Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you all, wherever you are, and I hope you are having cosy and jolly festivities.

My festive greetings

Much as I love a bit of turkey and granny's bread sauce, I've thoroughly enjoyed my unconventional and self-indulgent Christmas. The glorious sunshine combined with the lack of family visitors this year has led to a very low-key healthy chilled out time. Last year mum and Keith visited over the festive period, and I enjoyed showing them round my city and introducing them to Aussie Chrimbo traditions such as the christmas eve fish market trip. This year I've been very relaxed and planned nothing in advance, preferring to take whatever comes and enjoy chilling out, before January's craziness hits.

On Christmas eve I journeyed across the Harbour Bridge to Kirribilli to help my friend Nick cook canapes and snacks for his family and friends. I know a lot of Nick's friends and they're all lovely, so I felt very relaxed and we had a lovely evening drinking wine and watching the sun set over the harbour, talking about Nick's parents' trips round Europe, Margaret's upcoming birth (she's due in less than a month!) and Bronwyn's experiences working as a nurse in Alice Springs. Great views. (This is also where I'll be spending New Year's Eve.)

Christmas eve on the harbour

Nick and his friend Paul then took me to a 'local' church in the Eastern suburbs for Midnight Mass. I thought I should try it at least once -- Mass in Australian! Plus I couldn't pass up the opportunity to belt out a few carols. And I thought Granny might be chuffed that I made the effort. On the way we went to a Tadcaster-tastic part of town where every house on the street lights up their garden with Christmas lights. Soooo tacky.

Keeping up with the neighbours

Then on Christmas day I defied convention and decided to just do whatever I wanted to do. I woke up to the squawking of parrots (as usual!), made a huge fruit salad for breakfast, watched a couple of movies, wrote a couple of letters to friends, had a prawn salad for lunch, wandered down to Bronte beach, read my book on the beach, swam in the ocean, and wandered back home... Totally chilled out and gorgeous, I utterly relaxed and felt very self-indulgent.

Christmas day on Tamarama beach

Today's Boxing Day, and I've managed to enjoy a similarly indulgent day -- I watched Gallipoli this morning (amazing film) and mooched about reading and writing letters. Then this arvo I melted some chocolate, dipped in some strawberries, and now I'm taking those and a bottle of red as my picnic contribution in Centennial park, where a bunch of my friends will be joining me for an outdoor screening of Sing-a-long-a Mamma Mia. What fun!

I can't say I miss the cold of a Northern Hemisphere Christmas, but why don't you all enjoy a few extra sprouts and pigs in blankets on my behalf! Much love to all.

cx

Dumbing down?

What a week it's been, full of pop-tastic tat and kitsch, and good clean summer fun.

First up, everyone's favourite pint-sized pop princess Kylie. An old school chum of mine just happens to be her sound guy, and is touring with her at the moment. He called me on Wednesday morning offering me some free tickets for the concert that night. I rallied a gang together (v difficult this side of Chrimbo) and we schlepped out to Homebush to see her live. Great gig -- she played for 3 hours and did about 16 costume changes -- the sets were amazing and the light shows were fantastic. She sure knows her audience -- lots of semi-clad male dancers with hot bodies and camp-as-christmas showpieces pleased many of the guys around me. And then she made everyone get down and boogie with her classics from the 80s -- The Locomotion, Better the Devil you Know, and even I Should be so Lucky! Took me back, it did. We love ya Kylie!

80s-tastic Kylie

Christina and I could barely conceal our excitement at the release of High School Musical 3: Senior Year. We'd rented number 1 on DVD and have been waiting to see number 3 for ages. No sarcasm intended, I think they're fab films! Good clean fun for all the family, they introduce musicals to this popstar-obsessed generation and the dance numbers are so well choreographed. Plus, there's swoonsome Zac Efron and his chums to boot. (The teenage girls to our right in the cinema giggled loudly about how much they wanted to marry Zac every time he came on screen.) Plus, Christina and I both identify with Gabriella -- Chrissy because she's 'ethnic' (Gabriella is hispanic, Christina is of Italian origin) and I because she's a bookish geek. Anyway, number 3 did not disappoint -- stop groaning and go see it! It's just plain old Good Fun.

The Boys are Back!

Showtunes

Then on Friday I skipped work and went to the Star Wars exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum (like the Science Museum in London). They had loads of the original costumes and the models which were used in the first three films. It was great seeing the Millenium Falcon and learning that Luke Skywalker's landspeeder was actually attached to a three-wheel car. The exhibition was really hands-on for the kids, and I got to make a lego car that hovered using electro-magnetism, which was pretty cool. Just a big kid, me.

Luke Skywalker's landspeeder

Christmas is drawing near now and summer is well underway. Marianne and Francois hosted a pool party today at their Vaucluse pad, what a way to spend a summer afternoon.

Christmas, Aussie style

Hope you're all having fun wearing your Christmas jumpers and getting ready for sprouts and gravy!

cx

Croquet and Pimms dahling

As you Northern Hemisphere types freeze your socks off in the run up to Christmas I'm thoroughly enjoying the summer sun and the lovely chilled out pastimes it brings. Yesterday I wandered down to Strickland House in Vaucluse where a friend of mine holds his birthday gathering each year, for a spot of Pimms and a game of croquet. How civilised.

Croquet on the lawn

The house is in a wonderful spot, on the side of the harbour, looking back at the city and the Harbour Bridge. Angus bagsyed a gazebo early in the morning and made watermelon cocktails, and we spent the day mooching about, played with the kids, holding a backgammon tournament and, of course, playing croquet.

Our little spot near the gazebo

Hanging with the kids

Croquet is a far more evil game than I had imagined, but we remained sportsmanlike and I happily came third, not bad out of seven.

The view from Strickland House across the harbour

We also took solace from the 34-degree heat by taking a dip in the water, lovely and calm as we were harbour-side not ocean-side.

Strickland House in the evening sun

Although I may be gloating about the weather I am, once again, finding it extremely hard to feel at all Christmassy, what with the warm summer evenings and the lack of snow, scarves, socks, etc. It's amazing how much that festive feeling is a result of the nights drawing in and the weather getting colder. Christmas in July anyone?

Down by the water in the evening sun

Perhaps that's just my excuse for having not yet posted my Christmas prezzies, thus ensuring once again that they arrive some time in January. Oh dear...

More Croquet and Pimms pics are here.

cx

Communication channels

I'm beginning to realise the true implications of firmly making a second country (hemisphere) my home. I now have friends in many different places and sometimes feel torn about where I want to be. I'm sure this feeling will become more acute when I visit the UK in August. However, I'm now forming bizarre and various ways of interacting with the different groups of people in my life. Over here, as summer arrives in earnest, I'm mooching on the beach during the day with friends, hanging out on warm summer evenings in parks and on people's balconies, lurking in dark air-conditioned cinemas when it all gets too much, and looking forward to the barmy Christmas season and January's artistic hedonism.

Meanwhile, I keep Skype opened behind my work while in the office, occasionally grabbing 5 minutes with my UK friends when they're about to go to bed and I'm just beginning my day. I tweet, dopplr and I'm LinkedIn. I keep up with people's incidental news via Facebook, I watch people's babies grow up on flickr. Occasionally (and I hear your grumbles that this is not frequent enough!) I write a big long catch up email, and even more occasionally put pen to paper, and send a surprise parcel across the world. For my technophobe friends this means communication is dwindling, and I have made a pact to visit the Northern Hemisphere at least once every 18 months from now on. Three years is just too long, people are going to forget what I look like! So... August 2009, and Christmas 2010. Definitely.



Luckily I have impending visitors to get excited about. An old school friend Nick, who's now on tour with Kylie, arrives next week. Heidi and Manu are visiting from Singapore in January. I believe Sheila will make an appearance sometime in the New Year, and others have threatened... Come on over!

(Oh and by the way I have short hair now...)

cx