Archives par mot-clé : holiday

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#3021 silly season in the antipodes

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I wrote this post in 2014, but somehow, I still find it makes an appropriate holiday season card on this unique day of the year.

I used to accompany it with a Christmas season jumper, but does not seeem appropriate to have this one in sunny Nelson.

I wrote this post in December 2014, accompanied by photos of themed sweaters taken at Peacock. This was my first visit to Tenby, but the  post (below) still seems relevant to me (with some edits). In the next few days I will post photos of our holiday season in this part of the world.

The BBC recently released a documentary about Tatler’s magazine, a monthly aimed at 150,000 subscribers (and those aspiring to join) from  the British elite. The docu teaches us, among other things, that in these circles, one should not mourn the death of a loved one, but that it is totally appropriate  to mourn the death of one’s dog. We should also  accept the most outrageous behavior, provided we do not wear the wrong shade of blue on Tuesdays. More recently, the magazine informed its subscribers that they could wear the « Christmas jumper », provided they wear it « ironically ». I  noted  a strong return of the said sweater in Tenby in 2014, but I must admit that I was unable to see the difference between  those  wearing  it ironically and the others. As for me, when I have found the theme that I can identify with, I promise to wear mine  poetically. Happy poetic holiday and  New Year!

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the silly season in the antipodes

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Tahunanui Beach, December 2020, Sylvie GE
One of the things that I had the most difficulty adjusting after arriving in New Zealand is the silly season. I was trying to enjoy summer time, the sun, but there was nothing that would  do. I wanted dark weather, lights, snow, cold and everything that went with the Christmas spirit. My colleague from Scotland also fully agreed with me: Christmas is much better in the northern hemisphere. And so I plunged, as soon as I heard a Christmas song in a department store,  into a sad nostalgia that  could only be  shaken off by the disappearance of all the Christmas trees.

Over the years, my rigid mental attitude around what constitutes an acceptable Christmas has changed. I started  enjoying the lightness of the New Zealand silly season, the holiday atmosphere, the beach, the sparkling wine in the sun, the less light, less gifts, less food (unfortunately New Zealand seems have caught up  with the excesses of other countries since), all this gave a lightness that I began to appreciate, all of this, of course, provided  that I didn't see a Christmas tree and didn't hear any festive music, which still causes my immediate departure from wherever it is coming from.




This year, after several years of absence from the New Zealand holiday season, I will experience it again with joy, and for the first time with neighbours, who seem happy to have a Christmas meal with the lost souls of the neighbourhood. I have been asked to bake a Christmas pudding and this will be my first experience of said dessert.




Over the next few days, I'll be sharing photos from New Zealand's summer to get you into the Antipodean holiday spirit.