It’s dismal again today. Our room in the hostel faced the railway station. Yesterday we watched the trees and banners there and saw the strength of the wind. This morning it was calm. We had a 7:30 a.m. pull out time this morning. We had a very nice, plush bus and it was all decorated for Christmas. Si was in a festive mood! A little decorated tree hung between the two windows and was on an elastic string. We soon called it our bungy tree. It would bounce and sway when we went bouncing down the road. About 10:30 we stopped at a café oasis – one of those places in the middle of nowhere in the middle of desert looking surroundings. Si said they had wonderful lamb burgers. It seemed a little early in the day for that but I decided I’d try one. He used the cell phone to call ahead and put our orders in. It was pretty good but was different. The disarming thing was the taste of sweet mint jelly. I guess if one were accustomed to sweet pickle relish in a hamburger then that wouldn’t have been a surprise. I requested mustard as well so that worked for me. There is some kind of jet boat rides here that looked like they went over the pasture. I guess there were canals. It wasn’t operating when we were there so I didn’t quite figure it out. Behind the café on the way out to the boat place there was a little petting farm. There were exotic hens, a donkey, pigs, rabbits and whatever. It’s always fun to pet an animal!

We met back on the balcony and played pool there in the hostel. Andrew decided his mother was better than he thought and we should go to the pub to challenge some other players. We went to the Holy Cow, which was the pub the backpackers like to go to. He laid our dollar coin on the table in line to challenge. We waited our turn and watched several rounds. I knew then that we were in big trouble. These guys were regular here and were knocking teams off one at a time. Some of them were the security guards playing. One man was a daddy with two young kids here playing on Christmas Eve. He likes to play with the backpackers and hear all about their travels. Andrew thought I was going to pull him out and lecture him right there!! He needed to be at home with his family – the "bloke"!! We lost two times of course but it was fun. I tried to get Andrew to dance but couldn’t quite pull that off. It had gotten very crowded by 11:00 when we left. We laughed about our new Christmas Eve tradition!! We really had hoped to find something related to Christmas to do but never saw it. We’ve decided it’s just an excuse for a party and it’s a holiday here. It seemed like a build up for New Year’s Eve! It may have just been that we were in the heart of town and not in a residential area. We missed our candlelight service at home and reminisced about Christmases past. Christmas is really in our hearts and it doesn’t matter where you are.