Australia Part 1

I arrived in Melbourne as a weary traveler on Thursday December 22 at around 11:00 am.  I made it through customs despite the fact that I didn't have Natalie's address.  The dog didn't find any contraband items in my luggage so I was able to walk through quite quickly.  I met Sean, Nicole's husband, at the exit of customs and walked to the car.  Once at the car I instinctivally walked to the right of the car to get in the passenger's side only to be told from Sean that I need to get in on the other side unless I wanted to drive.  I definitely did not want to drive so I switched to the left, passenger side in Australia, and got in.  The drive to their house wasn't bad, only about 1/2 an hour.  As soon as I got there I took a shower.  I felt super slimy and disgusting.  After the shower came a good tooth brushing.  Once I felt better I took a quick nap, about 1 hour, before the girls got home from school.  Then it was time to meet the family.  Natalie lives with her daughter, Nicole, son-in-law, Sean, and two granddaughters, Ashleigh (9) and Caitlyn (8).  When Natalie came home from work we went shopping for a bit but I didn't last all that long and was in bed by 8:00.  I was exhausted after my 16 hour flight.

Friday 12/23

being processed at the
Old Watch House

After getting about 12 hours sleep we - Natalie, Ashleigh, Caitlyn, and I - headed into the city for a day of sight seeing.  We went to the Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail) and I learned a lot about Ned Kelly.  He is the Asutralian version of Robin Hood.  The jail was pretty interesting as they had death masks of many of the prisoners and the acutal gallows that were used to hang Ned Kelly.  After the jail we walked down the road to the Old Watch House and had a tour of that.  The tour was run as if we were prisoners being processed.  It was neat.  We were treated as they would have treated prisoners before they closed in 1984.  We were processed and sent to a cell where they turned off all the lights and it was pitch black.  Just a little bit of light was filtering in through the crack between the floor and the door.  Ashleigh and Caitlyn were the hit of the tour as the Sargeant really liked them and used them in various demonstrations.  It was a nice bit of Australian history.

flying cow

After the tour of the Jail and the Watch House we went to the Docklands and had a nice lunch and walk on the pier.  It was nice to be near water!  I miss it living in Al Ain.  At the Docklands I saw the flying cow, one of Melbourne's random art pieces.  We walked around for a bit and then headed home.  It was getting hot and near dinner time and I think I was still recovering from a bit of jetlag.

Friday night at the house is take out fish 'n chips night.  So we had a
nice meal of somewhat soggy take out fish 'n chips and then I was in bed.

Christmas Eve Saturday 12/24

Saturday morning was a pretty quiet morning.  Natalie had some last minute shopping and wrapping to do so I got some laundry done.  After I had the laundry started, Sean, the kids, and I went for a walk in the park by their house to look for kangaroos.  I actually saw some out in the field, but they were too far away to get a good picture.  Sean suggested that we walk closer, but I was wearing sandals and the grass was wet and long and I didn't want to walk through it.  Plus I had been warned about there being snakes in the park and I didn't want to come across one of those in sandals.  So I just watched them for a bit and then we continued our walk. 

In the afternoon there was a block party followed by a billy cart race.  What's a billy cart race you ask?  It's a soap box derby.  All the neighborhood kids had made a billy cart and they were going to race down the hill.  Thing is the parents were a bit worrked about their children's safety so all the dads rode the billy carts down the hill.  It was hillarious!  Grown men climbing on a billy cart/soap box car and "speeding" down the hill!  A couple of carts got ruined and 2 of the dads, Sean included, picked up their cart and ran to the finish line!  Trophies were awarded and Santa arrived to give presents to the kids and then we had dinner.  We stayed at the party for a while and then headed home to watch Carols by Candelight.

Evidently this is a tradition in this neighborhood.  Well not the billy cart race but the block party.  They, meaning Australians, don't celebrate too much on Christmas Eve like we do. 

Christmas Day Sunday 12/25

Christmas in the summer is just odd!  It's not warm like in Florida it's sunny and hot.  Just different.  Natalie had planned to take me to church for a 9:00 service so I was up and ready to go by 8:00.  The girls were ready as well, ready to open their presents.  They were told that they couldn't come out of their rooms until 8:00.  They waited very patiently and then they had to wait some more because Natalie and I left for church.  They were allowed to open one present before we left.  So we get to church and there's a big sign by the door that says Sunday services 10:00 am.  There were only 2 cars in the parking lot so we figured that the service wasn't until 10:00 even though Natalie checked online and it said 9:00, so we left.  We got back and the girls opened a couple more presents and I tried to Skype with Mark and the rest of the family for their big Christmas Eve dinner and present opening time.  They didn't answer:(  Oh well, I knew they were home and I was planning on trying again when we got back from church.  We left about 9:30 and get to the church and there are a bunch of cars there.  Good sign.  I walk in and the service is already in progress!  What?  I thought it didn't start until 10:00.  So I come back out and see a blue poster that says Christmas Eve Service 9:00 am!!  Where was that when we went the first time?!  Where were all the cars the first time?  All of that to say that I didn't end up going to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas.  Quite disappointing.  We get back home a little after 10:00 and I try Skype again and was successfull.  It was great to see my family!  Unfortunately they had finished opening presents so I didn't get to see any of the excitement like I did last year.  Mason was quite talkative about some toy that he got and Alexa was busy having a tea party with Brenna.  It was just good to see the family on Christmas Day.

After I finished Skyping, the girls opened the rest of their presents and Nicole got ready for Christmas dinner.  Natalie's parents, sister, and nieces came over around 3 for lunch and more presents for the girls.  We had a very fancy dinner with appetizers followed by salad and then the entree which was turkey or ham. 

I was able to have a nice family Christmas and that made it easier to be away from my family on Christmas.

After dinner Natalie and I were going to head to Lygon Street (where the guy I was sitting next to on the plane told me I had to go for the best pizza and coffee) for pizza, coffee, and a movie.   Before we went to Lygon Street we had to stop at Natalie's parents to drop off some trash.  On the way there it started pouring and we decided that we didn't need to be walking in that kind of weather so we were going to throw the trash away and then head home for a nice evening at home.  Thing is when we got there we immediately had to take cover under one of the covered parking areas because it started hailing.  The hailstorm lasted a good 5-10 minutes and covered the ground in white and ruined many cars and houses.  Thankfully Nicole and Sean's house was fine, but their cars are a bit dented.  Melbourne doesn't typically get weather like this so this will definitely be a Christmas to remember.  This will be a Christmas for me to remember as well, because not only was in Australia I was there for a "white" Christmas!!

More to come later.