Dec 25th Orphan’s Christmas

We wake up after a nice little sleep in and head down to the beach Christmas morning for a swim and a coffee. Everyone who is anyone in Freo is down at the beach on Chrissy morning. Back at home Christian cooks us up a delightful brekky of eggs and yummies and of course what is Christmas morning without chocolate for breakfast. We then open our presents that family has sent over to us and it isso exciting and fun. After brunch and present excitement it is time to prepare the house for our “Orphan’s Christmas”. Everyone who doesn’t have family to celebrate with is welcome. Just bring a plate and a secret Santa gift and you can come through our door. Christian’s ham glaze is my highlight and skyping mum and dad and Anna. We do secret Santa, which is fun and then play with our silly presents and everyone starts to get rowdy and drunk. A bit of a different Christmas to what I am used to that is for sure. More than half the crew are Brits as well so it is a bit of a different Christmas for them too. Though they try to make it as British as possible with all their roasts and cooked wintery dishes. At about 11pm I am absolutely knackered but we have to head to the beach party of course. ALL of Freo is at the beach party. It is fantastic really- there is a DJ mixing it up on the sand and everyone dancing or stumbling around. We don’t stay too long and sleep comes easy when it is bed time. Boxing day is nice and chilled. I shop a bit, chill a bit, beach a bit and then catch up with an ex-Derby friend for dinner. We go to a lovely bar on the water in Freo for a drink and then head to Cottlesloe to an Italian restaurant. Yum yum. On Friday I finally indulge in Fremantle coffee- something unavailable in Derby and Christian takes me out for a kite. Whilst I practice on the trainer kite he tackles the wind on the water. That night we settle in for a cutsie dinner and movie. Saturday morning- an early start because we are going camping. Not really quite sure of our plans we head a few hours north to a beach and have a surf lesson from Christian. I’m not very good at it, Brig is much better, but Christian persists and I get to stand yay! We then drive to Wedge Island. What an odd place. It is a community of a few hundred in the middle of nowhere. All of the houses are made from recycled material. Unfortunately it is too windy to surf here so we stop under the first aid shelter for lunch. Lovely Sheryl – the community nurse- drives by and asks us if we are ok because we are hanging out at the first aid area. It was the only place we could find shade! We set up our picnic and sit for a bit with a treatment table and medication cupboard our backdrop. Next we drive to the Pinnacles. I have seen these before when I came with mum and dad and Anna to the Westside but they are as charming and funny as ever. There are so so many of them- all different shapes and sizes. Standing tall and erect (some of them too erect…) we take silly photos and have “pinnacle moments”. They are really cool. We try to find our way back and get semi lost among them because they all look the same and there are so many and they are just everywhere. Eventually we head back to our campspot and set up camp. Pub for dinner and lovely bed. Brig and Christian have set up a little hideaway in the back of Christian’s car with homemade curtains and everything- Christian’s Christmas gift from Briggie. I am in a tent next door. Morning comes and we have a delightful pure-camp-style brekky before heading to the beach. It is super doper windy today and kind of menacing and scary. I don’t think Christian is keen to go out but I kind of want to try and surf again so we head out and battle out to sea. The current is strong and the waves kind of treacherous (to me anyway). We get a few small waves and then I’m happy. So Brig is next. But it isn’t long before they are battling to shore again- Christian has been bitten by a cobbler and it is flipping painful apparently. We quickly pack up and head back to the caravan park for hot water to submerge the bite- this is the only thing that feels soothing. Brig and I do hot water runs every so often because once the water starts to cool the bite throbs. Poor Christian is rendered to the grass with his foot in a bucket under the shade of the car boot door. At one stage I head to the camp kitchen and cook us up some tacos for lunch. 4 hours later the pain has subsided enough so that Christian can drive us home. I feel terrible but sleep overcomes both Brig and I and is unavoidable. And so comes the end of my short but wonderful little trip to Freo. Brig (ever so generously) drops me off at the airport at 4am so I can fly back to Derby. Thank you my lovelies!!