It was a leisurely start to the day and I sat out in the garden reading and finishing Olivia Newton-John's biography. Alan took the dog for a walk to the newsagents, and I then perused the sports pages. Ponting is out of the last Test and Uzman Khawaja replaces him and Dougie Bollinger is back to replace the injured Harris. Will the Aussies be drinking beer or champagne at the end of the match? The new captain Michael Clarke seems to have the support of about 15% of the Australian public. The temperature in the morning started off around 29 degrees.
Maureen went off to buy oysters but the shop was sold out. However she reserved a portion for when the afternoon delivery arrives. Also her local branch of her bank was closed until the 4th January, so she's going to have to go to another branch to pay her mortgage. I bought a couple of postcards and Maureen took them with her on her second journey to post (one to Nick and one to Shauna & James). Alan went to the Flight Centre and booked a flight to Sydney for Monday evening and will take advantage of the the spare tickets I have for the next few days. When she went out again the path to the Post Office led Maureen past a clothes shop where she was tempted into a purchase! By now the temperature was in the mid 30s. Upon her return she took us back to the shopping centre as I had forgotten earlier to buy her some chocolates, an item that Alan doesn't eat, so they would be exclusively hers. As she called into a garage to top up I was able to pay for the petrol (she will have made three trips to the airport for us by tomorrow and it is about 20km away).
More reading in the afternoon and I watched the half hour Polish news on Maureen's new TV, whilst she went for a nap. In the late afternoon Maureen went to switch the airconditioning on and all the lights went off. Investigation of the circuit breaker box revealed that the lighting circuit was off, however it refused to switch back on unless it was held in position. I got Alan to check every light in the house whilst Maureen held the breaker in the mid-position which is where the lights seemed to work. All the lights worked so it wasn't a blown bulb that had tripped the circuit breaker. I think I worked out how switching on the a/c might have destroyed the lighting circuit breaker (I won't go into the technicalities here). After some searching of the garage, with large amounts of roof insulation to contend with, I found some extending metal crutches with a rubber tip. By turning them upside down and putting a number of books underneath I was able to hold the circuit breaker switch in a postion that enabled the lights to work. The move was a success and on Tuesday Maureen will be able to get an electrician to fit a new breaker in place.
With the a/c on and the lights working we watched a DVD of Paul McCartney in Concert in Moscow awaiting the arrival of the guests. They were Maureen's friends Rhonda and Tina along with her new man. We sat outside having some nibbles and drinks until Tina asked if we could go inside as it was too hot (I guess it was getting close to 40 degrees). We went in and had the meal consisting of oysters (hot & cold) for starters, followed by smoked salmon, giant prawns and assorted salads. It was all delicious and I heeded Maureen's supplications to finish the last three prawns. This was followed by a superb home made trifle with loads of Cointreau, whipped cream, fruit and sponge. Absolutely scrumptious! There was also apple strudel with custard or cream. I had two portions of trifle and one of strudel and felt absolutely bloated! The a/c reduced the temperature sufficiently for me to change into a long sleeved shirt!
We retired to watch the fireworks from Sydney, which as usual were most impressive. The drinking continued with Alan doing the wine waiter's job.
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