Christmas Alone

Source: busi9love.wordpress.com

I will be spending Christmas alone this year which begs the question what will I do. Please note I am not writing this looking for invitations. This is very much the dilemma faced by Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Calkin) in the 1990 box office hit “Home Alone”. Kevin is 8 years old. In the movie Kevin is excited when he wakes to find that his family is gone and he has complete freedom of choice of his activities. Kevin’s choices include shooting with his brother’s BB gun, jumping on the bed, watching old gangster movies and eating junk food. As an adult I can choose to eat junk food whenever I want, no-one is there to stop me jumping up and down on the bed and I have total control of my remote control and DVD collection. I could cook myself a fancy meal but as always being by one’s self means that I also get landed with the clean up. I could just prepare my favourite meal but why limit this meal to just Christmas. I prepare most of my meals so I always cook things I like. I am never going to prepare a meal of offal and Brussels sprouts. Why would I do that to myself, and there is no fun in whinging about dislikeable foods without an audience. Going out for Christmas lunch alone is a big move. Even if I can get a restaurant booking for a single do I want a room full of diners surreptitiously staring at me and pitying me. Or is envy, as they site pretending to enjoy the company and gifts of their family. As a child I would spend Christmas Day playing with my toys, swimming in the family pool or playing backyard cricket. Although my inner city apartment has a decent balcony it would not accommodate a cricket pitch let alone a swimming pool. Like Kevin, I could watch and movie of my choice, but again I am an adult and can do that any night of the week, to all hours of any night of the week. Fish and chips at the beach is an option. It covers both the meal and the activity, and the meal would be one of my favourites. The question is how to make it special for Christmas. I could wear Santa Speedos. Alternatively I could jump on a plane and have fish and chips on a beach somewhere else in Australia. Bondi is a great beach but does it have great fish and chips? Where are the best beach-side fish and chips?