The New Farm festivities kicked off with a deeply spiritual mood before Midnight Mass (Italian style, described here) @ Casa Bahnisch. Surrounded by angelic presences we were! You can see the Holy Spirit church steps where we enjoyed pannetone and sparkling wine here at flickr.

<img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/christmas1.jpg"

And the next day was lovely and relaxed on a back deck somewhere in the leafy Western suburbs. Turkey, more turkey, desserts, turkey sandwiches and pressies – including (but not limited to) a bottle of Bowmore Islay Single Malt.

<img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/christmas-2.jpg"

Boxing Day saw a road trip to the Sunshine Coast, visiting rellos of my friends, and then a fine pitstop in Mooloolaba for some restorative briney air and healthy vego food at Raw Energy Cafe (which I thoroughly recommend). And then topped off with some beers and good company and a storm on another New Farm back deck.

We Quincelanders had an extremely pleasant and appropriately festive afternoon at Hotel Bravo in the Valley, I thought…

It is of course an internetty tradition to post a thread for post-grogblog reflections, so here it is. Perhaps some of the Sydney and Melbs folk will be along to update.

<img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/lp-drinks-008.jpg"

Ps: I’m not trying to be narcissistic by just posting photos of myself! Just that I didn’t seek others’ permission for the photos to go on the blog, so the Brisbane pics won’t be posted here.

<img src="http://larvatusprodeo.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/lp-drinks-022.jpg"

On Friday night, I met some friends for a cocktail @ The Bowery (and I recommend a Southside as a good summer drink…) before sauntering down to the always excellent Jugglers Art Space on Brunswick Street for their last opening of the year – The X Show – a compendium of some of their most popular artists of 2008. Jugglers is an excellent space – with the beer garden like space at the back surrounded by graffiti covered walls being a much more pleasant venue for a drink (and the wines were $4.50 a glass) than in some smaller and more conventional galleries. I also particularly enjoyed Abigael Whittaker’s artwork, and I’m looking forward to her solo exhibition next year. We then retired to Pho Kim Lan on the Chinatown mall for a vego feast and a few bottles of white from the bottlo at the Elephant and Wheelbarrow which has unaccountably gone minimalist in terms of selection. Perhaps they’re concentrating on shovelling out beer and alcopops to the partying masses. But a thoroughly enjoyable dinner with very pleasant company!

Today, of course, is the LP Christmas Drinks in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney – so I shall see some of you there and let me raise a metaphorical glass in festive spirit to all LPers everywhere! No doubt there’ll be a separate thread or threads on the drinks at a later point. Details of venues, etc, are here.

If you’d like to see a higher res version of any of the images, click through and then click on ‘full view’ once you’re inside the gallery.

Valley nights IV by *phenomenologist on deviantART

The X Show I by *phenomenologist on deviantART

The X Show II by *phenomenologist on deviantART

The X Show III by *phenomenologist on deviantART

The X Show IV by *phenomenologist on deviantART

The Artist and her work I by *phenomenologist on deviantART

The Artist and her work II by *phenomenologist on deviantART

Photo of the Obama event in Chicago courtesy of bcbeatty – licenced under Creative Commons.

So, since there was so much discussion before election day of where folks were going to meet up to watch the count in convivial style, how did everyone enjoy their election celebrations? Where did you go? What was the mood? Any good drinking games?

And how’s everyone feeling today?