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First Christmas in Melbourne!

First Christmas in Melbourne!

Old Dec 22nd 2006, 8:06 pm
  #1  
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Default First Christmas in Melbourne!

I haven't posted on BE for yonks as I've been concentrating more on being an Australian Immigrant and not being a British Ex-pat (advice I took from someone's avatar, I forget who)! Thursday marked exactly a year since Thribble and I landed in Perth, so I thought I'd pop by and post a few words up here.

It's hard to believe that our second Australian Christmas is already upon us. Over the past few weeks the mercury has passed the 40°C mark and the weather conditions have been "smoky", which is pretty hard to comprehend when you're from the Northern Hemisphere. Despite having a Christmas tree up in the unit, it still doesn't really feel like Christmas yet.

Our road trip across Australia seems like a lifetime ago. If you want to read about it, there's a large PDF here: http://johnsy.com/blog/pkrtdu06.pdf

This time last year people were wishing us well with our "new life". One year on, it doesn't feel very much like a new life, which is probably a good thing. The point of moving to Australia (if indeed there was one) was not to leave our lives behind! We have settled into life in Melbourne and it feels very much like "home". Having being working since March, life just seems very normal. There are some days where the smell of eucalyptus trees or the sight of palm trees against a bright blue, cloudless sky or the sound of a tram ringing its bell raise a smile as they remind us how lovely this place is.

We get asked two questions quite a lot. One is what do you miss about being in England. I don't miss anything from the UK. I've got used to the coldness of the beers and the gas-fuelled barbecues. We do miss our family and friends, of course. So to say we miss very little about England is unfair, our family and friends mean a lot to us, so we do miss a lot, but that is made easier by technology! I think we speak to most people on Skype about as often as we would have done on the telephone when we were on the same side of the planet. The advantage of Skype is that we can often see each other at the same time as we're talking. The disadvantage is that they can see me!

The other question we get asked often is as to whether we think we shall stay in Australia. Our answer to that remains much as it was when we first decided to move over here. We promised ourselves that we wouldn't make a decision one way or the other until we'd spent two years here. One down, one to go!

We're looking forward to a peaceful first Christmas in Melbourne. Our only plan for Christmas Day is to have a barbecue. We figured that it would be too hot to have the oven on in the flat (I still can't get used to calling the place a "unit"), but the weather forecast suggests that it probably won't be too warm at all. In fact, Thursday night was the hottest December night in 45 years in
Melbourne whereas Christmas Day is meant to be the coldest one on record with SNOW in the hills.

We have friends coming over on Boxing Day who are coming to Melbourne to watch The Ashes. Thankfully there's a lot more to Melbourne than the Cricket Ground! Thribble's Mum and Dad arrive the following day. We're very much looking forward to having them stay and showing them around.

I think that's all I wanted to say, all that remains is to wish you and yours a very, very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2007. But I need to be careful about how I do that in this day and age. So, please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, nonaddictive, gender neutral celebration of the summer solstice holiday, practised with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practise religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (your country of choice) and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her-/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Last edited by Johnsyweb; Dec 22nd 2006 at 8:30 pm.
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Old Dec 22nd 2006, 8:24 pm
  #2  
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Default Re: First Christmas in Melbourne!

Ah Pete, a man of few words . Good to hear from you mate. Glad to see you're having a great time.

Enjoy Christmas
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Old Dec 22nd 2006, 8:32 pm
  #3  
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Smile Re: First Christmas in Melbourne!

Vous etes un artist des mots.

Incroyable.

ca ma fait rigole!

sante

Buzzy
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Old Dec 22nd 2006, 11:43 pm
  #4  
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Default Re: First Christmas in Melbourne!

Hope you both have a great Xmas day. Enjoy the family visit. Will catch up with you both soon.

S & M

PS Loved the greating
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