Today is the feast of St. Stephens, otherwise known as Boxing Day in commonwealth or former commonwealth countries. In the U.S. it's simply known as the day after Christmas.
Here it's a major holiday more or less on par with the day before. It has its origins in British social class, where you gave gifts to equals on Christmas, but gave them to lessers on the following day. Receiving a gift on St. Stephens Day would certainly be ego-deflating, as it would mark you as a peasant or serf.
Anyway - in Australia, it's more famous as the day the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race starts. We might go up to the top of the escarpment a bit later to watch them all sail by.
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TechnoratiWe dropped over to the local Anglican church for the Xmas eve service - which consisted of showing a movie about the events that transpired a couple thousand years back, interspersed with Christmas carols every five minutes.
Topped it off with the obligatory 'Silent Night' but with a twist - we got to choose whether to sing it in English or aborigine. We had the words for both, along with a tribe from the Northern Territories leading the way.
Finally a bit of respite from the weather. Now I'll probably get accused of gloating instead of whining - but this is when I can say that it's generally nice to be here rather than there. In this case - there being the NorthEast U.S. where this picture came in from...
Let's contrast that with this typical Christmas shot from NorthEast Australia...
I know, I know - life is tough.
A bit of monsoon rains off an on for the last few days (no I'm not complaining - it's actually reasonably warm outside). This morning we got a little over an inch in about 20 minutes - or about 1cm/hour. The morning drive was a nightmare. With the wipers on full speed they couldn't brush the rain away fast enough to actually see anything over a couple of meters away. Everybody was crawling along at 20km/hr on Highway 1. It was a bit flooded near the Princes Highway - about a foot deep in places. (The Princes Highway is very much like El Camino Real back in California - it's the old highway; lined with business establishments, whereas the coast highway [highway 1 or the F6] is the newer freeway.)
One of Isabella's favorite songs at the moment...
Dashing through the bush, in a rusty Holden Ute,
Kicking up the dust, esky in the boot,
Kelpie by my side, singing Christmas songs,
It's Summer time and I am in my singlet, shorts and thongs
Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut !,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.
Engine's getting hot; we dodge the kangaroos,
The swaggie climbs aboard, he is welcome too.
All the family's there, sitting by the pool,
Christmas Day the Aussie way, by the barbecue.
Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.
Come the afternoon, Grandpa has a doze,
The kids and Uncle Bruce, are swimming in their clothes.
The time comes 'round to go, we take the family snap,
Pack the car and all shoot through, before the washing up.
Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden ute
Colin Buchanan / Nick Bland
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I love being able to watch rain like that. It's similar in Thailand, so warm you could be out in the rain all day and not get chilled. One time it rained so hard my contact lenses were washed out of my eyes. Another time, the lightening storm was so intense I counted 80+ bolts in 60 seconds. Still again, we've had the water almost come in our house (with a 6 inch threshold) after just 15 minutes of downpour. And finally, I've stood in water over an inch deep in the center of the road (crowned) that had yet to run off to the side.
Mike...don't you mean an inch in 20 minutes equals 7.5 cm/hour?
Gak, got my conversions backward again... one of my co-workers reported the 1cm/hr from the weather station at his house and I was trying to backtrack to inches - dividing rather than multiplying.
But in fact I think it was probably closer to 7.5cm/hour where I was driving. His house is behind a hill from there, and I was right on the ocean. No matter - whatever the measurement was, it was a whole lot of water in a short period of time. Another co-worker rode in on a motorcycle through the torrent. Needless to say he wasn't a happy camper - opened the office door and he's stripped half-naked trying to dry off with a heat-shrink tubing gun; which resembles a lady's hair dryer but a bit more industrial strength.