December. The official start of summer and silly season where socialising as much as humanly possible is the aim of the game before it all culminates with a sit down Christmas lunch or dinner with your family and close relatives. No wonder we need an intense hibernation period in the winter to recover. Don't get me wrong, socialising and celebrating life is what it's all about, but this need to be/feel/look busy in December is overwhelming for everyone. So much so that I feel the best days of the month are the ones between Christmas and New Years when you don't know what day it is and you don't care because you're done with commitments.
It was a strange and almost ominous start to the summer season this time around. Instead of the usual excitement, it seems like the air was permeated with anticipation and anxiety. Australia and in particularly New South Wales, had already been facing terrible bushfires for a few weeks by the beginning of December. The smoke in Sydney has been at times thick and dense, others it's been light, but always there, always a reminder. As we now know, those bushfires got worse, a lot worse, and many people have lost their homes and an unfathomable amount of habitat and wildlife has been destroyed. It's heartbreaking.
This year Levi and I had access to a car and decided to do a road trip up to the Gold Coast for Christmas, where both of our families live. We took two nights to get up there from Sydney and camped along the way in Seal Rocks and Red Cliff in the Yuraygir National Park. I definitely have a soft spot for both of these places - Seal Rocks is incredibly beautiful and has no phone reception, and Red Cliff was right by the ocean and was home to so many friendly kangaroos. After spending a few days at home on the Gold Coast for Christmas and catching up with friends, we headed to the Sunshine Coast for a few days with Levi's family before making the drive back south. After hearing so much about Bellingen from others over the last month, we decided to stop and camp there for the night. Bellingen must be the greenest place in Australia at the moment, everything was so green and lush. It was more inland so there was no beaches, but plenty of rock pools to swim in. For the last night we went to check out a campsite in the Crowdy Bay National Park. I had known that there was bushfires in the National Park back in October so we weren't sure if it would be operating. Driving through all of the burnt out area of the park was incredibly eerie and sad. All of these big beautiful trees were turned completely black. Some trees that looked like they'd grown tall for hundreds of years were torn from the earth. It was all incredibly depressing. The campsite was incredibly windy so we decided to try somewhere else when from the highway we saw a bushfire had started. The smoke was billowing high and thick into the sky and there was, in comparison, a tiny helicopter releasing water onto the flames. I've never seen anything like it before. We set up camp at the Bulahdelah Showgrounds for the night, before heading to Newcastle early the next morning for a swim (surf for Levi) and then heading back to Sydney for New Years Eve. It was the best ten days on the road. I absolutely loved camping and the freedom that comes with no plans, but needing to make plans, and stocking up on supplies and not knowing when we'll need more, and stopping at service centres like everyone else to get petrol and snacks for the road.
After the drive home, and the unpacking, the unpacking (!), we were pretty tired by the time the evening rolled around. Strong winds came through in the early evening of New Years Eve so we stayed in our apartment and had some drinks and snacks with Levi's friend Stu, before heading down to Rushcutters Park to see the 9pm fireworks. Stu left for another party and I had a nap before Levi woke me up at 11.30pm to head down and see the midnight fireworks. Despite all of the controversy around having the fireworks when the fire danger is so high, they were incredibly spectacular and I can see why people travel to Sydney for the occasion.
~ New In - The Secondhand Edition ~
Aside from Christmas gifts for my family, I didn't buy anything new or for myself in December. I was given a pair of Lululemon bike shorts and a training tank as my Christmas present but other than that nothing new has entered my life. ALTHOUGH, I have these nice Fella swimmers that I bought last year in this gorgeous pale blue, but they have gone all dirty! I have washed them, soaked them with no way of getting the 'dirty' discolouration out. I kind of can't stand to look at them which is frustrating because I lie on a towel and swim in the ocean and that's it! I don't know where these marks have come from!! Looking for swimmers is always so difficult and something I wouldn't be comfortable buying second hand... same with activewear. It's a bit weird.
~ Read, watched & listened ~
Joe Rogan podcast - we listened to Joe Rogan for most of our road trip, except for the occasional High Low episode I snuck in. I actually really enjoy Joe's podcast and his voice, I find, is very calming. He has the most fascinating conversations with people. My two favourite episodes were with Chuck Palahniuk and Johann Hari.
~ Eats ~
In our last days at work before the holidays we ventured out of our usual perimeter of food options to try out a new but different kebab shop called Shwarmama in Surry Hills. Everything about Shwarmama was minimal and quality. I had the falafel pita and it was packed with salad and sauce. The falafel itself was cooked fresh on the spot, which I love so much when they do that! The fries also had this delicious seasoning on them. I will definitely be going back in the NY.
x.
