Good Times in Caravan Parks!

Seriously! Lovely!

Our Beach hut...

Tathra

Tathra is gorgeous! Our little beach hut at the caravan park was right across from the beach access.



The weather was changeable, but the water was clear and warm-ish.

One side of the beach is all rocky cliff, and one evening, we scrambled along the rocks from the Tathra Pier back to the beach.

First Day on the Beach

The first couple days we spent on the South Coast were cool and breezy. That didn't stop us from getting in the water...

Happy Holidays!

I hope all of my family and friends had a joyous Christmas! I hope your food was delicious, your company excellent and your blessings too many to count!


I spent Christmas with Andrew's family in Sydney. We ate well. Seafood was plentiful in addition to the old standbys of ham and turkey.
 I really enjoyed spending some more time with Andrew's parents, and his brothers and their families too.

We are now in Merimbula for a week, before heading back to Melbourne. We've had adventures as well as some very restful times, and now that I have some time and some internet access, I'll share some of it with you.

Shopping for Xmas Gifts

There are such great places to shop in Melbourne in the city and on High Streets, that I have been able to avoid frequenting malls for the three years I've been here.

With my holidays and Christmas tasks officially starting this week, I needed to buy a very specific gift  for Andrew at a very specific store. There's only two of them in Australia, one is in Sydney, and the other is newly arrived here in Melbourne: The Gap.

For my purchases, I missioned all the way out to Chadstone, a massive shopping mall in the South Eastern suburbs, otherwise known as "The Shopping Capital", and the "Paris of the South". (Look, it's big, but it's not any West Edmonton Mall.)

I found the Gap in the Luxury section of the mall, down from Louis Vuitton and Jimmy Choo.

Look, if I really miss North American vanity sizing, I might mission down to "Chaddy" and blithely  purchase a size 0 or 2 again for a bit of an ego boost.  However, if it's a good deal I'm after, (and I love a good deal!)... forget about it! Melbourne will never see any of those great end-of-season sales you can expect at the Gap back in Canada. The average price for anything here was about $79....pre-Christmas sale price. Retailers in Australia may be desperate to get people in the doors as they compete against on-line shopping this year, but apparently the retailers in the Luxury section of Chadstone have a different clientele and a different interpretation of the term "price-reduction."

The salesperson who assisted me was delighted to discover I was Canadian, (like most Aussies, he had spent a ski season in Banff), and then shocked that I could live in Melbourne for three years, and only just now make my first visit to "Chaddy".

 It's true,  I'm now no longer a "Chadstone virgin", but I'm just left feeling a little underwhelmed.

Pro-D

Our Professional Development week finished off with a fun day of workshops. I chose to cruise through a cupcake decorating class.... mostly because you got to eat what you made. :)

Note to Self #26

You can expect all the neighbours to show up to annual Christmas street parties. 

Block Party!

Last weekend, on a hot and sunny Saturday, we went to the annual Bridge Street Christmas Street Party. Nobody parked on the street that day, and council blocked off  both ends of the street from traffic.

There was chalk art.

a Jumping castle for the neighbourhood kids.

Lots of people came with salads, drinks and chairs and sun umbrellas. The trees are quite leafy and full on the "nature strip", so most people sat under trees on the grass beside the sidewalks. Zac and Rose and I brought our chairs, drinks and brownies to share.

BBQ snags and rissoles on bread with tomato sauce were served up.

Dads and kids played Street Cricket.

Santa made an early appearance with a bag full of lollies.

The bands of Bridge Street all played: 3 in total. (We have a very musical street!)

The street loved the music!

Rose and I had a bit of a boogie.

MIna's Shower

Matt and Jasmina are having a baby any day now. The little O'Neill bub is due on December 13th, but who knows... 2 weekends ago, we all gathered to shower her with gifts and goodwill.

Lots of sweet treats!

Emma and Shanah (Note the Cricket in the background. Very Aussie!)

Mina and her sister-in-law Vanessa and nephew Toby

Me and Mina