Kerry's "Letter from Australia" - December 2006 Well Christmas is almost upon us and I can't get used to visiting malls in a T-shirt with bedecked trees and extravagant hanging decorations everywhere. It just doesn't seem right, not seasonal at all. They even sell signs to put out side of your house saying "Let it snow", I don't think so somehow! Having said that though on the 17th of November it hailed and snowed in Victoria (not near us) but that was freak weather apparently. Lauren and I attempted to make our first Christmas cake. My Mum has always made them for all of the family, so she emailed the recipe over, it having been in family for generations. I foolishly allowed Lauren to write it down and weigh all the ingredients. Big mistake! I was helping Lauren with the mixing when I said "this seems an awful lot of flour", "well Nan definitely said mix 300g of self raising and 300g of plain" replied Lauren. "But that's over a pound of flour" I commented. "Well it must be right and you have never made a Christmas cake before perhaps it's different” countered Lauren. So into the oven it went, when it came to check it mid way through cooking even Lauren had to admit it didn't look right. So she looked at the email again and went "oops, you were right it was 300g altogether not separately"! So a few days later Cake Mark 2 went in the oven. I could have bought about three cakes with all the ingredients I have purchased!! Unfortunately Cake Mark 2 didn't fare much better, the ingredients were right but the oven in the house is very old and the heating for it is just a bare element at the bottom, which is very fierce. I had put the cake up as high as I could, but because it had to cook for 4 hours, it has half an inch of charcoal on its base, still we can cut that off and put extra icing on, the children prefer the icing to the cake anyway! Kevin has started to tackle the garden even though all our garden tools are still in the container languishing somewhere on a Melbourne dock. It has apparently cleared customs and quarantine; however quarantine has yet to send the paperwork to customs to have it released for delivery. So who knows when it will arrive? That's two and a half months without any of my craft equipment; I don't know how I have survived! I have had my Cricut though, I got that mid November. Kevin has bought this leviathan of a machine for cutting the grass; it's a sit on mower aptly named The Tank! It is huge and powerful and he loves it. Well you know what they say about big boys and their toys! Lauren our darling daughter has landed a bombshell on us on her return from South Africa; she doesn't want to be a vet anymore and now wants to go into nature conservation. All well and good but she wants to study at university out there. Her Dad is very upset; he feels we will lose her for good once she goes, as she will be working out there once she leaves Uni. I am upset as well but feel she should follow her heart and if that is what she wants to do, then so be it. There is nothing worse than doing a job that brings you no rewards. She has always been very independent and head strong so we shouldn't be surprised that she wants to strike out on her own at just 18. Only time will tell if it pans out. She did have a great time out there though, she has been surfing, caving (in very tiny spaces, I couldn't have done it), snorkelling round a coral reef, horse riding along a beach (as she was experienced at riding they allowed her to go on ahead! Big mistake, she was galloping along the waters edge in ankle deep water, when suddenly she noticed the water ahead had turned an ominously dark blue colour, she attempted to steer the horse around it but because of the speed was unable to do it in time and plunged unceremoniously headlong in to a deep lagoon, submerging both her self and the horse completely. She also ruined her camera, which was in her pocket, too boot!), on a zip line tour over waterfalls, went hunting blesbok and impala, darted and assisted an operation on a lion and buffalo, assisted with emergency caesareans on blesboks and tried to revive the babies unfortunately they only survived twenty minutes, canoeing, went cage diving with crocodiles, was tied up by the rangers on the reserve and thrown in with the baby crocs ( about 1.5 metres long) as a joke, it was a cold day and the crocs are very lazy then. Now you all know why she wants to go back!! I'm looking for a job but haven't found anything yet. Hooray!! The stuff arrived from England on 23rd November, all 221 boxes of it. We have managed to put away most of it, including my 8 very large boxes of Christmas decorations plus large tree and huge box of assorted wrapping paper bought to match the current colour of the decorations. I change colour theme every year so am constantly buying them and over 27 years of marriage, have accumulated quite a lot. This was alright when they were hidden in the loft and DH didn't really notice how many I had. Come packing up time, he discovered my stash. Suffice to say, he will probably be looking more closely at the tree in future. Although I have purchased a few since we have been here but he doesn't have to know that. Now that it has all arrived I realise how much stuff you amass and can really do without (craft stash being the exception, where of course everything will one day come in handy or so we tell ourselves when we just have to have it). Apart from clothes, the computer, iron, hoover and some kitchen stuff, we could live quite happily and certainly with a lot more space with what we have existed with for the past two and a half months. We had to go straight out and buy cutlery, crockery and bedding when we first moved in. The hall is piled high with opened boxes containing duvets and covers (from England), they're too good to throw away but quite frankly we don't need them. I also found amongst my things a present I had bought for my great niece which I swore to my Mother I had left at her house in readiness for said niece's birthday in October, poor woman has pulled her house apart looking for it. Needless to say I offered up huge apologies!! Kevin has turned one of the bedrooms into a dedicated craft room for me and fitted it out with units and such so I can now have my sewing machine and die cutting equipment out full time as well as all the usual storage for my smaller bits. I haven't actually done that much though, what with the time it took to sort everything out, making Christmas cards and helping Lauren create three accordion albums for her friends Christmas pressies and helping the girl next door who is also making an accordion book for her Mum. The pool is coming into its own now the kids are in quite a lot. It is unheated but that doesn't seem to deter them, although the warm weather we have had of late has warmed it up enough for Kevin and I to risk a dip. I only stayed in for about 15 minutes before I admitted defeat, Kevin was more hardy. Well you won't hear from me again until after Christmas, so I wish you the compliments of the season and hope you all have a good one. With love and best wishes, Kerry