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It was great to have little ( well , littler ) children in the house at Christmas , gasping at the mountain of presents under the tree and demolishing it in awfully short order . Nikki 's overall comment was that the infamous bananas flambeed a la Beulah certainly lived up to expectations . For those of you who spent the year outside the solar system , this is where the Goliaths of the sailing world-the US , with four or five separate boats , Australia , France , Italy , Japan , Spain , Switzerland-jousted furiously for the honour of smashing little David , aka New Zealand . The organiser informed us that the only vacancy was in the " two-day option , " laconically remarking that this was only 15 to 18 km per day and therefore perfectly straightforward for anyone of moderate fitness . A nice way to spend 24 hours is to arrive at the boat in the evening , head out , perhaps sailing a little in the dark ( we have full navigation lights and have wrestled a few times with the challenges and excitement of night sailing ) , anchor for the night in a secure bay and watch the moon over a meal and bottle of wine , then up in the morning for pancakes , coffee , a sail , and back home the next day . It has been renovated since he and Pam went in 1968 and is truly incredible : light , airy , and with murals whose perspective is so real it 's hard to believe they're pictures and not sculptures . But although his body has grown , he seems to us to be the same little boy inside , childlike and vulnerable , and we worry for him . With half a million other people we visited the Castro district that evening , and saw the most incredible exhibitions , including acres of exposed flesh of all possible genders . Sometimes called the Snow Compression Conference , Ian believes he did have a little ski this year . When ex-pianist Craig was here in June , they played in the local JBC - - jazz blues concept - - jazz club , along with a singer , to a large audience consisting mostly of computer scientists . Feeling a very long way indeed from any humanity - - there were no other boats out there at all - - we steered nervously through a narrow , rock-bordered channel between islets , the heavy ocean swell crashing to left and right , to take a peek at an incredible anchorage , almost unseen from the outside world except through a large hole in the huge rock that protects it from the elements .