I shall hopefully remember this Christmas Eve for a long time. All the churches in town held a joint Christmas Eve service at the hospital. Against the backdrop of a stunning sunset, the children danced in sillhouette, Imogen lost in her own world, as the congregation made up of locals and patients sang Christmas carols. Wonderful.
I hope it will be this that sticks in my memory. There were other moments that might: Imogen wandering out from behind the minister just as he started talking, holding her dress in her hand to reveal to the whole congregation her lack of underwear. Or perhaps Imogen asking during the rather tub-thumping sermon "Why is he shouting? Is he cross?"
The girls fell straight asleep on getting back home, which meant they miss putting the stockings up, and we'll save putting out the presents under the tree until tomorrow.
It's been a family day, just as Christmas should be. We were at the pool this afternoon and came back here, having a picnic at both places. Jo prepared turkey, salads, little mince pin-wheels and I made Damper with Imogen, which turned out very well. We were a bit surprised, after all this preparation to discover everyone else was ordering pizza! Still, we got kudos points for cooking above and beyond the call of duty.
So, as I believe you're supposed to say on "The night before Christmas," Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Christmas is coming...
You may remember in my last post I said:
"Tomorrow there's a doctors breakfast, carols on the ward (as opposed to Carol's on the ward - I'm sure tomorrow is her day off), a Primary Health Care party serving up Dugong and Turtle and a little bit of work in between."
As it happened it was even stranger than that! Unfortunately, Imogen was unwell, up vomiting in the night and through the day. (She's better today.) Jo was called in to do an anaesthetic first thing in the morning, so I took the girls, all 3 in the buggy, to the doctors breakfast at a local Motel. Emily and Charlotte had a lovely time eating croissants and fruit. Charlotte is very fond of men, and is unable to resist John Vaughan, the Director of medical services here. Every time she sees him, she asks to cuddle him, and yesterday was no exception. Imogen, meanwhile, was feeling pretty ropey, but did ever so well, spending most of the time wishing she could go in the small pool. ("When can we go here? You have to promise").
I didn't let the junior doctors off teaching, though - we looked at the evidence on injecting steroid into people (mainly, joints, tendons, etc, and not sports-people, which is a different and illegal activity), and I used it to sneak in some EBM teaching!
That afternoon, was a short 2 hour stint at PHC, which wasn't busy - everyone wanted to finish early for the party that evening. I spent much of the time opening work e-mails rom people I'd never heard of sending powerpoint Christmas messages. Hands up now if you'd like one. We didn't get to the party because of Imogen being unwell. However, we did manage carols at the hospital.
The carols were great fun. We stood around on the ward, all the children wearing cardbaord wings, singing. Jo sang wonderfully, I croaked loudly. The children all sprinted to the other end of the ward when they heard a helicopter landing. The patients all thought it was great.
Today was much quieter, the main event being a football (ie proper English-style football aka soccer) game for whoever wanted to come. Whoever wanted to come turned out to be the same people (mainly) who were at carols. Interesting... The children joined in again, distracted not by helicopters, but by a passing Santa Claus throwing lollies out of the back of a ute! Emily and Charlotte cried again, but still think he's a very friendly man.
For an Englishman like myself, I'll never quite get used to the heat at Christmas time. I keep having to pinch myself, look at our home-made tree, put Christmas music on, look at Imi's advent calendar to remind myself that it's Christmas. (And I'm looking out for TV, radio or internet broadcasts of the King's College 9 lessons and carols!) And then I worry about poor Santa in his Ute - will he get heat exhaustion? And this year will be a most unusual Christmas, as we're going for a picnic on Goodes Island nearby, with stockings beforehand and present opening afterwards.
But unusual experiences? That's why we're here.
I'll hopefully post again before Christmas, but if you're reading this and you haven't heard anything more personal from us, rest assured we have been thinking about all our friends and family and colleagues. Happy Christmas to you all.
"Tomorrow there's a doctors breakfast, carols on the ward (as opposed to Carol's on the ward - I'm sure tomorrow is her day off), a Primary Health Care party serving up Dugong and Turtle and a little bit of work in between."
As it happened it was even stranger than that! Unfortunately, Imogen was unwell, up vomiting in the night and through the day. (She's better today.) Jo was called in to do an anaesthetic first thing in the morning, so I took the girls, all 3 in the buggy, to the doctors breakfast at a local Motel. Emily and Charlotte had a lovely time eating croissants and fruit. Charlotte is very fond of men, and is unable to resist John Vaughan, the Director of medical services here. Every time she sees him, she asks to cuddle him, and yesterday was no exception. Imogen, meanwhile, was feeling pretty ropey, but did ever so well, spending most of the time wishing she could go in the small pool. ("When can we go here? You have to promise").
I didn't let the junior doctors off teaching, though - we looked at the evidence on injecting steroid into people (mainly, joints, tendons, etc, and not sports-people, which is a different and illegal activity), and I used it to sneak in some EBM teaching!
That afternoon, was a short 2 hour stint at PHC, which wasn't busy - everyone wanted to finish early for the party that evening. I spent much of the time opening work e-mails rom people I'd never heard of sending powerpoint Christmas messages. Hands up now if you'd like one. We didn't get to the party because of Imogen being unwell. However, we did manage carols at the hospital.
The carols were great fun. We stood around on the ward, all the children wearing cardbaord wings, singing. Jo sang wonderfully, I croaked loudly. The children all sprinted to the other end of the ward when they heard a helicopter landing. The patients all thought it was great.
Today was much quieter, the main event being a football (ie proper English-style football aka soccer) game for whoever wanted to come. Whoever wanted to come turned out to be the same people (mainly) who were at carols. Interesting... The children joined in again, distracted not by helicopters, but by a passing Santa Claus throwing lollies out of the back of a ute! Emily and Charlotte cried again, but still think he's a very friendly man.
For an Englishman like myself, I'll never quite get used to the heat at Christmas time. I keep having to pinch myself, look at our home-made tree, put Christmas music on, look at Imi's advent calendar to remind myself that it's Christmas. (And I'm looking out for TV, radio or internet broadcasts of the King's College 9 lessons and carols!) And then I worry about poor Santa in his Ute - will he get heat exhaustion? And this year will be a most unusual Christmas, as we're going for a picnic on Goodes Island nearby, with stockings beforehand and present opening afterwards.
But unusual experiences? That's why we're here.
I'll hopefully post again before Christmas, but if you're reading this and you haven't heard anything more personal from us, rest assured we have been thinking about all our friends and family and colleagues. Happy Christmas to you all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)