The whole festive season was a bit strange, christmas just didnt feel like christmas with it being warm and the sun staying up till 8:30ish. We kept spotting trees and christmas decorations and doing a double take. the Aussies dont seem to do christmas cards much either – all the cards we got were from home – and thats not just coz we dont know that many people 😉 Nobody in our workplaces had any, and they arent in windows, or the houses we were in. They are in the shops, so there must be a trade for them (maybe for brits), but the Aussies dont really seem to do it the same way the UK does.
We finally settled on adopting it as an Australian Summer Festival. It was less weird 😉
Christmas itself was good fun, we did a lot of cool stuff that we have pretty much covered (though we will probably put up more pictures of Penguin Island). But we havent covered New Year in much depth.
You know how when a band is asked to comment on a Scottish crowd they always say “man, Scotland is the best, they are just wild, we love playing gigs in Scotland” and you think, “thanks for saying that, but we know you say it everywhere you go”. Well, I had the same kinda thinking about Scots and New Year. Yeah, yeah, the Scots make New Year a big thing, but its just not a big deal everywhere else. You see the fireworks in Sydney and Times Square and all round the world and you know everywhere likes New Year.
It appears WA doesnt get the point of New Year. The plan was the day trip to Penguin Island, then you know, probably bed, coz its always tiring being out on the boats. WHAT! says us, BUT ITS HOGMANAY! We have to stay up for the bells! “Hogmanay” and “The Bells” being two scottish concepts, it took two goes to explain we wanted to stay up to celebrate the new year arriving. It didnt take any persuation at all, just a suggestion and another paella and champers and all sorts was planned in moments.
There were 6 of us (plus the kids, who went to bed – I remember being put to bed, and then getting up again for the bells and steak pie as a kid) and the paella was fab, and there was wine and beer and sangria and whiskys. Another couple of people dropped by briefly wondering “whats all the fuss about New Year, I mean, its dull and boring, its no different from any of the other 364 days …” So we let them know they were doing it wrong!
The Aussies were enjoying the night, if not the whisky, but didnt seem that interested in the bells themselves. So, I ducked inside, and with 10 minutes to go, got the telly on. Mostly it was just old movies that was showing, but one channel had a New Year countdown on. Sydney is 2 hours ahead of Perth. I had expected to see Perths New Year countdown, but what we got instead was Sydneys, repeated two hours later. I have to say I think this is a little bizzare, rather than show your own fireworks at the time, repeat someone elses two hours later. But hey, Sydney does it very well. Apparently it wasnt just a repeat though, Sydneys fireworks had already been shown in Perth live as it happened in Sydney. So, it wasnt just a repeat, it was a repeat of something that had only been shown 2 hours previously! Weird!
Calling the UK was a bit of a no-go – the international phone lines were filled pretty quick, however, thanks to the wonders of skype and skype out – we could call across the internet and get out onto the UK phone network no bother (what with it being 3pm in the UK)
So, in summary, it was good, but a little weird. Next year, we are hoping to make it to Sydney for New Year, we have seen it many times on the tv over the years, and have always said it would be cool to do. This year will hopefully be the year to do it!