Australia Day

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Its completely surreal to be spending Australia Day on the other side of the world. I'm sitting here typing this looking out the window onto a field of white! It's -1 degrees, the warmest its been since we arrived, and bits of the snow are starting to melt. I'm told this is a bad thing as once melted, it will likely freeze over to form big patches of ice, making a stroll in the snow all the more treacherous (and I'm having enough trouble staying on my feet as it is!). In lieu of traditional Aus Day celebrations, Adam and I spent the morning playing in the snow in the field opposite where Luke and Maria live. Adam tried in vain to have abit of a kick of the soccer ball (difficult in snow calf deep!) while I contented myself making snow angels and a very poor attempt at a snow man! The snow is still slightly too powdery for snowman making, or for snowballs (fortuneatly for me!) But with Adam around, one cannot survive a jaunt in the snow totally unscathed and my face felt truly numb on more than one occasion today having had a snow attack launched upon me!
This afternoon was spent preparing for a much anticipated feast of all things Aus. Whilst -1 is warm, its still abit frosty for a typical Aus day BBQ! So instead we opted for bad quality meat (i.e. mince and sausages) cooked on the stove with some potato bake, salad and Luke's specialty-Pavlova-for dessert. We were joined by Maria's brother Jonas and his girlfriend Sara, and Luke's work friends Francesco and Mia for our Aus style dinner. It was a lovely evening filled with lively chatter, good food and fine beverages. Our Australian flag was on proud display and we even managed to entice some of the guests into sampling Vegemite!

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