This is likely to be my last post of the year – certainly the last post before Christmas – so to all – A Very Merry Christmas!

It’s my second Christmas down under, and I still find myself unable to reconcile the fact that I am in a summer of blue skies and dry, warm weather, and that Christmas is fast approaching.

I mean, Christmas… that time of white snow, and cold, long nights. Of fir trees and rosy cheeks. Instead, I’m seeing dry grass, warm long, days, palm trees, and tans.

But Christmas it is – and while we are in vastly different country to the United Kingdom, we are still influenced by the idea of Christmas developed by Dickens and built on in the public zeitgeist over years of reinforcement.

We still have a fat, jolly ol’ Saint Nick – although, this caused concern when he suffered a heatstroke on a parade a couple of years ago. We still think of “white Christmases”, and baubles on fir trees, and roaring log fires.

So, yeah, it’s a bad odd being here for Christmas – but I wouldn’t miss spending it with my family for the world. And that’s what Christmas is really about, after all.

For my friends and family who I can’t be with – Merry Christmas! And if I don’t get a chance before – have a Happy New Year.

I’ve sorted out a couple more of my old libraries, and uploaded some more pictures from my holiday to Australia back in 2003.

New photo albums

I’ve already had a few questions from friends who are probably more than a little surprised at my current Facebook status…
To try and stem the flood from everyone else, here’s what has brought this about:

Most of you know that I tried to start some teaching courses in January, and that there were problems with getting the two different centres I would have had to attend to get their act together. This meant that I was given a deferment for a year at Reading, and a chance to reapply at St Martin’s in Lancaster.

Following this, I decided to take a little time out – my last real holiday was two years previously.

I also started trying to find work – either something that I would be able to do in the year I had found myself stuck with, or something that I would like enough to think about doing for longer and turn down my course at Reading. This has proven to be quite difficult.

Anyway – my sister is getting married in Australia in a couple of weeks, and I had already intended to spend some time there so that I could be at the wedding and see my family.
I also had one outstanding job application.
I also had reached the absolute limit of my ability to stay financially solvent.

I’d made a deal with my parents so that they would help me out a little while the job application would be pending… and that I would get a holiday work permit so that I could live with them if I was unsuccessful… this would allow me to return to the UK for the teaching courses next January – and also save me a fair bit of money on living in the interim.

The only real problem was that, with the prospective interview dates, I wouldn’t know about the job until I was already in Oz.

Its now come to a crunch time – I’ve not heard anymore about the job interview, and my flight is booked for Sunday. I most likely won’t be back for a couple of years.

I kept all of this quiet up to now, except from a small number of people – I didn’t want to repeat what happened in January where I was going, and then wasn’t…

I apologise to those people who feel like I should have told them sooner – but I also hope you understand my motivations for keeping quiet.

I will be missing a lot of people over here – but this is just one of those things that I have to do. I’ve been thinking about when would be the right time to rejoin my family, and while the actual timing of it all is a bit sudden, I have to say that this is that time.

Well – you’re all invited to crash at mine (when I get a place) and to have barbies and beers in the South Australian sun whenever you feel like a break from the UK.