I went to town to check that there were two guys selling raffle tickets. There were so I went shopping for all the stuff I had forgotten. I picked up all the raffle ticket stubs. Ken had started to separate them and fold them up but there were a lot to do. We got stuck in at about twelve o'clock and I estimated it would take about six hours for us to get them all done.
In the afternoon, the guys brought the table we had been using as the raffle ticket stand back and handed me a whole lot more more raffle ticket stubs.
I had to cook a chicken curry for tomorrow. When I got the chicken out of the freezer I found that I had bought some pretty awful "fillets". I rushed out to the butcher who was just closing, and bought some decent chicken breast fillets. I cooked the curry and went back to ticket stub folding.
We finished folding tickets at about a quarter to six and had a quick snack before heading off to the Xmas Tree. The guys had already set up so I delivered the Xmas cakes and set about selling raffle tickets. Jean joined us as our ticket stub folder. During the next two hours we sold well over three hundred tickets, most of which were folded by Jean. When the children had all been given their presents by Santa, we drew the raffle and the hundreds club, a ten dollar a ticket lottery with a hundred tickets which gives out $500 in prizes and keeps $500 for the Xmas Tree fund. We had had a very successful Xmas Tree this year with a considerable surplus which will start the Lion's good work for 2008 on a firm footing.
We got home at about nine o'clock and veged out in front of the TV until about midnight, happily looking forward some job free days. Checking my records I found that I had done sixty hours selling raffle tickets over the past five weeks.
Up at sparrow fart and then back to bed for a lie in. I was glad to have nothing of any consequence except the lawn mowing in the days ahead.
I had to cook some more stuff for lunch but we had a very enjoyable meal, an absolute feast. We had pappadums and onion bhajias for starters, tandoori chicken, chicken curry, Korma's fried potatoes, Robin's special dhal and doongara rice for the main course and almond junket for afters. Jean was well pleased as we had avoided all the drama of roasting turkey and vegetables and all that jazz.
In the afternoon we went to the Samin's for happy hour. We had a very pleasant chat with Vicki, John, Tracy and Peter over some delicious wine.
For the first time in a long time I slept a full eight hours. The day dawned cloudy and quite mild.
I celebrated "boxing day" by doing nothing.
Jean got a call from the doctor's receptionist asking her to come to an early morning appointment. She arranged to take a ten o'clock appointment and I went along too. Dr. Sanji was fascinated that I had had my stent fitted in Tamworth as previously all her patients had had to go the John Hunter hospital in Newcastle for the procedure. I told her that Dr Muller had given me an early Xmas present so I wouldn't have to go to Sydney and wait maybe six weeks.
Jean had had a blood test recently and the results were in. Her Hba1c had gone up a bit so Dr Sanji offered her either actos or insulin. Jean had taken actos before and had found that it has a reputation for putting weight on patients and she had come off it with no real problems. She really doesn't want to go on insulin so she chose to try actos again.
Sarah rang in the morning to ask if she and Ross could stay a few days in Barraba. We, of course, said yes please. I had to collect all the unsold lions Xmas cakes from the businesses which had been selling them for us. The end result was a total sale of over 150 cakes which was a bit better than last year. We have some cakes left in stock so the cash surplus is down a bit but the cakes have a use-by-date of may 2009 so we be able to sell them next Xmas and recover the profit then.
We spent the afternoon getting the house in order for visitors and setting up the Motley for us to sleep in while they are here.
Sarah and Ross arrived at ten pm. She was pretty well bushed having had a difficult drive from Brisbane. We gave her a cuppa tea and a chat before we all retired.
The day dawned overcast and foggy again.
We spent the day communing with Sarah and Ross. We all took a walk around the town and bought some more presents in Cootes.
Ross needed some help with his Xmas present toys. A very noisy toy car needed to be quietened and to be made it behave as he wanted it. I managed all of that with some help from Ross and Sarah. He also had an electronic kit which required building several projects. I provided the extra items which were required and helped him construct some of the things he needed. He seemed to quite enjoy the activity.
Iain rang to ask if he and Rachel could stay overnight tomorrow. I arranged for a motel room for the night as we didn't have spare beds for them.
We all took to our beds before it got late.
The clouds had disappeared and the day was bright and glorious.
After lunch I cooked some more curry and prepared tandoori chicken and bhajias for dinner tonight.
During the afternoon we all sat on the front porch and watched the birds in our Calistemon tree and in Elsie May's Monkey Puzzle tree. I identified them as Zebra Finches. I spotted one hanging by a wing tip from a high branch in the Monkey Puzzle tree. On investigating I found that it had got caught in a spider web. It struggled to free itself for the best part of an hour or longer and finally escaped, apparently unharmed. This was the first time I had seen Zebra Finches here in Barraba, the only other recorded sightings were in the Northern Territory in 2000. To have this new sighting marked by this little drama was quite exciting.
Sarah wanted me to check out her car which had just had a major service and she was unhappy with its performance. She thought it was a problem with the automatic gearbox because it performed well at 100 kph but not at 10kph. I drove into town and discovered that all that was wrong was that the cold running adjustments were out of whack. The performance was OK after only a couple of minutes. Sarah was re-assured and said that she would get the guy that did the service to fix it when she gets back home.
Ian and Rachel arrived at about five o'clock and we all sat chatting on the front porch until dinner time. I served up pappadums and then bhajias as entrees then we all moved into the kitchen nook and ate curry and rice which everyone enjoyed. We drank some Banrock Station white shiraz and some Mille Park cabernet sauvignon which seemed to go down well. Desert was Jean's summer pudding which also went down well. We chatted a lot but Rachel was tired after a hard day on the motor bike so they went back to the motel and we all went to bed.
Sarah wanted to get away early so we were up and about before eight. We got all her stuff back in the car and she headed off at about half past nine.
We did the laundry but we were both a bit bushed by all the activity of the past couple of days so we veged out in the afternoon.