Christmas Day

Christmas eve was spent quietly at home, baking gingerbread cookies and getting ready for Santa's visit. The stocking were hung by the fire place, milk, cookies and carrots were laid out for Santa and his reindeer or I should say boomers in this neck of the woods.

Our little elf was awake by 7:30 and anxious to see if Santa had visited. Low and behold he did find us down here and left us with a whole shwack of pressies. Aiden was very pleased with the guitar he received. He is very keen on taking lessons and has already serenaded anyone who will listen. He will also be returning to Canada with a bunch of tricks up his sleeve. He received a box of magic tricks that he is looking forward to learning.

After all the presents were opened and the wrappings cleaned up, we headed over to spend the rest of the day with the Buckman's. We had a lovely pork roast with all the fixing at mid-day and for a little taste of home, I made pumpkin pie for dessert. Most the afternoon was spent with the children playing and the adults visiting. Sandra and her youngest son Michael also spent the day there. Sandra's oldest son, Andrew had to work for most of the day but stopped in later to say hello.

Late afternoon we all went for a walk in hopes of wearing off some of the Christmas feast. We hiked up along one of the nearby trails that follows the creek. The weather was fine, not too hot, at least by Australian standards. The thermometer reached close to 28°.

We were home shortly after 7 pm and all ready to hit the hay. We all had a great Christmas day spending time with friends, eating great food and enjoying the great place we are lucky enough to have spent a second Christmas at.

We hope all are friends and family, wherever they may be, have/had a wonderful Christmas and all the best in the New Year!

Big Day Out 2008

Last day of school and no better way to spend it then out at the Halls Gap Zoo. Aiden's prep to year 2 class headed out there for this year's Big Day Out. The hands on activities were first - the kids were all allowed to touch a childrens python and feel the spikes on a dragon lizard. The spikes are not really sharp at all. Everyone was then allowed to hold a rabbit and a gerbil was also passed around.

After morning tea, one of the owners, Yvonne, gave us a personal tour of the park. They have done a lot of work on the place since Aiden and I were here last year. There are a number of new animals and they have plans to bring in even more. It was great to have Yvonne guide us around. She was able to scare up a number of the animals that were hiding and allowed us all to pet one of the wombats and brought out a couple of dingo pups for us to pet.

After we finished the tour we ate our lunch in the picnic area and then Frau Stoffel had some games for kids to play. The remainder of the afternoon went quickly and before we knew it we were packing up to go home.

All Things Christmas

Since I have been slacking and need to catch up, this entry will include a number of this and that.
Friday night, the 12th found us at the Parks Christmas party. It was a typical staff get-together... lots of socializing, eating a delicious meal, more socializing and drinking with a trivia quiz thrown in. Trivia quizzes are big here. The Sunday before Christmas, the Cricket club had a bit of a Christmas get-together with a sausage sizzle and a quiz night. We are thinking we will have to host a Canadian quiz night before we leave.

The second last day of school, Wednesday the 17th, was spent at the school helping Aiden's class do Christmas crafts. In the morning, the kids each made an angel ornament, a Santa decoration and a gingerbread house. It was great fun! The afternoon was spent at the local church where the Halls Gap school along with the Pomonal school did a Christmas service as part of their religion education class.

Thursday, the last day of school, Aiden's class had their big day out (see next blog). That evening I went out to Pomonal with the Roz, Daryl and kids to Carols by Candlelight. We were all hoping to go and take in this Aussie Christmas tradition but both Sean and Aiden were feeling under the weather with colds. Carols by Candlelight is a very community orientated event. The local choir was there to sing a number of carols and there were a few individuals that also preformed as well, and the Stawell brass band was there too. It was an enjoyable evening spent singing the traditional carols and some not so familiar ones.

On Friday night we toured Stawell searching for Christmas lights. They were far and few between. Definitely not the specky views and sites we see at home. Rather disappointing to say the least, although there were one or two that would rank high on Canadian standards. They even have house light competitions here but Stawell, a town of 6000 only had 19 entries.

Transportation Corridors

One of the noticeable differences between Australia and Canada is the amount of resources put into public and human powered transportation, particularly in rural areas. Where we are living in rural Victoria is quite comparable to the population density back in Manitoba with similar geographic distances to contend with. Public transportation in rural Australia, in our experience tends to be inexpensive and efficient compared to the costly and unreliable options we have in Canada. In addition it seems that even the smallest of communities have well integrated bicycle and walking paths. Granted, the climate here is more conducive to year round outdoor activities and they don’t have as many frost heaves to contend with, but the value of this infrastructure also seems to be more broadly recognized.

Paved roads in Manitoba generally have a bit of a shoulder, while those in Victoria generally don’t have shoulders. There seems to be added incentive to separate pedestrians and cyclists from the roads. Halls Gap for example has invested $732,000 over the past three years to build a 4 km multi-use path that is a 3 m wide hot-mix surface. Fortunately we live at one end of the path and my workplace is at the other end so it makes for an enjoyable ride through the gum trees before and after work. It is a bit different from the challenge of a winter ride along the edge of Highway 10.

Year-end School Concert

Thursday night was the school's year end/Christmas concert. Last year was a play, this year it was a combination of singing and dancing. What is there to say... The kids were excited, the parents a little apprehensive at the length of the program (16 items) and everyone in the Christmas spirit. It was a fabulous concert and the 16 items flew by quickly. All grades, prep through year 6 were involved. After the performance, school presentations were made. The Parents Club gave every child a book and then Santa showed up for a few moments and handed out gifts to the kids. All this was followed by supper (not a meal but a snack after the evening meal) and socializing.

Steaming through the Dandenongs!

Sean had a meeting with PV staff down in Melbourne on Friday so we all headed in on Thursday night and stayed with Rhonda and Valerie, two of the Canadian Exchangees who share a house on the east side of Melbourne.

Friday was a fairly quiet day. While Sean was at work, Aiden and I hung out at the house and ventured out and tackled the Christmas crowds to go shopping for awhile.



On the northeast corner of Melbourne is a little mountain range called the Dandenong Ranges, more commonly known as 'the Dandenongs'. Saturday we found ourselves heading in that direction to Belgrave to catch the Puffing Billy. Puffing Billy is a nostalgic ride of the rails. It is an old rail line that was rescued by retired rail workers and transformed into a multi-million dollar enterprise, run almost solely by volunteers. And they seem to love what they do. Who wouldn't, the scenery was fantastic, everyone on board was interested in trains or parenting someone who was, and aside from a layer of soot, it is a charming adventure for someone to do. It felt like another place, and certainly another era. All along the route, people stop what they are doing to wave at the Puffing Billy. The highlight of the ride was when we threw our legs over the side of the car and dangled them freely as the train traveled along its route. We were quite surprised that this was allowed to happen, it certainly would never happen with 'lawsuits everywhere' North America.

The train travels 24 km to the town of Gembrook with a number of interesting stops along the way. It is a 4-5 hour round trip so we decided to only go part way to Emerald Lake and spend time there enjoying the afternoon. Emerald Lake Park was quite impressive. It has a large playground, a cafe, paddle boats, swimming pool, model train display and even an outdoor gym. While there, Sean and Aiden enjoyed the lake by going on a paddle boat, we enjoyed an ice cream, and played on the playground before catching Puffing Billy back to Belgrave.

Sunday morning we headed into the CBD of Melbourne in hopes of catching the Myers Christmas windows but by the time we arrived there was a line-up of at least a block or more and moving at a snails pace. So much to my disappointment we headed off to the Aquarium. When Aiden and I were there last year, they were in the middle of renovations. They are complete and the aquarium is now the home to a number of penguins. The multi-million dollar Antarctica display was interesting and of course, where else are you likely to see penguins other then at a place like the aquarium but nevertheless it was sad to see the animals in captivity. The sharks were a hit again and we were able to time it right to see them feed. We missed the octopus the first time and it was important to Aiden to rectify that, although somewhat anticlimactic as the octopus was wedged into a crack.