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Merry Christmas! We had lunch at my parents' place. One of my mother's sisters and her husband also attended. A nice seafood lunch was enjoyed by all.

My sister and her partner Warren came done to Sydney from up the North Coast for a two day visit. We went to dinner at Whitewater Restaurant for a feed, which I've written about before, and happens to be one of my favourite restaurants in Manly. My sister hadn't eaten there before, and as she's a bit of a foodie too, she enjoyed it a lot.

Mark suggested that we do a bushwalk today just to be different. So Karl, Leanne, Steve, Bill, Amanda, Pete, Mark, and myself met up at Forty Baskets beach, and proceeded to walk around to visit all the little fisherman's huts at Crater Cove. Including the walk from Manly, I'd say I walked about 8 km. And in the heat, I'm really glad I had a bottle of water with me.

When we got to Crater Cove, we cooled off by going for a bit of a swim. Afterwards, Mark's munching on a sandwich attracted three water monitors, which made for a bit of fun as he chucked them crumbs.

We walked back via Reef Beach, Forty Baskets, and back to Manly, where we ended up with a couple of well earned beers.

What a good day.

I went to Pilu Restaurant tonight, just for a bit of a change. At the moment, I have builders swarming over my apartment doing interesting things like ripping render off walls, jackhammering up kitchen floor tiles, and other disruptive-to-normal-living things. Consequently, I've been eating a lot of takeaway. So tonight I thought I'd up the ante a bit.

I ordered "Capesante avvolte con pancetta servite con pure` di finocchio" (scallops wrapped in pancetta and sage, served with wild fennel puree and tomato and white anchovy dressing), followed by the fish special, which was blue trevally, served with some vegetables that included golden beetroots (which made the dish). Accompanying wine was a couple of glasses of "Sella e Mosca ‘Terrerare’ - Carignano del Sulcis Riserva". I finished with the "Pecorino Sardo" and a glass of "Miceli Tanit - Moscato di Pantelleria Liquoroso". Mmmm.

The last time I wrote about this restaurant here, it had only just opened (back in 2004). I've been back a few times since then, but I've failed to write about it. Last time I mentioned that they should get at least one "Chef's Hat" from the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide. They deservedly got two.

Sydney Ferries suck. I can't blame them for the cancellation of the Jetcat at the end of the year, but I can blame them for cancelling the Jetcat that I have to catch to get me to work on time. Not just today, but on Thursday and Friday last week.

And to add insult to injury, they recently announced a system where you can sign up to receive an SMS on your mobile phone if your Jetcat is cancelled. So, I get the message, make sure I can leave 5 minutes earlier to get the ferry (which probably won't get me to my train on time anyway, but it's worth a shot) only to get on the boat and have the captain announce that "due to the cancellation of the Jetcat, the ferry will depart 5 minutes late". Bastards! Now for sure I'll get to work 45 minutes late.