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Merry Christmas.

This will be my first Christmas away from home and also my first Christmas where there's a realistic chance of snow. The other day when I was leaving Amsterdam it started to snow, just a little bit so the ground was sprinkled with white like sugar on a doughnut. I am hoping for a white Christmas, the closest I’ve been to it was in Sydney one summer when it hailed like crazy on the 23rd of December.

I'm missing everyone back in Australia. I'll miss the air-con blasting while Mum, Da and Sally sweat it out in a hot kitchen. I’ll miss seeing on the news how many backpackers need rescuing before lunchtime at Bondi Beach (someone keep count for me). I'll also miss the ill-fitting coloured paper hats and the bad jokes in the crackers. I'll miss the big baked dinner and Gran's pudding full of six-pence. I'll miss Peanut tearing open everyone's presents as well as her own then being more interested in the wrapping than the present. It hasn’t really dawned on me that it is Christmas yet because all the things I remember about the lead up to Christmas are missing - work Christmas parties, daylight saving, the heat!

I am very much looking forward to experiencing an authentic German Christmas. My good friend Nick and his wife Natalie have invited me to spend Christmas with them at Natalie's parents' house. Here they celebrate Christmas and open presents on Christmas Eve, how I would have loved that as a kid‚ presents one day early!

To all those back in Oz and everywhere else around the globe Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Cheers, Pete.