Sidney The Cheerfully Apathetic Reindog

Hope everybody is having/has had a happy Christmas Day, and that Santa has been good to you all.

For those beset by flooding, chaos etc in the UK, stay safe!

This is Sid. He's not our dog. But even though he technically lives across the road at Number 2, he may as well be our dog because he spends most of his days at my family's house.

Everybody in the neighbourhood loves Sid. Each day he does a lap of the block, and each and every householder who sees him calls him by name and stops to talk to him. If there's a party or celebration going on anywhere in the vicinity, somehow, magically, Sid suddenly appears smack bang in the middle of it, being fussed over or lying sprawled under a table.

I couldn't resist kitting him out with a set of foam reindeer antlers today. But I honestly thought he would object to wearing them. Instead, he didn't seem at all displeased and has been perfectly happy to trundle around the block with them on all day.

Our Christmas was a fairly laid-back affair, starting off with breakfast pineapple margaritas and proceeding on to that most absurd of Australian traditions, the hot Christmas 3-course lunch complete with plum pudding. In full summer.

In the late afternoon there was a foray to the neighbours, where a party is continually in progress from December 24-January 2. It took Sid half an hour to make an appearance poolside, flaunting his festive headgear. I briefly contemplated blipping the neighbour in her skimpy Santa miniskirt ensemble (with bonus bells on her knickers that she jingled frequently). Then I remembered that blipland probably has a G-rating so the photo I took was decidedly unsuitable.

And there was a flurry of activity in the evening, with a power blackout sending everybody flooding in a cacophony of noise and gossip into the street, to confer with one another about the likely cause. As there was only Ronnie Corbett on the tv, I don't think anyone particularly minded losing the electricity.

P.S. I'm amused to see that the 'show on map' option says that we're in the Great Barrier Reef, off the coastline.