My view and thoughts on everything!

Over the festive season the wife, aka No Worries, and our two growing daughters left the wilds of Sydney for the quieter realms of NSW Country life.  We were going to spend Christmas with my wife’s side of the family. Certainly nothing unusual about that, except maybe the 10 hour drive north to Ballina and me driving through a number of storms. No Worries and I shared the driving whilst the girls got excited about the impending visit of a rather roundish man in a red cloak and a white beard! We left Sydney on Christmas Eve and it was a fairly relaxing drive north except for No Worries driving across Taree bridge at 10kms an hour! But I won’t elaborate on that! Christmas Day arrived and lo and behold my gals must have been very good, as Santa left a number of presents for them.  They were excited to say the least! The rest of the day was one of relaxation, food and drink and everyone having a good time. Anyway, the subject matter of this blog is not one of Christm...

Season’s Greetings from the Land Down Under! I hope that you were all on Santa’s ‘nice list’ and had a great Christmas Day with family and loved ones.   I thought it would be a good idea to tell you what it is like to experience Christmas here in Australia. Despite the obvious, (the weather) there isn't too much that is different between what Christmas is like in the UK and here in Oz. In fact, unsurprisingly, it is virtually the same! For example, all the major department stores put up snowy Christmas scenes in their store windows. This includes fake snow in the shop windows, carol singers, a portly Santa and so on. It can be quite surreal to walk into a department store and see these 'winter images' when the temperature is 35C and sweat is dripping from your brow! All around Australia, major cities and towns will erect Christmas trees decorated with baubles, angels and tinsel etc. I have to admit that this can look strange when you are in the tropical part of A...

"I quickly looked at my phone (its a safety comfort thing really). The month shown was May. I was stunned. So I hadn't been asleep for seven months...At this rate I would expect to see Easter eggs on the store shelves by October" A couple of weekends ago I took my daughters to the local shopping centre. We were looking for some clothes for them as it is (finally - hooray!!) getting colder in Sydney. Yes winter is knocking on the door. This year the summer seemed to linger as long as a bad smell in a lift, or more accurately body odour on a Sydney train! We were wandering around the centre and visiting a few shops, as you do, when we decided to go into one of the major stores. The gals love going shopping especially when it is for them! We looked at some clothes and found some sleepwear for them to wear during the chilly nights. They were very happy indeed! I have to admit I did choose well for them. I decided to look at some books whilst there as I have always like...

"I had visions of the kitchen sink coming with us but fortunately No Worries didn't give it a second glance...she reminded me that the pie maker and coffee grinder were coming as well. Suddenly, I felt sorry for the toaster" I thought I would update all and sundry as to what has been happening these past couple of weeks. Well, to put it briefly we have been on a relaxing family holiday to the Northern reaches of NSW and also across the border into hostile QLD (no passport required). Subsequently, I decided to give my creative blogging juices a break so that they could be re-energised for the new year (with the help of some lovely amber nectar and sumptuous Indian food). Our holiday started a couple of days before Christmas and incorporated a quick stopover in Port Macquarie and then a further drive onto Ballina arriving on Christmas Eve. As is the norm, the lovely No Worries decided to start her packing on the night before the holiday was due to start. In fact, she didn...

"Where was Santa? Maybe his reindeer had been wheel clamped due to illegal parking...Mind you, if I was facing 200 hungry children I would raise the white flag in an instant!" Recently No Worries (aka the wife) and I purchased tickets for our two daughters to have a breakfast with an ageing fat man who has a fetish for reindeers and sports a long white beard. The man in question was, of course, Santa! We were told to turn up at the local shopping centre at 8.30 and then shortly after Santa would arrive and lead the children to the area where they would have breakfast and be entertained. It sounded like our gals would certainly enjoy this event. The night before No Worries and I donned the flak jackets, got out the whiteboard and synchronised our watches. We would need to adopt a military style operation to ensure that our daughters got up on time, had a brief snack and then get dressed in their 'Christmas dresses' and reach the shopping centre on time. Also, I nee...

"It is quite surreal to walk into a department store and see these 'winter images' ... Try cooking a roast turkey with all the trimmings when the mercury is nudging 40C! It's not a pleasurable experience at all!" This morning I took my two daughters to the local supermarket as we had to pick up a few odds and ends. Although it is our local supermarket I had not visited it for a few weeks. Partly because I had been overseas, and partly because, well, I hadn't! Anyway, as I walked into the store, straight away my eldest spotted some Christmas candy sticks (sort of striped walking sticks - but obviously not on the same scale!). Immediately she said 'Dad, I think we should get some for Christmas". My reply was "not today, Christmas is many weeks away yet." When we got home, I realised that Christmas is not a long way off at all but only five weeks away. My second realisation was that I need to start seriously thinking about the family Chri...

"I have often thought about offering my services as a 'drought breaker'.....they always have facial expressions akin to a child opening presents on Christmas Day!" For the first time in the past fortnight the weather here in England has actually been superb for more than one consecutive day. Now I know to a lot of people around the world, especially in Australia, that might be surprising. Indeed it is to me as well. Normally when I am back here in the Old Dart it rains on virtually every day of my stay. For example, a couple of years ago it rained on 28 of the 36 days I was here. Even last year during the English summer it rained on more than 20 days of my five week visit. At the beginning of my holiday the country was in drought, by the end of it the dams and reservoirs were virtually full! I have often thought about offering my services as a 'drought breaker' as it always seems to rain when I am away from Australia! I imagine that I could charge large...