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: