The Best Laid Plans Of Mice
Dec. 26th, 2005 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanWell, that's the obligations out of the way - time to enjoy some holiday.
A low-key Christmas this year. Plans for travels with friends on Christmas Day didn't eventuate, resulting in an 11th hour reshuffle at the family manse to accommodate the unexpected prodigal son & it was all downhill from there. An afternoon of listening to the senior generation's racist blathering about the Cronulla riots & witnessing their inevitable descent into a maudlin, stuck-in-the-mud retreat from the real world.
Some major issues with my parents were hinted at & danced around in conversation, but not really addressed or resolved. The time for resolution will be when I'm less angry about the situation & better able to calmly point out some home truths about what constitutes acceptable behaviour.
The extended family Clan Gathering was held today, way out south-west in one of Sydney's newer satellite suburbs that have sprung up around the new freeways in the last couple of years. The good thing about that is it only took 45 minutes to get there via the freeways, whereas previous Gatherings have sometimes resulted in the lunch we were bringing being eaten by hungry travellers on the long road to nowhere. The bad thing was having to listen to even more uninformed ranting about the riots from my salt-of-the-earth cousins, who are lovely people, but would appear to be easy mob fodder. Again, I held my tongue & opinions, as I was hopelessly outnumbered. There were about 30 of us, all descended on the house of my newly-wed cousin, whose lovely wife passed the baptism-by-fire with flying colours - having prepared the grounds, the food & weathered the myriad relative eccentricities with good humour & grace. Although she did confide in me that there was no way she'd be doing it again, for a few years anyway. I sympathise & empathise - it was my turn last year.
And now... home, perchance to rest. I haven't really slept for the last few days & tomorrow the year-end rounds of catching up with friends begin.
A low-key Christmas this year. Plans for travels with friends on Christmas Day didn't eventuate, resulting in an 11th hour reshuffle at the family manse to accommodate the unexpected prodigal son & it was all downhill from there. An afternoon of listening to the senior generation's racist blathering about the Cronulla riots & witnessing their inevitable descent into a maudlin, stuck-in-the-mud retreat from the real world.
Some major issues with my parents were hinted at & danced around in conversation, but not really addressed or resolved. The time for resolution will be when I'm less angry about the situation & better able to calmly point out some home truths about what constitutes acceptable behaviour.
The extended family Clan Gathering was held today, way out south-west in one of Sydney's newer satellite suburbs that have sprung up around the new freeways in the last couple of years. The good thing about that is it only took 45 minutes to get there via the freeways, whereas previous Gatherings have sometimes resulted in the lunch we were bringing being eaten by hungry travellers on the long road to nowhere. The bad thing was having to listen to even more uninformed ranting about the riots from my salt-of-the-earth cousins, who are lovely people, but would appear to be easy mob fodder. Again, I held my tongue & opinions, as I was hopelessly outnumbered. There were about 30 of us, all descended on the house of my newly-wed cousin, whose lovely wife passed the baptism-by-fire with flying colours - having prepared the grounds, the food & weathered the myriad relative eccentricities with good humour & grace. Although she did confide in me that there was no way she'd be doing it again, for a few years anyway. I sympathise & empathise - it was my turn last year.
And now... home, perchance to rest. I haven't really slept for the last few days & tomorrow the year-end rounds of catching up with friends begin.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-26 01:28 am (UTC)BTW, I got given a copy of the book, so sweet as the offer was, you might want to find another worthy friend to pass it on to.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-01-02 09:03 pm (UTC)and you may or may not therefore be interested in my impromptu portrait of my mum, taken as we said goodbye after this year's annual orgy of filial catch-up. i think it's kinda poignant.
it's here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/illuminata/81101210/).