Christmas cheer

Well, thats Christmas Day over for another year and what a lovely day we had. Nice traditional roast dinner with Christmas pud and After Eight mints then play board games and watch DVD's all afternoon. Then eat more at supper time, play more games and finally go to bed with chronic indegestion. I love it!!
I can't get into the traditional New Zealand Christmas BBQ lark. Neither can I see the point in spending Christmas day on the beach. The weather was sunny in the morning and rained in the afternoon but just in our street we saw the neighbours packing everything up and going to the beach just to return again 1/2 an hour later. Sometimes I think people feel as if they should spend Christmas on the beach because thats what your meant to do but in reality they would probably prefer just to sit around the house or in the garden.
Anyway, I hope everyone out there who celebrates this festive season also had a good day.
New Year is fast approaching and The Mount is gearing itself up to the fun New Years Eve celebrations. The whole area is a liquor free zone, there is a temporary prison set up called Alcatraz and extra police officers have been drafted in. You will be arrested if caught carrying any alcohol (even an unopenned bottle in your bag). There are a couple of live bands playing and some fair ground rides for the kiddies. Every year hundreds of people descend on the Mount to see the new Year in but the authoritarian control gets heavier every year. We were quite surprised by this and were told it was because of the 2003 riots. Riots? In New Zealand? On further enquiry we found out that in 2003 the police were arresting people who were having a wine or beer with their families while using the public BBQ's which caused a lot of bad feeling and some peole went on the 'rampage' round the mount upseting the neighbours. So as a result
strict bans were introduced and enforced. Its the usual story of over zealous authoroties enforcing laws to the letter which causes more trouble than turning a blind eye would. I agree that any kind of huge gathering should be monitored and action taken at the sign of trouble but surely it would be better to difuse a situation instead of charging in and arresting every one.
The council seems to have got its act together though, and has put on a bus service that runs through the night getting people to and from the Mount for $10 return.
As for us, its the busiest, hassliest night of the year but hopefully we should be able to shut the doors at 10ish and get home for a glass of champers in our own back yard.