Continuing on from Monday afternoon, I only made it as far as Gala’s kitchen, where going out clothes were exchanged for leisure suits, that is to say trackies, socks, clothes to have naps in and generally not exert oneself too much, and … Wine!

This until quite late whereupon Gala presented me with a some books, chocolate, and … A bed! (Oh! and a toothbrush.)

So to the day I’m rather not fond of and with Gala doing yoga, I opted for a quick bicycle ride west for pepper and later-that-night party clothes. Then …

Chocolate croissants with butter and jam and cream, and fruit salad, and coffee and fresh cherries and … I think there was more but a food coma overtook me. Then, a nap. Then lunch. Oh! but with eating in-between when surfacing from said nap … naps. Roast duck with rosemary and plenty of olive oil drooled over potatoes, onions, pumpkin, beetroot and sparkling shiraz. Chocolate also, I think.

Then, a nap. Then more eating, followed by sitting outside under the shade of the next-door tree and contemplating a visit to the Japanese gardens. A nap was required thereafter. Then it was early evening, so … food and drink and … I think this was a rather tasty salad but that might have been a later snack, no?

Howl’s Moving Castle on telly, the rather happy realisation we never got quite dressed all day, leisure suits all round and …

I was thinking about previous Christmas days, and the many I’ve spent alone in other countries, or not wanting to stoop to acknowledge the day somewhere in Melbourne, or orphan’s visits to friends’ families and of all that I can recall this was absolutely the best day I’ve had, with Gala and Banksia.