A mid-winter arrival

We arrived here in Australia in the middle of winter in July. But no matter how much we prepared for the weather, buying winter clothes and all, we were caught with our guards down.

Before leaving the Philippines we constantly kept in touch with friends here on weather conditions and what necessary clothes we needed to bring with us. We were assured that we only needed a couple of winter clothing because it wasn't very cold at all..we were made to believe that the weather was just like Baguio. Hmmm...to us that meant fine, cool weather.

But we were in for a surprise. When we stepped out of the Sydney Airport for our domestic flight to Melbourne, we were greeted with chilly and biting winds that went right through our bones. This, I thought, was no Baguio weather at all. The kids, however, loved the cold weather they were just ecstatic!

We just had our first taste of winter and personally, I didn't like it and am not looking forward to it. Temperatures dropped to 0 in the early mornings and the warmest it got was 13 degrees inside the house. I wore 4 layers of clothing on any given day and wore a beanie and bedsocks to bed. I always had a sore back from the cold and was afraid I'd develop a hunchback soon enough. It's a good thing it doesn't snow in our area.

I also found it difficult to shampoo my hair in the morning because the moment I stepped out of the house my hair would just fizz and it was bad hair day all day. (Blow drying was out of the question coz it would only damage my hair.)

And there was this unforgettable evening I had when I was left out in the cold coz the train was late and by the time I arrived at the station the bus has left already and the next one won't be due in another thirty minutes. I so pitied myself shivering in the cold open air happy with the thought that there were three other suffering souls next to me.

Now I understand why people get depressed during winter. And I'm just so glad I had my family with me on this my first winter to give me warmth (literally and figuratively) when I needed it.