Christmas

It’s very strange (and people will get sick of me saying this - but it’s very strange!) to have Christmas in hot weather with everyone wearing shorts and T shirts. We were at the mall the other day, and there was Santa all dressed up in his beard and red suit, Jingle Bells playing in the background and you go outside and there are palm trees … It’s VERY STRANGE! We had a lovely Christmas day with Reg and Ruby and their family. They have made us feel so welcome and have been really hospitable. There were 4 kids in the mix, so lots of excitement and gift wrap ripping! Reg dug out some of the kid’s birthday candles (John’s birthday is on Christmas Day) and we found two 6s and a 5 - 66 + 5 = 71 which is John’s age, so that went down well stuck on top of the Christmas cake! We talked to Zoe, Andy and Shelly so at least we were in touch with family back at home.
One of the highlights of the day was that we were adopted by a magpie (looks a little like our Canadian crow in magpie uniform without the long tail). He came hopping up to the screen door so Ruby put some food out for him and he wasn’t scared of her at all. As the day went on and kids and dogs roared round the yard, he/she stayed put and became tamer and tamer, to the point where he was sitting on peoples’ shoulders (and pooping on them!) and eating out of their hands. We reckon he must be someone’s pet which has either escaped or been set free. Other magpies have been bombing him, so he’s obviously something of a freak. We wondered if he would still be around today (Boxing Day) and he was waiting for us all to get up - running up and down on the ground outside asking to be let in. He started singing today which he didn’t do yesterday. Magpies here have a curious warbling call, and his is very quiet and the more he went on, the more he added other sounds which weren’t magpie at all - as if someone had been trying to teach him to talk. John was convinced he heard “G’day”!
December 30 - We have been house-bound for the past 3 days as John picked up some kind of nasty cold/flu and has looked and sounded like death warmed over. He really has been unwell so we trundled off to the doctor yesterday and he’s now on antibiotics - 24 hours after taking the first one, he’s back to giving everyone a hard time, so we think he’s better! Before he got sick, we went to the Australian Motor Museum where, as you can imagine, many photographs were taken (the total for the trip is now over 8,000 I’m told!) There was one car which was actually a huge mobile phone, complete with push buttons and receiver, and was rigged up so that people could make phone calls on it, but for some unknown reason, that is not one of the 8,000 photographs! The Museum is quite near the Barossa Valley which is a famous wine-producing area, so we tasted our way through a few vineyards! On the way home, we stopped at the Whispering Wall which is a large concave dam. After building it, they discovered that it has the same acoustic properties as the dome at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London - you can whisper to people who are at the other end of the dam and they can hear you plainly - so of course we had to do that!
Ndw Year - We did manage to get John vertical and awake enough to come out on New Year’s Eve. His throat was still incredibly sore and he didn’t feel great, but he made it to midnight and even managed to dance a bit! This “bug” has really knocked him sideways - we’ve been very boring guests for Reg and Ruby who had all kinds of interesting plans for our stay with them, and we ended up not moving out of the house for 4 days straight. We really have appreciated being at their house while John has been sick - he’s been able to stay in bed and be looked after by Ruby-mom who gave him ice cream for his sore throat. They were so understanding - Reg sat with us for 2 hours while we waited to be seen by the doctor and they both did everything to help us get him on the road to recovery. We are just hoping that they don’t get whatever it was. John’s definitely on the mend now, but we have constructed a “Recovery Scale” and have decided that he is now higher than “comatose” and a little better than “awake“, but “enthusiastic” is still to come and “vibrant” is a distant dream! We leave Adelaide tomorrow to pick up our campervan to drive to Melbourne, so hope he will manage the trip OK.
Comments - we have heard that people are still having trouble leaving comments on the blog. If you pick the “Anonymous” option, you can leave a comment and just put your name at the end so we will know who it’s from. The alternative is to leave it Anonymous - particularly if you leave a comment about The Hat, which SOME PEOPLE have chosen to do!!!
Happy New Year to everyone - good health and happiness.