Christmas Day

I had a very good day. Jenny wanted Joe and me over at 10:30am for present opening followed by the dining setup downstairs at her place. A good friend of Jenny was expected with her husband at noon.

Opening, examining and discussing the presents did take some time. Jenny gave me a hamper full of wonderful foods and I gave her an Edwardian gold sovereign. Old sovereigns have some rarity value in addition to their gold content. Joe helped Jenny to set up the dining arrangements

Jenny's good friend was Jillan and her husband is Raymond. Raymond has just had a knee replacement so is getting around with some difficulty. He is an engineer by trade and has occasionally done small fixup jobs for Jenny.

A sixth memnber of the party was a bitch named Marley (after the Reggae eminence) that Jenny is minding for Kym, a friend. Marley was in a room adjoining our dining room but could see us through a screen door. She did a fair bit of barking but both Jenny and I were able to pacify her at times. She is only a medium-size dog but has a loud bark. I managed to make friends with her.

The food was as varied and as delicious as you can always expect when Jenny does the catering. Roast chicken and ham were the staples but there was much to go with those. I was very pleased that Jenny got in Parbakes for the occasion. Jenny was in a good mood and everyone else was too. So it was a jolly occasion. I left at about 2:30 after having eaten too much and went home for a nap.


Joe waiting for things to happen, with Raymond in the background. The men spent most of the time sitting around while the women did all the work in the kitchen. A very traditional arrangement that is often deplored these days but which all parties were comfortable with at our Christmas. It means that the women run the show


The table set for dessert. Jenny's excellent trifle towards the far end of the table. Trifle and Pavlova are my favourite desserts and Jenny always gives me one of those at Christmas



Zoe was due over at my place at 4pm but discussed a later arrival with me via email.

So at about 4:30 I went up to the Mater and spent a bit of time with Irene. Her new knee seems to be making progress. I gave her a small nougat bar which she liked. We discussed how long we have known known one-another and it appears that we met in late 2016 via Vera Kahlert.

Zoe finally arrived at my place a bit before 7pm dressed in her bathing suit. She came directly from a swimming pool. She looks quite fetching in her swimming gear but she has never allowed me to take a picture of her in it.

We just lay in bed talking for most of the time with her doing most of the talking, as usual. She spent some time talking about Trajan, which is a pretty intellectual topic. I am myself interested in Roman history so I knew what she was talking about. She has a lot of intellectual interests -- principally in ancient history, European literature and clinical psychology, so, as I have noted previously, it is very pleasing to her that I am very familiar with those subject areas. She recently said, "I used to go for good-looking men but they are all stupid".

She left just after 9 in a happy and affectionate mood. I was glad I saw her on Christmas day. The day would have been lacking otherwise. She is a difficult woman in some ways but I love her.