December 1st....countdown to festive meal-for-one?

Down here the new page on my proudly positioned Vulcan calendar heralds the start of summer. The contrast between this and the first day of Advent I am more used being a Northern hemisphere kind of chappess could not be wider. 

This year however I am all about NOT recognising Christmas. Last year was a totally demoralising experience, best forgotten, and the cool, damp, dark Christmas's of yore are a treasured memory. Often with close family (erm that will be just Mum and Dad then) and some other entertaining ones with odd waif and strays popping by for Christmas Pudding and a festive tipple. 
This year I will be in the southern hemisphere bereft of folks and ducking any potential familial invite from the state of VIC.  

This year I will be having an early morning run (maybe); oh no I won't Thursday's aren't my run day... okay so this year I will be having an early morning cycle - probably to the beach. To observe the local populous on Christmas day. And then I will bask in the sun and share such scenes with cold and damp friends back in Blighty. Then as the day progresses I'll cook something; eat something; maybe pull a cracker with myself and see who I can tempt to a Skype call. I may even determine that drinking at least half a bottle of wine/bubbles is a good thing to do. All sounds rather predictable.

It's 24 hours that I'm sure I can put to better use? 

It not so much being alone on the day, rather being afraid of wasting precious non-work hours. After-all there are many many people far worse off; and the other extreme is too materialistic and greed driven for me. 

So in a bid to fill the day with something worthwhile, I Google Christmas Day volunteering... nada. Well a search round Twitter may help find a purpose to the day. Or it will be like my usual Sunday - only on a Thursday! 

Odd that it was the one thing I always wanted to do back home - spend Christmas Day in my flat, in my home, in London.  Go for my usual walk, see what was open, what pubs etc; truly be part of the community that I weaved between the rest of the year. Could never persuade my Dad to come and stay with me; they've been happy to come to Oz however. More than once. So no, Christmas was always spent in Kent, with Dad presiding over tradition.

New Years Eve - well that's always back in the big smoke! Of course! No parties or firework displays in sleepy country Kent. 

Thus my quest to discover a better use of the day starts here....