You sound like you're a long way from home

"You sound like you're a long way from home".
I handed the last bag of groceries to the lady and responded, smiling, "Yeah, I'm from Canada".

It was Christmas eve and everyone was frantically trying to finish their last minute shopping. South Melbourne Market smelled of bread and freshly-squeezed orange juice. The owner of the bakery beside me was once again yelling "half price sourdough! Everything half price!" Customers came up to me holding punnets of strawberries, pointing at the mouldy ones like it was my fault they were rotten. These were smells and sounds of just another day in Melbourne. Christmas was definitely not in the air.

Once in a little while, a man dressed as Santa would walk by with his big red sack. His red suit was covered in white specks of dust and the whole thing looked like it had been sewn together 20 years ago. He trekked along the footpaths in his black rubber boots in 30 degrees. Down the block, a young boy set up his busking station. For the next 2 hours, off-key renditions of Christmas carols would be heard.

I had a skype appointment scheduled with my besties who were having an early Christmas dinner together. Right after work, I stripped down to my tank top and spandex shorts and raced home. Golden quotes of the night from Intan include the following:
1. "I take the ground hog to see him sometimes. I mean... greyhound."
2. "My face looks weird sideways."

"My face looks weird sideways"

And yes, I love them. I'm still waiting on my present from Jeanette being shipped all the way from Vancouver!

I called my brother a couple of days ago and he told me that he had decided to mail greeting cards out this year. I asked him why I didn't get one.
"Because you don't even have an address".
Good point.

Julie, Will the Botanist's mum, invited me over for their Christmas celebrations. Christmas is a lunch thing here apparently. Chak and I walked over to their place with plates of cookies and cupcakes. The table was decorated with cakes, cookies, and party crackers. In the corner of the living room stood a real evergreen that they had let me decorate a little while ago. Will the Botanist even made a fantastic vegetarian entreé for me!

Earl grey cupcakes with fresh strawberry frosting

Chak and Will the Botanist

Sugar cookies!

 Penguins are what inspired Tim Tams... which is a chocolate biscuit with chocolate cream in the middle, covered in chocolate.

Party favours from my party cracker

Present from Julie and David!

Raffy passing out after his Christmas meal

Walking home at 2:30am

I woke up this morning with floods of Merry Christmases from friends back home. But seriously, hands down, best Christmas greeting was from Michael Przystupa. You are too sexy for your own good.


This year I didn't have a whole lot of presents, nor did I have the holiday log. Things are a bit different down under but it's definitely good to know I'll always be taken care of. Hope you guys had a great time. Merry Christmas!