Christmas in Townsville, North Queensland, Australia 2011 and remembering other times and other lives of my past

Seasons Greetings - Townsville 2011

On Christmas Eve, Saturday, 24 December 2011, I arrived in Townsville, North Queensland (QLD) by car with my dearest and closest friend (whom I also consider as family) Jennifer van de Linde and her two children.  I knew she was planning on driving up from Brisbane,QLD to Townsville but my decision to come up with her was a last minute decision I asked her four days before she drove up if I could join her.

I will discuss more about Townsville in my PNG and Australian Travel and Tourism Blog. I will also be inserting my own photos that I took in there too.  Click on the link to check that Blog out if you wish it is also in the process of being updated.


The childrens water playground also nicknamed The Bucket



Beach front at the Strand in Townsville on Christmas Day

We had a beautiful sunny and bright Christmas Day in Townsville which we spent from around 10am til 3pm in the afternoon at The Strand.  I will do a spiel on the Strand in my PNG and Australian Travel and Tourism Blog.  I just love the Strand it is one of the best things Townsville ever invested in giving the Townsville beach front and esplanade a facelift.  It was also here in Townsville where I was posted on my first full time service with the Australian Army, back in May 1998 - January 1999.  I saw the plans that were up on display about the Townsville development of the breakwaters they would create on the beachfront to prevent further flooding.  Prior to me arriving on duty at Army Personnel Agency-Townsville, Townsville was flooded in January 1998 which resulted in the place being green for a change after the floods.  I had never dreamt it would look the way it does today.

Jennifer's home made Christmas pudding she made that travelled with us

In Australia we do not have a white christmas like some parts of the northern hemisphere in the world.  A summer christmas is a great experience for some foreigners to experience as some households do not do the traditonal christmas lunch or dinner and all as some consider it too hot to eat in a hot climate.  Prawns and salads and other seafood dishes are now the alternate Christmas lunch/dinner here in Australia, whilst some households will have both the traditional christmas dinner and the Aussie Christmas tucker.  We did not have the usual seafood and salad style Aussie christmas tucker.  We did have the traditional roast pork.  For dessert was Jennifer's fabulous home made christmas pudding.  Usually I am not a fan of christmas cakes and such because I find them too rich.  This one was perfect for my taste.

My share of the christmas pudding and ice cream one of the bests I had ever tasted

All my life I had experienced these hot christmases both in PNG and Australia.  I have now decided I want to experience a white christmas.  Ever since my father brought me my first christmas carol record which had Bing Crosby sing "I'm dreaming of a white christmas", and reading all those books about Santa Claus in the North Pole as a child in PNG.  I could only dream of how fascinating it would be to see snow at christmas time.  I have decided that if not this year then next year I would like to spend a white christmas in either the United States (US), Canada or Germany.  Why Germany well near the Bavarian Alps as I have a dear friend (whom I met in my teenage years at the girls school I attended in Tamworth), who was a German exchange student visitng the school come from there.  I was tasked to show Elke around and although she was only there for 2 or 4 days (cannot remember exactly how many days now) we formed a close friendship.  I will talk about Elke some other time in another Post.  Elke is from Bavaria, Germany.  I have since found out that only certain parts of Europe will snow around Christmas time.  Looks like it is either the US or Cananda then and I suppose the UK too to chose from.

Townsville beach front on Christmas Day 2011

One of the breakwaters on the beach

I may not have travelled the world extensively as such but the world came to me in Lae, Papua New Guinea (PNG) all those years ago.  Our primary schools were multi culural schools which are now called International Schools.  I grew up with children from all over the world in PNG and now thanks to the world of internet social networks such as Facebook.   Most of us have found each other again and reminisc of another time and another life in PNG.  I saw their mother countries through their eyes and listened to their stories.  My school teachers were either Australians, New Zealanders, British (or came from other parts of the United Kingdom (UK) such as Scotland), American just to name a few.  As for the girls school I attended in Tamworth, New South Wales (NSW) in Australia 6 years later well there was not a lot of international students like back at Lae.  I could say I started to learn  the Aussie culture then.  So during my teenage years I came to my Australian family (from my late Aussie father's side of the family.) It was a good thing as it was a stepping stone to my transition into the Australian way of life.  As for the girls school I attended at the time it had a few name changes over the years it was at the time known as The Tamworth Calrossy Anglican Girls School (I think I will have to pull out my school reports to cross check.)  The name has since changed when you click on the link to view the school's website.  The girls that I went to school with were as Aussie true blue as you can get.  The majority of them came from the country grew up on farms in rural NSW.  I was fortunate that I had an uncle as a farmer but did not get to go out there as often.  I did not have best friends as such but I did have very close friends and especially one of them Melinda Mc Kenna whose family had sort of adopted me.  Although I had my own family in NSW at the time I would some times go to Melinda's family.  I guess Melinda was like another sister to me we hung around the same circle of friends but not to the point where I was obsessed and possessed with her.  I never really talked about PNG much to any of them so I guess I had put up the barriers there.  It was the same with my Australian cousins I never talked about PNG much to them either.  It was like I was switching off from PNG and then switching on to Australia.  I have no idea why I did that.  When I was asked if we lived in houses in PNG I told one of the girls that we lived in tree houses like you see in the Tarzan and Jane movies.  Now as an adult I have since found some of my Calrossy sisters on Facebook and have done up a special list called CALROSSIAN.  They were after all a part of my stepping stone from my transition from PNG to Australia.  Like I always tell some people I have the best of both worlds with my PNG and Aussie cultures.  I guess I should rephrase that as there are some ethnic and indigenous people who will argue that Australians have no culture.  I suppose it depends on how you define the word culture.

 After completion of my secondary schooling I moved to Sydney, NSW.  I ended up living in an International Student and Travellers hostel in Glebe, NSW for a year.  It was there that I also experienced my first Christmas in July  I was then able to have a broader prospective of the world where I could pick up the different accents between a Scottish or Irish person and Filipino (well from my PNG experience) accent compared to other Asian accents.   A year or so afterwards I ended up working in the Allens Lifesavers factory in Lane Cove, NSW for a year.  Now that was a real international, united nations environment. Working there were people who were from all corners of Europe and the UK to Asia and the South Pacific (SP).  My closest friends at the time were three Tongan sisters and my best friend at the time was a Maori girl called Diane Kepa from the north island of New Zealand (NZ), whom I have since lost contact with over the years.  We had a younger friend from Sri Lanka.  Rochelle was a light skinned Sri Lankan girl and her accent was almost Caribbean sounding and it was also there I met my Canadian friend Carol Davidson from Prince George,British Colombia (BC).  Carol and I were the same age and she was on a working/holiday travel visa.  When she returned to BC we would write to each other.  One day Carol sent me maps and leaflets of BC in the hope that it would encourage me to go and visit her there.  I also received photos of her in the snow over there.  Unfortunately we had lost contact over the years and now I hope that one day if I do go and visit Prince George, BC, I might hopefully meet up with her again.  As for Asia and the SP well it is my back yard and I know I can travel there any time in my life.  I too would love to meet up with my closest and dearest friend Diane Kepa in NZ one day.

There were other wonderful people who came in and out my life so sorry if I have not shared our time together.  Feel free to add your comments if you wish to remind me.

I feel it is now time to travel to those faraway places that I had forever wanted to travel to in my twenties and thirties.  I am fortunate to see a fair bit of  Australia that some Australians have never had the opportunity to do.

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This material is copyright © Wendy J. Seymour 2012  - Exempt the hyperlinks they are from the World Wide Wide (WWW)