So this is Christmas.... in Oz

It's Christmas morning here in Austrialia. As I write, I have seen just seen not one, but two pairs of joggers in the space of 30 seconds from Lykke's balcony. Certainly, not the sort of thing I'm used to on Christmas morning, but then neither is sitting outside in just my boxer shorts. It certainly doesn't feel like Christmas, but certainly not in a bad way.

I do feel slightly hungover however after a few drinks on Christmas Eve, so I guess that's some sort of normality. However, that was more in celebration of the culmination of a couple of days of hard work moving Lykke into her new apartment rather than any festive cheer. Yes, I've been living the backpacker's dream with a trip to Ikea out in the Sydney suburbs and then up bright and early to move Lykke's (and my own) things to her new flat, taking delivery of the items purchased during the aforementioned Ikea trip, buy one of the essentials of any Australian home, a new Webber gas BBQ and generally carry things from one place to another like a beast of burden. I think Taz will on reading the following believe that I've been paying back some kind of "moving" karmic debt after narrowing missing out on return the favour of helping him move into his new place after he helped me move out of mine.


Wednesday's trip to Ikea didn't start off well, I got to see a bit more the Sydney suburbs than I wished after we changed on to the wrong train and headed up the wrong line for a good half a hour before realising our mistake. Lykke's plan was flawed from the start to be honest. Whoever heard of just popping into Ikea and been in and out in an hour? I let Lykke hold on to this fantasy (ignorance is bliss) and with so many other things to do I thought it would only stress her out if I told her about the reality of what we were facing. Whilst Lykke had a good idea of what furniture she had to buy for her apartment, there was all that "other" stuff that she needed when you are pretty much starting from scratch in a new place. As much I think highly of Ikea and spending more time there, it really is a one-stop shop for making a home which led to the trip pretty much absorbing the whole day. I did however, still manage to get down to the beach in evening for a run and swim. A vastly superior post-Ikea chill-out to those normally available in London. The day was rounded off by (another) great meal over-looking Bondi beach and an early night in preparation for the busy day ahead.

Christmas Eve started early as there was much to do and for everything to go smoothly it relied on some very good timing on our part and others. As is the way with such things you never get that lucky. The first thing on our list was to go buy a BBQ which we planned to cook our Christmas eve dinner on. This was important to Lykke as Christmas Eve and not Christmas Day is the big event for Danes like most Europeans. We got down to the shops as soon as they opened and I took the BBQ back to our hotel to store it along with all our other stuff. Lykke in the meantime headed off to make another trip Ikea to pick up the only, but rather important, item (her mattress) they had not had in stock the day before. So far, so good. However, it wasn't long before things were getting a bit more complicated. Lykke was hoping that by the time she was back in Bondi, her new apartment would be vacant (having been told that current tenants removal van was coming at 10) and that with a bit of luck the Ikea delivery would arrive closer to 2 than 11 in the 11-2 delivery slot she'd been allocated. Of course nothing of the sort happened. I had gone down to the beach after checking out of the hotel and dropping off the BBQ. At 11 Lykke sent me a text saying that she'd been told that the deliver would be in the next 30 minutes. I packed up and went over to the estate agent's who hadn't heard anything from the tenant yet and certainly had not been given the keys to the apartment. Fortunately I was given access to the basement garage to take delivery of all Lykke's furniture from some surly delivery men who were clearly lacking in any Christmas spirit when they told me they weren't prepared to carry anything over 50 metres. I took it all in my stride though, I feel almost impervious to stress and drama since I left my life back in London. Lykke turned up an hour or so later with her mattress during which they'd been a distinct lack of anyone moving out of her apartment. However we could at least move all our stuff from the hotel to the basement and pick up a gas bottle for the new BBQ whilst we waited. Lykke had been told the tenant would have left the apartment at three o'clock at the very latest, so we returned just after three and since Lykke now had a set of keys we went up to her apartment only to find the tenant still there waiting for his removal van to turn up. In then end, after a bit of encouragement from the estate agents he was gone an hour later (at least out of the apartment) and we were able to start moving everything in. Daniel showed up not long after and so began an evening of beer, furniture assembly, champagne, BBQ steaks and laughs. And a couple of spillages. I managed to knock over a beer on to a pristine carpet barely hours after Lykke's getting the keys to her apartment. This was quickly upstaged by Daniel in a moment of almost slap-stick comedy where upon noticing the plate of marinated steaks he was carrying out to the balcony were dripping sauce on the floor decided to made a run for it. Unfortunately, the patio door was not as open as he believed and the contents of the plate ended up on the window, along with a lot more sauce on the floor. However, that was quickly forgotten due to great mood Lykke was in. She described the day as one of the best in her life, having realised her dream of living by the beach and having her own place for the first time since she was nineteen.


And I don't find it hard to imagine why she is so happy, having spent the day with her on Tuesday living a bit of the lifestyle she'll be able to enjoy every weekend in the summer. Just two minutes down the street we have already found a cafe which serve a great brunch, I've already worked my way through a couple of breakfast burritos there and an eggs benedict that gets my coveted seal of a approval. It is just another two minutes walk to the beach and it's a lot of fun to play in the waves. Though that fun was not enhanced by the piece of **** body board I bought for $15. Lesson learned. However, along with learning to dive on my travels I'd now quite keen on finding some where to spend a few weeks learning to surf. After soaking up the sun for the day, it's a bus ride into town and on Tuesday we had a great meal at Churrasco which is an all you can eat Brazilian grill. The waiters and waitress bring a steady stream of delicious grilled meats on seeing your green token placed by your place. Once you've finished stuffing your face you flip the token over to indicate you've had enough. It's good fun. From there you can take a walk through town (where I stopped to have my picture taken on the street where they filmed the "Lady in the red dress" scene from to Matrix) to the harbour for a drink at the Opera House Bar and enjoy the view as the light fades. Is it any wonder that Lykke is so happy?

Well, that's enough for now, predictably I've gone on for far longer than planned and I have the rest of my Christmas Day to enjoy. Hopefully before I leave I'll have chance to write a bit more and my view of Sydney before the real adventure begins. So I wish a very merry Christmas to my girlfriend, all of my family and all of my friends, I miss you all and hope you all having a great time wherever you are.

http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/ADayOnHolidayWithLykke
http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/GettingLykkeIntoHerNewApartment?authkey=Gv1sRgCPCyhbzTsL_S-gE