December update!

As promised.. a far too late update with a list of the highlights of the first half, or - shame on me - first 3/4 of december! While the days are short, dark, rainy, cold and maybe even snowy in my home country The Netherlands nowadays, summer is really kicking in overhere, with the weather becoming less random (but still random), temperatures getting higher (34 degrees yesterday) and the days becoming longer.

With exception of the amazing Christmas celebration and dinner with 12 friends last weekend at our house, (See next post soon) I can't say I've had the kind of cosy ("gezellig") Christmas and "December" feeling which probably is inescapable in the Netherlands during these days. Nevertheless I'm still feeling more than happy, enjoying the beaches, barbies, the beautiful city and nice people overhere. Reading and watching the paragraphs below and the pictures in my photo album, you should not have any reason to question that!

Great view on the city
It feels like ages ago, but it's still worth mentioning. I've had the greatest view of the city so far when I went to visit Heidi, a student from Malaysia, at her new appartment at 26 floors high in the hart of the citycenter! Though it's not a villa with view on a good surf beach, this kind of accomodation comes close to my dream house! On the top of the building, about 40 floors high, there's a swimming pool where you can have a dive and swim your tracks looking over the city. During the night the place is absolutely fabulous. Unfortunately I didn't manage to take a good picture of that, but I guess it wouldn't approach watching the millions of twinkling lights in real from the balkony anyway. Heidi has left to Europe now, hopefully I'll be able to visit the place again when she's back ;) For some more photos check the City Gallery of my Photo Album.

Barbie @ St Kilda
On december 4, Rita, trainee from Hungary, organised a barbie in St Kilda, the suburb where she lives. St Kilda is situated at the bay and therefore has some nice beaches and a kind of "beachy" atmosphere. It should be a lovely place to live, at least it is a good place to have a barbie! We had a great time eating, drinking, chatting, chilling, sunburning in a park next to the sea, during a beautiful day. The free gas bbq places are such a good thing of Australia! You just invite some people to the park, everyone brings some meat and drinks, and everything is set for having a blast of a time! Photos, check the Daily Live Gallery of my Photo ALbum.

Fefe's birthday
Yet another great birthday celebration! Two weeks after Matt, my other house mate Fernanda,(the wonderful chica from Brasil;)) turned 27. Matt and I surprised her in the morning with a breakfast at bed and decorated the house with balloons. In the evening we went to Gerben and Gerbrand who organised a sort of farewell poolparty / barbie at their place, since it unfortunately was their last week in Melbourne. The next day Fernanda invited people to a pub in the citycenter called Decorum, to toast on her birthday and party all night long. Check the Party and Going Out Gallery for the pics.

Surfing with Luc
Almost every weekend we load the boards in Lucs car and head to Torquay or Jan Luc to go surfing! So far we've always been able to catch some waves. Not that it's epic every time, but at least there's always something to surf. I'm improving my skills little by little. Cutbacks, Off-the-lips, sprays, I'm starting to produce them by purpose, in stead of by accident! Luc is also doing well.. having surfed just a few days, he's already able to stand up on his small 6,2" fish and ride the broken wave for a while! A couple of new pics are availble in the Surf & Beach Gallery of the Photo Album.