Christmas in Aus was wicked.

I spent Christmas Day with my friend (well almost…) and his family & friends which was good. Everyone was there for the day except the person who invited me!

My friend got admitted to hospital on Christmas Morning (what a present that was!) with a suspected spider bite that had become very infected and needed surgery straight away. This meant that he had to stay in hospital for 48 hours so unlucky for him, he wasn’t home for Christmas. Despite this, we all had a wicked day chilling around the pool, drinking beer, pimms, wine, champers (anything alcoholic), and having lots of fun.

Well, it was fun until I came inside after being in the sun for 5 hours (with sun cream) and realised that the entire back of my body was red roar, I’m talking lobster colour. It was soooo painful and almost unbearable, however, everyone took great joy in throwing ice cubes down my back when I least expected it, it was somewhat relieving.

Christmas in Australia is not like Christmas in the UK… a roast dinner is as far off of an Aussie Christmas as you can get.

For dinner we had steak, halloumi, a range of different salads and barbecued veggies. Along with antipasti and cheese and other nibbles. Lush.

In the evening we just spent it together playing games, watching the Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special (obviously!) and chatting away. We even had a visit from some Lorikeets, these are a type of parrot and are sooo pretty. They were really calm and just sat on the balcony with us eating some crackers. What a way to end such a lovely day.

And then Boxing Day (Christmas no.2) with my family. This was lovely as the weather was still sitting at around 34°c so absolutely lush. We again just chilled around the pool (me more in the shade…) and chatted away enjoying ourselves.

Lunch again (not like Boxing Day UK) we had beef tagliata (lightly seared beef served with rocket, capers, parmesan & beetroot) with my Aunt’s famous mango salad (omg it’s amazing!) and some other super nice food.

My cousins had some friends over too so in the evening we played cards against humanity and sequence together (a game I discovered whilst out here & have become very competitive at!) and it was nice to meet some new people and even make some friends.

I got presents!! Even though being over 10,000 miles away from home, Santa knew where I’d be and I got Christmas presents! My family didn’t want me to feel left out so I got a stocking with some lovely gifts too, which was really lovely. It’s made me feel completely at home over here.

However.. I got presents from Toby and his family as well so I think I’m going to have to get another bag to bring home. Oops.

It’s been a lovely few days here though and sooo nice spending it with some of the people closest to me without having my Kent family around.