A very HOT Christmas

We were not looking forward to the hottest Christmas in living memory. The forecast was 40 degrees plus! On Christmas Eve, we made a plan to go for an early morning swim at South Beach, followed by breakfast at the cafe. The beach was quite windy, with a strong Easterly, the wind that would bring all the heat from inland. The water was lovely, though. We must do this again!

Breakfast was delish: I ordered a stack of pancakes:

C and E had savoury items:

After breakfast, it was my job to brave the crowds at Kailis to purchase seafood for Christmas Day. I was on the hunt for Garlic Prawns, which we’d enjoyed last year, plus a small pot of caviar for the blinis.

C pours some non-alcoholic rose wine:

E prepares the blinis:

We always forget the exact recipe from one year to the next and have to google it from all the vaiations.

My turn to cook the Garlic Prawns:

Prawns in the pan with a few mushrooms:

Prawns and salad for main course:

C had made tiramisu for dessert, which we had much later whilst watching a film on TV:


This film was an interesting choice. It’s an award winning film about a Tokyo toilet cleaner. E is going to Japan soon, so it seemed very appropriate. The toilets on his round are all different architectural structures. I hope E can track them down!

After the film, I drove home without any fear of getting stopped for drink driving. My first job was to water the community herb garden, which I knew would be suffering from the heat. There were sounds of merriment from the pool, but I had already had a swim at 8.00 am while things were quiet:

Finally, a pic of my Christmas/Birthday presents:

Countdown to Christmas

I’m not feeling in the mood for Christmas as I’m still below par with the effects of shingles. The blisters have gone from my face, but the area is still itchy and I have to keep off it as best as I can. I have absolutely no energy and spend most of the day resting. My sister sent me a lovely bunch of flowers to cheer me up:

The Bushwalkers Christmas Lunch was held on Thursday at the UWA Club. We were a somewhat diminished group compared to previous years:

I chose the Turkey, as this would be my only stab at traditional Christmas fare:

The barista made an interesting coffee:

On Friday night, C knew I wouldn’t have the energy to cook for them. She took us to a local Japanese restaurant, where they ate often during their kitchen renovations. I was sad to discover that it wasn’t licensed, but the green tea came in a most beautiful pot:

The food was delicious, though. Mine was tempura king prawns in a bento box (a generous portion and more than I could manage).

This weekend we are expecting a heatwave which will be something else to contend with.

Shingles update

I think the worst is over, but it’s been something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy! I felt pretty tired all the time, with no energy to do anything and certainly not to go out. Besides, I didn’t want anyone to see my face in this state:

That photo was taken on Sunday. It’s now Friday. 

At its worst, I didn’t dare take a shower or wash my hair. C brought me some shopping and finally persuaded me to go down for a coffee. With my hat and glasses on, nobody could see my face. On Wednesday, my cleaners came. This time, one was a French girl who told me her mother had had shingles a month ago. She showed me a photo and her eye was the spitting image of mine. There’s a lot of it about!

The advice is to take your mind off it as much as possible. I moved from the book version of Phryne Fisher to watching her on Netflix, which hopefully I’ve cancelled after the month’s trial.

I’ve finished a week of medication and the blisters are scabbing over. Bits are flaking off:

Luckily I’ve got dressed, as window cleaners are descending from the roof of the building, first his feet and then his head:

I don’t suppose he has time to look in.