'Twas the night before christmas;
there wasn't a sound.
Not a possum was stirring; no-one was around.
We'd left on the table
some tucker and beer,
Hoping that Santa Claus
soon would be here;
We children were snuggled up safe in our beds,
While dreams of pavlova danced 'round in our heads;
And Mum in her nightie,
and Dad in his shorts,
Had just settled down to watch TV sports.
When outside the house
a mad ruckus arose;
Loud squeaking and banging
woke us from our doze.
We ran to the screen door,
peeked cautiously out,
snuck onto the deck,
then let out a shout.
Guess what had woken us up from our snooze,
But a rusty old ute
pulled by eight mighty 'roos.
The cheerful man driving
was giggling with glee,
And we both knew at once
who this plump bloke must be.
Now, I'm telling the truth
it's all dinki-di,
Those eight kangaroos fairly soared through the sky.
Santa leaned out the window
to pull at the reins,
And encouraged the 'roos,
by calling their names.
'Now, Kylie! Now, Kirsty!
Now, Shazza and Shane!
On Kipper! On, Skipper!
On, Bazza and Wayne!
Park up on that water tank.
Grab a quick drink,
I'll scoot down the gum tree.
Be back in a wink!'
So up to the tank those eight kangaroos flew,
With the ute full of toys,
and Santa Claus too.
He slid down the gum tree
and jumped to the ground,
Then in through the window
he sprang with a bound.
He had bright sunburned cheeks
and a milky white beard.
A jolly old joker
was how he appeared.
He wore red stubby shorts
and old thongs on his feet,
And a hat of deep crimson
as shade from the heat.
His eyes - bright as opals -
Oh! how they twinkled!
And, like a goanna,
his skin was quite wrinkled!
His shirt was stretched over
a round bulging belly
Which shook when he moved,
like a plate full of jelly.
A fat stack of prezzies
he flung from his back,
And he looked like a swaggie
unfastening his pack.
He spoke not a word,
but bent down on one knee,
To position our goodies
beneath the yule tree.
Surfboard and footy-ball shapes
for us two.
And for Dad, tongs to use
on the new barbeque.
A mysterious package
he left for our Mum,
Then he turned and he winked
and he held up his thumb;
He strolled out on deck and his 'roos
came on cue;
Flung his sack in the back and prepared to shoot through.
He bellowed out loud
as they swooped past the gates-
'MERRY CHRISTMAS to all,
and goodonya, MATES!'
An Aussie Night Before Christmas Written by Yvonne Morrison
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Greetings from Hamlyn Heights!
Hello... and apologies for another hiatus! Megan and I moved to Hamlyn Heights about a week and a half ago, and our internet was just set. So, this is why Hey Walsh has been so left out. This here is a little [crappy] map to show you where we now live. The grey bit is Metropolitan Melbourne, about an hour away. The yellow bit is the Geelong/Surf Coast region... our new home! We now live 25 minutes from the surf beaches and the start of the Great Ocean Road! AWESOME!!!
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
TASSIE!
Here we are in Tassie while Megan's parents were over visiting. It may have been overcast... but we still LOVE Tassie!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Smiling moon
.jpg)
What an AWESOME view out our window (apparently the rest of the world thought so too!)
Night sky smiles back
Geelong Advertiser
December 2nd, 2008
The Moon , Venus and join forces for an unusual display last night.
Somebody up there likes you!
Well that's what it looked like last night when the moon, Venus and Jupiter joined forces to create an impressive smiley face in the western night sky across eastern Australia.
This picture was taken from Docklands in Melbourne.
Friday, November 14, 2008
HAPPY AUSTRALIA-VERSARY!
That's right folks, it's been exactly ONE YEAR since we set foot in Australia. It's been incredible so far, and we can't wait to see what happens next.
Let's do a quick year in review:
-We both found ourselves gainfully employed despite a lot of excellent reasons why that shouldn't have worked out.
-We bought a car, some Irish girl's furniture, and rented an apartment with round walls on the beach.
-We fell in love with cricket, and learned the names and stats of all the Australian and Indian players.
-We experienced our first summer Christmas.
-We vacuumed up spiders the size of our hands.
-We discovered the joys of driving to the Grampians on New Years Eve when it was 42 degree C and we had a car with no A/C.
-We ate cheese, honey, chocolate and chiko rolls in Tasmania.
-I got shipped off to a flood in Queensland with the Red Cross.
-We followed cricket to Sydney and Adelaide.
-We continued to love our jobs.
-We started forgetting what American food tastes like.
-We travelled around VIC and QLD with Carrie.
-We fell in love with the Western Bulldogs and travelled around to watch them play.
-We toured the Northern Territory and fell in love with Outback Australia.
-We found ourselves using words like, "mobile [phone]," "chook," etc.
-We bought a brand new car with about 20 kms on it.
-We decided to attempt to extend our visas and stay an extra year!!!
Let's do a quick year in review:
-We both found ourselves gainfully employed despite a lot of excellent reasons why that shouldn't have worked out.
-We bought a car, some Irish girl's furniture, and rented an apartment with round walls on the beach.
-We fell in love with cricket, and learned the names and stats of all the Australian and Indian players.
-We experienced our first summer Christmas.
-We vacuumed up spiders the size of our hands.
-We discovered the joys of driving to the Grampians on New Years Eve when it was 42 degree C and we had a car with no A/C.
-We ate cheese, honey, chocolate and chiko rolls in Tasmania.
-I got shipped off to a flood in Queensland with the Red Cross.
-We followed cricket to Sydney and Adelaide.
-We continued to love our jobs.
-We started forgetting what American food tastes like.
-We travelled around VIC and QLD with Carrie.
-We fell in love with the Western Bulldogs and travelled around to watch them play.
-We toured the Northern Territory and fell in love with Outback Australia.
-We found ourselves using words like, "mobile [phone]," "chook," etc.
-We bought a brand new car with about 20 kms on it.
-We decided to attempt to extend our visas and stay an extra year!!!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Crazy week
It's been a crazy week around here. We took an anniversary trip to Golden Beach, VIC... the tiny TINY tiny beach town that we originally planned on moving to when we first planned on moving to Australia.
Then we headed back to work, only to turn around and have Tuesday off for Melbourne Cup Day (well, I did... but Megan works in Geelong, so she didn't get the silly-horse-race-holiday).
Wednesday was sheer craziness because of the US election. Throughout the morning and early afternoon a bunch of people at my office were all glued to our computer screens. We'd switch from CNN to BBC to cbs2chicago to TheAge to every other interactive website we could think of. Megan and I would call each other with updates... "he's up to 180, 190, 200!" Many of my co-workers would update me on the race while I was in meetings, and I did the same for them by slipping an "Obama wins" sheet of paper under the door (and into their teleconference). It was really cool to experience the election from the other side of the world, even though we'd give anything to have been in Grant Park, Chicago that night. Two of us huddled around the only computer with a sound card to watch Obama's speech. We walked away feeling excited about a new era for America. I already started to feel like my coworkers hated America a tiny bit less (haha).
As I walked back to my desk I had a sinking feeling about Prop 8, and shifted all my anxiety to watching that race. I watched the numbers all day, and really didn't get too much work done. Could this thing really pass? It felt so strange watching it from so far away while knowing that just 19 days earlier we had signed our marriage license in CA. When Megan and I got home that night we watched a replay of Obama's speech, and watched the Prop 8 numbers. It didn't look good. We went to sleep worried about waking up to bad news... and that's exactly what happened. I cried immediately and felt so hurt by the whole thing. How could people vote on OUR marriage? How could people judge us and tell us we're wrong? How do the other 18,000 couples feel right now? What about those who couldn't make it to CA in the 4 month window, or who weren't quite ready to marry their partners? We hugged each other a lot that morning, and I cried a lot. Since then we've been angry, frustrated, sad, mad, etc. I've read everything I can find, and find myself wishing we could rally with the GLBT community in CA. We've felt extremely supported by our friends and family, and it's been great to see people coming out of the woodwork and recognizing how unfair Prop 8 really is. I worry about the legal battles ahead. I worry about the feeling that 1 in every 2 people in CA would probably judge us if they saw us walking down the street. I feel sad that our world can't just let us live our lives in peace. But I feel proud to be married to Megan... whether or not there's a piece of paper to support that.
Then we headed back to work, only to turn around and have Tuesday off for Melbourne Cup Day (well, I did... but Megan works in Geelong, so she didn't get the silly-horse-race-holiday).
Wednesday was sheer craziness because of the US election. Throughout the morning and early afternoon a bunch of people at my office were all glued to our computer screens. We'd switch from CNN to BBC to cbs2chicago to TheAge to every other interactive website we could think of. Megan and I would call each other with updates... "he's up to 180, 190, 200!" Many of my co-workers would update me on the race while I was in meetings, and I did the same for them by slipping an "Obama wins" sheet of paper under the door (and into their teleconference). It was really cool to experience the election from the other side of the world, even though we'd give anything to have been in Grant Park, Chicago that night. Two of us huddled around the only computer with a sound card to watch Obama's speech. We walked away feeling excited about a new era for America. I already started to feel like my coworkers hated America a tiny bit less (haha).
As I walked back to my desk I had a sinking feeling about Prop 8, and shifted all my anxiety to watching that race. I watched the numbers all day, and really didn't get too much work done. Could this thing really pass? It felt so strange watching it from so far away while knowing that just 19 days earlier we had signed our marriage license in CA. When Megan and I got home that night we watched a replay of Obama's speech, and watched the Prop 8 numbers. It didn't look good. We went to sleep worried about waking up to bad news... and that's exactly what happened. I cried immediately and felt so hurt by the whole thing. How could people vote on OUR marriage? How could people judge us and tell us we're wrong? How do the other 18,000 couples feel right now? What about those who couldn't make it to CA in the 4 month window, or who weren't quite ready to marry their partners? We hugged each other a lot that morning, and I cried a lot. Since then we've been angry, frustrated, sad, mad, etc. I've read everything I can find, and find myself wishing we could rally with the GLBT community in CA. We've felt extremely supported by our friends and family, and it's been great to see people coming out of the woodwork and recognizing how unfair Prop 8 really is. I worry about the legal battles ahead. I worry about the feeling that 1 in every 2 people in CA would probably judge us if they saw us walking down the street. I feel sad that our world can't just let us live our lives in peace. But I feel proud to be married to Megan... whether or not there's a piece of paper to support that.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
L&P
"World Famous in New Zealand"
We either need to fly Air New Zealand more often or move to NZ. I forgot how much I looooove L&P!!!
24 hours
I kind of forgot what it's like living in a world where everything is 24 hours! Oh well... I'm over it! :)
Wal Mart tour guide
This was our awesome Wal Mart check out lady who shut down her register and took us all over the store when we told her we were taking pics for our Aussie friends. Here she's holding up some crazy frankenstein doll thingy. She was great.
Halloween
For our Aussie friends who don't understand just how big a deal Halloween is in the States... here's the candy aisle at Wal Mart!
Election Time
Everywhere in CA is covered in election signs. I really appreciate the fact that the Yes on 8 (the attempt to eliminate gay marriage) says "Restore Marriage" and has a picture of a mom, dad, and 2 kids. The "all American family"... hahaha!!!
Fall leaves
It was quite strange to be preparing for summer, then find ourselves launched into the northern hemisphere where the leaves are changing and fall is on the way!
WTF?
Yes, I agree... it looks like vomit. BUT... the chili is SOOOO good (and I don't like chili, that's strange).
Tommy's Burgers
An LA staple. Apparently. I had never been there before despite growing up in Souther CA (us OC kids didn't make it to LA very often), but I'm now a believer.
Another big tree.
It's hard to get a real appreciation for just how massive these things are. It didn't help that the batteries in our camera died before the fork in the road where we discovered we could go to the tree that you can drive your car through.
Where's Hey Walsh?
Hello to our avid readers (you know who you are... all 2 or 3 of you!)!
My apologies for the absolute neglect that's been going on here at Hey Walsh. To make a long story short, here's where we've been:
-Medical leave for Jen (with Megan taking excellent care of me)
-LA for about 10 days after we received word that there was a family emergency in Megan's family
-In LA and Sac with Megan's family
-In Sequoia National Park for some brief R&R
-During our week in CA we realized we were there during the small window of opportunity before the crazy voters of CA decide on Prop 8 and potentially eliminate gay marriage, so we got LEGALLY married!
-Back to Australia and jet lagged, exhausted, recovering, etc.
I'll post some pics soon!
My apologies for the absolute neglect that's been going on here at Hey Walsh. To make a long story short, here's where we've been:
-Medical leave for Jen (with Megan taking excellent care of me)
-LA for about 10 days after we received word that there was a family emergency in Megan's family
-In LA and Sac with Megan's family
-In Sequoia National Park for some brief R&R
-During our week in CA we realized we were there during the small window of opportunity before the crazy voters of CA decide on Prop 8 and potentially eliminate gay marriage, so we got LEGALLY married!
-Back to Australia and jet lagged, exhausted, recovering, etc.
I'll post some pics soon!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
