As it is Christmas time Jonathan felt like he needed a well earned break from...well...actually I am not sure what from but it means that I have been coerced into updating the blog and so now it is my account of what we have been up to...if all goes well maybe there will be more from me. (Code: give me 5 stars as a rating please)


So, fresh from living in swags we jumped on yet another flight, this time to Perth. During the 3 hour flight we passed over nothing, nothing other than more of the red desert we had spent the last few days driving, sleeping and walking through. Apparently Perth is one of the most isolated cities on earth, the nearest reasonably sized city is Adelaide which is 1,307 miles away! So why were we going all this way and putting ourselves through yet more hours of flying? Well, when we booked our trip we knew we had to go through Sydney and we also knew that some friends would be spending Christmas in Perth and we thought it would be a great chance to catch up with them and keep each other company a million miles from the white Christmas of home. The fact that the only thing separating these two cities was the whole of Australia was just a minor inconvenience.

Plans made, we had further discovered that another friend from Uni had set up home in Perth and as such we arranged to be greeted at the airport by her, she very kindly offered to give us a tour of the area, feed us and give us a bed for the night - luxury! We met her husband for the first time and had our first taste of the good old Aussie BBQ - steak, bbq corn and ice cold beer followed by the first decent cheese we had had in months (Asians aren´t big into their dairy and find the thought of blue cheese disgusting).


The next day we said our goodbyes and went to meet up with our fellow temporary ex-pats. We knew it must be Christmas, the schedule and diary said so but in 35 degee plus heat it was hard to imagine that Christmas was only a few days away.


After catching up on each other´s news for some time, Fremantle - a small historic port town - was where we decided to explore first. We did some last minute Christmas shopping there before booking onto an eerie tour by torchlight of the old prison turned museum, said to be haunted with mysterious globes of light appearing on photos...


There is plenty to do and see in Perth, but the one thing we all desperately wanted to do was to surf. Now each of us (having tried this at least once before) felt we were obviously pros and so didn´t need an instructor. Then we got to the beach. We saw the size of the waves and read the signs about rip tides, rocks and sharks and then decided that, maybe, tuition would help after all. Well maybe. So we got booked up for Christmas Eve.


Now, surfing looks and sounds very easy. You just follow the steps:


1) wait for a (small) wave to come towards you


2) paddle to shore as it approaches


3) jump to your feet


Three easy to follow steps? Right?


Christmas Eve came and it turned out that step one and two are very easy to follow, the third however is much, much harder. I made a few of what felt like superb attempts, apparently they were not quite as I had imagined, especially as I managed to complete a full cartwheel on one attempt. At least I avoided the bruised bum I had got last time I tried to surf!


Exhausted we got back to the apartment had a swim and jacuzzi, did I forget to mention the apartment, not a hostel, an apartment with toilet roll and everything? We recovered and then got dressed to spend Christmas Eve at an outdoor cinema.


Finally, we got home and somehow through the excitment fell asleep with ´Twas the night before Christmas´ running through my head with my fingers crossed that he would find us.


We all awoke on Christmas morning to find that Father Christmas had indeed received the correct address to find us at and managed to re-direct presents for all of us. Putting the excitement on hold, we changed and had a Christmas breakfast, whatever each of us wanted, before attacking the pile of presents awaiting us.


So for the second only time in my life it was a white Christmas at home and where was I? Only nearly 10,000 miles away. I rang my parents up to boast about the temperature to receive the bombshell, which I could live with (I mean we were in Australia), however, somebody (Scottish) I was with did not take the news nearly so well (imagine a moany voice; ´But I want to be skiing...´).


To make up for it we did what every typical Australian does on Christmas day and went to the beach (they all do that right?) before another Australian Chistmas tradition of a barbeque for lunch, especially kangaroo, that is definitely typical. So is screaming ´Put another shrimp on the barbie´ repeatedly.


Feeling very full, happy and most importantly Australian, we headed to some local friends of our friends for a Christmas tipple which turned into another feast in itself....guess what...another barbeque... we were right! That IS what they have (well, they were from New Zealand but anyway...). Ham, chicken, and crocodile (uh hu) later we were stuffed and made our way home.


Boxing day: What else to do than to hit the sales? Followed by a Vietnamese.


With one day left Rachael and myself had one more thing on our Aussie hitlist that remained unticked... to stroke a koala. The boys did not seem as excited at this prospect and Jonathan assured me they smelt of urine, repeatedly. Ignoring him (all of us) we went on a trip to Caversham wildlife park where we not only got to stroke a koala but we also had our picture taken with a wombat and fed kangaroos. I should also point out that after actually getting to the park the boys interest suddenly picked up, especially at the point at which they heard a three year old ask ´Mummy what´s that kangaroo doing to the other kangaroo?"...best not explain explicitly but yes, they really are like big rabbits.


Following the excitment of seeing a bunch of animals that we had never seen before, we decided to try another Australian great. Vineyards it was, so we jumped in the car (driver not drinking I hasten to add, cheers Dave) and headed to a small vineyard where we tried a few of their wines while attempting to look like we were actually considering buying some. Following this we stumbled across a fantastic little brewery and had another tasting there. We then made our way back to the apartment (via a chocolate factory) to pack for our flight the next morning...


This time, back across the country to Sydney where we would spend one night, see the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and meet up with another friend who has set up home there. Which all turned out to be great fun although too brief and apparently we walked right past Nicole Kidman in the restaurant we were in without even noticing!


Fun Christmas, very different to any I´ve had before and I can`t wait to see what Fiji has in store for the new year...