I met Peter at St. Luke's for the 8AM Christmas Mass, and then walked home. Then Keiran and I headed to Cameron and Michelle's at Woronora to spring the big surprise. The plan was that I would walk in to join the family while Keiran waited in the car for a few minutes. He borrowed my mobile phone (after disabling the sending of caller ID info). The plan was that he would call just before coming in (it had been pre-arranged that he would call at the Woronora gathering, and so it was presumed that he was still in London). The phone call was the trigger for me to start his camcorder to record the events - basically the shock and awe when he walked in the door while talking to somebody on the phone.
The surprise was complete - nobody suspected. Though it later came out that my early departure the night before (to pick up Keiran at the airport) caused a certain amount of concern. There was much joy in the land!
The unannounced guest with Di and Bev, who were also overwhelmed to see Keiran here. And after Bev had spent some considerable time last night composing a Christmas email to Keiran, knowing that London is 11 hours behind Sydney, and thus that he would receive it before Christmas. She could have sent smoke signals, as at that time Keiran was less than 2km away!
And get Dad into the picture too.
And Keiran with his Mum while Di takes a photo - of her daughter Nicole and son-in-law Stephen (up from Melbourne) and their two daughters Trinity and Bella. And just to add to the connections, Stephen and Nicole are my landlords until I have a place of my own.
Ah, the big event of the morning is approaching - Santa (a cleverly disguised fireman from the Woronora Bushfire Brigade) comes around the corner in his twin Johnson powered sleigh. Reindeer don't swim very well, I'm told.
Pre-Christmas 2006
2006