A white Christmas from downunder?

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!!! We hope that you've had a great Christmas and we wish you a great year in 2007!!!

It has been a month since our arrival in Melbourne yet over the last 4 weeks, a lot has happened already. So much so that our wonderful experiences in South America are now fast fading memories.

Aside from the 4 - 0 cricket scores, which we won't mention, the main news headlines have been the depletion of water supply in dams and the ashes/bushfires. We've adjusted quickly to the hot temperatures: mostly in the high 700s, i mean 30s. We were greeted by brown landscapes, not a patch of green in sight. If your garden was green, your neighbours would look at you suspiciously because it was highly likely you've broken the water consumption rules of not watering your cricket pitch or lawn. The drought is now starting to severely impact many people, esp farmers' livelihoods. A blanket of smoke greets me in the mornings, blown from the bushfires some 100s of kms north of Melbourne. Fires have been raging for weeks and have been threatening rural townships. Many houses have been destroyed already. What a contrast to England which apparently had just been hit by a storm overnight!!

So it was with great surprise that after weeks of hot spells and sleepless nights, we woke up to the sound of hail drops on our windows on Christmas morning. Small patches of hail had covered parts of the driveway and garden: this is as close as it gets to a white Christmas here near Melbourne city, but have a look at these pictures: http://www.splatt.com.au/blog/archives/2006/12/white_christmas.html and remember we're in summer! Only in Melbourne can the temperature drop by 20 degrees overnight. We had to make a quick change to the menu and that night we had hot soup and roast lamb for our Christmas dinner, while our central heating kept us warm throughout the day!! Welcome home I thought!!

Weather report aside, I feel so happy to be back at home with my family. I'm still going through the transition stage and it's like rediscovering the place all over again. I'm living at my family's suburban home in Melbourne metropolitan area with my father. My brothers and close friends are not too far away either, and I am enjoying it a lot because I have time to really chill and spend quality time with my father: we're currently redecorating the house.

Bruno on the other hand has been busy. In fact we had to cut our trip short at the last minute because Bruno had to go on a training session in preparation for a new job in Sydney. Just as he thought he was getting over jet lag, he was off to Singapore for a week. It is still early days but Bruno commutes between Sydney and Melbourne on weekends, which is about an hour's flight. He has slipped into the transition period very smoothly indeed already having acquired his surfing suit and now living in a house that is 5 mins away from a surf beach.

Will this be the end to our travelblog? you might wonder... of course not, stay tuned for more pictures from our New Years trip to the Victorian west coast. This time they've promised us good weather to celebrate New Years Eve by the beach... but I won't hold my breath.. I'm bringing my fleece.. May your new year start off on a happy and peaceful note..

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