Week 52/2025: Very merry
Week of 22 December 2025
Christmas is over and done with for another year. That sure went quickly.
This post is wholly researched and written by me. I do not use AI in my writing. I will always bring you my stories in my real human voice.
A very merry Christmas
The best part of Christmas was that Kramstable came home for a few days, which was wonderful.
We went to the airport to pick him up, and it was quite the adventure.
A windy day was forecast and I’d said to a friend I hoped it wouldn’t affect the planes. They laughed and said Kramstable would probably end up in Launceston via King Island.
It was very very windy.
Waiting on the hill where we’d tearfully watched the plane taking him to Melbourne depart in February, we waited for his incoming flight. I’d been tracking it on the way and, while it was a bit late, everything looked perfectly fine.
I could see the plane approaching the runway, bobbing about in the wind. (Did I mention it was very very windy?)
The wheels touched the ground . . .
. . . and the plane started to ascend again.
Unusual. Something had obviously gone wrong.
As it flew out of visual range I switched back to the tracker and it looked like it was going to turn around and come in and land again.
That is until it did another U-turn and started heading north.
There’s maybe other planes in the area and air traffic control has told them to change paths, Slabs conjectured, as I said it looked like the plane was heading to Launceston. Or worse, back to Melbourne.
All the speculating became rather moot as the plane approached Launceston and began slowing down and reducing its altitude. Looked like the only bit my friend had got wrong was the “via King Island” bit. But there was still plenty of time . . .
What followed was a series of phone calls and messages that started with “they are going to put us on a bus”, the airline call centre employee informing us at 4.34 pm that the plane would be in Hobart at 4.45 pm, and watching it finally take off around 5.00 after having refuelled.
In a lesson for communication with your customers, Kramstable said the crew had not said anything to the passengers until the plane had actually arrived in Launceston. So he’d thought the plane had turned around and was going to try landing in Hobart again and, along with most of the others, was confused when the approach to the airport didn’t look like Hobart. They were all very put out to find they were 200 km away. Not as bad as King Island, I guess. But still.
It all ended well though. This time the plane landed safely in Hobart, and we had a very relieved young person make his way to the car.
A quiet day
Christmas itself was very quiet. A relaxed day at home, and lunch with family the next day.
The food highlight was the desserts and candies from Honeychild’s Creole—the only problem had been deciding which ones to get.
It was lovely to light the candle Toni gave us on Christmas day too.
And it goes without saying it was wonderful to have Kramstable home again, even if it was only a few days.
Habit tracker
- Go outside first thing (7 days): 5/7
- 15 minutes morning exercise sequence (7 days): 6/7
- Hip exercises (5 days): 2/5
- Walk (7 days): 2/7
- Carry a notebook with me when I walk (7 days): 1/2
- Thinking time (4 days): 0/4
- Mid-day journalling (7 days): 2/7
- 9.30 shutdown & dim lights (7 days): 0/7
- Evening routine (6 days): 6/6
Summary of the week
Some positive things
Not getting sent to Whamhalla was a good result for the month.
Last week, I got a message from Open House Hobart that one of my photos had won a prize for the ‘Exterior’ category in their photo competition.
Exciting!
My prize was this beautiful blanket from Waverley Mills, which I picked up on Monday.
This week I learned
Why is the abbreviation for pounds ‘lb’?
According to a post by Merriam Webster,
- The Libra constellation resembles scales.
- The Latin ‘libra pondo’ means ‘a pound by weight’.
- ‘Pound’ comes from ‘pondo,’ and ‘lb’ is an abbreviation of ‘libra’.
This week I noticed
‘Holiday Road’ playing on the coffee shop’s Christmas playlist. I approve.
What’s making me think?
If governments won’t tax billionaires and AI is going to take most of the jobs and the government doesn’t get any income tax, where is the government’s money going to come from? Or is that the end game here? Is this what “society has to adjust to AI” all about?
A random post that appeared in one of my social media feeds from Carla Hoch. I don’t know who this person is but I liked this sentiment:
When we say “Writing is hard,” we prime our brains to survive rather than create.
Reading
- The Longest Climb by Paul Pritchard
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
- Stranger Things Choose Your Own Adventure Heroes and Monsters by Rana Tahir
Watching
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Oh. What Fun.
- Stranger Things Season 5
Listening
- Shrek The Musical Original Broadway Cast Recording
About The Author
