'Tis the Season Down Under. If you're looking for spirituality, or even that warm, fuzzy feeling, forget it. Summer's here and everyone's gearing up for a long school break, weeks of vacation, and, of course, the beach. Above, Santa surfs in the window of the Macquarie Hotel, in Port Macquarie, a seaside resort town 3 hours north of Newcastle.
Here's the Target at the mall in downtown Port Macquarie. Note the beachwear and elves in shades.
An irreverent surf shop window in Manly, a Sydney coastal suburb.
This koala skeleton hangs out at the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie.
Australia has a real thing about national identity and claiming things as its own. Advertisers and promoters slap "our" on everything--Our Rum (Bundaberg Rum); Our Bridge (Sydney Harbor Bridge); Our Jen (Jennifer Hawkins, Newcastle native and former Miss Universe), and here, Our Christmas, on a banner strung across Hyde Park, in Sydney.
In a more traditional vein, here are two nighttime versions of Sydney Town Hall, garlanded, treed, and artistically lit in a changing array of colours (note spelling) for the holidays.
This tree is in St. Martin's Place, the Rockefeller Center of Sydney. That's the Customs House tower in the background.
At Waratah Village, a nearby outdoor suburban Newcastle shopping mall, a kangaroo and emu--imitating the Australia coat of arms--share the stage with a parrot and a sulfur-crested cockatoo. That's a waratah flower in the middle of the wreath. A rugby team in Sydney is named after the flower. (Note the two women in strapless tops outside the store.) I've been hearing sulfur-crested cockatoos loudly screeching this morning on their way to Gregson Park.
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