Even after living here nearly 8 years, it still strikes me sometimes how strange it is to be living such an ‘opposite’ life to everyone back in Canada. Not only are our days and nights flipped, but so are our seasons (even if we didn’t live in a sub-tropical area of Australia). Many people who live in this part of Australia have never experienced snow and can’t begin to image what minus temperatures feel like. As a result, little stories from North America sometimes make it on our news stations here…even stories about Niagara Falls.
I will admit seeing the icy images made me just a little bit nostalgic. I always found Niagara Falls most beautiful in the winter with ice coating the tree branches, railings, and light stands. But then I remembered the bitter cold and winds, and that little bit of nostalgia disappeared pretty quickly. Especially since temperatures here have been in 30s over the past month.
This year, we spent our first day of summer (December 21) on a catamaran. Friends of ours invited us to travel across to Great Keppel Island with them for the day. We can see this island from the shores of Yeppoon and it is an absolute gem of a place. The weather was glorious and the company fantastic. We were having too much fun swimming, paddle boarding, chatting, and playing cards to get many pictures, but here are a few.
We actually travelled back at night on this trip which was amazing. I’ve not spent time on the water here at night before. The sky was just a blanket of stars. It was gorgeous!
Like usual, Christmas was pretty quiet for us and included lots of downtime and great food. It was just what I needed. The last 6 to 8 months of 2024 were really hectic for me at work (good hectic though!) so I was feeling pretty exhausted by the end of the year. I can definitely say I’m feeling my age these days with stuff like that! Working flat out for months on end never used to impact me at all, but I am finding it harder to do for long periods now.
Like last year, Rob started off my Christmas in early December with a Lego advent calendar. Most days of this year’s calendar included building ‘toys’, either outdoor ones like the cool little snowmobile below, or indoor ones like the toy train and firetruck. I pulled out last year’s Lego package as well and created a whole little world across the month of December. After just talking about how old I feel sometimes, I’m probably embarrassing myself by admitting how much I looked forward to opening that little numbered window each day to build my little toy.
In addition to the Lego calendar, Rob also picked up a gingerbread cookie decorating kit for me (though I think this was probably more for him than me!) It brought back some lovely memories of spending the day with nana baking and decorating sugar cookies. Those days are some of my favourite Christmas memories.
I also spent some time completing a puzzle a friend loaned me. The cool part of this puzzle is that the image you are creating does not match what’s on the box; the box is only a clue. This means you are fitting pieces together without having any idea where they might fit even the larger puzzle or even if you are working right side up or upside down. I actually had a lot of und with it.
As always, Rob made some beautiful meals across the holiday including a seafood extravaganza for Christmas Eve and a traditional turkey dinner for Christmas Day. Rob spices up the ‘traditional’ part of that a bit though by smoking the turkey. I actually contributed a bit this year and made Rob’s favourite dessert, Strawberry Tiramisu.
A few days after Christmas we headed down to Brisbane to watch some tennis. The end of December and most of January is known here as ‘The Summer of Tennis’ because of the many events and tournaments that happen around the country, including the Australian Open during the final weeks of January.
Since moving here, we have become huge fans of tennis but neither of us have ever had the experience of watching it live. We’ve talked about heading down to Melbourne for the Open one year, but figured we should probably make sure we like live tennis before organising that. Having a major tournament as close as Brisbane was the perfect opportunity and it didn’t disappoint. What a fantastic few days!
One thing that always makes us laugh when we watch tennis is the practice of players asking for multiple balls before their first serve. For many players, there is a real pattern to the number of balls they request and also the way they handle them before tossing them back to the ball kids. Jordan Thompson’s ritual was hilarious. He handled no less than five balls every single time and dropped/tossed them back in exactly the same way each time. We ended up nicknaming him the chipmunk. Here’s a little video.
The timing of the Brisbane International put us in Brisbane for New Years Eve, so for the first time in probably decades, we went out for dinner. Rob booked us into a restaurant right along the river for a gorgeous dinner that just never stopped; it was seven or eight courses in total! I think we rolled rather than walked back to our hotel!
When we first made the plans to spend New Years’ Eve in Brisbane, I was imagining sitting outside somewhere to watch the fireworks. However, the view from our room of the river was absolutely perfect so we decided to watch the fireworks up high while enjoying some champagne. Fireworks at eye/below eye level are pretty cool.
I went back to work shortly after New Years’ and so did Rob. Every January, Rob flips on the air con in the garage and completes all the maintenance and detailing of our vehicles (the fleet as I call it!) while watching tennis. My car is back to being sparkling clean and Rob is back to reminding me to not park under the messy (jacaranda) trees at work.
Rob has also spent time in January helping out some friends in moving and water testing boats. A week or two ago, he travelled down to Bundaberg with a friend on his power boat, which they refer to as a ‘stink’ boat here. They went down to Bundaberg by water, splitting the trip across two days. As you can see, he wasn’t exactly roughing it! They then left the boat in Bundaberg for maintenance so had to travel back by land. They made the first half of that trip by train and it sounds like it was quite the experience. In addition to some interesting characters, they experienced some delays because the train could not travel more than 80km an hour because it was too hot outside. Apparently, travelling any faster in those temps would melt the track. That’s definitely not something I’d ever heard of before!
As I write this blog, Rob is off on yet another adventure involving boats. Another friend of ours just purchased a catamaran down near Brisbane so asked Rob to head down with him to water test the boat before finalising the purchase. Even better, this friend is a Guinness lover like Rob so I was treated to a bit of Guinness spam in my WattsApp today.
At the start of this blog, I mentioned how strange it can still be living and experiencing life ‘opposite’ to Canada. Even our national day – Australia Day – falls in the opposite part of the year to Canada Day. Australia Day, which is January 26 here, marks the day Captain Phillip raised the union jack flag to mark the arrival of the British fleet (which consisted of mostly convicts). Much like Canada Day, it’s meant to be a day of celebrating Australian culture and what it means to be Australian. However, for our Aboriginal communities here, January 26 marks the start of the British massacring their people, destroying their culture, and dispossessing them from their lands. Rather than a celebration, they see January 26 as a day of mourning.
As I learn more of the history and culture here, I struggle to engage in the celebrations that occur in our community. Perhaps it’s easier for me to step away from because I’ve only called myself Australian a few years?? I’m not sure. Regardless, it’s a complex and polarising issue here and one we both battle with. As a result, we usually just stay home and enjoy time by the pool. However, this year, Kevin and Jo, invited us to join them for another trip over to Keppel on their catamaran, this time an overnight trip.
We had a wonderful day and evening. The colours in the sky at sunset were perfect and waking up, surrounded by water, was definitely a peaceful feeling. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a boat and I’ve definitely missed that! In the morning, I grabbed a bean bag cushion and settled down with a book on the front of the boat as the sun moved higher into the sky. What a wonderful way to start a day!
As we were leaving Keppel to head back to Yeppoon, Jo pointed out the ring around the sun. This is called a 22-degree halo which is caused by light from the sun being refracted as it travels through ice crystals.
It’s a bit strange to think of ice crystals in Central Queensland but apparently they’re common when there is a pending storm. There was some talk of a potential cyclone earlier this week, but fortunately it never eventuated. We have had cloudy, rainy weather most of this week though. It’s actually pouring rain as I write this. I really complain though after having such a perfect weekend last weekend. We ended our overnighter with some drinks with Kevin and Jo and a bunch of others at the CCYC, the club at the marina, to celebrate Kevin and Jo’s 45th wedding anniversary. The CCYC is one of my favourite spots in town. What a view!
Summer doesn’t officially end here until the end of the month (February 28) but in Central Queensland, it doesn’t really feel like it ends until May when the cooler evenings really kick in. That’s about the same time everyone in Canada starts to feel like summer might finally be starting to come back around. There’s that opposite thing again! Until then, enjoy those cozy sweaters, and winter hats, two of things I will admit missing about winter days in Canada.