And it's Christmas Eve.

Hi everyone,

Here we are on Christmas Eve.  It's 23C / 74F and I'm typing this in shorts and a t-shirt at 2220hrs with a glass of wine at my elbow..

It's been a surprisingly full day.  The weather came in stormy this morning with lots of lightning and a couple of strong showers, but that cleared through the day, taking us first to humid and then to dry.  I spent the morning clearing cobwebs fromthe outside of the house and sweeping away dry leaves and detritus.  After that, I went up to the Calder Woodburn Rest Area to lend a hand at the Driver Reviver stop that Murchison SES Unit was running: they'd generously asked if the Tatura Unit would like to lend a hand.

The Driver Reviver program is an initiative whereby SES Units set up a stand of some type at highway rest areas and provide free tea and coffee to motorists on days when there'll be high traffic (usually the holidays).  It's felt that it's better to give people a chance to stretch their legs and generally have a pick-me-up than it is to have to cut them out of a car following a fatigue-induced accident.

We had a fairly steady stream of people come through over the day, headed to places as far afield as Griffith and Berrigan.  Mostly they were great and it was a pleasure to chat with them.  One or two, though, were astonishingly rude, walking up to the counter and barking out "coffee with milk and sugar" with no salutation, as if we were lazy kitchen staff.  I was sorely tempted to put on my schoolmarm voice and ask "what's the magic word?".  Anyway, since there was no road crash callout in our area or Murchison's through the day, I think we can assume we did some good.

Not much more to say about the day: I gave the dog a long walk and jotted some notes for a book themed blogpost and did some cleaning in the house for Mum, but that was about it.  In a little bit I'll turn in and read the Journey of the Magi and the first part of the Gospel of Luke as per Yuletide usual.  I might or might not bother with Christmas music.  Really, my current mood is very much "All I want for Christmas is the charges dropped" or "How to make gravy". 

Somehow prison songs are on my mind a bit at the moment.  Don't misunderstand me: I'm not expecting to take a holiday at the Queen's expense any time soon (or ever).  I just find myself drawn to the harder edges of human experience at the moment.  I don't know quite why.  For the most part I don't think I can help (as the umpteen cases out of Dandenong I handled in my legal career will attest).  It just seems important for me to be there.

Christmas in a Workhouse (1876)
[Image from here]

Whether you're marking Christmas in a gaol cell or a treehouse, I hope you're at peace.