We got up early to the sun shining brightly and everyone around the site in good spirits, wishing each other Merry Christmas. It was a strange feeling for us both to be so far away from home and families on Christmas Day but also to have such a bright, sunny day. After breakfast we did something that should never be done on Christmas day – laundry. But because it was our last day on the site and also due to the weather being so quickly changeable we thought we'd make the most of the sunshine. We kept it festive though, we wore our Santa hats and even tried to double up the hanging of the laundry with decorating the van by keeping the white and red socks and undies to one side. With hot sunshine and a strong wind the job was done in no time. We then went to Tip Beach (it's a lot nicer than it sounds) for a surf and after a bit of lunch we headed back to the beach for a swim and frisbee. It had been a really nice day but so far not very Chrismassy. We bumped into a few local guys we'd met in the sea, when we told them our plans for Christmas dinner (which was going to be a Mexican) we were told it was quite fitting as the New South Welsh People call the Victorians 'Mexicans' because they are south of the border. Excellent! We headed back to the camp site to cook our food around tea time. When we arrived back our neighbours were just about to start a Yearly Bochie Ball Chrsitmas Classic Tournament. They were a group of families who have been coming to Mallacoota for Christmas for the past 38 years. They started the tradition of the Bochie ball (which is just like our sand bowls) tournament years ago to wake people up after eating and drinking too much at Christmas dinner. Anyway they were a few people short and asked if we'd like to play. We were pretty hungry but were also keen to get involved so we played and had a few drinks with them. John and I ended up being runners up, we had our names put on the trophie (a $1 shield they'd picked up from the charity shop way back when the tradition began). It said:
RUNNERS UP : John and Ruth Stansfield -Newly Weds (POMS)
After getting a good bit of ribbing for being poms and sharing a few more beers the heavens opened, we were all rallied into their huge gazebo. Now the storm was set in so was way too wet to start cooking our mexican they insisted on feeding us too, so much food! We ended up spending the whole evening with them, it was really fun. It's amazing how kind people can be even to strangers. The next morning we left the campsite with sore heads, but before we left our new friends brought us over a Mallacoota stubby holder each to encourage us to drink cold beer (instead of that warm stuff the English drink) and also as a reminder of a fun Christmas, signed and dated.
We hope you all had a great Christmas day!xx
sounds like you had a great day, with some cool people, definately better than mine which didn't feel christmassy at all, most of our staff were sick and we also had changover on boxing day and our flights were getting diverted to Grenoble so spent christmas dinner explaining to guests they had to get up an hour earlier than planned because there was a shortage of qualified pilots to land at Chambery airport (aparently you need an extra bit of training to land there because it's so tricky landing in the middle of mountains!
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