The past few days have been a whirlwind of parties and I think we are all pretty partied out, although the poor men have had to go to work today. On Boxing Day we went to a BBQ at the house of someone Richard used to work with at Coca-Cola, which was nice, except for the screaming kids!! Rich had got the times wrong and so we turned up expecting to eat at about 1400 and had to wait until 1900 - not only were we very hungry, but we were hoping for a quiet evening in in front of a DVD, oh well. I decided to drive back and Rich and I went to the local drive through bottle shop to pick up some Coke and wine. This caused much amusement when we returned, as being a Coke employee, the hosts had a walk in cupboard full to bursting with the stuff. I had a really interesting chat with a couple called Yvonne and Duncan who both work for the police here, he's a policeman and she works in the emergency call centre, so it was fascinating to compare protocol in the two countries. There was also a Mexican santa pinada full of sweets which everyone had a go at breaking - at least it kept the children quiet for a while. On the 27th we had another party in our hectic social calendar, this one a staff party for the restaurant where we had Christmas dinner and Rich sometimes helps out waiting. Tanya, the owner, is also the one I worked with in the shopping mall, hence my tenacious 'staff' invite. The party was in a suburb called Epping and it was at Tanya's parents house, which was beautiful and had a pool - as you can see from the photo. I had the most fantastic piece of steak from the BBQ and when there was some going spare, it wasn't there for too long, believe me. The sun was out, so the pool was very inviting and I certainly made the most of it. The 28th and the final party for now, which was held at home and involved lots of preparation. We were all agreed that we would rather have done nothing all day, but the invites went out ages ago and it was too late to back out. It was a good afternoon and evening, although we threw people out at 2200 as today is a work day. I spent about 4 hours earlier today clearing up and doing the dishes - how typical, the dishwasher broke just before I arrived. Love from S xx