Happy Christmas!

Christmas on the beach - that's what everyone promised.

Unfortunately the weather turned and we had rain, rain, rain on Christmas day. Never mind. Clare and I had a fabulous view of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race from our balcony (lots of boats out the back there if you look closely!).

Helen, Fergus, Jock and Minnie decided I needed to start aclimatising to life in the northern hemisphere so they bought me some gorgeous, warm UGG boots as a pressie. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be wearing them with shorts in the UK....

No turkey for us on Christmas Day - we literally did have "shrimps on the barbie" - and a huge salmon - deelicious....

The tradition on Christmas day (in all countries) is to wear all your new clothes plus any decorative items you can find lying around. Here Helen and I are sporting out new French Connection summer casuals...

Happy Christmas Everyone!!!!!

Trevor and His Amazing Cigarette Lighter

Melbourne is famous for lots of things: coffee, good food, The Melbourne Cup, four seasons in one day..... but not many people have been to Melbourne and experienced TREVOR.



As part of my trip (thanks to Helen and Jock!), I went on a tour of the botanical gardens, led by Trevor, the half Irish half Aboriginal resident guide. He told us lots interesting things including:

Which native shrubs to eat when feeling a bit peckish...


Which trees to hug to keep you cool in summer.....


And some natural ways to help you feel sleepy?!?

Trevor also welcomed us all with a traditional Aboriginal "smoking" ceremony. I got ready to be really impressed with the way that he created fire by rubbing two sticks together. Unfortunately he couldn't make the sticks work and used his very own cigarette lighter instead. Oh well.

The highlight of the trip was seeing a play with two of my favourite Australian actors from the series "RUSH" - excellent programme, excellent play. The worst part of the trip was coming home to an email from Sally saying her and Matt are moving to Melbourne just as I'm about to leave Australia!

At least I can give them some Melbourne recommendations....

Christmas Is Coming....

Can you believe it's December already?! I certainly can't believe it... firstly because this means I have nearly been in Australia for a whole year and secondly because December = Christmas.

The 37 degree temperatures and permanently blue skies are not really putting me in the festive spirit but our lovely Christmas tree has.... just a little bit....

Up.....

Up.....

And away!

What a beautiful tree - well done us. I've so far only got one present underneath. We are considering wrapping up some empty boxes to make us look more popular....

On a different, non-Christmas note...... We went down to Bondi beach at the weekend for a swim at Icebergs (the lovely ocean water filled pool). After a couple of lengths we decided it was far more enjoyable to sit and watch the incredible waves. We got a bit wet.