January is my favourite month in Melbourne.
It's summer and
We are on holiday,
The city is quiet, like Paris in August.
I have not quite got used to the seasons being upside down,
I still struggle with a warm Christmas.
Having been born and brought up in chilly Britain,
Christmas feels weird here.
However when January comes, I'm fully Aussie.
No post festive season blues here.
Santa might be crying all the way to the check-out,
but I'm smiling and life's good.
In early January a water lily flowered in our garden
It's cheerful petals unfolding into the sunshine
It appeared out of nowhere
Beautiful, delicate, exotic, perfectly formed
and in my pond!!
I take it's flowering as symbol of new life
and wonder what 2014 will hold for us?
It will be a year of big change for our family
Daughter No 1 is off to volunteer in Africa
Daughter No 2 moves to New York
It's my sons final year of school
New jobs are on the horizon
And me?
Well I'm off to Bali on a yoga retreat in May to cope!
The lotus flower appearing in our pond
Very Zen, I feel,
In Asia the flowering of the lotus symbolises absolute real truth and purity.
I wonder whether this flower is a sign,
Are we off to Asia?
January is all about sport for us,
we are of course living in the self proclaimed sporting capital of Australia.
There is much to choose from whether it is cricket, soccer or tennis.
We don't flee the city in January in search of beaches like many
We stay for the Tennis.
We put everything on hold, and don't plan for much.
Our city fills with visitors.
Melbourne is looking good.
We spend our days watching tennis,
either at the site, or more likely
watching the on court action
glued to the television
Last night we watched wonderful Wawrinka
beat the defending Champion Novak Djokovich.
It was a wow wow wee match.
Stan's the Man.
Happily it was cool last night (only 18 degrees C)
Last week our temperatures soared into the 40's (over 100 in Fahrenheit)
We had four days of extreme heat,
it barely dropped at night.
Melbourne was on a knife edge
our electricity infrastructure was barely able to cope with the peak demand.
Luckily we weren't one of the houses affected by power cuts
By last Thursday there were over seventy bush fires
burning out of control across the State.
Jan 2014 was going to be one of those years
that people talked about for years...
At the tennis, play continued.
Players braved horrendous conditions on court.
In ten years of watching the Aussie Open,
I have never seen Melbourne Park so empty on occasions.
Players needed to be adjusted to the severe Aussie climate and
have an even greater than usual steely determination to win.
For me it is no surprise that new players have emerged
and other old names have fallen by the wayside.
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| The crazy poodle in sunnies. |
The Crazy Poodle is not best pleased with January,
despite his summer clip, he is hot and bothered.
His normal routine of walks disrupted.
Last week we had to leave him outside
Yes, you've guessed it we went to the tennis!
We lined the floor of his kennel with ice blocks to keep him cool.
This weekend is our Australian Day celebration.
It will be a fun day
We have citizenship ceremony to attend
Can't wait...
Except that after Australia day,
School goes back and then we're into February
It gets really, really hot in February
January is better!
J is for January Jottings
Thank you for Jenny Matlock for hosting
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