Sunburn. Yep, it’s three days til Christmas and yours truly got a sunburn while traipsing about on the beach today. I’m sure you’re all radiating sympathy… NOT. 🙂

Anyhoo, on Thursday the Snook and I set off for an eight-hour train journey up the coast to his parents’ place. Total nightmare. We arrived at Sydney Central Station to discover that the signalmen had called a random strike that morning and that every departure was currently suspended. So we waited. Miraculously, the strike ended rather quickly and we were only twenty minutes behind schedule. Naively, I thought that was the end of our troubles. Then we boarded our carriage and I discovered that the Australian equivalent of the Herdmans (remember them?) were sitting behind us. A few hours later I sat there gritting my teeth as three half-naked, barefoot, be-mulleted little boys flung themselves from one end of the carriage to the other. They discovered that the railroad magazines would slide on the carpet and amused themselves greatly by “skateboarding” up and down the aisle. They staged ninja fights for our entertainment. They ripped the rubber armrests off the chairs and beat each other with them. I’m serious. And get this: at one point, their mother got up and moved to another carriage, instructing her kids to stay put! Other people were deserting us in droves as well. (Not to mention the fact that the air conditioning wasn’t working so well.) I’ve never been so glad to leave a place in my life. I actually muttered “Thank GOD” as we stepped out onto Eungai platform. Arrrgggh. Luckily Ma Snookums is giving us a lift back to down. I couldn’t bear that trip again.

But anyway, here we are in the country, enjoying the heat and the ocean. I believe the plans for Christmas Day involve a picnic somewhere deep in the bush. Should be fun. Oh, and I haven’t met any leeches this time, thankfully. 🙂

HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODY!