Anatalia's Christening

Sunday 12 December was the big day – Anatalia’s Christening, with Our Lady of Lourdes Church the venue for the event. The family forgathered at Steven and Ana’s apartment from whence we all trooped off to the church with 3-month-old Anatalia dressed to the nines in the christening robe Sandra had bought the week before. My comment that she looked like a frilly meringue did not go down too well!

Our party consisted of myself and Sandra, Sandra’s sister Johann (who is one of the godmothers), Stretch, Fraser (Johann’s son) Steven, Ana, Lex (Steven’s step son) and of course Anatalia. We rendezvoused with the rest of the christening party at the church.

The christening ceremony was a wee bit of a production line with four babies being done on the same day. The four star turns, ranging from 3 to about 18 months, behaved themselves pretty well with Anatalia being the youngest, smallest, best behaved and, of course, by far the most attractive of the bunch – honestly! After the ceremony we made our way to a club for drinks and a meal.

One burning question, which will no doubt be answered as we all get used to having a baby around, is what to call her. For the first couple of months of her young life she was simply known as “Baby”. “Anatalia” is a bit of a mouthful in everyday usage and “Ana” is likely to be confused with her mother. The diminutive which seems to be gaining in popularity is “Talia”. Time will tell.

After the christening and lunch Ana took the children home, Steven went to do the weekly shopping whilst Sandra and I went to a pre-Christmas afternoon drinks party where I am sure we outstayed our welcome managing once again to be the last to leave and staggering home about midnight. You really do have to build up stamina to survive life in Australia.

At the party yet another of life's small coincidences raised its head. I was introduced to Chris, a geneticist, and looking for a bit of common ground upon which to build a conversation I dredged back about 20 years and remembered Bruce a neighbour of ours who lived at the top of Waverley Road. An animal geneticist to trade, he was a New Zealander on sabbatical at Edinburgh University but based in North Carolina - this was going to be a long-shot! Incredibly they knew each other - which has led to a flurry of e-mails and re-establishing contact with him and his wife Beth. This of course may not be a good thing as I seem to remember Sandra and Beth had a habit of conspiring against their husbands and leading each other astray!

Focus for the next few weeks is to start thinking about selling the car and all the camping equipment – a bit sad as this has been our home for nearly a year, but it’s got to be done. Then of course there’s Christmas which seems a bit unreal here in the Sydney sun. I’m all for a “traditional” Christmas dinner which generally invokes the response “Well if you want to slave over a hot stove all day when it 35 degrees outside – your welcome to it”