I was really looking forward to celebrating Christmas this year, last year we were in Vietnam and still in transit from the UK so we didn't really get to celebrate at all. The year before that I was on-call and despite our best efforts to celebrate Christmas together, the constant interruptions did nothing for the atmosphere, and I couldn't even relax with a nice glass of mulled wine. So as well as being our first Christmas in Australia it is also the first Christmas we have properly been able to celebrate in 3 years.
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| Melbourne Town Hall |
Perhaps the most obvious difference between Christmas in Australia and Christmas in the UK is the weather, last Sunday being the hottest day I have experienced since we arrived (depending on which weather forecast you believed it was anything from 39-41 degrees). Luckily for us that was a one off and it cooled down again by Christmas eve allowing us a trip into the city to see the Christmas lights, the most spectacular light show being at the Melbourne town hall. The town hall, on the corner of Collins and Swanston street is a beautiful old building normally, but for Christmas they had stuck a big red bow on the front and parked giant toy soldiers in the arches. Then at night time a complex light show was projected onto the outside walls, turning it into a winter wonderland one minute and a strange mythical beast the next.
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| Possums in the park |
Walking back to the car we went by the Treasury gardens, a small park in the corner of the CBD, which I remember going to the first time I came to Melbourne to feed the possums. Feeding the possums is something most locals resent tourists for as they have become considered a bit of a pest. A lot of trees in the park are now banded with plastic sheaves to stop possums being able to climb them in an attempt to rid them from the park. At first we thought the attempts must have been successful as we hadn't seen any at all in our walk into the city, the trees instead were full of giant chattering bats. On our way back however as we walked through the park with our heads looking skyward distracted by the bats, Barnadi felt something brush passed his leg and before we knew it we were surrounded.
We got home and Barnadi had obviously been a good boy this year as Father Christmas had been and left him a stocking full of goodies, I on the other hand must have been very bad. Still the following morning we had plenty of presents to unwrap with our breakfast, including a new home for Coppertail our fish. So as Barnadi spent the morning getting dinner ready, I helped Coppertail move in.
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| Coppertail's new home |
Barnadi had invited the staff at Narai Thai over for dinner as most of them like us have no family here in Australia to spend Christmas with. As we weren't sure how many people might tum up Barnadi prepared a Christmas feast of epic proportions, chicken, duck, ham, prawns, potatoes and stuffing. Also mince pies, panettone and mulled wine to wash it all down with. It is not surprising then that after eating all that some of the guests (no names mentioned here) had to take a quick nap on the sofa when Barnadi put a movie on.
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| Barnadi surveying his creation |
All in all it was a perfect first Christmas in Australia
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