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Published: December 27th 2007
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Christmas morning
Outside Claire's sister Frances' house Happy Christmas from Australia!
We're planning to stay here for ten months apart from a quick trip over to New Zealand to renew our visa. At the moment we're staying in Claire's sister Frances' house in Langwarrin, a small town 30 miles south-east of Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsular. Three days after we arrived, Frances, Paul and Jay left for the UK (what they trying to tell us?!) so we're house and dog sitting for a couple of weeks. Its nice to settle somewhere for a while and pretend that we're householders again - wouldn't want to do it for ever though! Its good to be able to make a decent cup of coffee whenever we want and not to have to rely on restaraunt food for a change.
Our social life has pretty much been organised for us, we've been welcomed back into Club 27, the social club that Fran and Paul belong to, and are in no short supply of invites to BBQs and other get-togthers. We'd been to the club before, the last time three years ago, but it feels like we've never been away. As well as catching up with the regulars like Alan, Mark,
Terry and Graaaaant (gotta be said in Aussie accent for the full effect) it was lovely to meet Betty, Harleys wife, for the first time as well as her mum who's over from Hong Kong for a couple of months. She spent an hour trying to teach Claire Cantonese, for example the tonal differences between "Ma" - Mother, "Ma" - Grandmother and "Ma" - Horse. Mispronounciation could lead to some embarrasing misunderstandings like "I'd like to ride your grandmother please".
Christmas day we spent over at Claire's cousin Tony and his wife Val's house in Koo Wee Rup about half an hour away. Well, about an hour away after I got us lost. Probably the most unusual sounding place we've ever spent Christmas (it means "blackfish swimming" in the language of the Bunurong Aboriginals who lived in the area before the arrival of the europeans), its a bit of a one horse town and even the customs officer at Melbourne airport managed to crack his face after reading their address on our immigration card and smirk "Koo Wee Rup - why?"
Actually, don't want to sound like we're putting the place down! Its always good to see Tony,
Val and their dog Beau, and Koo Wee Rup is somewhere we always look forward to going. Its a shame that after 18 years of living there and enjoying the view over the fields at the end of the garden, Tony and Val now have a view over a new housing estate thats just been built.
Val's sister Pam and her daughter Jess live right next door, we actually spent the day in their house along with Tony's aunt and uncle, Barbara and Bill, over from the UK and some friends of Pam and Jess. Tig, Frances' dog suprised us all by getting along fine with Beau and Pam's dog George and behaving himself apart from getting a little bit overfriendly with Stephanie, Pam's friend's five year old little girl. Thats just wrong Tig.
Driving back to Langwarrin the next morning we passed the first missed photo opportunity of our trip here. A poor wombat was at the side of the road on its back, apparently sunbathing, and someone had dressed it in a bright yellow g-string! Sick, but pretty funny!
Boxing day we spent over at another cousin's house. Michelle and Larry live in Narre Warren,
again about half an hour away but in another direction. They were joined by Tracey and Jeff from Albury, four hours away and their children. Claire's aunt and uncle Daphne and Albert moved out here back in the 1950s as "ten pound poms". Their passage cost them ten pounds, but the true cost was 400 pounds which if they had moved back to England within 2 years they would have to have paid back in full, a massive amount then. So Claire's got quite a few relatives over here that she hasn't met since she came out when she was 15. Both Michelle and Larry, and Tracey and Jeff have got a set of twins each (one set identical), who being similar ages decided to swap their clothes around to confuse us as to who was who!
Langwarrin's main claim to fame is that it is where Rupert Murdoch's mother lives. Another is that it had a VD hospital for soldiers returning from France and Egypt during WW1. The site of the hospital is now part of the Langwarrin Flora and Fauna Reserve, a large nature reserve that reputedly has koalas, swamp wallabies and bandicoots amongst its residents. I've
walked around it a few times and so far seen a few rabbits and a dog.
We're hopefully in the process of buying a campervan, a converted 22-seater school bus! Its being checked over today, and then has to be repainted. It should be ready mid-Jan. Then we hope to drive off west towards Perth.
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