Christmas Eve and Day

Spent the day getting ready for the evening, making the mince tarts during the afternoon. The fruit mince is mixed with crushed pineapple. Had a nice meal in the evening then after some carols and candlelight opened our presents which are now all over the table. One of the problems I am having with my condition is that my perception of time seems to be affected so time is going twice as fast, which is not so good when you are trying to make the most of it! Before I knew it, it was midnight.

Mass at the Cathedral today which was quite memorable with the choir singing beautifully. It was chocka with standing room only at the end. One of the last seats near us was occupied by a portly gent bearing a carton of bottles of wine(?} and another bag of them. By the time the choir got to Ave Maria he was overcome with emotion and started sobbing, kneeling and beating his breast with remorse{?}. I asked him if he was alright at the sign of peace and he said he was. He said his prayers very loudly from an antiquated mass book.
Came home and had our ham and cheese croissants , then went off to visit an elderly friend, and then to the beach for a swim with friend Margaret, whose boys weren't coming round until the evening like Elisabeth.
Had our cold turkey, ham, salad and cheese potatoes and now this very nice Christmas is drawing to a close. Off to Waiheke tomorrow for a week.

Waiheke Weihnachten

The top pictures are views of the bach sitting and dining area. The mural used to be in the old Post Office. It now hangs in the Community Art allery, Artworks. Forgotten who painted it.

The reclining nude was a painting for sale at the Palm Beach art and craft fair last weekend.

The pohutukawas are in full bloom and the bush is nice and green with all the rain we have had.

Mid-December

The choir performance went off well. There were a lot of graduate students and staff there, all very youngish looking. The performance sounded good and strong and some people were quite moved, they said. One women who had had a stroke sang a solo verse of Silent Night. There was nice food there which I took advantage of, then trotted off home again on the bus. Of course I was very tired in the evening and had to fight the temptation to go to bed after tea.

Altar EGOs

These are Elisabeth's latest four artworks - acrylic on hardboard.

Advent Venturing

Marked the second Sunday of Advent and St Nicholas Day with a little celebration of our own in the evening. Earlier we went to St Mary's chapel for the usual Christmas carol concert performed by present and past students of the college. Former Sr M Leo students this year were Lindsay Freer and Patricia Anne Shaw, who reminisced about her school and singing days. I am sure she said she was overcome with emulsion instead of emotion! I remember my own singing days at St Mary's when on one occasion Sr Leo sent me down to the primers to get them to show me how to sing, a humilation I barely recoved from, certainly not in my school days. The present-day Schola and the Chamber Orchestra, conducted by David Hamilton, NZ composer of note, and teacher of composition at St Mary's performed some of the old familiar carols like O holy night which brought back a flood of memories of the school prizegivings. We were all lined up in the blazing sun in front of the old brown convent (now demolished) for what seemed an interminable length of time singing these carols and getting through the prizegiving. Last night's offerings included several David Hamilton pieces, the highlight for many of us.

And I have now joined a choir myself - this is a choir for people with neurological conditions that meets fortnightly and is under the auspices of the Centre for Brain Research in Auckland. Many of us have conditions where pathways in the brain have stopped functioning properly and music may stimulate them or other pathways giving us a lot of pleasure and rediscovery of the joy of making music ourselves. I certainly feel stimulated by the exercises and songs we have been singing, mainly Christmas carols which we are performing at the Centre for Brain Research Christmas party later this week.