CBD

It’s quite terrifying that this is the last LWB of the year. I’m sure 2023 only started a few weeks ago - I must be getting very old! I’m sure it used to take about a hundred years for Christmas to come round when I was a child.

I’m writing this from Sydney - such a liveable, loveable city. As well as having beautiful beaches and parks everywhere, the public transport here is SO efficient. These lucky Sydneysiders really don’t need to use a car much at all. They have car clubs where you just rent cars by the hour - your phone can tell you where they are and you just book and pay electronically. Surely we could do this here? I find myself hopping on and off ferries just for the sheer joy of whizzing around the gorgeous harbour. And the cultural scene is so impressive - countless galleries and theatres and concerts. Thinking it would be nice to give my Sydney based children a fix of culture (culture light, admittedly), I bought us tickets to a Christmas pantomime. They’d never been to one before and luckily they are adults. It was the very naughty Trevor Ashley starring in his last performance before he heads for London. He dreamt it up, blending Hans Christian Andersen’s “ The Little Mermaid “ and “The White Lotus” TV series with extremely raunchy outfits, songs and dances. It was no place for the squeamish or the easily offended. Absolutely marvellous fun and definitely NOT for children, but ideal for childish adults.

For a bit more culture, I’ve got my bookclub’s Christmas dinner once I’m back home. As usual, there will probably be zero discussion of books, and very much nonsense. I’m firmly of the belief that the most important part of our bookclub discussions (and of most other clubs, too, if they are honest) is about what we will do for our Christmas get-together and it usually takes several hundred group emails to get it organised. We don’t always have enough time to discuss any books as we are so busy deciding on venue, menu etc. Poor old baby Jesus - he must have wished his parents had had him at a less busy time of the year. We were in Egypt once and you could go and see the cave where Mary and Joseph hid him away from King Herod. I boarded at S Hilda’s Collegiate in Dunedin and got a LOT of religious information (which I have not remembered well) and I’m certain I never knew that they’d all gone on a very long budget holiday to Cairo.

The best Christmas story I have heard was from Olivia Wild who runs the wonderful Tom Pryde Centre for families with special needs people - they took a large group for a weekend to Camp Columba and the joy on everyone’s faces as they went on slides and climbing walls, rafts, flying foxes and more was absolutely beautiful.

Thanks so much for all the feedback you’ve been giving especially regarding the overzealous airport security! Sydney Airport has joined the rest of the intelligent world and doesn’t ask passengers to take anything out of their bags. Maybe ZQN will give us a great Christmas present by following suit, and QLDC will give us the gift of actually listening to the community and giving us some reason to think they have ratepayers’ best interests at heart. I’m an eternal optimist! Have a very happy Christmas and here’s hoping that 2024 is going to be one of great peace and joy for the whole world.