Christmas Eve

Every year it's become tradition that my brothers, myself and our families gather together for Christmas Eve dinner. This year was no exception. But it was a bit different. Instead of dinner in Cape Town, along with a rather restless sleepover at brother's house in Seapoint, which resounds the entire night with police cars, tow trucks, barking dogs and noisy neighbours - this year it was a bit closer to home. They're house-sitting about 15km away in Strand, so we can rest in our own beds tonight. Still heading to Cape Town tomorrow for lunch with others though.

It was a bit of a different meal too - a braai instead of full-on supper. And one more big difference is that we finally went somewhere in Olivia!

Yes, after the last oil-related goodies were checked this afternoon (I still smell like EP90 in spite of a good scrubbing), we finally took her out onto the roads to meet the relatives. Two tons of mechanical beast hurtling off the mountain and into traffic, with a one kilometre turning circle. Adrenalin Rush! :-)

The trip there was slowish (still getting used to driving her), but good - no hassles whatsoever. The trip home - well, we discovered that we either have no lights, or very bright lights - nothing in between. And also, having to head uphill to get home, I found out that there are a few other things I need to have a squiz at to boost power and help her along. We did struggle up the merest of hills, screaming along in 3rd or faltering if 4th was tried. There has to be a happy medium and perhaps a bit of tweaking will do it.

But I did get to show her off to some amazed brothers and their wives, who couldn't resist poking around and climbing on top. This is the start of her travels - baby steps :-) I think we garnered a few double-take glances, but was too busy driving to notice.

We came home with loads of loot of course - presents covered both my birthday and Xmas, so it's a good thing we took the Landy.

And what am I still doing up, near midnight? Well someone has to stuff them stockings, hey! The kid still thinks Santa does it, though he's not too sure. We'll keep up the mystery for one more year. Next year he's likely to scoff at such things.