Christmas Greetings 2023

/ Garrulous Gwendoline

December 25th, 2023 is drawing to a close here in Australia – a most unusual Christmas Day for Bill and me. Just the two of us, a prawn and salad lunch over a glass of bubbly, and a slice of panettone with coffee later in the afternoon. Dinner was intended to be a barbecue, but we have shelved that idea in favour of leftover pasta. Never fear! All is good in our world. We had the Italian family get together yesterday, and many phone calls today to family scattered all over the place.

There was a time, starting way back in 1978 when I first trekked off to Europe, that I would write to my family and friends “back home” at Christmas. I’d start in November, pages and pages of the same news transposed through carbon paper, with a separate page at the end for the bits that were just for them. When I returned to Australia four years later, the situation reversed, writing back to my European “family” and friends. Over the years, the more than seventy cards and letters have whittled down until, this year, I didn’t write one card … not a one. Partially because the inevitable has happened over those years, but mostly because I did not rouse myself up to be organised. Perhaps this attempt at a round-up will get me back in the groove.

It’s been a busy year, with so many opportunities for blogging stories that, if started, were never finished. On the travel front, Bill and I did a road trip to Temora in western New South Wales, most famous for its aviation museum, in late January/early February. Followed by a girl’s long weekend to celebrate a 60th birthday. Next it was off to Norfolk Island for a week in April/early May on an organised group holiday. If I’m guided by the photos on my phone, there was a break until October when we did the three-week circumnavigation of New South Wales, driving to many outback towns. I’ve left readers dangling in Lightning Ridge. Then a short break up the Central Coast to celebrate my cousin’s 85th birthday, followed immediately by a flight to Adelaide to join the Proud Mary riverboat for a cruise on a South Australian section of the Murray River. I got as far as starting a blog post while I was on the boat 🙂

On the family celebration front, there’s been several milestone birthdays in addition to my cousin’s: great-grandchildren turning one and two, and #3 granddaughter 21, as well as the usual annual birthdays (how do you stop those?), one engagement, and two weddings, the second of which was held on Melbourne Cup Day. Bill is still coming to terms with that choice! (Not the choice of groom, I hasten to add. We couldn’t be more delighted for our #1 granddaughter.) Socially, we’ve been fortunate to welcome various houseguests, and be hosted by others, as well as all the usual social whirl and key events, including an American style Thanksgiving. For a time, I was organising a table of ten for dinner on Saturday nights in our onsite restaurant, in an effort to ensure that any new residents had a chance to be introduced to others of longer standing. It wasn’t long before that fell in a heap. The next Saturday always seemed to come around about two or three days after the previous one.

Healthwise, nothing dramatic, although I’m surprised to remind myself it was just this year I had some minor foot surgery. The months are flying by so quickly I thought that had happened the previous year, or maybe even the one before that (ha-ha, as if any elective surgery took place during Covid). The recovery time put me off my weekly line dancing for a while, but now I can flex my foot I am back in full swing – err – stomp. I’ve also joined a group of bridge players for some friendly games on a Friday afternoon. Bill keeps himself fitter than me, bike-riding and golfing, but – like most of his Australian former lifesaving cronies of a certain age – the dreaded skin cancer is always in the offing. Probably we should have sent his dermatologist a Christmas card.

I seem to be addicted to getting involved in “causes”. For most of the year I managed to be both the Membership Secretary of the Society of Women Writers NSW; and on the Community Village Residents’ Committee; and on the committee organising the first Australian Adoption Literary Festival – all volunteer roles, of course. I keep telling everyone that this retirement “job” is not to be recommended. The hours are long, the pay is lousy, and the boss is either sitting on your shoulder or missing in action.

Not all my efforts have been volunteering though. The Adoption Literary Festival took place on 4th November, and I was part of the mothers’ panel. The video will be available shortly. Prior to that, last year my friend, fellow author Christine Sykes, was approached to run a memoir writing workshop at our local library to coincide with History Week. We joined forces and this venture has blossomed. We ran several workshops this year, both half-day and full day. Nothing booked for next year, but that could easily change. Meantime, another friend and I have started a monthly writers’ group, and Christine is part of that. We are still in our infancy, but the numbers have already swelled to twelve, which is really our limit if we are to give worthwhile feedback.

And that segues into my writing year. Earlier in 2023, after years of writing, and rewriting, I felt I had two manuscripts “ready”. I pitched them at the Australian Society of Authors Literary Speed Dating event, where an author gets three minutes to attract a publisher’s attention. A respected publisher called for the first three chapters of one of the manuscripts, but eventually decided against going further. Just at the point of shopping them around to other publishers, I decided to approach the editor who got my first book up to publishable standard. It’s not an easy decision to make, as it is a significant financial investment to work directly with an editor (rather than having a traditional publisher assign one), but – if you are not prepared to back yourself, how can you expect others to do so?

The result is that I now have two, very promising, very constructive, very forthright, editorial reports. Both manuscripts need some more work, but both have a chance at publication (never any promises in this world). The material, heavily based on true events, has been presented in different formats throughout the rewrites. Both are now historical novels, one in first person and the other in third person, and, gut-wrenching as it is, that means I have to write with the reader in mind. You all know this, whether aware of it or not, because when you see a film “based on a true story” there is usually a disclaimer that some elements have been changed for dramatic effect. In other words, the book which is based on my great-grandmother’s life cannot end with the true story that she ran a newspaper scam claiming she could dream the winner of the 1895 Melbourne Cup if punting hopefuls would send her 2s/6d (two shillings and six pence) in postal notes, no matter what desperate circumstances had forced her down that path. Apparently (well, actually, there was no doubt about it), this was a criminal act, and you can’t have your sympathetic heroine turn bad on page 300. Happily, my subconscious is working away on an alternative scenario, and I’m confident I will dream one in my sleep 🙂 The genes will show up!

The other challenge for me, as you can see from the above year, is finding the time to devote to the deep dive needed to get both manuscripts across the line. And in the best Christmas present of the year – just as I was despairing that I needed to find a writing retreat – I was asked if it was possible to do a house/dog sit for two weeks over the festive season. Karma, huh? Or manna from heaven? … Or just plain coincidence? (There is a line in the first manuscript, where the central character, Louisa, quotes from Matthew 7.7: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”)

So here we are, ensconced in a near-new house in a long-established neighbourhood of Sydney, close to where I went to school as a seven-year-old when sent to live with my aunt and uncle on account of my mother’s illness – making it all the easier to channel the characters in my family line – and being kept company by the delightful Murphy. Co-incidentally, she’s also a seven-year-old, but in her case, she takes the physical form of a Visla, a Hungarian hunting dog. She’s a beauty, well-trained and affectionate. There’s a reason they nickname this breed the Velcro dog. She’s lying beside me now as I type and is rarely far away. She has not attached quite so much to Bill, but perhaps that is because he insists on calling her Spud!

Source: woofbarkgrowl.co.uk

So that’s wrap for 2023 folks. Wishing you all a Happy New Year, and a safe and healthy 2024,

your blogging friend, Garrulous Gwendoline.

40 thoughts on “Christmas Greetings 2023”

  3. Christmas cards have gone a bit out of fashion, I blame social media and I used to love getting letters and cards and sending them. To be honest I’m so busy right now that I didn’t have time to do much but to recover. I hope you’re on top of the world right now and still enjoying your summer.

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    • It is sad but all traditions have their day, and I guess we are witnessing the passing of this one firsthand.
      I remember doing a uni-level course in the mid80s where certain progress was forecast to give us more time. With the introduction of computers and the internet, the opposite has happened. It got so busy in my last workplace that you had to email your colleague in the next room because they had no time to discuss anything in person without a day’s notice and an appointment!

      My life too remains busy even in retirement. I have some encouraging news re one of my manuscripts, but it requires yet another partial rewrite! But this time the purpose is promising.

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  4. Phew! What a busy year it has been for you, Gwen. I feel exhausted just reading what you’ve accomplished and been engaged in. Good luck with that last push to get over the finish line with your two manuscripts. I can certainly relate to the way time seems to get all muddled up and a year feels more like two or three. And heck, who cares about half written blog posts lurking around your computer, when there is a life to live? Here is to many more wonderful experiences (written or unwritten about) for 2024! 🥂

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  5. Delightfully written summary of 2023. I can sense the excitement of having distinct direction for your manuscripts. But zero cards? I relish the sharing of cards AND letters at Christmas time. It would be sad to see that chapter closed, yet I can comprehend how your active schedule might have curtailed those greetings. Thanks for sharing this post and Best Wishes for 2024.

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    • How wonderful to hear from you Doug, and I hope you are looking forward to 2024 and the promise of all it might bring.

      Christmas cards and letters seem synonymous with cozying up around a log fire and stopping to think of friends and family far and near, – what do you think? But when the cards become a chore, or the letters self-indulgent, something has gone amiss. Maybe what I should aim for is spontaneous greetings throughout the year!

      I’m pleased with my progress on the first of the two manuscripts so far. I’ve recorded it, then played that back and marked up the hard copy in red pen and post-it notes of corrections and additions. Tomorrow the actual rewrite begins. But my editor sure has thrown me some curly plot questions to resolve. And I have to tone-down the feminist undertone running throughout. Ouch! Your encouraging comment has arrived just at the perfect time!

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  8. What a busy year you’ve had. I did see some of your circumnavigation posts, and enjoyed them, and I remember reading about the Adoption Literary Festival, but most of the year I was heads down surviving our big downsize and just keeping my own stuff going.

    I can understand the velcro nickname. We didn’t have a Visa, but we had a do that I’m sure is a relative, a Weimaraner, and she was very much the same. (And very different from our fun but independent Airdedale terrier.)

    Anyhow, all the best with all your endeavours in 2024.

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    • Yes, the Weimaraner is a relative, so you know this one’s personality! Gorgeous dog and so well trained. A pleasure to look after. (Oh! What ho! She’s just realised I am upstairs at the desk and has come to supervise me).
      Thank you so much for your well wishes for my endeavours. It is so frustrating watching the months roll by without getting the chance to write deeply. The first manuscript needs some plot points resolved, so it is the bigger challenge.
      As for downsizing, the first time I did it I felt as if a load had been lifted from my shoulders. I’d spent eight years decorating/filling a house with “stuff”. But now, mostly, it’s the rule that if it not used during the year – out it goes. I’m even considering selling the crinoline lady empire ware demi-tasse coffee set my aunt passed on to me for my 21st. (Hmmm, “considering” is the operative word there).
      Anyway, all the best to you and yours for 2024.

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      • That family stuff is tough … I steeled myself to move a lot of that sort of stuff on and have the next move in mind.

        We called our Weimaraner Lotte after Goethe’s Charlotte. Our Airedale was Brontë after you know who (though many thought she was after the beach … as if!) Our black poodle was Jedda and I was never sure about the rightness of that one!

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      • PS The trouble is, who uses Demi-tasses any more, eh? I kept dinner services but not the matching cups and saucers. However, I did keep some of the cup-saucer-plate trios from my mum, mum in law, grandma and great aunt. A friend has a cottage in Beechworth that she rents out and she took a number of them as I had so many. I figured if they get broken do be it. At least my friend loved having them.

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        • I “could” make use of the demi-tasse for expresso, but I don’t often have a crowd of the Italian relloes around, and we might all find them a little delicate.
          The Beechworth guesthouse idea sounds fabulous. My cup of tea, so to speak.
          When I was selling some odds and sods for a friend who was downsizing, one young woman came looking for classical cup-saucer-plate trios for her friend’s 21st party, or bridal shower, or some such. They were going to have a nostalgic afternoon tea. Cute huh?

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          • Curious this topic has come up, as in one of the manuscripts I’m currently refining, my central character spoils herself at Christmas 1894 by buying the latest thing on the market – a cup with saucer/plate combination. Later, when times get tough, she refuses to pawn it.

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  9. It was interesting to read your wrap-up of 2023. You did do a lot of worthwhile things!

    Happy holidays to you, and may 2024 be a healthy, fulfilling year for both of you.

    A friend owns a beautiful Vizsla, they are a nice breed of dog. His is very energetic.

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    • What a pleasure to hear from you Yvonne. And yes, the Visla is a beautiful breed. This one is so well trained she is a pleasure to look after. She gets the zoomies around 4.30pm and has a “chat” with us. She likes a walk but doesn’t demand it. But for a seven-year-old, she is surprisingly energetic!
      All the very best to you also for 2024.
      .

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    • Thank you so much Derrick. The foot surgery was minor, but like any surgery, one needs at least six weeks to recover. It’s in the past now, just minor swelling and numbness on occasion.
      The books are not so easily solved! But I am determined they should see the light of day, one way or another.
      Warm wishes to you and all at your beautiful house in the New Forest.

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