I had more parties to attend and visitors to entertain.
I recently joined Curves Gym. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much better it is to any other gym I have belonged to. Last week the gym owner organised a Christmas Dinner at Lychee Village Chinese Restaurant next door to the gym. We filled the whole restaurant. I met lots of new people.
But Joan (right) and I have been friends for many years. We met at Playgroup about 38 years ago.
Talking about Playgroup! The mothers from Springwood Playgroup back in the 70's still meet twice a year for dinner. We had a get together at the Carindale Hotel. It was very noisy but we still had a good time sharing photos and stories about our children and trips.
Joan and I fronted up again for more out to dinner fun. We are with Maureen and the three of us walk in the forest together every Saturday morning. We'll have to do more of that to work off all these dinners.
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This week we have had visitors from Switzerland staying with us for a few days. We took them to Baan Thai, our favourite local Thai restaurant. We had never met these young people before but they were very nice house guests. Marc (right) is the son of a distant cousin of TOH's, they have the same surname and now that I look at this photo Marc reminds me of TOH when he was that age. The other two, Jurg and Sybill, are friends of Marc. We took them for sight seeing trips each day and they were very appreciative. Yesterday morning they hired a campervan and they are off touring Australia. Just after TOH dropped them at the van hire place, he then headed to the airport and picked up our daughter who has come for Christmas. I quickly changed the sheets and cleaned the house while he was dropping off and picking up our next guests.
Now I know why you can't book into motels until after 2 o'clock. It sure is hard work having fun when you're retired.
Happy Christmas! You look like things have got off to a good start.
ReplyDeleteCurves Gym? I thought gym's were places to get rid of curves!
Diane, you sound very busy with all the parties and entertaining. So glad your daughter is home for the Christmas holiday! What a fun time! Merry Christmas to you and your family!
ReplyDeleteChristmas is a very busy time isn't it but it's so good to share with family and friends. wishing you a very happy christmas and a happy and healthy new year xxx
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Diane. Lovely photos. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.
ReplyDeleteYou certainly know how to party! Have a lovely Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed you have the time to join a gym but good for you. My gym membership lapsed whilst I was away in Australia so that is the first thing I need to do after Christmas and then try to get back into some kind of shape before my daughter's wedding in Feb.
ReplyDeleteLooks like non-stop celebrations for you this Christmas Diane! Lots of fun. Your Swiss guests must have enjoyed the warm summery weather I imagine. Best wishes to you and your family from me and the Musician for Christmas and for the New Year too!
ReplyDeleteMy goodness you are going to need weeks to rest up from all this fun.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful Christmas.
We understand if you can't blog - enjoy all the fun stuff first!!! That's an order! LOL
ReplyDeleteGreat to see that you are having a great time. Sure is a busy time for most people.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas..
You certainly have been having fun in Queensland. Isn't it nice to look after foreign visitors with no obvious reward in mind, but just for the pleasure of helping them enjoy themselves, having good experiences and seeing your part of the world.
ReplyDeleteA gym that organises Xmas dinner? That's MY kind of gym!!!
ReplyDeleteIt all sounds great Diane and I would like to wish you and Bill A Merry Christmas and A Very Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteWell you have a busy time, nice to have some young people around from abroad. I am sure they enjoyed your hospitality. Have a nice Christmas time.
ReplyDeleteMarianne
Merry Christmas Diane, It's wonderful of you to open your home to people that you have never met, especially at this time of year with your busy social life. Have a wonderful Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThank you to all my wonderful blog friends. I hope to get to your posts soon.
ReplyDeleteenjoy your daughters visit and what a busy life you have had the past few weeks, if i were that busy i would never blog at all. Merry Christmas
ReplyDeleteWalking in the forest every Saturday morning would be a lovely activity to look forward to. You are lucky to have so many friends living close by from so many years ago. How wonderful that you still get together!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you and your hubby Diane and all the best for the new year!
How nice of you to host the young people and show them around ! I noticed that each time I see pictures of a party there are more women then man or only women, I wonder if women enjoy more going out then man, in my case certainly, lol ! Looks like if you had a lot of fun !
ReplyDeleteHaving fun is hard work... but someone has to do it!
ReplyDeleteHave a great Christmas season and keep safe :)
Back after 3 delightful days at Alexandra Headlands ("Alex") on the Sunshine coast with a school mate from Joeys and his partner, Maggie. Trip up in the car horrendous, traffic north was bumper to bumper with police road checks. Took almost 3 hours.
ReplyDeleteSurf fantastic, no sea bugs or weeds. Pity that I am no longer able to surf a la as a teenager or even a 30 year old.
Fantastic apartment they had booked. The media room had a television screen almost the size of the ones at a cinema!
It was all a real surprise package.
Cheryl's Rochester Mayo Clinic Sun cream was great, even if gooey, so with "slip, slop and slap", I have a nice tan!
Ah to be able to hear the surf of a night and not the bloody crows of Brisbane at 3.00am with their rendition of Beethoven’s 5th! Pure bliss.
Glad that you enjoyed the company of Bill's Swiss relations and now having Carol Anne with you.
I agree this retirement stuff is exhausting, I may go back to work??
Cheers
Colin ( The old beach bum!)
You should indeed enjoy life, we also had a party yesterday. Merry Christmas.
ReplyDeleteGreetings,
Filip
Wishing you a wonderful day with family, food, fun, love, joy and peace. Merry Christmas.
ReplyDeleteHappy holidays!!
ReplyDeletedear diane,
ReplyDeletewishing you and yours a very merry xmas!!
xo
Wonderful that you have made good friends through the seasons of your life and kept them. I guess living in the same area helps. I spent a year living in Springwood while teaching back in the 80's.
ReplyDeleteTrust you are all enjoying time with your daughter Diane.
Karen
Merry Christmas, Diane & Bill!
ReplyDeleteI have been very busy packing for our move -- I never knew I had so much stuff until I had to put it all in boxes. I stil have more to pack! We only have two more weeks here and then the moving truck comes and off we go on our drive to Colorado. I am hoping we don't encounter any snowstorms. I may not be blogging or visiting blogs very much soon, when we make the move, but once I settle in I'll be back!