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Christmas Day and New Year's Eve!
This year was my very first Christmas with my Dad, and my first Christmas in a different country!! We started the day with breakfast on the beach and a quick dip in the ocean! Sadly the water was far too cold still, for me to consider actually swimming, plus my fear of sharks still remains strong! After brekkie we returned home to crack open the champagne, and open all our presents. I am glad to say that I once again recieved a Christmas stocking, it's nice to know that Father Christmas never forgets you, however old you get! We decided to skip lunch, as we were still happily riding on the full english. I did however manage to cook some shrimps on the barbie, which were apparently rather tasty, although I failed to taste them, as the thought of ever eating something that you have to remove its pooh stick from first is just plain revolting. Dinner was of course Turkey, with all the trimmings, including some pigs in blankets, which are an absolute neccessity on Christmas Day! Somewhat disappointingly I ruined the gravy and custard, which remianed lumpy despite attacking them with the electric whisk. I personally blame the Australian quality of produce rather than my superb cooking skills. The singing followed on from dinner, although I'm not too sure if a bit of Bon Jovi could ever be considered a Christmas song!
Boxing day seems rather forgettable, as my mind is at a loss to what I actually did. I did make it to the Corner Bar to catch the football! The Corner Bar has become my new local, since my Dad was kicked out of Settlers from being drunk and disorderly, and is now refusing to frequent the pub anymore!! That is a little harsh really I guess, as he wasn't actually very drunk and was in the middle of a pool game when he was asked to leave. I think his flaw, or blame perhaps, lies with me, for buying his boss another drink, who was a little worse for wear, and apparently been denied future service that evening, which led to my Dad's removal!
Saturday we checked out the Christmas sales, which meant I pretty much took a nap on a shopping centre bench! Sunday we popped up to Cape Naturaliste and Sugar Loaf Rock. Sadly I have failed to find a way to destroy all flies, so we were attacked throughout our stroll. We did however discover that flies seem to prefer certain aftershaves, so if you are keen to deter some flies, then try David Beckham's fragrance which works a treat, while avoid Chanel, which seems to attract the entire colony! Sugar Loaf Rock was rather pretty, and I attempted some mild rock climbing, where I discovered the weakness of always wearing thongs, climbing barefoot is fun though, even if your feet sadly suffer quite considerably.
Monday I went down to Augusta, and went to my Dad's laundromat. I refused to get near the hospital's dirty laundry, which is just nasty, so camped in the corner reading the magazines, despite being for woman there did prove rather inciteful! We then attempted to find a beach in East Augusta, a massively unsuccessful excursion, but Betty did come out of it looking like quite the rally car.
Tuesday was the Cape to Cape walk, well one fifth of it anyway, a 30km trek from Cape Leeuwin to Hamelin Bay. The walk was quite fun, with some pleasant scenery, but become quite challenging in the midday sun! I also saw another snake, this one was considerably larger, perhaps two metres long. Luckily I missed the head again, and remained very patient as it slithered across the path. My map reading skills vacated my again, as I wrongly predicted the end, only to find we had a further two hours to walk still. That night we went to Leeuwin Concert, to see Katy Steele, the Audreys and Kasey Chambers. After the exhausting walk, I ate an enormous quantity of food, washed down with some wine, which further confirmed how disappointing Leeuwin Wine really is. PLus why did Crownie ever change, it used to be really quite tasty, but just doesn't hit the spot like it used. Which reminds me, a quick bit of advice for any travelling to Oz, drink Grolsch, as its actually imported, unlike other European beers, which are brewed here. My Dad finally plucked up the courage to get a picture with Katy Steele, sadly a he was swatting a fly away when the picture was taken, so looks ever so slightly special.
New Year's Eve I treated my Dad and Ivy to dinner in the Ze Arc of Iris. I regretted ordering my duck parfait, as the squid was sadly better, the steak however was delicious, even if Daddy was given a bigger portion! We returned home for midnight, and started the celebrations with a delightful rendition of Auld Lang Syne. The partying continued until 8.30 in the morning, when the rising sun, or fully risen sun to be more accurate, sent us on our way, to be rudely awakened at midday by the intense heat.
New Year's Day was unsurprisingly very quiet, except for a turkey roast. Friday we went on a helicopter flight, my Christmas present to Daddy. Fifteen minutes really does feel quick when you are flying, but the views were very cool, and it was nice to see Margaret River from the air. Amazingly very brown except for the vineyards, didn't see any sharks from the air though.
Saturday night we toddled up to Buso and the drive in cinema, my first ever drive in visit. It was not quite as the American movie's lead you to believe, but was still very cool. I do advise you have a working arial though, as it will save you using a metal tin in an attempt to hear the films. I saw Quantum of Solace, pretty good, insane amount of action, and ever so sexy Aston Martin, which deserved a much larger role, in fact should have deservably been the main star! Next was Step Brothers, which was average fayre really, a shame really as Will Ferrell is much more talented, as demonstrated by Stranger than Fiction. I have also been watching the Hellraiser collection recently, sadly 4-6 are disasterous, but at least 1-3 are enjoyable, with 2 being the best gore fest.
I'm back off to Perth in the morning, to say farewell to Kimmy, before flying out to Singapore. Where I have promised to take a friend to Orchard Towers, I feel some drinking will be needed before I can visit there again though. Then next week I will checking out the Philippines!
Goodbye for now dear readers!
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