Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It definitely doesn't feel like Christmas at all. No snow, no lights on people's houses, and hardly any carols on the radio. I guess the trade off is weather in the 25-35 celsius (80-95 farienheit) range. We were a bit of Scrooges this year as we didn't even put up a tree. Since we got into our apartment so late and knew we were going to be travelling around for most of the holiday break, we didn't think it was worth it to buy a bunch of decorations that would sit in an empty apartment.

It is good to know that weathermen aren't very good at predicting the weather here either. All week they were forecasting the weather to be cool and overcast for the holidays, but complete the opposite by 9am. Our Christmas morning started with Jared accidentally including his keys (including the building secure fob which you can't make a copy of) in the pile of garbage that went down the garbage shute. I don't think either of us ever imagined spending our Christmas morning going through a dumpster looking for keys. Thank goodness for us the door was locked and the garbage was gone by the next morning, so we didn't get the pleasure of enjoying that experience. Jared did take a peek into the empty dumpster though and said it was by far the worst thing he has ever smelled. I'll take his word for it considering the tuna plants, meat packing house, his college house, etc. that he's experienced. We didnt let that ruin our holidays though. We decided the best cure for the situation was some rays on the beach... It was very crowded and everyone turned out in their bathing suits and santa hats. It was a good time until the blue bottle jellyfish decided to invade the beach. Another difference or two between the US and Australia...
US - Jellyfish come in... alarm sounds... everyone gets out of the water...
Australia - Jellyfish come in... message comes over loudspeaker (this is word for word) "as you can see, there are hundreds of jellyfish washing in, they come in waves, so there are hundreds more on their way, if you get stung, you are an idiot because you went into the water after seeing hundreds of jellyfish washed up on the beach. Given that you are an idiot, you are probably ignoring this message as well, but I will tell you that getting stung will result in excrutiating pain for the next hour. There is no cure, so your friend peeing on it will make your friend look like an idiot too... Just accept that it is going to hurt like hell..."
With that being said, I didn't see one local get out of the water or even seem to notice that there was a message over the loudspeaker. Us? We made a mad dash to the pool in our complex.

The day after Christmas is another day called Boxing Day. It's an English holiday, which is funny because we asked our friends from England what it was about and they had no clue other than knowing it was another day to BBQ. Jared did some research and basically it is a day for the rich to pass the stuff they no longer want to their servants. Whatever the reason, it was a great excuse for another barbie on the beach. We made taco dip and smores to share with our English friends. They never heard of either dish, but I think both were great successes.

The morning of Boxing Day we took a bike ride up to North Head which is all up hill and not a great idea for your first time back on a bike. North Head has 360 degree views of the Harbour and was a great spot for watching the annual start to the Sydney to Hobart sailing race. The Harbour is absolutely packed with boats... about 100 sail boats who are actually doing the race from Sydney Harbour to Hobart, Tasmania and then another 1,000 boats just taking in the scene. They interviewed one of the captains and asked what was the worst part of the race... one would think maybe rough seas, poor wind conditions, a week at sea... his answer... "all of the damn boats in Sydney Harbour". We heard that North Head gets really crowded, so we headed up 2 hours early to picnic and grab a good spot on the lawn. It was a really nice day, but I don't think it really lived up to all of the hype considering the hours of choppers flying over, TV cameras rolling, etc. and then the start of the race only lasted about 5 minutes.