Back in the land of sun

Tags

Birthday Spectacular, Catatonic Kid, champagne, childhood delights, clammy skin, clumsiness, delirium, fever, IMAX, magic, New Years Eve, newly embodied friendships, Nurofen, poached eggs, ringtail possums, Seafood, Shiv, sunsets, swearing in Italian, Sydney, under the sea, wishy washy

So, I totally lied in my last post. And I’m confessing this while under the influence of a low-grade fever and several Nurofen tablets.

…How nice it’ll be to have a little holiday (just a week) in the gorgeously warm Sydney (as opposed to unpredictable Melbourne)…

At least, the weather made a complete mockery of the above. Bah!!

Sydney, it seems, is no longer reliable mid-Summer for perfect and continuous sunny weather. The day I left Melbourne was a perfect summery day and yet I arrived in Sydney to find rainrainrainrain! It’d been raining for days before I arrived, so no one can blame the weather on the Melbournite, okay?

In fact, Sydney probably had only two days (maximum) where the weather could’ve been described as Sydney-like (based on previous experience). Melbourne on the other hand, had decidedly nicer weather all week (*shakes head sadly*). Also, Melbourne had lightning to go with their (decidedly less special) fireworks.

Never mind! Sydney was fabulous for other reasons. Like… all the friends I got to see!

Stop one of four

Stayed with a fellow yogini (and very good friend) in Bondi. Yeah, she lives a short walk from that very famous beach. Not that I got to see it in all it’s glory this time. But we hung out, worked out, made food (she’s an awesome cook), did some yoga, puja and generally had some girl time. I seriously miss that girl now we live in different parts of the country!

Two of four

Hopped over to the other side of town to visit one of my favourite married couples, CB & B, just in time for CB’s birthday. Amongst other things, CB is a volunteer Wildlife Rescue Officer, currently caring for four adolescent ringtail possums. They’re the cutest critters! Also, there are two fully grown ringtails living in her front yard – CB hand-reared them herself and they’re so tame, I was able to help feed them (chopped up carrots and vegies) and pet them just behind their little furry ears, allowing them to wrap their deceptively strong tails around my pinky finger. Adorable!

And yes, that’s them below…

Three of four

Blog buddy adventures for New Year’s Eve! Yep, it was time to meet up with Catatonic Kid and Shiv. Just before my arrival and while the cab driver bumbled around and refused to look in the street directory (even though I asked him to do just that), I had a flash of panic. Turning up to the house of a complete stranger (in the flesh anyway) and staying two nights there? Ummmm…. *smallish freakout*!!

But of course, it was more than fine. It was fabulous! With some initial mutual nervousness out of the way, we swapped presents (thanks guys!!) and chatted while preparing for our evening picnic – watching the world-famous Sydney fireworks display (see photo at the top of the post). Although the weather looked dodgy, we had no other plans and lucky us – the rain miraculously held off.

A fun night was had by all, despite my nearly taking out an entire hillside of people via clumsily stepping on some plastic sheeting while trying to navigate the breadth of said hillside (it was kinda steep). A dude swore at me in Italian but Shiv vigorously defended my clumsiness (thanks again, hehe!). And despite Sydney police almost begging for the opportunity to arrest us while we were trying to leave peaceably somewhere around 1am – seriously! There were about five of them all lined up, making smartass comments at us. Perhaps to see if we’d fire up? Musta been a slow night! Anyway, all three of us managed to leave without the need for bail, and not suffering too badly from being in the midst of 20,000 people.

Next day was Shiv’s birthday… but really, I should let him talk about that one. Perhaps he’ll grace us with a post on the topic (*here’s the post!!*)? Suffice to say, CK and I pulled off a total Birthday Spectacular. We pretty much rocked the entire day! But let me use the following descriptive keywords: poached eggs, magic, 3D, childhood delights, under the sea, sunsets, seafood and champagne. I will mention one of the surprises – it was seeing Avatar at IMAX, which completely entranced all three of us. So incredibly magical!

It was brilliant to spend some time in the flesh with two online friends. We even spoke to a third on the phone for New Year’s (a rather late night for her!). All up, it was piles of fun meeting the people behind the blogs and it’s only the beginning for our newly embodied (as opposed to virtual) friendships…

Cheers you two, and thanks heaps for the excellent adventures. 😉

Four of four

Finally, back over the bridge to the north-side (no, due to people’s birthdays I was not able to coordinate my movements as well as I’d have liked…) to see another friend (JM), her hubby and her 13 month old baby boy. Have to say; by this point in my travels, I was pretty exhausted. So JM and I indulged in some girly chats lying on her bed, played with their very cute red haired/blue eyed bubba and just did some chillin’. Which worked for her, on account of the cold she and the little guy were getting over.

Unfortunately I managed to collect said cold… let’s call it a Sydney souvenir. Hence the fever I’m waiting out rather impatiently (*wipes sweat beads from upper lip*).

Regardless, I had a blast seeing everybody. Oh and while I was away, I managed to scribble down a bunch of plans for this year! I don’t call them resolutions, coz I reckon plans are things you can make happen. Whereas resolutions always seem kinda wishy washy to me.

Stay tuned, I’ve much more to share this week. And while I try to ignore my delirium and clammy skin, I think I can manage to get a few runs on the board. Or at least, draft posts in half-decent shape.

I hope y’all had an enjoyable Christmas/New Year, and that you’re settling into 2010 just fine.

~Svasti xo

Summer Christmas Wishes

Tags

Childhood memories, Christmas, Egg-nogg, Garbos, Horse drawn sleigh, Presents, Roast dinner, Santa, Seafood, Skiing, Summer

It’s a funny thing being on the ‘other side of the world’ from whence our ancestors came… and so our customs and traditions, whilst hailing from the north, are often out of synch with the seasons.

Here in the far, far south, as far away as those Brits could manage to create a penal colony… it’s mid-summer, not winter (although sometimes lately you wouldn’t know it, crazy weather).

For years, grown up Aussies have been trying to explain to kiddies why we have snow on Christmas cards, and why Santa doesn’t get hot wearing that thick coat when he delivers presents down here.

I’ve often craved a wintery Christmas experience (which might sound crazy to those of you who live in it). In fact, I still plan to bugger off to Austria or Canada one year, ride in a horse drawn sleigh, drink egg-nog, actually have to wrap up warmly, go skiing, and enjoy that hefty wintery roast dinner.

My family’s Christmas traditions for years did include the roast dinner and all the trimmings – try eating that in the heat! But in the last half a dozen years we wised up. Now its all seafood smorgasbord – baked fish, salmon, crab, mussels, oysters (eeeww to the former two), prawns, scallops – and on it goes. Fresh Australian seafood. Mmmmm…

Childhood Christmas memories are of stinking hot days tearing around in a swimsuit and jumping in the backyard pool my dad built. Splashing about, possibly with our new inflatable pool presents or diving rings or the like… or riding our new bikes out front… some years driving from one end of town to the other, squished in the back of the car, fighting amongst ourselves, probably in uncomfortable heat… visiting one set of grandparents for lunch and one for the  evening meal (leaving us very full).

For several years we had a ‘neighbourhood Santa’ – a guy sitting on the back of a station wagon dressed in a red suit, throwing lollies to the kids on Christmas Eve. Never found out who he was. Try ‘n’ get away with that these days!

All the fathers in the street would give a case of beer to the garbos [Aussie slang for garbage collectors] in the week leading up to Christmas. There was a definite sense of community… less about commercialism, more about people having a good time.

It was never (fortunately for me), a particularly religious time. Which is just as well given I seem to have been a born pagan/heathen. My family were basically without religion or any kind of spirituality.

By far, the most prominent childish Christmas memory is my excitement about the magic of it all. Before I didn’t, I really and truly believed in Santa. I was a child of faeries and mysteries. It seemed quite reasonable that a fat guy in a red suit could pull off the great present delivery once a year.

So, it was always hard to go to sleep. Then I’d wake up like clockwork before dawn, creeping out of the room my sister and I shared… to the lounge room where, to my delight, were three over-sized Christmas themed pillow-cases hung over the back of dining room chairs and packed full of presents!!

As middle child, my sack was in the center. I’d carefully, quietly unpack each new toy one at a time. Checking to see if Santa had read my letter and given me what I desired. After re-packing everything in reverse, if I hadn’t been ordered back to bed yet, I’d then systematically check my sister’s then my brother’s sacks too!

I never ever swapped anything, but I’d wake my sister up when I’d finished my investigations to tell her Santa had been, trying to drag her out of bed to see for herself. If she didn’t come, I’d start telling her what Santa had brought her! 😉

My parents always heard me at some point – get back to bed now – they knew I’d be up, like the ghost of Christmas present, haunting the goodies til it was ‘official’ get out of bed time.

That waking up early thing on Christmas day, it lasted a long time. Twas my late teens actually, before I was able to kick that unconscious habit.

Wishing you all a wonderful day, however you celebrate…

~Svasti

P.S. For a very different and very beautiful take on an Aussie Christmas… read AnthroYogini’s Deep Desert Christmas!