2022 Christmas Letter
24/12/22 01:38 Filed in: Christmas Letters
Dear all,
The year started off well.
We had our first plane ride since Covid. We took a trip to Tasmania!
We’ve lived in Australia for 40 years and this is the first time we’re making a trip to the Apple Isle. Can’t believe we didn’t visit Tasmania earlier.
The produce that they have, (seafood, fruits, meat etc) are all so fresh and (I hate to admit), in certain areas, better than what we can get in Sydney. I highly recommend visiting if you haven’t been. We will certainly be back exploring more of Tasmania in the future.
We went in February (in case geography is not your forte, it’s summer here) and there was still a live fire place in the lobby of the hotel. We soon found out why….(hint: Tasmania is closer to Antarctica than Sydney).
After 3 years of lockdown, we welcome back visitors to Sydney this year. We had more visits than even our pre-Covid days. My cousin and his family visited twice (they had so much fun the first time!), two high schoolmates who I haven’t seen for 40 years, and finally, a couple of friends who we normally meet up overseas visited Sydney (finally!) and we had a chance to catch up!
For my schoolmates, here’s a before-and-after photo (good thing I kept the Yearbook eh?):
My cooking improved and my confidence grew to the point I was confident to cook for some of our visitors. I even cooked a full Italian meal with entree, first and second courses and dessert!
Some of the things I’m quite proud of cooking:
Bucatini alla carbonara
Ricciarelli
Focaccia with tomatoes and anchovies - a frequent Sunday lunch.
You may be wondering why there’s no Christmas tree at the top of this letter, which I normally do (except in 2007). Well, our bundle of joy, the cute, lovely, beautiful Kismet left us on the Friday 5 weeks ago.
She was unwell and after surgery and lots of vet visits, for a while, things were looking up and I thought I can put off writing this for another couple of years.
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be and on 25 November, she left us.
15 years ago, I mourned for my dad. I’ve been missing dad for 15 years. Now I will miss dad and Kismet.
She really was a cat with a personality. I had a totally different relationship with her than Tiger, our previous cat of 19 years. Maybe it’s because Tiger was a male cat. Kismet was much softer and had a real feminine touch. She was also just so funny.
When mum was doing her physio exercises in the mornings, Kismet would take advantage of the time and come and get her strokes and tickles too.
She would come and headbutt (and rubbed) her head against my head. If I was sitting too low, she’d meowed for me to sit up higher. One time, I was stroking her and she suddenly bit me. So for a whole day after when I saw her I ignored her (even gave her the finger). She knew. So, later that evening, when I was watching TV, she came and rubbed her head against mine. Awww…all was forgiven.
I still look at the backdoors every time I walk past, expecting this:
She remained the only female to come into my bed in the middle of the night, slept in my bed and left my bed in the middle of the night.
Thank you for bringing so much joy into this house for the past 12 years, little one.
We didn’t put up the tree this year and it’s also why the song to go with the letter this year is called “Christmas Won’t Be The Same Without You”.
Missing dad, and Kismet.
Enjoy your Christmas, may it be safe and memorable for you.
Your friend,
Bevan
