Travelog for: Alpina

A new TV arrived today, a young snip from Taiwan who actually thought we wanted to eat him!
I was quite offended at the thought. And besides, a mouse that size would ruin my waistline!

Christmas is coming! In the spirit of the season, and for my admirers, I allowed myself to be donned with this ridiculous Santa hat.

It's so hard to believe it nearly Christmas! It's so warm here in Australia. Most people have plastic Xmas trees because real ones just die in the heat. Isn't the tree pretty?
We took a group photo under Nik's nan's tree, and peeked at the presents! I know what Nik's nan is getting for Xmas now

We've been watching the cricket! Australia played New Zealand for the Chapel-Hadlee cup, one Nik says Australia has never won. A one-dayer, so Nik explained, is where each team only has 50 overs (an over equals six balls bowled by the fielding side) to score as many runs as possible. It's a confusing game, but Australians seem to love it!
We all watched for awhile, but it's kind of boring!
Australia won the match, by the way, so Nik was happy!
A note to Australian and New Zealand officials: the uniforms are a hideous fashion disaster!

Nik thought some of us might be feeling a little bit homesick because it's near Christmas, and we're in a strange (and HOT!) country.
(The heat is playing havoc with my beautiful fur)
So guess what - she made us some pretend snow to play with!
It's called D'Ziner snow. It's like a florist's gel, but it really looks like snow. We had more than you can see here but it was so hot it started melting!
It felt very strange playing with "snow" under the shade of a big tree in 35 degree heat!
We tried making a snowman, but, well, as you can see, December in Australia is not kind to snowmen...even made from pretend snow!
I wasn't too upset however...my paws were already dirty enough, and I couldn't wait to have a long, cool bath.

A summer shower finally cooled things down a little bit this afternoon...and look what came after the rain! It's almost as beautiful as yours truly.

Decorating your house with Christmas lights is very popular in Australia! Some towns and cities have huge displays which raise money for good causes, but Nik's house is pretty well lit up too!

Tonight we all watched the traditional Christmas carols on television. Australia has two main Carols - one from the Domain in Sydney on Channel 7, and one from Melbourne on Channel 9, usually on Xmas eve...which automatically makes the Sydney ones better That's the ongoing Sydney Versus Melbourne conflict I've heard about!

We saw the Wiggles (a very, very popular kids' singing group, and a lot of adults like them too!) and their friends Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog, and Captain Feathersword! A friendly pirate with a feather for a sword!

Look! Santa came in on a New South Wales Police helicopter!!

Nik gave us our very own Toy Voyager-sized Christmas tree!

CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

Nik took us to see some of Stroud's Xmas lights tonight. It was wonderful - a full moon and a warm night. Feels strange to be experiencing a warm Christmas!
The lights are hard to photograph, but we got this one of Australia's famous "Six White Boomers"
A boomer is another name for a big male kangaroo, and in Australia Santa's sleigh is pulled by six snow-white kangaroos!

CHRISTMAS DAY!!

Santa found us!

What could this be...

Look what I got!