Halloween

Halloween in Australia is a relatively new celebration. It has never really been a part of the Aussie culture and there has been (and still is) much push back towards it simply because of its American influence. It is often believed to be an over-marketed, unnecessary celebration of greed. Nonetheless, it has gained in popularity over the last 3 to 5 years and is becoming a growing trend. Stores now sell Halloween costumes and decorations, houses now put up orange balloons at their doors if they are participating in it, and even the odd house here and there goes all out in terms of decorations.

We were quite excited about Halloween this year as it was Matty's first proper Halloween (last year he was just a tad bit too young to participate). For each of his three days at daycare during the week, he wore Halloween-related clothing. On the big day itself, he sported his fancing-schmancy Winnie the Pooh outfit. He was a huge hit at daycare and his carers were proud to be helping him embrace his Canadian culture.

On the evening of Halloween, we dressed him up again and brought him around to visit some friends. He was even lucky enough to get his favorite treat along the way - an arrowroot biscuit! Following this, we drove around and had a look at some of the houses that were decorated. Let us just say, there are not many houses that decorate, but those that do go BIG.

Final Visit to Melbourne

As part of our wrap up before moving home, we have been planning final visits to some of our favorite Aussie destinations.  We fell in love with Melbourne early during our posting, and have been lucky to be back there a handful of times. As luck would have it, we had an opportunity to do our final visit in October when Blair was sent down for a weekend work conference. Since Blair would be busy most of the days during the weekend, we tacked on an extra two days - just enough time to re-visit our favorite haunts. More importantly, since Blair was busy all weekend, Stacy was *supposed* to have adequate time to visit some of her favorite shops! 

Unfortunately, as luck would have it, Stacy ended up being sick most of the weekend. The week prior to our getaway, she came down with a fairly bad sinus infection. The doctor she saw put her on a new antibiotic which she had never been on before, and she ended up having a bad reaction to it. Because of that, she ended up spending a lot of the time locked away in our hotel room for the first day or two. She was not alone though - she had her most favorite little person on hand to keep her company.

In the end, all plans were not lost. We were still able to visit everything on our list. The only thing that suffered was Stacy's shopping - but alas that was probably better for her pocketbook anyways. ;)

Ahhhhh Melbourne. We will miss your laneway culture, your awesome coffee and food, your beautiful architecture, beaches, and river. But know this. We are not saying goodbye - we are simply saying "See you later"!