christmas day: aussie style

'twas the night before christmas
and all around the place
not a creature was stirring
not even a snake

the flip flops were laid by the chimney with care
in hope that saint nicholas soon would be there...

christmas was pretty low key this year. christmas eve was spent in the company of the macphees and elliot and amy. a chilled out dinner on the picnic table and a glass of wine. as we sent the macphees off for bed, the four of us decided to watch a christmas movie. the only one we could find at the movie store was elf. and so it was. (i point out that john and i have elf, but it's canadian zone, so we can't watch it on our computer...)

we woke on christmas morning to beautiful clear skies, and hot hot heat. john and i headed out for a walk to take it all in, while elliot and amy opened their gifts sent from home. after the walk, john and i also opened a few gifts. we then packed up some fruit salad and some other munchies, grabbed our bathers, towels, sunblock and santa hats and headed to the beach to celebrate christmas in true aussie style.

the beach was busy, but not so much that it wasn't enjoyable. we spent the better part of the afternoon lazing around on the beach, splashing about in the water and playing frisbee. we toasted with champers from the eskie and the boys had a few beers as well. some friends of mine, also north american christmas orphans, joined us later in the afternoon to continue with the good times.

john's parents also came to meet us later in the day, though they didn't stay in the sun as long as us. luckily, they were able to drive us all home for dinner. we had a feast of salads and salmon, prawns and crayfish and other such goodies. and of course, the wine was poured out copiously.

to cap off the night, we had a small pingpong tourney in our basement. it was really the only tolerable area to hang out as the house was steamin' hot. i'll point out that the weather on christmas day was 42 degrees celcius... just saying, is all.

overall, our first australian christmas was a fabulous day: good friends, good food, great weather and good times.

xo

rotto

last week, elliot and amy, the macphees and john and i headed off to rottnest island - aka rotto. we left home at 8am to get to the dock in freo to catch the ferry.after buying our tickets for ourselves and our bikes, we boarded the ferry. the ferry ride takes about 30mins, so we got to the island with plenty of time to enjoy the day.

some info about rotto:

-the name rottnest came from the dutch mariners who discovered it and mistook the quokka (see below) for rats
-the quokka is a small marsupial rat-ish creature, which only lives on the island
-rotto is 11km long and 4.5 km wide
-the island was used in season 9 of the amazing race (they also visit freo and the tunnels in the prison!)
-it was the site of an internment camp during WWI and II and as an aboriginal prison in the late 1800's
-snorkelling and diving are very popular off the beaches
-fantastic beaches!
-no cars are on the island except for service vehicles and buses to shuttle tourists from point a - b
-approx 500 000 people visit rotto every year! (including us)

now that you're briefed, i'll continue. upon arrival, we hoped on our bikes and began the 22km round trip ride around the island. we all assumed it would be a piece of cake, but the island is amazingly hilly. and windy at that! plus, we added a few extra kms here and there with wrong turns and a few purposeful turn offs onto other roads.

the beaches and nature on the island are quite spectacular, with turquoise water, colourful reefs and white sandy beaches. the landscape of the middle of the island is typically australian... low lying bushes, dying trees and moderately waterless lakes.

our first major stop on the tour was at the lighthouse. it was a manned lighthouse until 1991 (i believe) before it became fully automated. it is at the top of a very steep hill (very low gear climb...) it provided us with fantastic views of the perth skyline and an opportunity to cool off a bit.

next stop was for lunch. we biked down a bit of a turnoff to cape vlamingh, which took us about 2-3 extra kms to get to. unfortunately, it wasn't a beach and we had to eat on a boardwalk type thing. it was excessively hot at this point, so you can imagine that we were a bit disappointed. we ate quickly, trying to avoid the flies (who like to explore your nose, mouth, eyes and ears) then took off on the bikes to find a bit of relaxation and beaches!

the beach we chose to stop at was called ricey beach. white sand, blue/clear water and little waves thanks to the reef 50 meters out. conditions were perfect for some in-the-water-frisbee and just plain ol' frolicking around. we unwound and sunned ourselves there for a little before we had to head back.

our last stop was to grab a cold drink at the dome (similar to starbucks). while there, we managed to see some quokkas (they know where the good stuff is!) they do look a lot like giant rats. but because they are marsupials, i think that they are much cuter.

after a long day, we ferried back home and made some food, as we were heading out to listen to the carols by candlelight. i mentioned before that this is an aussie christmas tradition. we packed up a picnic basket, grabbed some wine/rum and made our way to the park. the whole idea of this event is quite nice, but i still can't get used to the idea of singing "dashing through the snow" and "i'm dreaming of a white christmas" when it's 40 degrees outside (and it was!). but it was nice to get a bit of christmas spirit before the big day. after such a long busy day, we decided to head home and get some sleep. christmas was getting close...

xo

still more australian-ese

it's been a while since the last lesson, but i figure i should be updating you all. it's really an ongoing process, as i am still learning as well. it's still a lot of abbreviations, as that is the way people speak here. one of my friends told me it's because they're lazy!

christmas= chrissy
presents = prezzy
position= possie (pronouned pozzie)
relatives= relos

suspect (as in, something is): suss
disturbing: shocking (pronounced shahking)
that's nice: beaut
bachelorette: hen
bachelorette party: hen's night
show up = rock up (currently one of my favs)
men's underwear = jocks
cleats= footy boots
tape (athletic) = strapping

and john's favourite saying...

"teaspon of cement? ... harden the f- up!" said when a bloke gets upset.

preparing for christmas

i know i haven't posted in so long, and now i am bombarding you with posts. it's just that november wasn't a very exciting month. john was studying hard, i was working. that's about it. really. anyhow...

christmas is just around the corner. which, for all of you probably seems totally normal. but for us, it seems completely bizarre. mostly because it's hot and sunny. strangest thing to have sun and blue skies at this time of year. and while we have accepted that christmas is almost here, it's just not the same.

as the decorations for the holiday season come up across the city, it becomes painfully obvious that the US has a massive stranglehold on all things in this country. decorations for the holidays are exactly as they are at home. including fake christmas trees (they don't grow here), thick garland, warm fuzzy stockings and santa hats, snow globes,fake snow spray for windows, snowflakes, etc. i've asked people why the stockings? why not something else that is more significantly australian? monique and i decided on kangaroo pouches. and not on a fireplace (you definitely don't need one right now) but perhaps by the bbq or on the AC unit. sure sure, it seems strange to you, but it is way weirder to have references to snow and fire in a place this hot.

the other thing that is a little odd: christmas carols. they're the same as the ones we sing. yes, they sing songs about "dashing through the snow, on a one-horsed open sleigh" and "i'm dreaming of a white christmas". again i ask, have they not converted some of these songs to be more appropriate to australian christmas? why not "dashing down the beach, with my surfboard in hand, into the waves i go, splashing all the way" or something? again, seems odd, but that's what you do on christmas day!

so yes, they do have their own traditions: seafood bbq at the beach, with champagne and fruit (the aussies do love their booze). some people insist on turkey dinners, but it would just be too hot in my opinion (and well, too meaty...)carols by candlelight is another aussie tradition. essentially they go to a nice park, bring a picnic and wine (again with the booze) and hold a candle while people sing carols.

monique was quick to point out that most people in australia have probably come from the uk and north america, and so keeping with our traditions makes sense to them. but i just don't see it. i just find it so completely, utterly and ridiculously strange to see snowflakes in windows and christmas trees dotting the sidewalk near the white sandy beach, in the scorching hot sun.

to tell you the truth, i'm looking forward to starting some new christmas traditions. perhaps some sort of palm tree or native shrub to decorate. maybe a sandman in the font yard...yes, there will be carols on in our house and i'm sure most will be french, nanna mouskouri and lame, but that's ok. but i can assure you that i won't be hanging a stocking by the chimney with care. i might, just might, find me a kangaroo pouch instead.

xo

A short history lesson

today, the first sunday of december, the four of us decided to explore the WWII tunnels. this is something that john and i had been planning on for a while. lucky for us, elliot did a bit of research and discovered that they are open to the public on the 1st sunday of the month, and that there are guided tours. seeing that the weather wasn't so fab today (a cool 23...) it seemed like a great idea.

i don't know about you, but my knowledge of WWII is limited. and by that i mean it is practically non-existant. sad, i know. but history has never been my forte (sorry marc!) what little knowledge i do have revolves around canada's involvement. ask me about other countries, and i wouldn't know a thing (sorry again marc). needless to say, the first time i saw signs for the WWII tunnels in australia, i asked john "why would they have needed tunnels here" (so sorry marc). right, well, let me inform you.

turns out, WA specifically had a rather large role in WWII, what with being a close port to japan. that and freo port is huge! they told us today that over 40 ships a day were coming in and out to refuel, drop off goods, pick up troops, etc. as well, there were over 160 submarines that used freo as a base (for all the allied troops).

the tunnels were built to aid with the heavy artillery needs to help protect the coastline and more importantly, the fremantle port. there were 4 major areas: mosman park (where we were today), scarbororough (20km up the coast), garden island and rottnest island (apparently, 2500 troops were on rotto during the war... it's only about 40km squared or something).

it was rather interesting to go into the tunnels. we toured through the magazine rooms, stand-easy rooms, first-aid room, lookout room, command centre and saw where some of the regions where the large guns were housed. and by large guns, i mean huge! they call them "6 inch guns" but they are about the length of a school bus and about the width of john's body. the ammunition used in them were probably as big as i am! the radius that some of these guns could protect was enormous (especially given the times). the guns in mosman park cover approx 18km and the ones on rotto cover approx 28km!

as we learned today, australia actually came into a bit of trouble during the war. broome and darwin (north WA and northern territory) were attacked, and the relative closeness of pearl harbour kind of put the fright in the aussies. and something i find completely fascinating (and had actually heard of before) was the HMAS Sydney.

for those of you not in the know, the HMAS Sydney was a large ship with 640 crew. in november 1941, it was attacked just off the coast of Shark Bay (see previous blog) by a german auxiliary cruiser called the Kormoran. the HMAS sydney disappeared after the attack. they have NEVER found ANY remains of the boat nor of the 640 crew. the Kormoran also sank, but remnants of it and most of its crew made it back to land. the sydney? NOTHING! does this not seem absolutely amazing? given that winds and currents in this area of the world all blow things onto the WA coastline, it is completely absurd to think none of the ships wreckage made it to land. current thinking has narrowed down the possible location of the boat to a 100km squared radius. and apparently, as of march 2008, they will be deploying a crew to search for it (again!). this time, they are using the same company who found the titanic. i am so intrigued by this disappearance. blows my mind.

so there you have it, a short lesson on australian history
xo