Christmas fever...

It's everywhere! Everywhere that is apart from Australia, and Namibia. In the last couple of days people blogging all over the world have felt the need to comment on the fact that it's coming up to Christmas and all sorts of Christmassy things have been happening. For me, here, sweltering in the heat, it all seems a bit surreal. Walking to the train to come into Shepparton today (no work as apparently girls can't do any of the stuff that's available) we noticed that they are putting up the most horrendous plastic Christmas decorations on the main street (and I use the term losely) in Murchison. This is so far the only sign I've seen in quite a while that it is approaching Christmas. The post office and local supermarkets haven't had Christmas cards stocked to the rafters for the last few months, nowhere appears to be playing Christmassy music (although I tried to go a way to remedy that by singing that old classic 'Let it snow' whilst wondering through the vinyards) and because of the heat it simply doesn't feel like Christmas. This may change in a couple of weeks but somehow, I don't think it will. This year Christmas will be very strange indeed.