Adelaide, Australia.
Today is Christmas Eve and it sure doesn’t feel like it. Aside from a mild rush at the stores and a few decorations, it just does not seem like Christmas here. Also it is like 80 degrees so it is really hard to get too much in the christmas spirit. I mean, look at Santa Claus, he is wearing boots, heavy coat and wool pants; he wouldn’t last long in this weather.
Cheryl and I spent yesterday apart to buy Christmas gifts. You can’t believe how hard it is to buy Christmas gifts for someone who has to carry with them whatever you buy for the next few months. Most of my gifts were of the consumptive variety: champagne, lots of chocolotes. The rest are just awful: toilet seat covers, toothbrush covers, lexan wineglass, and an inflatable travel pillow. Wow, Merry Christmas.
Today we booked a bus trip to Sydney. 25 hours on a bus across the SouthEast corner of Australia. That is going to be one of the longer days of my life.
We are both getting really tired of Australia. When I told Cheryl how that it was starting to get on my nerves, she said, “Australia has been on my nerves since we got here.” That is why we are heading to Sydney–closer to our departure point of Brisbane. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong here, it just seems like a brown, tacky version of New Zealand. Plus it is a little expensive (the real reason for MY dissatisfaction). Anyway, I am really looking forward to Vietnam and Thailand: the land of cheap, good food.
Cheryl and I were talking about how holidays suck when you are on “permanent holiday”. In your normal, workaday life, holidays are a fun break. But when your normal, workaday life is a holiday; holidays are just a time when the hotels are all full, shopping is a hassle, and the buses, trains and planes are all full.
But on the bright side, being holed up here in Adelaide has given us a chance to do some cooking: roast chicken, chicken salad, split pea soup, standing rib roast, and more…