"Here we are in an Oz swimming pool, Merry Christmas you freezing fools!"

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As per previous entries my flickr address for the full photos & videos is http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanyaconnor/collections/72157609516772066/

Christmas day - its hot & sunny outside - what's that all about?!

Our day was to be spent at Sues house - a friends of Fays. Apparently there could be up to 25 people there as Sue is well known for taking in many waifs and strays on Christmas day, so no change for her that 2 additional Jocks would be turning up!

To set the scene a couple of days earlier Sue had phoned for a chat & had asked Fay what she was doing for Christmas?? We had been told by Fay a couple of months ago that Sue was more than happy for us to be there as long as we brought along some food & drink. It now appears that Fay forgot to mention all of this to Sue!

Despite both Jack & I asking Fay what time we had to be at Sues house for many many times we still hadn't had a satisfactory answer. All we got was "Sues really laid back, dinner will probably be casual and in the late afternoon"

Thinking we had to be at Sues for around 3ish, it came as a small surprise when I got out of the shower at Midday to be told Sue had send a message saying that dinner would be ready in half an hour!!!!! Chaos was in mid flow in the living room with paper & presents everywhere & Jackie had her best patience face on. I did casually ask if Sue was aware we  were nowhere near ready, but all I got was an "I'll tell her shortly, I'm wrapping"!

I quietly got ready & let the madness continue in the living room. Both Jack & I were ready by 12.30, however Fay was no-where near ready - she pfaffed quite adeptly for another 2.5 hours. I was dreading going to Sues now as to turn up 3 hours late for crimbo dinner really isn't very British! Jackie was also feeling the same way!

On our way out the door I spied a black spider on the wall by the front door, seeing as we had seen no spider life different to the UK this was an exciting discovery. The spider was about the same size as our big black house spiders - the difference bring this boy had a big red arrow on its front & back. No idea how to tell a male from female & this is important as the black & red spider was a real living black widow. Females need an antidote otherwise worse case scenario death, the males are harmless.

Anyway we eventually got fay into the car & off we went. As it turns out Sue is really laid back & there was no issues with us turning up late - our issue was that they had already eaten so there was no Christmas dinner left! Only one thing for it - glass of fizzy wine! We were given some decorative flower thing to put in our glasses & led through to the patio to meet everyone else. Crimbo dinner had been at a huge table outside under a veranda; the table cloth was courtesy of the surgical department at the hospital where Fay/Sue works! Sues family were really nice, her Sister & her soon to be husband were a bit on the rough side but really nice people. Sues son Jarrad had been given a boob stress ball thing for his Christmas and he wouldn't let it go - this guy is 19??!! It was a fun afternoon with language that would have won any world cup in swearing. The family were really welcoming & great company. We got onto the subject of scary beasties & obviously everyone has their bits of advice especially seeing as we had had a potential near death experience earlier on! One of  the daughters had needed an antidote the year before. Midway hrought his conversation we discovered that Jarrad had left the boob behind & had gone and found a baby huntsman spider. Completely harmless this baby was bigger than anything we have in the UK. Not wanting to appear a pathetic pom, we both let this spider walk all over our hands & arms. The creature did leave a trail of thread everywhere. I must admit to being a bit glad when 8 year old Brook was told to take the spider to the back of the garden. We had an amusing 5 minutes where a Billy Connellyesk conversation was stated by Jarrad in relation to the bloody flies that plague this country. Everywhere you go there are flies & what's worse is they try & fly up your nose or in your mouth. Jarrad made a comment along the line of "you see someone flailing & its like they are talking to a person right in front of them that you cant see"

Having had zero food it wasn't long before me & Jack were plastered! Before it got too late we had to get into the pool, as it was a mere 25C outside we were the only people getting in - too cold for the Aussies! Sues 14 year old daughter Jody helped us get the pool covers off & in we got, bit cold but really rather pleasant. Decided to record a Christmas message for everyone at home which is up on flickr for all to see.  At one point Jody was on the phone to one of her friends and all we heard was "it just some pissed poms in the pool" - Quality! Lots of people dropped into say happy Christmas in a way that is really similar to us in Scotland doing the first footing at new year. One thing that has struck me here is that although everyone is quite backwards in the their attitudes to race etc, they are really friendly and have a good community spirit; we might be polite & PC in the UK, but our sense of community spirit seems to have disappeared; shame that OZ & the UK cant combine the best of both nations!

Thankfully a buffet (pronounce every letter over here!!) came out & I helped myself to 3 servings! We spent the rest of the evening with the Jody, Jarrad, Nicole & Wendy, before being dragged home by Fay. Al the way home Jackie kept stroking her mums hair & going "awe , my wee mum!" very amusing!

Managed to skype the parents a bit danjerous seeing i was a bit tipsy! All seemed fine but they couldnt get the video to work and decided to switch the computer on & off - thank god really as Jackie started going "awe, your wee Dad!". Thankfully by the time the parents were back on Jackie had staggered off to bed! Thanks also parantage as they had to cut me off as they were about to serve their own delicious organic farm turkey dinner - not fair; my crimbo dinner consisted of 3 servings of cold buffet food!