photos: new year's eve!

photos: outside the darwin museum

photo: sunburnt in darwin

photos: sunset in darwin

photos: around town in darwin

photos: somewhere in darwin

merry christmas!!!

For my third Christmas away from home, I flew to Darwin to be with my boyfriend -- Garry With 2 Rs.  He has an awesome blog you should totally check out too!

photos: friends' christmas in manly

quicko: reunion christmas party

quicko: sweetheart

Another Wikipedia post for you today, the story of the ironically named Sweetheart, a huge crocodile (thankfully dead now) I recently saw on display in Darwin:

"Sweetheart was the name given to a 5.1 metre saltwater crocodile responsible for a series of attacks on boats in Australia between 1974 and 1979. Sweetheart attacked outboard motors, dinghies, and fishing boats. In July 1979, Sweetheart was finally caught alive by a team from the Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission, but drowned while being transported when it became tangled with a log. The crocodile's mounted body is now on permanent display at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory.^[1]"

quicko: cyclone tracy

Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin late Christmas Eve 1974 and was arguably the greatest natural disasters to hit Australia in modern history, particularly in terms of damage.

According to Wikipedia:

"Tracy killed 71 people, caused A$837 million in damage (1974 dollars) and destroyed more than 70 percent of Darwin's buildings, including 80 percent of houses.^[4][5] Tracy left more than 41,000 out of the 47,000 inhabitants of the city homeless prior to landfall and required the evacuation of over 30,000 people.^[6] Most of Darwin's population was evacuated to Adelaide, Whyalla, Alice Springs and Sydney, and many never returned to the city. After the storm passed, the city was rebuilt using more modern materials and updated building techniques. Bruce Stannard of The Age stated that Cyclone Tracy was a "disaster of the first magnitude ... without parallel in Australia's history."^[7]"

photos: carols under the bridge

It appears blogger is letting me post photos again!  Now that I'm thoroughly behind ... stay tuned, there will be hopefully be lots of pretty things to look at coming in the upcoming days ... albe...them ... slightly anachronistically mayhaps.  Nevermind, just enjoy the sunsets!

quicko: salt water pools

In Australia, some pools are salt water pools.  As in, in apartment complexes, sometimes they get salt water instead of chlorinated water.  I had no idea!

quicko: road sizes

Generally speaking, American roads are noticeably wider than Australian ones.

quicko: new years' eve themes

Looking ahead a bit, here's some Sydney New Years trivia for you -- the themes on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the last several years!  (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

1997–98	?	Smiley Face
1999–00	"Millennium"	"Eternity" in Copperplate writing and a Smiley Face
2000–01	"Centenary of Federation"	Rainbow Serpent and a Federation Star
2001–02	"Year of the Outback"	Uluru, the Southern Cross and a Dove of Peace
2002–03	"Celebration in Unity"	Dove of Peace and the word "PEACE"
2003–04	"City of Light"	Light Show
2004–05	"Reflections"	'Fanfare'
2005–06	"Heart of the Harbour"	Three Concentric Hearts
2006–07	"A Diamond Night in Emerald City"	Coathanger and a Diamond
2007–08	"The Time of Our Lives"	Mandala[5]
2008–09	"Creation"	Sun
2009–10	"Awaken the Spirit"	Yin-Yang symbol, Blue Moon and a Ring of Fire
2010–11	"Make Your Mark"	X Mark, Spot and Handprint
2011–12	"Time to Dream"	Thought Bubble, Sun and Endless Rainbow
2012–13	"Embrace"	TBA

quicko: christmas cookies

Not really known in Australia (!!!).  Aside from the whole "biscuit" thing, it's just not an Australian thing to bake dozens of batches of cookies for days on end.  Potentially the heat has something to do with it ... but please eat some fluorentines and chocolate crinkles and peanut butter cookies for me!!

quicko: christmas cards

Australians aren't really big on Christmas cards, and hardly any do Christmas letters.  Americans, on the other hand, do them both with a vengeance -- possibly late, but generally quite enthusiastically.

news flash: CAROLS on TODAY!!

Oh gosh, guys, sorry, I'm really behind here (it all started when blogger told me I couldn't post any more pictures for free and I went into panic mode and avoided the blog until I could work out how to proceed from this point ... still working on that ...) but:

CAROLS under the BRIDGE are TONIGHT!!!

How exciting is that?!  They start momentarily -- jazz at 5, carols at 7:30 -- kids' stuff is there and lots of fun and excitement in general.  Come one, come all ye faithful!

(Surely it's obvious that these are Christmas carols in Bradfield Park under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, but just in case ... yeah, that's where they are!)

quicko: baubles

Australian for ornaments, as in the circular ones.  Seems close to bubbles to me -- not sure if they're actually related or not, but they seem to get called that here.

quicko: the (lack of) build up

Besides the heat and distinctly non-Christmasy landscape, I think the biggest difference between Christmas in Australia and America is the lack of build up to it in Australia.  You know it's coming, but it's just not nearly as prevalent in society -- the music at stores, the decorations everywhere, the lights on houses, the smells, the general attitude.  It's weird ... it's there a little, but the vibe is just different.  It's like there's a holiday, but a different one.  A good one, but not the same.

quicko: christmas beetles

Less appealing than the Australian Christmas tree is the Australian Christmas beetle -- again, a creature found in abundance around the Christmas season.

quicko: the australian "christmas" tree

There's actually a tree here called the "Christmas" tree -- not an evergreen, but it flowers around Christmas.  Wikipedia tells more in its exclusive report here.

quicko: (no) shrimp on the barbie

So I've mentioned "shrimp" (twice, it appears) and "barbie" here before, but so far seem to have neglected to mention that the classic "throw another shrimp on the barbie" is just inaccurate and not used here at all.  So there.

quicko: the australian 12 days of christmas

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love sent to me:

12 parrots prattling,
11 numbats nagging,
10 lizards leaping,
9 wombats working,
8 dingoes digging,
7 possums playing,
6 brolgas dancing,
5 kangaroos,
4 koalas cuddling,
3 kookaburras laughing,
2 pink galahs,
And an emu up a gum tree.

quicko: o come, o come emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel -- Americans say "Is-rye-el"; Australians say "Is-ray-el."  Roughly.

quicko: juniors, thirds and fourths

It's reasonably common for Americans to name a son a junior, and it's heard of for there to be a third even a fourth generation sporting the same name.  I'm yet to meet an Australian who's a junior -- possibly there's a handful out there, but they're certainly few and far between.

quicko: to bin something

Australians not only use "bin" for "trash can" -- they also use it as a verb.  Which is one expression I'd really like to can.

quicko: tinsel

Australians use this word much more generously than Americans -- to me, tinsel is only that very thin, shiny, roughly spaghetti-sized glittery number that hangs from Christmas trees after Santa visits.  To Australians, it's most anything I'd call a garland, as long as it's shiny enough.

quicko: chestnuts roasting on an open fire?

Okay, not that I've ever actually smelled chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but they're missing here.  As are various other smells.  Vanilla bean soaps and lotions, for instance.  All the stores back home would be bringing out their Christmas scents.  Or gingerbread lattes.  Which I don't drink and imagine Starbucks probably has here, but who else?  I can't remember if holly has a smell, but it's missing.  And whatever pomegranates and poinsettias and mistletoe would smell like.  There's so little Christmas baking going on -- there's supposed to be tons of ginger and cinnamon and spicy sorts of scents -- maybe even something like pumpkin (leftover from Thanksgiving if nothing else).  I get why -- it's summer here, and those aren't summer scents -- but when I say it just doesn't feel like Christmas here -- there's about a fifth of the reason why!  (The other four-fifths being missing sights, missing sounds (sleighbells!  carols!), tastes and feelings at large.  Plus just a generous portion of gut "this isn't really Christmas!!" feeling.)  It's nice here -- not saying I don't like things -- it just doesn't feel like Christmas.

quicko: ice cream sample size

Preposterously small here.  Don't they realize that you want to give decent size scoops so people can actually taste the flavor?  And just like your store that tiny bit more?  And because it's just the decent thing to do?

quicko: manchester

I really thought I'd mentioned this term before, but perhaps I was thinking of haberdashery?  Regardless, "manchester" refers to general homewares -- bedding and towels and whatever other sorts of things you find somewhere around the 6th floor of David Jones.

the gift that certainly wasn't of the magi

I have a real problem around Christmas, and I'm feeling pretty sure it doesn't just happen to me.  It's exacerbated by some of my favorite online shopping haunts (ahem, ModCloth) and is really against everything I like to think I stand for, but, gosh, does anyone else find the best gift ideas for themselves in December?  Like constantly?

I was all set to send along a few pertinent details to my parents -- just as hints, of course -- when I remembered my mother has already very (amazingly) organize-dly (this is well and truly shocking if you know my mother) sent me all my presents for not only Christmas, but also my birthday in February.

Shipping is expensive, granted, and I'm thrilled to have so many little boxes waiting unopened in my closet, but ... now how am I going to justify the three dresses I've found that are really just plain perfect?  Well, one of them seems to be no longer available in my size, so potentially that's sorted itself out, but aside from it (and now, wow, do I want it!  I've thought of no less than three occasions it would have been perfect for, which would most definitely justify the previously shocking cost.  Sigh.), the justification is getting more and more difficult.


Thank goodness I'm up to difficult tasks.


And also took on a few extra hours at work this month.  Theoretically they're helping to pay for the week and a half I'm taking off at Christmas, but, well, you know.  Finances are meant to be creative creatures, right?


Alas, that is precisely where I got interrupted and left my train of thought about three days ago.  I'm sure this post was going somewhere, but I'm afraid you'll have to draw your own conclusions about where.


But if you'd like to get me a Christmas present, absolutely go ahead.  I've got a few suggestions if you need any.