Written December 24, 2020.<\/p>\n
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Just as I was expecting we’d be alone in the bay for the Big Day, S explained that they were staying and expecting company- their son, his girlfriend, and another friend. I’ll be glad of people making happy noises next door.<\/p>\n
Today Dee has been setting up the pontoon power station- remember that? begun so long ago, but it fell onto the back burner because we needed to afford a new inverter, which my ANU teaching gave us. \u00a0Now we hope to run an solar powered air conditioner for the searing days, which will make K happy – but of course, it’ll only work while the sun shines, as power bounces directly off the batteries.<\/p>\n
Then Dee said he also was staying in the bay, rather than visiting relatives \u00a0with his wife. So we won’t be alone, after all.<\/p>\n
You and Tripi had better come to us then<\/em>, I said. \u00a0As if I was someone competent, not someone who posts cards two days before Christmas, and doesn’t come from a proper family. Someone proper who knows How Things Are Done, and even more, How To Do Them.<\/p>\n When?<\/em><\/p>\n The first test.<\/p>\n About the middle of the day.<\/em><\/p>\n But it’s not a test. It’s simple kindness, to him and for us as well, so we won’t be lonely. The sort of kindness they all show to me.<\/p>\n Tonight Dee with his beer and Tripi dropped in just as we were finishing off dinner, my first attempt at Gago-Gado from Charmaine Solomon’s Complete Vegetarian<\/em>, with her peanut sauce but without chilli or soy sauce, which K and I can’t have. We insisted he eat at least what was left. he won’t have to cook veggies for himself. One of the Christmas Spiders that hang everywhere here \u00a0was annoying GG so Dee plucked it from just above GG’s head and hurled it, web and all, \u00a0over the edge of the deck.<\/p>\n You’ve got to do that 3 times to make them move someone else. But<\/em>– he reassured my anxious face –\u00a0It’ll be spinning out its web as if falls. You’ll see.<\/em><\/p>\n And within 3 minutes it was back, but keeping \u00a0a safe distance, hanging now from the deck railing.<\/p>\n So now I’m sitting up late waiting for two Christmas cakes to bake, very healthy one from a recipe that suits K’s allergies. Monique- she doesn’t look old enough to be allowed to turn on an oven- but she’s more, she’s a nutritionist and it’s made from gluten -free coconut flour and almond flour.<\/p>\n