December Wrap-up - Part 1

I love getting together with friends and every year for the last 4 or 5 years I have organized a get-together for Portuguese friends at Easter time, Portugal Day in June and the Christmas get-together in early December.
This year I organized a picnic for Sunday, 1st December at Kings Park, (Perth's Botanic Gardens) and this time my friends invited other Portuguese friends, so we managed to get together around 50 people. It was a great afternoon for all!













While decluttering the garage Jose found a couple of boxes with stuff that we obviously didn't need, so I photographed the pieces and advertised it my suburb's Facebook "Buy Nothing Group" page.
Except for 1 piece of fabric and 1 pair of curtains over 20 pieces went in 3 days! It actually feels good to give things to people who will have some use for them.

In late November I advertised some pieces of furniture I had painted with "Fusion Mineral Paint" and was lucky to sell 3 pieces during the first 2 weeks of December.
I've been collecting ideas to paint the remaining 7 bigger pieces of furniture in the garage.

My last day at work before my Christmas holidays was on Thursday 12th, and I gave my 5 colleagues and two of the Doctors (my favourites) my hand-made soaps.  The Doctors would also be getting wine just before Christmas, to which we all contributed to.

The spare bedroom was ready to received our daughter Karina and son in law Thomas who arrived from the Philippines in the early hours of Friday 13th.

The guest room and Twiggy sleeping on the bed

The airport outdoor Christmas tree is spectacular!

Usually just before sitting down to breakfast I check my emails, facebook, etc on my mobile, and sometimes read a couple of news articles on my newsfeed.
On the 14th December I was stunned to read that British blogger and writer Lindsay De Feliz, living in the Dominican Republic, whose blog I had been following for a few years had been found dead.
Her younger husband who had recently become a lawyer, and one of his sons were arrested.
I can only presume that they thought that by murdering her they would just get their hands on her money...

Her posts about daily life in the DR were always amusing, she was kind and loved by her neighbours, she loved animals and rescued many dogs off the streets, she helped other expats in the DR, and she was a mentor to a young boy who was being brought up by his Grandmother... Sadly, I think young Chivirico will be the one who will miss her most.
It's very sad that she met such a tragic end at the hands of those she loved and helped. RIP Lindsay.



Thomas' parents Isabelle and Max and brother Benoit, who travelled from France, via Frankfurt and Singapore, arrived very late on Saturday 14th.
The in-laws were going to stay in an Airbnb place just 5 minutes walk away from our house, but we first brought them to our house for a snack and also to celebrate Benoit's birthday which had been on the 13th, while he was flying.

After a good night's rest the whole family met up with our son Michael, wife and kids at the Dome Cafe at Coogee Beach. Afterwards we walked over to the small protected beach so that little J could swim. The sun was setting when we drove to the port suburb of Fremantle for dinner.

In Fremantle, as there was still time, the men wanted to stop for a beer at Little Creatures Brewery before going to dinner at Kailis Fishmarket Cafe at Fremantle Harbour.
As the name implies, the fish and seafood is fresh, and you choose what you want to eat and they cook it for you.

It was a wonderful first day with the whole family, and on Monday 16th, we would be driving south to Margaret River for a 4 day mini-holiday.

Travel posts to follow next week.

Have a wonderful weekend :)

From top L to R - at the counter inside Kailis, the Christmas decor at the harbour, the harbour, Christmas tree at Little Creatures Brewery, plate of prawns