A flying visit to the home of football the weekend before Christmas avoided the sundry travel problems in snow-bound Blighty. The toothless Tigers were duly tamed by the mighty Gunners Saturday evening, quick beer and curry and overnight stay with McBhoy and the Peace Bird, and I was home by Sunday afternoon. La belle-mère flew out to France Monday, escaping the snow and ice with a mere 2 hour delay to her flight. Earlier the previous week, the BA cabin crew strike was declared illegal, so three days later we had only the British weather to worry about as we set off on the 31 hour journey down under. In the event, the only problem encountered was by one suitcase, which somehow missed the connection in Heathrow (T5, so perhaps no surprise). We even managed a reasonable amount of sleep between London and Singapore, and the prodigal baggage turned up 36 hours later.
Christmas day passed virtually unnoticed in the air, and we finally arrived in Melbourne at 6.30 boxing day morning. Found our way to chez frère numèro 2 et famille by nine am to find brother up but las chicas still in bed after a late night Christmas day party. Las sobrinas finally appeared sleepy-eyed but 3 years older, taller and lovelier. Lunch, a bad session of Band hero - out of time, out of tune - and dinner with the Swiss family Robinson followed in a jet-lagged blur, and we finally fell into bed and blessed sleep at 9pm.
The following day we had the pleasure of accompanying les nièces shopping at Chaddies, while la cuñada went out to work and le frère enjoyed a couple of hours peace and quiet. Sunday we set off to Melbourne zoo. Nice idea, wrong day. Full car parks and an entry queue stretching several hundred yards quickly persuaded us that a stroll round Albert Park would be a quieter option. Home for lunch, then an afternoon defeat to la petite nièce at one-on-one basketball.
Lazy Monday morning, followed by a cool afternoon at the cinema, Lovely Bones and the Chipmunks part of the varied viewing program. Today it was hot. Too hot to do much, so we contented ourselves with a short stroll along the Port Philip Bay waterfront and a paddle in the sea. This evening a swim is on the agenda. As long as it cools down enough...
