When an old tradition is branded new
39 degrees, a beautiful white sand beach... already sunburned but looking forward to the day after, we are now back from our first beach volley challenges and the Polish are cooking dinner!
The annoying salt on my skin before the shower, the satisfying tiredness of my body and the rich mysterious smell of the summer vacation remind me of holidays in Sicily, where nothing but carefree thoughts belonged to my mind and I could not possibly enjoy more a day spent with old friends... but today an oddity is all around... ... ... It's Christmas eve!
It's my first Christmas away from home... in Switzerland first and Estonia later I hadn't hesitated a moment about going back home: but that's Australia... could life be that good to put Sydney's easy life so close to your homeland?!.. And so Australian Christmas came as a default when I first had a look at the flight ticket's price to reach Sydney!
The celebration started a couple of weeks before when the finance team of GE went on a few hours boat trips: drinks on board and sea food, Santa Clause and the gift exchange... the whole emphasized by a hot sun made pleasant by the breeze, the ness and gulf of Sydney and surrending and the blue water we eventually jumped in!
But GE is definitely a company that knows how to take care of its employees... so a second Christmas party followed one week after: the Museum of Contemporary Art hosted the whole GE people in Sydney for a Chicago '20 themed party... pointless to mention food and drinks, it's always a positive surprise to see colleagues, managers and bosses enjoying their time on the dance floor... white ties on black shirt, a speaker who claimed to be my beloved Don Corleone and I (probably the closest, at least by birth destiny, to the original Mafioso many tried to imitate) in my striped pants, suspenders and a brown cigarette I eventually smoked... Merry Christmas!!
However the Christmas feeling, rather than the party atmosphere, only arrived a couple of days later where we spent a Saturday night on the grass of The Domain park, surrounded by thousands of people and listening and watching the Christmas Carols show... actually listening and watching was not that much of a success, due to the distant point we settled (many family had had picnics and spent the whole day there)... but laying on the grass, the many red candles, the fireworks and the music made it feel like Christmas... I eventually realized I was celebrating an old tradition in such a new branded way!
I have been missing the nights looking for and eventually participating to cards' game nights (giocate a carte!!), the thousand of SMS received in any tone (from "Christmas porn" to poetic), the useless presents... even the gathering with relatives: yeap, I missed all that!
But this Christmas I probably reached the highest sense of spirituality Christmas should be all about: the dinner at our flat was a simple night, which I enjoyed so much!
Few days before, urged by the need of spending a Christmas eve with those we have closer to a family, Alenka, Jerry (my flat mates) and I decided to organized a dinner where some "orphans" friends of us were invited: Sid and Kunal (our Indian guests), Geida and Ilker (Turkish Christmas virgins), Roman and Hana (great Czech helps) and Emma (Swedish without her Indian, Rajat, who missed so much!).
I believe that the diversity of religious and cultures we are all surrounded is something we got accustomed and often fail to notice and keep on appreciating. That was not the case that night!!
It has been wonderful starting a Christmas evening (it was actually 3 days before) with some Mexican food and finishing it with a Czech apples tradition... and in between learning how Christmas is honored even in India, observing Turkish celebrating it for the their first time, learning about the 3pm cartoon TV show in Sweden, comparing when does baby Jesus gets to the Nativity's cave in different cultures... and then getting crazy with games that, no matter where from, made us all laugh in a feeling of unity...
All emphasized by our toasts, the sharing of gifts and the simple and great contribution of each every single of the people there...
Australians must enjoy their life: and that's almost an official statement! It's unfair that an official day off (Christmas, Australian day or whatsoever) happens over the weekend... so even the following Monday is off from any working duty... this made Christmas a 4 days event (24th to 27th). Already on Friday 23rd we were "forced" to leave the office earlier... I headed to Hawk Nest, about 3 hours north of Sydney and where this post actually began!
Ahhh... what a stress it has been: beach volley, synchronized swimming, body surfing, kayaking, eating, chasing the dolphins... puff... tough days for my injured knee!
The Christmas dinner was all polish made: no complains about that, but I was happy to see a Pandoro (Italian traditional Christmas cake) showing up for desert!
Well... Christmas is differently celebrated in every culture... among us there were also not Christian people, which, once again, added load of fascination to the evening... so the gift exchange was already running by 10.30pm in a funny way: stealing each other's presents... it may sounds not too much aligned with the spirit of Christmas, but it turned to be good fun!
Almost everyone was asleep by 11.30, but I, accompanied by a couple of friends, decided to wait for midnight... and here you go, now it's really Christmas!!
Back home the Christmas day would have been a very late wake up, huge lunch and cinema of cards game in the evening... hmm... Now we woke up at 7am to go and see the dolphin (bad luck on that very morning!!) spent the rest of the day between two beaches (the one 20m from home and the waving one) playing competitive beach volley, eating fruit salad and ice-cream for lunch... and eventually in the evening celebrating the Australian way (no Australians among us!): we had BBQ!
After dinner, I'm afraid I infected everyone else with Mafia (a game!!)... once learned they were difficult to stop: killing, blaming, judging, executing... we all enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere!
I liked Andy and Fung for their simplicity and sense of humor, Kaisa and Bartosz for their constant smiles which let me think "Hmm, s/he must be the killer" even while playing volley ball, Pranati and Sri for adding my beloved Indian flavor to my Christmas, Adrian and Laura for their effective translations and because I always liked Romanians, Aysel for her delicious Kebab no matter what it really was, and last but not least Mike, Kamilla and... what's her name?! Kaisa or something likes that... for being mates on every kind of possible fun and for inviting me over!
And so the days spent by in such way that makes work so hard that I need a vacation... oh well, new year eve is coming soon: 3 days off to celebrate my first NYE and Birthday away from home... ohh, home sweet home!
The annoying salt on my skin before the shower, the satisfying tiredness of my body and the rich mysterious smell of the summer vacation remind me of holidays in Sicily, where nothing but carefree thoughts belonged to my mind and I could not possibly enjoy more a day spent with old friends... but today an oddity is all around... ... ... It's Christmas eve!
It's my first Christmas away from home... in Switzerland first and Estonia later I hadn't hesitated a moment about going back home: but that's Australia... could life be that good to put Sydney's easy life so close to your homeland?!.. And so Australian Christmas came as a default when I first had a look at the flight ticket's price to reach Sydney!
The celebration started a couple of weeks before when the finance team of GE went on a few hours boat trips: drinks on board and sea food, Santa Clause and the gift exchange... the whole emphasized by a hot sun made pleasant by the breeze, the ness and gulf of Sydney and surrending and the blue water we eventually jumped in!
But GE is definitely a company that knows how to take care of its employees... so a second Christmas party followed one week after: the Museum of Contemporary Art hosted the whole GE people in Sydney for a Chicago '20 themed party... pointless to mention food and drinks, it's always a positive surprise to see colleagues, managers and bosses enjoying their time on the dance floor... white ties on black shirt, a speaker who claimed to be my beloved Don Corleone and I (probably the closest, at least by birth destiny, to the original Mafioso many tried to imitate) in my striped pants, suspenders and a brown cigarette I eventually smoked... Merry Christmas!!
However the Christmas feeling, rather than the party atmosphere, only arrived a couple of days later where we spent a Saturday night on the grass of The Domain park, surrounded by thousands of people and listening and watching the Christmas Carols show... actually listening and watching was not that much of a success, due to the distant point we settled (many family had had picnics and spent the whole day there)... but laying on the grass, the many red candles, the fireworks and the music made it feel like Christmas... I eventually realized I was celebrating an old tradition in such a new branded way!
I have been missing the nights looking for and eventually participating to cards' game nights (giocate a carte!!), the thousand of SMS received in any tone (from "Christmas porn" to poetic), the useless presents... even the gathering with relatives: yeap, I missed all that!
But this Christmas I probably reached the highest sense of spirituality Christmas should be all about: the dinner at our flat was a simple night, which I enjoyed so much!
Few days before, urged by the need of spending a Christmas eve with those we have closer to a family, Alenka, Jerry (my flat mates) and I decided to organized a dinner where some "orphans" friends of us were invited: Sid and Kunal (our Indian guests), Geida and Ilker (Turkish Christmas virgins), Roman and Hana (great Czech helps) and Emma (Swedish without her Indian, Rajat, who missed so much!).
I believe that the diversity of religious and cultures we are all surrounded is something we got accustomed and often fail to notice and keep on appreciating. That was not the case that night!!
It has been wonderful starting a Christmas evening (it was actually 3 days before) with some Mexican food and finishing it with a Czech apples tradition... and in between learning how Christmas is honored even in India, observing Turkish celebrating it for the their first time, learning about the 3pm cartoon TV show in Sweden, comparing when does baby Jesus gets to the Nativity's cave in different cultures... and then getting crazy with games that, no matter where from, made us all laugh in a feeling of unity...
All emphasized by our toasts, the sharing of gifts and the simple and great contribution of each every single of the people there...
Australians must enjoy their life: and that's almost an official statement! It's unfair that an official day off (Christmas, Australian day or whatsoever) happens over the weekend... so even the following Monday is off from any working duty... this made Christmas a 4 days event (24th to 27th). Already on Friday 23rd we were "forced" to leave the office earlier... I headed to Hawk Nest, about 3 hours north of Sydney and where this post actually began!
Ahhh... what a stress it has been: beach volley, synchronized swimming, body surfing, kayaking, eating, chasing the dolphins... puff... tough days for my injured knee!
The Christmas dinner was all polish made: no complains about that, but I was happy to see a Pandoro (Italian traditional Christmas cake) showing up for desert!
Well... Christmas is differently celebrated in every culture... among us there were also not Christian people, which, once again, added load of fascination to the evening... so the gift exchange was already running by 10.30pm in a funny way: stealing each other's presents... it may sounds not too much aligned with the spirit of Christmas, but it turned to be good fun!
Almost everyone was asleep by 11.30, but I, accompanied by a couple of friends, decided to wait for midnight... and here you go, now it's really Christmas!!
Back home the Christmas day would have been a very late wake up, huge lunch and cinema of cards game in the evening... hmm... Now we woke up at 7am to go and see the dolphin (bad luck on that very morning!!) spent the rest of the day between two beaches (the one 20m from home and the waving one) playing competitive beach volley, eating fruit salad and ice-cream for lunch... and eventually in the evening celebrating the Australian way (no Australians among us!): we had BBQ!
After dinner, I'm afraid I infected everyone else with Mafia (a game!!)... once learned they were difficult to stop: killing, blaming, judging, executing... we all enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere!
I liked Andy and Fung for their simplicity and sense of humor, Kaisa and Bartosz for their constant smiles which let me think "Hmm, s/he must be the killer" even while playing volley ball, Pranati and Sri for adding my beloved Indian flavor to my Christmas, Adrian and Laura for their effective translations and because I always liked Romanians, Aysel for her delicious Kebab no matter what it really was, and last but not least Mike, Kamilla and... what's her name?! Kaisa or something likes that... for being mates on every kind of possible fun and for inviting me over!
And so the days spent by in such way that makes work so hard that I need a vacation... oh well, new year eve is coming soon: 3 days off to celebrate my first NYE and Birthday away from home... ohh, home sweet home!
6 Comments:
Hey Augusto! Nice to read that you are enjoying your life in Australia. Have a great New Year 2006. All the best, Sagar
By Anonymous, At 10:00 PM
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By morisbrooks3043, At 8:32 AM
Dear Augusto!
May your New Year be filled with lovely moments, nice little surprises and accomplishments!
Cheers,
Liia
By Liia, At 12:41 PM
Dear Augusto,
happy new year in Australia and happy birthday to you.
Just seems you have lots of happiness in your life, so I wish you lots of love. I hope you will find this year someone with whom to share your happiness.
Sirle/Jiri
PS. Jiri says HI to Alenka.
By Sirle, At 2:24 PM
Happy Birthday dude! have a fantastic year. was good to catch up yesterday. See you on Thu
Sid P
By Anonymous, At 3:54 AM
Hi Augusto, rememeber me? Ying from Singapore, Rajat's friend who visited Sydney in Nov, was wondering if you are the same Augusto that I met till i read ur posts hehe...
Happy New Year!
By Ying, At 10:21 AM
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