I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL!! Santa visits in Australia too and we woke to find our stockings filled to the brim. After a Nesquicky breakfast in bed we opened up all the presents beneath our tiny fake tree. We had gotten some gifts from family back home and it made us feel a little more Christmassy even though it is the middle of summer.

We then dressed ourselves up to the nines; shorts and our nicest t-shirts - it is baking hot here after all, before heading to join Alex’s Aussie relatives for a Christmas dinner. After an hour drive from Melbourne with Alex’s family acting as tour guides we reached West Melton just in time for dinner.

The dinner was really nice with cold meats, salads, and roast potatoes. This was all accompanied by crackers that are bizarrely called bon-bons here, no-one had a clue what we meant by crackers. We ate on the covered patio as it was so hot and dreamt of a little snow and cloud cover to make it a real Christmas. Around half-way through the meal our dreams came to reality, well at least half of them did, the clouds came over and we were targeted by falling frozen water, not snow though; hail. Luckily due to being under the cover the hail didn’t stop the dinner and we enjoyed an amazing desert (Alex having five full helpings before conceding defeat) listening to the racket of hail on the roof and watching it fall only feet away.

It wasn’t long after dinner that we headed back for Melbourne as the hailstorm raged. Over the radio there was an emergency broadcast telling people that in some places hail the size of small oranges was falling and telling people to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary. Great news to hear with only a scrap of metal between your head and the stones of ice. We did however make it back safely and, after watching the storm rage for a little longer, are now waiting for our families to get up on Christmas morning in the UK for a Christmas day Skype.

Rex’s Rules of the Road

• When they say Melbourne has four seasons in one day, it’s no exaggeration. From baking hot sun to hailstones in less than thirty minutes, it can be crazy.

• It’s very hard to get into the Christmas spirit as it's summer, so take every opportunity you can from advent calendars to crackers and everything in-between.