About to head off to my family christmas party. A gathering of all the cousins and aunties and uncles. Grama and Granpa are both dead, years gone. We're off to the bowling club/rsl in with the thermometer on the fridge saying its 25 degrees, but I think it about 30 outside. It's my Mum's family. I was tempted to not go: I wouldn't be the only one missing. There's my aunty in Geelong who hasn't got the time to come down because she's busy working. And there's my crazy aunty over in Perth who was fucking her half-brother for a while before she admitted herself to a psychiatric ward. She's not coming because... well... I don't think anyone's checked to why she's not coming. Then there's my various relations that I haven't seen in a long time. They'll probably all have the same things to say to me. I was rehersing the replies in the shower. Can't remember any of them now. Wish my glasses weren't reading glasses. My beard and haircut don't look so bad when I'm wearing glasses. Oh well.