As the holiday weekend draws to a close here in Western Australia, I figured it would be time for a catch-up.

We have spent the past few days staying in the company of Zac and his Mum and Dad, which is really nice. We all had a good Christmas together and Santa Claus managed to find us all.

Having Christmas in the Summertime is very bizarre indeed, dear reader. The sights of advent wreathes, decorated fir trees and shiny tinsel in the blazing sun, combined with the sounds of Christmas carols are all very incongruous. I even spotted someone wearing shorts at Midnight Mass, something hitherto unseen by these eyes!

The traditional barbecue on Christmas Day made an interesting change from turkey, ham and sprouts. I figured that this may prove a major selling point in convince my Dad that he should spend Christmas 2007 Down Under.

Having a picnic on the beach on Boxing Day was also rather nice. There are miles and miles of sandy beaches here in Perth, which means that even on a public holiday when the weather is glorious, it’s easy to get a parking space and to get a good spot on the beach. Sadly, it also proved far too easy to get my ankles sunburnt, but that’ll clear up shortly, I’m sure.

Today we took The Beast for a run up to York (the town so good, they named it once) for a mooch around. The Motor Museum was (for me) by far the highlight of this town. We decided to leave after a nice lunch for Beverley, stopping off to take in the views of The Avon Ascent. The views were beautiful, but the flies were keen to remind us that they were there first. Beverley was closed, so we just kept driving. MilesKilometres after kilometres of long, straight road… a taste of things to come!