Christmas at Alice Springs

 After a two-day drive from Tanunda with an overnight stop at Coober Pedy, we arrived at The Alice with the sole purpose of spending Christmas with our small family.

December is, as expected, hot. This year was no exception - it's still hot as I write and will be hot for a lot longer. Mornings are coolish and very pleasant but the heat creeps up during the day and eventually, an airconditioned spot is better than being outside.

When we lived here and were much younger, we could cope better with the heat and low humidity; we've always been hot, low-humidity people, but after six years of living in the Barossa, we're now acclimatised to cooler weather.

Many more people die from cold weather than hot weather as the UK and parts of Europe will attest to this winter, but the Barossa never gets cold enough to impact our health. Our beloved planet is entering a cooling phase, but when it's 42 C at Alice Springs, it seems that cooling is a figment of someone's imagination.

Then you read the reports: "90% of Mongolia is under snow, China breaks all-time cold records, and Guatemala has its lowest emperater in 39 years".

When we are hot, we wish for some cooler weather; when cold, warm weather.

Forget about the weather for now at least.

It was great to spend time with our kids and to catch up with a couple of long-term friends. Christina had several coffee catch-ups with her midwifery colleagues and we chatted with a few shopkeepers we know, one couple of whom we had as neighbours in 1992.

Alice Springs is a sad sight deteriorating monthly and the crime continues largely unabated as no one at government level seems capable of finding a solution although they can import 860 Palestinians from Gaza which no other country wants. It's perhaps easier than resolving local challenges. 

Dale's car had two windows smashed a week ago. Last trip, it was Tory's ute window that got smashed. Everywhere you go you see vehicles with plastic covering windows that have yet to be replaced.

Meredith, friend Rob and I replaced Meredith's patio decking the timber of which had become ugly, splintered and dangerous to walk on. Merbau decking from Bunnings has saved the day.

Christmas was very quiet at home with some roast lamb, ham, and a variety of roasted vegetables. We actually won the ham at an RSL raffle before we drove up which was convenient.

Now we need to see what 2024 will bring us. That's anyone's guess.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012

The forecast for Christmas Day in Central Australia is 39 degrees Celsius ... so much for a "white" Christmas. It's a tad hot for roast meats and vegies straight out of the oven, so we plan to do our cooking Christmas eve in an outdoors barbecue after dark and then have cold meats and salads for lunch.

We usually start with a pancake breakfast around 10 am after we have opened our presents. Our pancakes are topped with jam, cane sugar syrup and cream (for anyone keen enough to bolster their cholesterol levels) accompanied by fruit juice, coffee, and a variety of seasonal fruits.

Around 2 pm we begin to feel hungry again, so it's back to the table for another round, this time pork, chicken, turkey and beef roast and a variety of salads eg, potato salad, bean salad, , prawn salad, and that green leaf stuff that has no nutrition, tastes like cardboard and doesn't seem good for anything ... lettuce. (By now I expect you will have guessed I don't like it).

At lunch we will probably crack a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine or Champagne depending on how much we have already consumed and who wants what. We have quite a collection for a family that doesn't really drink all that much (in comparison with other Territorians that is).

After lunch I usually get the job of cleaning up, (thank goodness for dish washers) have a nap for an hour if time permits and then in the evening Christina and I are off to Ilparpa (five or six kilometres away) to have dinner with friends. By then we probably won't care what our son, daughter and grandson are doing. All the excitement tends to wear us out these days.

It's a good thing Christmas only comes annually, although I seriously think that in Australia we should have it in July, not December. I may start up a Christmas in July Lobby Group to try to change our traditions. There is another group hell bent on eliminating Christmas, so my pressure for a change in timing shouldn't be such a bad deal.

We hope you and yours, wherever you are have a wonderful Christmas and New Year if it is part of your tradition and if not, we wish you all the best for 2013.

Robin