As we near the end of November, here in Australia everyone's thoughts turn to school holidays, summer time fun and Christmas. Even though this is not only a tropical country, but one with season's in the reverse of the Northern Hemisphere, the Christmas spirit here is entirely having to do with winter themes: snow, skating, Frosty and the North Pole. There is also a store with some of the creepiest Christmas displays that either of us have ever seen. The window above is a depiction of a scene from "The Nutcracker", complete with the eye-patch and cape wearing Uncle Drosselmeyer, flapping his arms in a rather hypnotic way.
There are Christmas trees in every office lobby, a gigantic Christmas tree in the square outside of the city hall (due for the big lighting ceremony on Dec 3) and, as part of the "Fun Land World" on the Gold Coast, there is a place called "White Christmas" (or something like that) that features skating and other delights of the cold weather. If only they knew about -30C plus windchill! Now THAT would be a fantasy park worth building!
This week we go on our first Australian holiday. We are giving "White Christmas" a pass and are heading an hour north to the Sunshine Coast on Thursday morning for a 3 day mini-break.
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