We sat down the other day and carried out our annual review of Christmases past - always a good time of year to dust off fond memories and play the 'wonder where we'll be next Christmas' game. Suffice it to say, this time last year, ensconced in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, we did not say 'ooh ooh ooh - let's spend next Christmas in our own apartment in Sydney'. And yet, here we are, safe, sound and not suffering from the plague sweeping the rest of this glorious world.

We spent the 18th doing a bit of grocery shopping and the tiniest bit of unpacking - though not a lot as we wanted to be ready for our next sit next Wednesday. We'll be spending Christmas with a kitty cat in Ultimo/Chinatown - looking forward to it immensely. We treated ourselves to our local Thai joint for lunch - $10 each and about a 3 minute walk from our front door - Nung Len sometimes feels like an extension of our apartment. We were feeling sorry for ourselves after the long trip home from the Blue Mountains yesterday - it's not even the long train ride down from Mount Vic to Central - it's the final slog through Central Station at peak hour to get on the Kings Cross line for the final bit - and then lugging the luggages home. C'est la vie - had a wonderful stay in the mountains - though the news of the Northern Beaches / Avalon outbreak as we travelled home was concerning - especially as we were seemingly the only duffers bothering to mask-up on the trains.

Two days later there were a lot more of us duffers in Sydney. By Sunday 20 Dec, our Christmas housesit was cancelled. Not so much 'c'est la vie' these days but 'c'est la Covid'. The outbreak has worsened and our owner can no longer travel to South Australia without quarantining upon arrival - which would rather put the kibosh on her 'see the family and have a Christmas' plan. Sigh... could be worse. If 2020 has taught us anything, 2020 can always be worse. To perk ourselves up we watched a great show on Netflix all about a pandemic, set in Russia, very enjoyable as these things go - 'To the Lake'.

Due to our cancelled Christmas housesit, we were available once more and a previous client pounced and said come and sit for Monty again in the lead up to New Year. Yippee! Air con... swimming pool. Then their holiday house owners said 'don't come' - they didn't want Sydney germs. So they cancelled on us. The Northern Beaches outbreak continued and we became more and more nervous about our housesit in Clontarf in the New Year... they were also nervous... so that was a joint cancellation. Housesitting musical chairs continues - fortunately so comfy and happy in our own apartment - not a huge drama - but glad we're not relying on housesits right now as the music just can't be relied on not to stop.

We spent the week before Christmas pottering and doing little bits of Christmas food shopping here and there - iced Christmas cake, fruit mince pies, a ham, veges, bubbles. Even took time for a jaunt along Oxford Street. It has struggled for years against Westfield Bondi and now against Covid - a few more empty shop fronts, but still, nice for a long walk.

Christmas Eve saw some final shopping including a roast chicken. Whilst a mild summer by Sydney standards, it was still warm - too warm to be roasting a chicken from scratch - so picked up a chicken at Woolworths. We pulled out our folding table and decorated it with all our bits and pieces, finally freed from storage.

Fortunately, Christmas day was lovely and cool - only 21 degrees odd which is arctic for Sydney at Christmas. We took a turn around the neighbourhood on Christmas morning, fascinated to see the cafes open and packed. Literally. Whoever did open, did well. As it turns out, going out for coffee and croissants is a thing here on Christmas morning. Having checked out the neighbourhood we trundled home and James prepared the ham for lunch - oh the smells in the house - honey glazed and decorated with dried cranberries - luscious.

Every year over Christmas lunch we chat about where we will be next Christmas. Well last year we predicted back in Paris, with 'our' cat Riki. And look how that turned out. But hey. Vaccinations are on the (distant) horizon - we're putting our money on Paris again for Christmas 2021. Fingers crossed we'll be sitting down for champagne and coquilles St Jacques under the grill in the 1st Arrondissement of Paris in just one years time. I'm even working on my French again so I'm 110% prepared.

Eventually, and having taken seemingly a decade to do it, 2020 stuttered to a close. A whimper not a bang. The strangest thing about being in Sydney for New Year's Eve was the lack of fireworks (meaningful fireworks that is). We ended up going to sleep at about 11.30 pm - the distant 'boom' of the 10 minute midnight display in the far distance. Just as easy to watch it on youtube on 1 Jan as it was to stay up to midnight... to watch it on youtube. 2020 - a strange old year. Bring on 2021 and The Brave New World.

For posterity -

2021 ?

2020 Potts Point, Sydney2019 Paris, France
2018 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
2017 Canale Monterano, Italy
2016 Fuengirola, Spain
2015 Malta
2014 Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland
2013 Asian Cruise HK to Singapore
2012 Club Med, Tignes, French Alps
2011 Park City, Utah, USA
2010 Tahiti, French Polynesia