Today is my last day in Spain for 2014 and I’m just a little bit excited about heading home for Christmas. My little suitcase has nothing in it except for my swimsuit and presents as all my summer clothes are waiting for me in Darwin.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of catching up with my gorgeous niece Alexa in Seville where we went Christmas shopping and despite the awful weather had a great time together. It was fun to explore the shops and I stand by my earlier opinion that the season is not as commercialised as in Australia or the UK.

Yesterday the Academy where I teach English took all the staff out for a lovely tapas dinner. It was a great evening that, in typical Spanish style, saw us head to the restaurant just after 9.30 where we sampled a variety of yummy dishes and finished off the meal with a very decadent chocolate brownie, complete with thick chocolate and strawberry sauce, cream and ice-cream followed by a sort of port with which we toasted Merry Christmas. It was well after 1 pm before I got home.

Christmas is the one time of year when I feel it’s so important to be with the family as without them it is just not the same. This Christmas will be extra special as I have seen Alexa, my brother Robert is in Australia and my cousin Michael also has the holidays off for the first time in years. Sasha has done all the shopping ready for us to start making the rum balls, mini-cheesecakes, cupcakes and all the other wonderfully fattening delights that we enjoy at this time of the year. Can’t wait to get home!

The journey from Spain to Australia is not exactly a simple one and will start at 6.30 am tomorrow morning when a lovely chap is driving me from where I live in Ecija to Cordoba (45 minutes away) to catch the AVE, a wonderful high speed train, to Madrid. From there it’ll be a dash to the airport and then onto Dubai, Singapore and finally Darwin arriving at 5.20 on Monday morning. It reminds me a bit of the trips I used to make when at Rishworth and heading home to Nairobi for Christmas except that Australia is little further away than Kenya.

Michelle