A perfect day for it after some gardening earlier.

Extremely Australian signs I saw down in Royal National Park while walking on Christmas Day:

We have officially run through every cooking fat in the house this Christmas. Including the kilo of extra butter I bought for baking. Shops ahoy!

Okay, fascinating (to me) changes down at Lifeblood right now: 1. People absolutely everywhere, far more than normal 2. The meanings whiteboard has gone from the usual ‘For Sue’ and everyone’s festive comments into half a Bondi shrine 3. The waiting room TV is firmly off for once

Merry Christmas! Please enjoy the morning King Parrot enjoying his breakfast while I have mine

Mum and I decided to ruin our prep for Carols by watching the Michael Cassel concert immediately prior and now have too-high standards

Last day in the office for 2025. Let’s go.

If you’re having trouble finding an appointment to donate blood, a donation in later weeks still matters. Blood from all over the country has been moved to Sydney to help the victims of Sunday’s horrendous terror attack against Bondi’s Jewish community - anything helps x

These are going to a colleague who loves them tomorrow

I just wandered by one of the Lifeblood locations in the city and the line’s not only out the door, but a good several dozen people out the door

One Nation Party Leadership Continuity Planning: Surely (David Oldfield) This (James Ashby) Time (Lyle Shelton) It'll (Mark Latham) Work (Barnaby Joyce)

Christmas baking underway

You know it’s almost Christmas when you’re sitting with a bowl of cherries and a plate of mango

So that brings us to what, 6/9 Liberal parties changing leader in 2025? WA (Mettam->Zempilas) Federal (Dutton->Ley) ACT (Castley->Parton) Vic (Battin->Wilson) NSW (Speakman->Sloane) and now SA. That's every single Lib opposition.

Lured in by beer cans and a crowd, a precious pet Alexandrine parrot has been found safe, 31 kilometres from where she had disappeared six days earlier.

Delighted to see the back of this bad legislation from John Barilaro’s hangups

The artist has expertly captured Malcolm expounding, in trademark declaratory-plaintive fashion, on his favourite subject (Malcolm being right.)

Apparently sandwich-press wagyu steak dinners with pie for dessert still aren't enough courting to publicly say you're joining a party. This is the most drawn out defection in YEARS.

In terms of Malcolm Turnbull's new official portrait...gotta say it looks kinda familiar. That's the same pose as GOUGH WHITLAM'S.

It’s not too hot yet, but that wind is exactly why I’ve been pummelled with fire weather warnings since waking up. What a moisture-stripper of a breeze.

It’s always a good night to make jokes about the time former PM, then Opposition Leader, now US Ambassador Kevin Rudd accidentally had drinks at a New York strip club. He “ did not even stay long enough to finish his beer and urged his companions to leave”! www.abc.net.au/news/2007-08...

Eggnog signal!

I just saw a brush turkey in MILLER’S POINT. I know they’ve colonised south of the Parramatta River, but I hadn’t realised they’d made it south of the harbour itself.

Starc making it look easy, and making half the office stop work every 10 minutes to admire another wicket

Summer of cricket means the summer of "one of the solicitors has it on their second screen so we drop by to see the replays for the wickets". Mr Alyssa Healy's not doing too shabby.

Kellie Sloane makes 6! That's 4 women as opposition leaders and 2 as leaders across the country. Previous 6+/18 periods: 2012, 2019-23, and now. We actually hit 8/18 for a month between 27 October 2020 and 22 November 2020. South Australia still not living up to its female suffrage history.

And with Jess Wilson elected as the new Victorian Opposition Leader, that makes 2/9 government leaders women (VIC and NT) and 3/9 opposition leaders (Aus, NT and VIC) We just missed out on going back up to 4 women as opposition leaders by 8 days, given Leanne Castley stepped down last week.

I was looking for something else, but I couldn't get past the headline of this op ed by Lenore Taylor. The debate somehow hasn't moved for the Libs www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Living that aunty life

It’s basically summer, time for summer brunch like smashed avo and mango with chili

I never thought I'd be feeling so fondly towards Damian Tudehope and Taylor Martin, but here is where I am right now. Martin absolutely screwing the proposed compromise is a good thing for workers, maybe the ALP can fucking drop these amendments. www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw...

Did you know it is illegal to post today without making any reference to a Particular Anniversary (I'm drowning. Even Kate McClymont's Richo takedown this morning cannot save us)

I see Kate McClymont has spent the last few days opening up her dirt file of ‘material I don’t want to get sued for defo over’ and just going to town.

ahahah my boss has to do the practice management course after being promoted to partner and now is complaining to me about her readings Me: gee that sounds dreadful, want to see the binder of notes I took into my exam last week? Beloved boss: doing the reading is what I have you for!

Seriously though, if deaths come in threes, between Graham Richardson and John Laws, can we get lucky and take out the Angel of Death himself to finish the trifecta?

Vital facts

Do the Canberra Liberals have any MLAs left who haven't had party leadership at this point?

John Laws is dead, so as well as remembering him for outrageous on-air statements and the cash-for-comment affair, let me take this opportunity to remind everyone that in 1976 he released an album of country music covers called You've Never Been Trucked Like This Before It reached 69 on the charts

I won the Sydney Festival Early Bird ticket race again this year. Two tickets for Turandot so I can take Mum, at $49 a pop, as they sold out within 5 minutes.

Okay, okay BOM, I got the severe thunderstorm warning, you don’t need to keep giving me one every 15 min

I am now trying to envisage the 1999 NSW Legislative Council ballot paper in this format, and can't stop laughing

Jacaranda season is one of the most spectacular times of the year (And no I’m not trying to cut a tree down, my exam revision is fine)

my take on the rolling BOM website debacle: 1. The front page of the website is basically the app. Which is fine, but when I want that level of information I open the app; I open the website for more niche, less top level relevant information. And the thing is - everyone wants DIFFERENT niche info.

This has absolutely been the best year of Parramatta Lanes since Covid in terms of vibes and crowds. It’s finally back.

This point really upsets some folks, but it is true. Folks wonder why there's so much DLC, microtransactions and stuff and the answer is that at a $70 price point, inflation adjusted, games cost 75% of what they did in 2000 when it was typically $50. Inflation is like that.

Downside of the new BOM website (though it's very shiny) is that all my saved links no longer go to where I expect them to, and I haven't figured out where they've hidden all the observation data sets yet. ...oh wait they have a whole legacy interface under reg.bom.gov.au? oh that's handy.

The wind today is no joke though - I’ve almost been blown over several times

Omg yessss my favourite Parra Lanes people are back again this year: the Sierra Leone food stall. They’re so friendly and the food slaps - we ate there three times last year.

Wow I hate when ‘ergonomic’ design mostly means ‘you can no longer use this item with your left hand’

In terms of the top 100 books poll, I think I’ve read 8 of them? As a bunch of people have said, it’s a very Chat 10 Looks 3 sort of perspective for the voted list – I’ve heard of a whole lot of them but not picked them up. Plus as is always the case with this sort of thing, a lot of recency bias.