spiffy hanging from our mantel! I feel like we have really managed to get into the season this year, despite the blistering heat! We have attended not one, but TWO Christmas parades (or pageants as they are referred to here, which I still don't entirely understand). The other three pictures show the Clare parade (erm, pageant) and the Norwood one.

We are also getting ready for some Canadian guests, YAY! First, Tarek will be sweeping in for a short and sweet visit the weekend on the 19th. On the 21st, Ronan and Adam arrive in Melbourne and I fly out to meet them on the 22nd. We arrive back to Adelaide on the 24th, where we will have an orphan Christmas Eve dinner and then head to Clare on the 25th. Jeremy is sadly on call the 24th and 25th but has managed to wrangle a week off from the 26th to Jan 3rd which we will take advantage of (although unfortunately I will still have to work my Tues and Thurs mornings, plus try to get some PhD work done.

As for life in general, that has basically been it down here...working, PhDing, drinking (too much) wine the odd moment we actually get to relax together (didn't see each other for almost 3 weeks over the end of Nov/beginning of Dec). This past weekend was Jeremy's work Christmas lunch, and for some insane reason I decided to be convinced to ride my bike there, which normally wouldn't be an issue except that it was 38+ degrees! Agh! And the restaurant we were going to was at a high point of the valley. We rode about 20 kms and surprisingly didn't die of heat stroke. Just to put it in perspective, there were 5 collapses from heat exhaustion at the Clare pageant the evening before which required ambulances! So really, it was actually quite a silly idea but we did it.