4.30pm – Christmas Eve
We are on Highway 2 driving south towards Dalyellup, it is Christmas Eve and there is a race against time to get to a supermarket before they all close. The stretch of road between Perth and Bunbury is wide, open and surrounded by bush, there are occasional animals in fields but due to the sandy expanse most of the route is clear, flat and deserted.
April 1976
We are spending Christmas with Karen and Craig and their two sons, Jensen and Ashton, friends from Birmingham. Liam spent his childhood living next door to Karen on Stone Close (a cul-de-sac) in Kings Norton, they played together and became lifelong friends.
We don’t have any wine or beer, and need to wrap some presents before we get to their house. Suddenly as we approach Bunbury we spot a Woolworths – here in Australia Woolworths still exist and are a large supermarket chain – fortunately for us it is still open – shops in Australia do not close early on Christmas Eve and only close for one day over the Christmas period.
We run in and find the bottle shop (Australian supermarkets do not sell booze), fill our basket with Sauvignon blanc and pale ale and head off to Woolworths.
Stood in the supermarket car park we start wrapping our presents in the boot of the car, we are parked in one of the parking spaces designated to people with pushchairs, mainly because it is in shade, as we wrap the cellophane around the hamper we are making, a Bunbury biddy comes over and says ‘you’d better be careful, the security guard will come and tell you to move – these spaces are for people with prams!’ ‘thanks for that,’ I respond ‘…..and Merry Christmas’ There is a row of empty pram spaces and I cannot see any spaces for two poofs wrapping a Christmas food hamper – that is just discrimination!!
8am – Christmas Day
Christmas morning is started by some yelping coming from the living room, I can discern the high pitch words ‘….swimming pool’ and ‘footprints’ followed by a ‘shuuuuush’ we pull on our shorts and t-shirts and stagger into the lounge – Karen and Craig are sat with Jensen and Ashton and the massive pile of presents under the tree, in the passage to the bedrooms there are large white footprints leading to the doors of the boys bedroom and some chewed up reindeer carrot.
Jensen and Ashton can barely contain themselves, as they rip open the paper on one gift and hold up the contents to their Mum and Dad, their busy hands are straight onto the next parcel. Jensen orders his presents in a line behind him, whereas Ashton flings his behind him and starts on another present. You cannot beat the look on a child’s face on Christmas morning – there is nothing else like it, we have all been there, we have all felt that sheer excitement, and then the slight puzzlement at how a complete stranger has made their way down the chimney into your house, thrown some flour around and eaten your Christmas nibbles, not even bothering to put the plate in the dishwasher.
The sea is warm, the waves are big, the sun is scorching – I always doubt that Christmas can work in warm weather, and truth to say that it doesn’t, I think tinsel is a fire hazard above 20 degrees, however to be in the sea on a deserted sandy beach with a bottle of pale ale at 11am on Christmas morning is just as magical as a cold Christmas.
September 1986
I met my friend Lisa Walters in 1986 in Soho, London. We both worked for a design company called Austin Smith Lord, who were located in a series of old warehouses in Lexington Street in Soho. We were in our early twenties, young, enjoying London and the company of all the young people in the office. Dolly Padua sat behind me and chattered away whilst working some big old computer, every so often lifting the lid of a large Perspex box which contained the noisy printer – these were the early days for computers.
Dolly, Lisa and I spent a lot of time together and had a lot of fun – Lisa was from Perth and was spending a couple of years in London. I will never forget those years and when Dolly said she had Lisa’s email address I contacted her to see if she would be in Perth this Christmas so that I could see her.
December 2013
After 27 years I finally get to meet Lisa again and she gives us a whirlwind tour of Perth – an amazing city – nothing like Sydney or Melbourne, a place with its own distinctive character.
Lisa hasn’t changed at all, still checks her hair in the mirror every five minutes, chatters incessantly, and worries about her looks, deleting photos off my phone! We catch up on the last 27 years whilst shopping and try to remember all the people that we worked with back then.
It is really hard to explain how and why this Christmas was so special, yes, I missed the Radio Times and the smell of freshly lit chimney, and yes Christmas is definitely not quite right in sunny Australia, however we had one amazing time over the last 4 days – we laughed, cried, drank some sauvignon, ate some ‘slice’ (an amazing cake that Karen is world famous for), and watched Jensen and Ashton enjoy being young.
Mark, 28 December 2013, Singapore.
Another batch of Happiness, true to form, the Boys make the Santa experience a happy one, Old Rudolph left a right mess…. the look of joy on their face’s say’s it all, Thanks for some Lovely Photos…….