I totally forgot to fill you all in on my Christmas weeks off.

I got to bed (from my work Christmas party) at 2.30am and then had to wake up at 4am in order to be at the airport by 5am to check in for a 6am flight to Melbourne. So, I slept at a co-worker's house with my bags all packed. This meant rolling out of bed with my make-up still on from the night before, putting the same clothes back on and scrambling with bags and high heels to get to the lobby of the apartment building to find the taxi I'd ordered.

I got to the airport in time. But my plane was a tiny bit late in leaving and the bags were delayed in being delivered on the carousel, so I was pushing it by the time I ran to catch the shuttle bus from the airport to Spencer Street Station (Melbourne train station). I then had to barrel along at full speed from one end of the train station (the bus depot) to the other (the ticketing and platform area). I very nearly missed my train, due to depart at 9.08am and I arriving on the platform at 9.09am ... but fortunately I managed to scramble on board before it left. And then I had to get off again because the train was having engine troubles (which was fixed by using a different engine to pull the train, and took ten minutes to swap).

Then I was on the go to Ballarat. I fell asleep all the way from Sydney to Ballarat, at every opportunity. Yes, that means I fell asleep in the plane before I took off at Sydney airport ... but my nice neighbours woke me enough to ask if I wanted the breakfast was coming around, and woke me again when we landed. And yes, it means I fell asleep on the train from Melbourne to Ballarat. The conductor apparently shouted "TICKETS!" at me three times, before resorting to jabbing me in the arm with a finger to wake me up. I found my ticket, he went off to harass other people, and I fell back asleep.

As you can tell, I got off to a great start ... and I'm still tired now! =D

Christmas was excellent. Good food, good drinks, good company. I received (going back a little) flowers from one boss, a book from the other, chocolates and champagne and jewellery from the other professional staff in my work "cell". At Christmas proper, I received a bracelet in the extended family Secret Santa, and Jane Austen biography from my mum, a book voucher from my dad, some chocolate from the exchange student, and some cute but strange lamps from my brother (fairlights encased in colour fabric lanterns - really cute when it's all set up and switched on).

From there, we drive a little way up the Great Ocean Road and visited with an aunt before flying to Adelaide in time for New Year's Eve.