Volumes


Thursday, December 26, 2002

 

Wrote a big special Christmas post up yesterday - celebrations were a quiet, bittersweet affair, spent predominately at Grandad's bedside -, but pressed the wrong button and all of my carefully placed words were gone. Pfft... technology. Boxing Day happened today. The big - BIG - family gathering up the coast. I survived by finding an inconspicuous place to stand and drink beers all afternoon. It was not so bad. This year I took the time to look around and realise how many of my relatives do that exact same thing every year. I drank enough beers to mean that I eventually had to find somewhere inconspicuous to sit and drink beers. I'm not proud of using that particular avenue to escape the situation, but I resolved that the Boxing Day Family Gathering should be the only such acceptable occasion hencforth. Nevertheless, I was not a total introvert all day. There was plenty of small talk regarding my move to Brisbane, and university, etc. I was kissed on the cheek by an aunty with a peach-fuzz-beard, and I shook a few fat leathery uncle-hands before we left. Me in the back seat, in the middle, in the uncomfortable car, for the duration of the three-hour drive home. My sister playing her new "Nirvana" CD with Mum whistling along to "Lithium". Boxing Day's over for another year.

posted by Timothy J. 21:15


Sunday, December 22, 2002

 

This morning my parents came into my bedroom at three-thirty and took me out to the airport for a balloon ride that an aunty gave to me as an 18th birthday present all those months ago (actually she won it in a raffle and decided she didn't want it). So my parents left me there with this small group of strangers - all young families - and I had a seat to myself in the mini-bus as we drove off to the launch site. Five-thirty, and we're all standing in the basket - my arse pressed against the arse of a middle-aged man who is equally as uncomfortable as I am with our arses being pressed together. I turn around, but I decide arse-to-arse is the best way to go. The balloon takes off slowly as the burners blast in my ears, somewhat ruining the serenity of the moment. The flight went for an hour. We drifted over paddocks and orchards thinly blanketed in fog, watched the sun rise... Took photos intermittently, but only because Dad wanted me to. Upon arrival back at the airport we were given a champagne breakfast. Not knowing which family to sit down with, I downed the champagne and passed on the breakfast. Walked home. The rest of the day was spent at Grandad's, watching Christmas movies and answering questions on the balloon flight and talking about his morphein hallucinations. I'm in charge of looking after him for the next two days. Tomorrow we drive to the hospital and the doctor gets angry at him again for not taking his medication...

posted by Timothy J. 20:01


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