My first Christmas and New Year's in Sydney

I can generally say that my first Christmas in Sydney was relatively hot/warm compared to all my Xmas celebrations in the Northern Hemisphere of the planet Earth. Something different. One of my coworkers actually told me that her feeling of a real Xmas is with cold weather, just likes the ones on American TV and movies. Same with an article I read about an Aussie's "true" feeling of Xmas when she first celebrated the holidays in NY with the snow, the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center, the Xmas lights, and the hustle and bustle of people doing last minute Xmas shopping on 5th Avenue. I mean, they sing Xmas songs like, "Dashing through the snow" or "oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh" or "jack frost nipping at your nose". Its summer over here! I think secretly they all would like to have the typical cold weather on Xmas holiday that the rest of the world is used to.

We started off our Xmas attending a latin midnight mass. The next day or a few hours later on a warm Christmas day, we joined our roommate Natasha's family for a picnic at Centennial Park. Nice and relaxing day. Not much action this weekend but eat. The next day, Dec 26th, is Boxing day in Australia (just like Canada). I guess this is kindda like my 4-day weekend to replace the non existent 4-day Thanksgiving weekend I missed this year. On Boxing day, we went to Hunter Valley wine region similar to our Napa Valley in California. I'm sure you've been to Napa Valley during the Summer. That's how the weather was like when we went to Hunter Valley. But dissappointingly, most of the wineries were closed on Boxing day, which is a public holiday in Australia. Well, none of us has never been there and nobody told us including the dumb lady at the Information Center at Hunter Valley. Oh well, what can you do. If and when I go back should be around fall/winter. Too hot to go now! Dec 27th is shopping day...just like our biggest day after Thanksgiving shopping day. Mad house everywhere!!! I don't think I need to do that again...besides, its more expensive here than in the US. Imagine, this same exact item I bought back in the US for $1.99 costs $16.99 here. And another item for $15 in the US was $45 here! Yikes!!! FYI. They are a season behind here with fashion. And what I've started to do was get online for the US Winter Sale, get them ordered, and ship it here in preparation for our winter here.

Hunter Valley






As for our New Year's celebration, we went to Mrs Macquarie's Point overlooking the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. There were two fireworks presentation. One at 9pm for the kids show so they can go home and sleep early. And the adult version...nothing explicit about it...the only difference is the fireworks are more and better and it happens at midnight, obviously. By the way, new year's 2006 is delayed by 1 second all over the world. Its a "leap second", as they call it. The Earth's rotation rate generally slows down or speeds up throughout the year. Some facts to note:

"Time is determined by atomic clocks that are synchronized with the Earth's rotation, and an international community of scientists has agreed the two should never differ by more than nine-tenths of a second...the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which coordinates universal time, uses sophisticated software and many atomic clocks and determines averages to deliver the best time possible."

And as such, we get one additional second in 2005...woohooo!!!! Happy New Year + 1!!!

The fireworks in Sydney were great...I'm sure you've seen clips of it on TV. Fireworks on the bridge and on barges overlooking the famous Sydney Opera House. Beautiful!!! I think next year, we should rent a boat and watch it to get a full 360 view.