Lee & Lucy

We know that our postings have slowed down since we arrived in Perth, so here's a brief review of our Christmas & New Year.

Christmas day down under is a very different experience from home, this is due to the weather, I realised this when on phoning home at 8 am, to catch people before they went to midnight-mass, and I was sweating buckets. It was a stinking 30-something degrees C! Prezzie opening was a lot calmer affair but the Christmas cards made it last a little longer - so BIG Thank you to the three of you.

In the afternoon, we went for a walk down to Swan River, where we saw a lot of Australians celebrating Christmas. One family appeared to have brought the entire kitchen down to the river, whilst alot of others were enjoying watersports. We decided an obligitory paddle was in order, oh and the building of a snowman-cum-sandman.

The weather was getting too much for us so a call to Mair meant an early pick up which allowed more time for a swim in Mair's pool. A great present - thanks Mair. An even bigger thanks for Christmas Dinner which was BBQ Chicken and Crayfish, freshly caught by Joesph, Mair's son.

After dinner we were very stuffed (no pun intended - Lee), ready to go home for a kip! Mair's daughter's (Sian) boyfriend (Brian) invited us to his friend's house for some beers. Not wanting to offend (plus I was beer-hungry - Lee), we went along. Brian's friend had his family across from Ireland, so we were entertained for most of the evening catching up with the Irish crack. (Twas a good olde night - Lee).

Boxing day was as per normal, we stayed around the house, chilling out! (Still sweating - Lee).

Friday 27th We decided to take a picnic down to Blue Gum Lake (a local nature reserve - Lee), whilst walking up to the lake we noticed ther had been a small bush fire. The only trees still standing were these funny looking short trees, which appeared to have burnt trunks and green bushy tops, (we later found out that these are called Black Boys, thanks Tina - Lee). Having walked around the lake we decided that it wasn't a suitable picnic area so walked back past the house and down to Swan River. Only to be stalked/guarded by a hungry seagul, who'd attack any other bird that tried to come near us! I nearly killed him off though when I threw a sweaty piece of cheese away, (that was no piece it was a brick - Lee).

Saturday 28th We went to watch Lord of the Rings: Two Towers. (Enough said really - Lee). But I have never seen queues for a movie so long!!!!!!

Sunday 29th Thembi, Tina & Joel picked us up and took us to Freo (or Fremantle to everyone else - Lee) Market. The plan was to pick up a picnic and head for the beach. But typically our first major beach day, became cold and cloudy! So we cancelled the beach, grabbed some crepes and took a drive down to Rockingham (via Coogee to see a big yacht, owned by a big aussie golf-course designer - Lee).

Monday 30th Boring! We started job-seeking. But to make up for it we went around to Thembi's to upload some photos, but ended up having pizzas and watching Lee playing the XBOX (Whoah - Lee).

New Year's Eve As we hadn't had any culture in over a week, Mair & Mary invited us to join them on a trip to New Norcia (a monastic town - Lee). It is about 172 km from Perth though outback. Unfortunately we didn't meet any kangaroos or emus (dead or alive - Lee).

We are going to continue with our New Year review in the next posting, its far too much to type up in one sitting, plus we don't want to bore the bottom off you either.

Love-n-hugs! PS. Our winter woolies might have to come out at the weekend, Tina tells us that it might be 25 degrees C... shocking!