Christmas where the Gum trees grow....

".... there is no frost and there is no snow

Christmas in Australia's hot

Cold and windy's what it's not

when the bloom of the Jacaranda tree is here

then Christmas time is near."

So go the lyrics of one of our favourite Aussie Christmas songs. But this did not make it into Tina Chappell and Sarah Pateman's Christmas Eve singalong(Well Tina did most of the singing). Neither did. "Dashing through the bush in a rusty holden Ute" or On the first day of Christmas my true blah blah to me a Kookaburra in aGum tree or "Santa's wearing shorts". They did however do the Rolf Harris Christmas Classic "Six white boomers".

The venue for this show was at the Christmas opening of John and Lisa's decking. A subplot of our year as to whether it would get finished in time. Not quite in keeping of the words of the song above it poured down but this decking also had a roof so we all kept dry and sang happily none more so than Lisa's nephew Jordan although he needed help to get the timing right on Little Drummer Boy.

A great evening but the tenth late night in a row for Jessica and Alex but this did not stop Alex from doing a last minute "Present getting insurance policy statement" AKA letter to Santa. He was satisfied when Santa informed him that it is still reindeer and not snow white kangaroos who deliver down Under. The extent of how tired the kids are getting is reflected in the fact that we woke Jessica just before 9am, told her that her presents had arrived and she asked if she could have 5 minutes sleep first!

Only small gifts but getting the DS game that he asked for will probably be a highlight of Alex's year.

Christmas day lunch meant a drive into the Western Suburbs of Newcastle. Once again another example of wonderful hospitality with Lisa's sister and brother in law (Anne and Scott) happy to make space for four pommie guests. Maybe they were not happy but if that was the case they hid it well.

Lovely house.

The only thing that concerned me was the view. Not the muddy wasteland but beyond that was Glendore School!

Oh the Irony! A big notice stated "Staff return 29th Jan"- NOT ME!

A "montage" of photos from John and Lisa was lovely to get. It was even lovelier when they said they'd post it to us. The other present? A film called Kenny. It's acheived cult status over here and has lots of toilet humour. Tina will love it.

The boys socialised as only boys can.

Staged Blog Photo Number 1: This was as close as I could get to "putting another shrimp on the Barbie Mate"

Instead it came beautifully presented with Lettuce and Avocado. They're quite cultured these Aussies.

And an Aussie cold meat platter. A mixture of dead pig and chicken.

The plum pudding never got opened as everyone was too full and too scared that I would follow through the strange "British" custom of setting light to it. But the children loved destroying Tina's Gingerbread house.

No Queen's speech, eight adults to tidy up and improving weather (The day started off the wettest in ten years) gave us the inclination to get in the pool.

Staged Blog photo number Two: Santa Hat wearing on the pool lounger.

The full Arsenal of Water Pistols came out and the usual Kids v Adults battle soon developed. It was great fun but it really seemed quite out of the ordinary to being doing this on Christmas day rather than the middle of August.

By 5pm it was time to leave and one of the saddest moments of the year as we said goodbye to the Pateman family for the last time. Their hospitality and ability to put up with all the Chappell family quirks makes them very special people. Stockton Beach, Australia Day, Four Wheel driving, Sailing, doughnutting, Umina Beach, The Wattagans, Barrington Tops, Australia Day... the list goes on as many of our best days out this year have came through them all this and just their downright friendliness makes us eternally grateful.

The drive home was Melancholy but two detours cheered us up. First the discovery of another view. A view which we have never seen even though we have driven just past it about 50 times and it is on a road called "LOOKOUT Rd". Anyway for what it is worth it is overlooking Blackbutt Reserve, with Newcastle and the Ocean in the background.

We might then have gone home and sulked a bit. After being in the pool we did not feel the need to swim and the sun was going down but a "We're at Caves Beach, where are you?" text made us rethink.

So Staged Blog photo Number Three: The Official we are on the beach at Christmas photo. Of course Tina's Mum does this every year but it is twenty degrees colder for her

The Text came from the Jenkins family. Here are two thirds of them with a guest Chappell.

Yet another Boogie boarding shot "yawn" but it has to be here for its Festive significance and the fact that this could be our last chance. If only somebody could have captured us on the wave two minutes prior to this which dumped us both; had Tina doing a "Judy" and whipped my shorts around my ankles.

Verdict on an Aussie Christmas? Loved it! Although saying goodbyes, not having your own family around you and two days of packing and cleaning ahead of us knocked some of the sheen off it. Well it's quarter to two in the morning over here. If I wait another 15 minutes I could download a Podcast of The Queen's Christmas speech but somehow I don't think I'll bother.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

A final two week holiday

We sat at the Pizza Restaurant down by the lake a fortnight ago, musing on the fact that with only 14 days to go we should treat every day as if we were on holiday. Tempting as it was to take 5 days sick leave to help the "holiday feeling" I soldiered on bravely to the end. Finishing my experience with only 16 out of 27 children on my last day (It is a bit of a trend over here). I managed to say most of my farewells in an amicable and friendly manner, avoided one or two people and the same one or two people probably avoided me. A guarded but pleasant farewell was had with the principal. I had written ALL my thoughts on the experience in a 5 page "essay" to him. He shook hands with a smile either because:
a) He appreciated the effort I'd made and my professional opinion
b) He had not got round to reading it.
c) He'd read it and smiled as he put it in the bin.
Much more contented smiles were had in the evening when a hardcore 5 of us shared several pints/ glasses of wine etc. in the General Roberts in Newcastle.
This helped to relieve the stress of it all and another stress relieving activity was selling the car. After several surreal, late night and curious conversations with a man from Melbourne 14 hours drive away, who insisted he wanted it. We finally sold the car on the 19th December to a family from Tuggerah 1 hour away. $2850 dollars which added to $1700 hail damage insurance meant we have made a $450 dollar profit on the car.
Better still we were not left carless as Michelle's Mum Gloria lent us her Mazda!!!!



There are some uptight people in Australia and boy have they enjoyed going on and on and on about the Ashes but Gloria is the epitome of many people we have had the pleasure to meet. Always ready to help you out of a spot , making varying degrees of sacrifices to do so. Gloria has really missed Michelle and the family but has always been welcoming to us and rounded it off by inviting us all round for a Christmas dinner during the final weekend, giving us lovely gifts and dutifully sitting through one of Jessica's shows. What a star!



Two late nights, focussed on walks in the dark. One to see the Christmas lights in the area which involved 18 of us strolling around the local neighbourhood. Then a much quieter affair, strolling in bushland by the lake, possum spotting with the secretary at school with her husband and her son, the latter being our expert guide. The longest day though was our final farewell to Sydney.
Could not think of anything new to do; nothing we could afford anyway so re-did a couple of our favourites. First stop Darling Harbour with its giant Christmas tree. This of course was not the actual reason for our trip but more so that having grown 9cm, little Alex was tall enough to go on the Harbourjet speedboat ride. Little Alex was nearly sick too but survived the ordeal. We think he liked it. Tina certainly did (It was her first time too) whilst Jessica was a third ride veteran so was a bit more laidback about it all.
Back in the water after this but in a more sedate fashion as we took a water taxi across to the other side of the Harbour.



This was to satisfy the childrens' final request of a trip back to Luna Park. Well here was the penultimate ride that the children went on with Dad. Jess had no height restrictions so was able to do everything her Dad did. So after her eighth ride she acheived what Alex had failed to do earlier and did a blue powerade vomit in the middle of the main walkway.



We made a quick exit but not quick enough and missed the cross harbour ferry; waited 40 minutes for another boat to Circular Quay and completely missed out on a poignant farewell to the Opera House. Instead we ate chips at breakneck speed, walked swiftly to the station having no time to even glance at the eighth wonder of the world and hopped onto the 9:15pm train. Two and a half hours later after stopping at every single poxy station imaginable (Woy Woy, Wyong, Dora Creek, Booragul etc......) we made it home. 5 hours on a train altogether for the sake of a 20 minute boat ride and 3 hours in a second rate theme park was probably not the best way to spend one of our last days in Australia but Sydney must be thanked for the many highlights it has given us. We never did get round to doing the Bridge climb. Oh well we'll do that next time!
Back at Lake Macquarie, the day after our dinner with Gloria and two days before Christmas we were on the water again. This time for our final "Pateman adventure" doughnutting in their tinny. Trying to pull someone along in a rubber ring whilst you row is really hard though.



Only kidding. The tinny, which they had won in a raffle, came with a pretty handy motor. As is usually the case it was Alex we were most concerned about but it was he who could not get enough of it.
Sometimes though he just liked chilling out.

Carols at the Domain

Penultimate weekend and in need of a Christmas Fix we took the advice to go to Carols in the Domain (sort of Sydney's Hyde Park). For all you botanists out there you may be interested to hear that flowers also have their seasons back to front. Our house in England has these two in close proximity to each other and they always bloom just before the big summer holiday. The same would seem to apply here but in December rather than July. A nice reminder that I only had 4 days of teaching to do in Australia.

The picture above is part of our precursor Multicultural lunch experience. After the Cronulla riots some questions have been asked about the embracing nature of the Australians but when you are sitting opposite the Opera House watching England start to lose the Ashes, eating sushi whilst in the background A Caribbean steel drum busker is belting out blue Spanish Eyes trying to compete with the resident Aboriginal didgeridoo players
then you must be part of a multicultural society.

As far as getting to the Domain was concerned the main advice was get your picnic mat down early so we arrived at 3:30pm. You have to be friendly because this is how far we were from all our neighbours. After the first 30 minutes you stop apologising for stepping on their territory.

We had to get cosy too. Notice the raincoat! December has not really brought the Summer we were promised. It poured down just before we arrived but apart from a 5 minute drizzle at about 6pm (to which the Australians completely over reacted, brollies and tarpaulin everywhere) that was all.




Getting there 5 hours early got us this close. The news was full of the usual"mad people camped out for three days to get good picnic mat space" stories. Meanwhile Mad children got into the Christmas spirit with their one dollar antlers and flashing noses. These will not be coming home with us as we have a good supply of comedy antlers back home and the noses lasted about 15 minutes.



As for the performance itself? No photos I'm afraid. Lots of video but not had time to download it and our camera is crap in the dark. Suffice to say that it was brilliant. They broadcast it live on the telly and it shows how much the media culture is getting to us in that we were excited by the fact that Human Nature, The Young Divas, Guy Sebastian and Damien Leith would be performing. Meanwhile we too were touched by the tribute to Belinda Emmett and also joined the biggest ovation of the night when the Wiggles came on. Guessing that any Northern Hemisphere reader would go "who the **** are they?"........................... Apart from the Wiggles; to which they would say "not those *******"



The concert and the big firework finale were over by 11pm but thanks to some clever hotel booking at The North Sydney Harbourview hotel we had the kids crashed out by midnight. We have now found out from the room given to us at any hotel with a "Family Room" that your room is usually one floor above any asylum seekers who might be staying. Now it is true that every room in this hotel had a harbourview. By ignoring our immediate outlook to North Sydney Railway station, smacking our cheeks to the window and craning our necks to the right we got our view. Frustrated we went down to the Harbour for breakfast.







The "LonelyPlanet" guide recommended Ripples and we were not disappointed. OK, it was our most expensive breakfast of the year ($75....... 30 pounds) and the waitress made a good attempt at ruining our tans by giving us third degree burns by tossing Tina's Hot chocolate over me and Alex but the heavy shade in the above photo comes from the fact that we were seated directly under the harbour bridge and just when we thought we'd bored each other senseless with the "Can you believe we are here?" line.......we found ourselves saying it again.

Musical Farewells.

These farewells in Oz are not easy ...because unlike when we left the UK, saying 'goodbye,' we knew it was only for a year, whereas this time we don't know when we will see some people again, if ever!
This was Jessica's final piano lesson, with Diane, a lovely teacher, with the patience of a Saint, who did nothing but encourage and sing of Jessica's talents. Jess loved it of coarse and seems to have a real flare for the piano, even writing her own song, dedicated to her Mummy...( I think it might have been after one of our many arguments about her hair....but she still loves me...bless!)


My guitar group played their final swan song (well, actually it was 'Santa Claus is coming to town!)to 2 packed assembly audiences.....and then we were due to be one of the main acts performing down the Foreshore, on the friday night, but unfortunately rain stopped play, so we were unable to sing our medley, including the traditional, '6 white Boomers.' which Alex loves and is trying to play on his guitar.


And finally, Jessica's big performance ( a 4 and a half hour epic!) that she had been working towards all year! She sang her Solo/duet to 'China Girl' brilliantly, infront of a packed hall. We had a front table but it was frustrating that we were not allowed to take any photos or anything during the main, filmed performance; but don't worry that you missed it.....because, yes we fell for the doting parents scam and bought 'the DVD'.....so if you want to see Jessica's performance or just have a good laugh at some really small kids at the beginning, who howled as soon as the lights went on....just ask!
During this final song a few people took a few shots so I thought it was ok for me to do the same.
Jessica was annoyed by the young girl in black and gold, who insisted on getting in Jessica's position at the front! Emily and her mum, Bronwyn, helped Jess all year and I owe her 'big time' for her hair and makeup! (Oooh, I feel like I'm making one of those speeches, when performers win an award and they have to thank all the people that helped!)

Barking Mad

Oh the delights of the English Language that you can take three completely unrelated events but through the power of the pun, homophone and colloquial phrase you can toss them all in together.
So here is Jessica posing suitably for the most annoying job at 2 Whitby St at this time of year; clearing up the Gum tree bark.We have a pile like this about once a week. It may not look much but is enough to fill a wheelie bin in one go.


Mad, zany, crazy, whacky and a few more less polite adjectives. In true "Timmy Mallet" style a particularly sticky day at work was coped with by going down to Tracey's (Near neighbour and Aussie who took pity on us in the early months and spends disproportionate amounts of time organising Tina) pool and jumping in fully clothed. The fact that pockets were emptied and watch, belt and shoes were removed before entering the pool takes away the " Mallet factor" and just makes me look a bit stupid.
Of course had I not taken these off I would have been completely stupid so I've redeemed myself slightly.




So Jessica worked hard, I bob around like an imbecile and Tina earns her place in the blog by displaying her leaf painting talents. This one is heading to Rosemary, a very accurate portrait of their dog. This 'leaves' Tina with two Tiger faces and a bilby to paint as thankyou presents. I am sure they'll all be very grateful.

A not so close encounter with Robbie

Note for Christmas presents......... Dear Santa, Can I have a camera which does not take crappy night time shots. So here we were with Chris and Richard at Aussie Stadium in the heart of Sydney going to see Robbie Williams. All these photos serve to communicate is that you can see why he has called it the Close Encounters tour. Unfortunately after an hour in a traffic queue I spent another 30 minutes in a beer queue and missed the big entrance.



A massive venue so after going nowhere bigger than Wembley Arena prior to this year I found myself at my second stadium concert venue in as many months. As for the performance? Well having had the tickets for over 6 months it had been eagerly anticipated and we were not disappointed. Some moans from various quarters that he talks too much but that is all part of the Robbie Williams experience. The crowd were kept happy though with "Rock DJ" and Millenium" in the main set whilst "Let Me Entertain you "and "Angels" were saved for the obligatory encore and everyone agreed that he really has to stop fannying around with swing numbers. "Me and My Shadow" is not one we'll be rushing to get on CD or should I say download.

Well we followed all the concert rules, screamed on request, stood up on request, turned on our mobile phones to light up the stadium on request and stamped our feet for the encore. We then followed the final rule of stadium concert viewing...... sit in another traffic queue barely moving for another hour. So we finally arrived in Hornsby at 1am in the morning. This meant 4 hours sleep before getting up to do a 90 minute drive to school the following day.

Northwards and Southwards on a surfless search

Friday 2:45pm, straight out of school and North to Nelson Bay for one last visit. We had heard much of Fingal Bay but the 5km detour was never possible on previous visits. Beach cricket and our Newcastle Knights bag of towels have become essential beach packing items.



Boogie boards are also part of our essential surf equipment but unfortunately they had to stay in the car as this was a rarity of a beach which was waveless. Here I am wandering aimlessly wondering what else you can do in the water aside from jumping on a bit of thick polystyrene and attempting to break your neck.



So Sunday we tried again this time just South of the "Home and Away" Beach at a place called Avalon. We had Luke with us as Chris and Richard his Mum and Dad had lots to sort out prior to leaving the country next Sunday. Being the generous hosts that we are we stopped off at the three dollar pie shop and photographed the children's attempts to eat their gooey fare without covering themselves or the beach tent.



In contrast to Fingal Bay we were dealing with 40km winds and one metre waves dumping right on the beach. The boards came down to the beach but never made it into the water. Fantastic for sailing boards though and we had a fleet of about 16 0f them going across in front of the horizon. The two specks in this photo are the two stragglers disappearing around the headland.


So not our best beach day. We were sandblasted and the boards remained dry again. As compensation, despite running late for our date with Robbie I persuaded Tina to pull into the Newport Arms for a swift schooner. We had been here with Stacie three months before but not until after Sunset. These have to be the best pub views I have seen (overlooking Pittwater) so I lay down the gauntlet for anyone to send me something better.

So what have you done then?

As the year warp speeds to its conclusion; the reflections upon your acheivements, legacies and personal development begin to be a source of discussion.
Tina has acheived alot by being Tina. Being a cheeky bag and asking for things, her guitar groups and playground markings will make her sorely missed at Warners Bay. The opportunity to pursue personal interests and not have to deal with the day to day issues that work brings has made her more chilled out, unless she is asking Jessica to brush her hair or put her socks on for the fifteenth time in the morning.



Jessica continues to become her mother's daughter. Full of deep profound statements!








and making her own contributions to school murals. I think the windswept Blonde, running across the mountains is her design....... based on her mother.




Alex is his father's son, lacking the dynamic personality to leave a legacy but personally he is the one who will be seen to have changed and developed the most. This goes beyond the fact that he has two whopping great front teeth now and is trying to grow a surf dude hairstyle. Riding bikes, skiing, football (we're not calling it soccer anymore now), cricket, swimming. He has got involved in so many things and self confidence has grown proportionately. What about me? Not sure Glendore will mourn my passing too much. We heard of one of our fellow exchangees who had been offered a job and had been told that he'd been the best exchange teacher they'd ever had. I think the difference with Glendore is that I was the first (and possibly last) exchange teacher they've had, as such they never quite followed through the "This teacher is from another hemisphere how do we help him succeed for the good of his and the school's development"
Anyway my most significant contribution of the year arguably came at the staff Christmas meal
(Held along the Newcastle equivalent of Oxford St Southampton, $35 per head, other halves welcome if they are stupid enough to spend an evening with a bunch of teachers, Bring Your Own Grog) where I found fellow drinking partners and inspired by Steve at Marchwood reflected on the year in verse

Term 2 was tough Reports to write
But the hardest thing for me
Was trying to watch David Beckham
In the morning at half past three

The socceroos they did you proud
But boy those whinging shouts
when the poor Italian tripped over
And knocked the Aussies out

I went to see some Rugby
Football according to you
Better than home with beer on tap
And a bloody sight warmer too

So that was verses 11-13 of my 31 verse "ballad" and I think this photo was after I'd finished so I couldn't have upset people too much. I could have done but edited several verses prior to public performance.





The other thing we now find ourselves doing apart from engaging in "oooh, not long to go now!" conversations several times a day is measure the time left using all sorts of mundane informal units.
"That was the second to last time we'll be putting that recycling bin out."

"We've got exactly the right amount of dishwasher tablets to last us until we'll leave."

"We'll still have half of that tube of toothpaste left. Do you think we should pack it."

I also got disproportionately excited by having my first banana for ten months in my packed lunch.



You can't imagine how exciting and stimulating it is living in the Chappell household.