Back Down Under
1 December 2024.
It’s finally f-f-f-festive season ladies! Y’all better be hanging out your decorations and wrapping your presents. OR ELSE. Am I right Mariah? Oh no! You’ve invoked her Yuletide wrath:
I promise no more threats. It’s just that I LOVE Christmas. I love puddings and custard. I love Christmas music (stream Ariana’s Christmas album for clear skin). I also love Christmas Carols but more specifically Vision Australia’s Carols by Candlelight. Another nail in Sydney’s coffin is the lack of Vision Australia’s Carols by Candlelight. Woolworths presents Carols in the Domain truly could never. Flop event. If it doesn’t have Silvie, Marina and Dami I’m not interested.
Mainly though, I love Christmas for the Christmas decorations. Every year my Grandma and I would head to Eastland (or Beastland as the Outer East hive know it) where I was allowed to pick out one new decoration or ornament for the tree. Even though she passed away 12 years ago I still keep up the tradition – picking up this little one in Laos earlier this year:
Whether you celebrate Christmas or not – I hope you’re looking forward to Summer, the holiday period or that wonderful morning on December 26th when Hot Cross Buns return to supermarkets. That’s right. I’m a HCB apologist too:
Anyways, here’s a summary of this month’s adventures:
Singapore
In the words of Scott Morrison, “how good’s Australia Singapore?!?”
Our five days spent Penelope Pitstop-ing in Singapore on the way home from Spain felt like a holiday within a holiday. Kusi and I had both been before so there’s a nice familiarity to the city. We knew how the metro worked. We were prepared for the humidity. We knew that the famous carrot cake was neither a cake nor did it have an ounce of carrot in it.
We were there with a group of Scout people from Australia – many of whom hadn’t been to Singapore before, so it was a nice opportunity for Kusi to play tour guide/trip manager for a few days. Massive shout out to Phil though for making it all happen - also sorry for beating you in ‘Assassins’ Phil!
Highlights definitely have to be the day on the boat on the Singapore Strait along with our day at Universal Studios. Nothing invokes a sense of childhood nostalgia like running around desperately trying to fit in one more ride before the park closes. We probably rode Battlestar Galactica eight times that day. It’ll never beat the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster but then again, what could?
LET’S RIDE.
Australia
Much like in April, we returned primarily for a wedding. It had also been roughly seven months since we last left Australia so it felt like the right amount of time to pop home and say hello.
Our schedule this month has been VERY bus, club, another club as we endeavoured to catch up with as many people as we could across Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.
I was a little nervous coming back to Australia that so much would have changed and I would feel like I wouldn’t fit in anymore but that wasn’t the case. Driving down Sydney Rd the day we landed in Melbourne, the only real change was that Brunswick now has a Guzman Y Gomez but other than that things are just where we left them.
The people we caught up with haven’t changed either. Except for the seven couples with new babies. That’s right, seven. Thank you though to everyone for making the time to see us over the last few weeks. I’ve been flat out like a lizard drinking but it does feel special to know that we have so many wonderful friends and family members to come back to eventually.
And on that . . . a little trip update. Due to a minor bureaucratic boo-boo, our next trip back to Australia is looking likely to be October next year. We wanted to finish travelling at the end of July 2025 but we’ve had to push that back to avoid long visa processing times at the Spanish Consulate during European Summer. What does that mean for us? We have to spend another 12 weeks travelling around before coming home to apply. Yes I know, I am both strong and brave for enduring an even longer holiday.
Trust me though – sometimes when you’re away from home for so long you want nothing more than to have a cup of tea with your best friend while you gossip about people’s terrible Instagram photos. Or maybe that’s just me. And Nicola. Shoutout to Nicola for being the best friend a guy could ask for – even when we’re continents apart.
Anyways, as I said, October 2025 is looking like our likely next trip home. So we’ll see you when we’re looking at you.
To wrap up our Australian trip though, here’s an exhaustive list of all the things I realised I have missed since coming back to Australia. Shocker, much like my grade 3 diary, it is mainly food based:
· Good coffee
· Chicken parmas
· Meat pies
· Decent coffee
· Ordering via a QR code
· Tap water
· Chicken salt
· Sircuit
· Fish and chips
· Quality coffee
· Caramel KitKat Chunkies
· Cheap sunscreen
· Brunch
· Clean beaches
· Great coffee
· Melbourne coffee
· My Melbourne friends
· Just Melbourne in general
Kusi’s Korner
A month spent back in Australia, and it’s been a whirlwind (actually, probably more like a hurricane) between Victoria, NSW and the ACT. There are way too many people to shout out here, but I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone for making us feel so loved – it was an incredible feeling to come home and have everyone be so happy to see us!
Tomorrow we leave to kick off Leg 3 of the trip in Chile. We’re back in South America to hike the famous “W Trek” in Patagonia, which is something that’s been on my bucket list for the last 10 years. Going to Patagonia was the reason for our entire trip to South/Central America in the first place, so I’m pumped to finally experience it. I was reading a few months ago that there aren’t many “wild” places left in the world, but I’m hoping this is one of them. Stay tuned to Kusi’s Korner on the 1st of Feb for the review!
Finally, a haiku to mark the occasion:
The two travellers
Off on the next adventure
Always exploring
No shoutouts this month because there are simply so many wonderful people we got to spend time with. So instead, I’ll shoutout the seven little humans who’ve arrived since April that we had the opportunity to meet:
Sampson
Noah
Daisy
Jude
Luca
Patrick
Caleb
I hope all of your parents are getting a tennis racquet in your hands shortly because Australia is due a new Grand Slam champion in 20 years or so.
Tomorrow we’re heading back to South America for Leg 3 of our adventure so bring on Patagonia and Central America. Australia, we’ll see you again in October 2025. A long time I know. I’m a little nervous too. But apparently distance makes the heart grow fonder.
For now though, I’ve gotta make like cream on a hot day and split.
Fierce and love,
Spencer xoxo.
Random fact - my ex's cousin had her nose done with the same surgeon as Marina... That cousin was married to the guy who was in one of the first Good Guys ad. Anyway, safe travels.