While China to Perth did not cross any time zones, Perth to Melbourne does – two in fact making it a 3 hour time difference. We flew into a rainy, stormy Melbourne from a very hot and sunny Perth at nearly 7pm on Christmas Eve. We had booked dinner for G2, a Korean BBQ close to our hotel for 8pm, but after a delayed landing we had a friend try to postpone it – but to no avail. Their kitchen was closing at 9pm and we had been one of the last bookings. Once in Melbourne, we did have Korean BBQ at a place 2 doors down from the original place! We needn’t have worried.

The friend in question that tried to arrange dinner for us was in the same year group as me and is one of my oldest though actually youngest school friends. He is nearly a year younger than me, we both have August birthdays, but I was one of the oldest in the year group and Graeme was one of the youngest. We hung out every Saturday morning at NEELB (North Eastern Education Library Board) Wind Band, we did community service at school, we played in the school orchestra and in our last year of school we were the two non-sporty Deputy Head Prefects. We did completely different subjects at school and while he headed off to Dundee along with many of our other classmates, I went to Aberystwyth. Had it not been for Facebook or other such social media, we probably would still not be in touch, but since his move to Australia which more or less coincided with our move to China we have seen more of each other than probably we thought we would.

On our last trip to Melbourne, we did the tourist thing and went to the street where they film Neighbours, Graeme also acted as our chauffeur around some winerys and took us to Phillip Island to see kangaroos and koalas. This year saw Graeme and his husband David, host Christmas. No mean feat if you always go to friends and haven’t cooked Christmas dinner for 9 people.

Graeme and David kindly said on the day of their wedding in May that we could join them for Christmas and happily we said yes! We joined Graeme’s sister, mum and Graeme and David’s friends for what was a very wet but not miserable day.

When we do Christmas “abroad”, we have Eleanor’s birthday first, then on Christmas Day I will have packed a few stocking gifts for Eleanor to unwrap and then when we return to China we will do our main gift giving. This year though, Martin and I haven’t given each other gifts – the holiday is it. So on Christmas morning, Eleanor had her mini gifts given, and then I went out on a wet walk while the others were sensible and stayed in the hotel.

China hotels in their wardrobes always have umbrellas. So imagine my dismay when on staying at a rather upmarket hotel in Melbourne I open the wardrobe to only find an iron. We had packed no coats or umbrellas. So on went my Santa hat and my sandals and out I went.

What I was surprised about were the amount of people in the city centre. Many of them Asian and on listening carefully, a good many were Chinese. There were a few shops open – including Starbucks and Subway. The Santa hat proved to be an aha moment for one Asian tourist who said to me… “oh that is why nothing is open – is it something to do with Christmas”.

I don’t know what they all did for Christmas but we had a lovely Christmas Day and we left at 10pm in an Uber.

Boxing Day we were up and ready for breakfast at Higher Ground with Eleanor’s former drama teacher and his partner. They gave us tips on where to go for the Boxing Day sales and those tips proved to be en pointe for both Eleanor and Martin!

We then made to the cinema to see Wonka. A prequel to how Willy Wonka came to own his chocolate factory. I am a Gene Wilder Willy Wonka fan, less so a fan of Johnny Depp’s version of Willy Wonka, but Timothée Chalomet (or Chalomalobingbong as he is known in our house) as Wonka and Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa is great casting. As I either cry or sleep through films I can confirm that I stayed awake… but I did cry – on cue too – as at the emotional point in the film – when I thought I was doing well in not crying both Martin and Eleanor leaned forward and turned their heads towards me. So that set me off.

We have eaten well during this holiday, to the point that I have asked one of my colleagues for the name of her personal trainer. Our Boxing Day evening meal was no exception as we went to +39, an Italian restaurant on the recommendation of Graeme.

This was a flying visit to Melbourne but we were glad to have caught up with friends. The weather was not the best and we were relieved not to have been planning a Beach Barbie.

Onwards to Sydney

Our flight to Sydney on Wednesday was at 3pm. At 7:10am I was woken up by Martin rubbing my arm. He got short shrift until he said… we need to get an earlier flight…

There has been one other occasion that Martin’s waking up early has been extremely helpful in saving us missing or being on overbooked flights.

At 7:15am all of us were awake and booked on the midday flight. We packed up, had breakfast and left.

On arriving into Sydney we collected our luggage, booked an Uber XL, got into the car and immediately the heavens opened. Maybe it was us who brought the bad weather to Melbourne! We arrived into the hotel and then waited for our last minute date to arrive.

On arrival into Perth I had contacted my friend through guiding, Annabelle. Annabelle had been my successor at Innovate, which had been a youth forum that I had been part of aged 18 to 22 ish. Annabelle though had moved from Perth to Sydney over a year ago, so we had arranged to meet.

Once at our hotel we got a ferry from Double Bay to Circular Quay with Annabelle and her daughter. We had pre dinner snacks with them, caught up on nearly 20 years of life and then she and her daughter left to go home and the three of us went to the Sydney Opera House for Circus 1903.

Beauty and the Beast, as a Disney show would have been more apt to go and see. But we didn’t know it was on until the morning we flew to Sydney. Circus 1903 was also booked the morning of our flight to Sydney as I had seen it on ABC news. It was a show of acrobats, comedy and elephants. Not real ones! It was a good family feel good show and we feel we utilised our time in Sydney well.

The next morning we packed up, I went to a nail bar to have my nails redone as I had chipped a nail but after my nails we were all set for the next adventure.