life
FEATURE
M&S manager), buying mince pies, wine and
Christmas cake.
Checking their emails, the couple found their
four-fendered friend wouldn’t be shipped on to
Australia until Boxing Day. To preserve funds
they moved out of their comfortable hotel to “a
minging one. So we decided to spend Christmas
Day in Penang.”
By the overnight train they arrived on
Christmas morning. They had each secretly
prepared a little Christmas stocking for each
other, and, finding a shed on the beach for hire,
they exchanged their gifts. A hut was selling beer
and sandwiches and Nick opted for a turkey one,
though Carolyn thought the meat a bit dubious,
and they cut into their M&S Christmas cake.
“It should have been perfect: I’d always wanted
to have Christmas on the beach,” says Carolyn.
“But we kept thinking of our family back
home, all the festivities – and here we were, by
ourselves, eating a toasted sandwich.”
54
Photo above: Cambodia Angkor Wat
Below: Freemantle docks Perth Australia
The Island's most loved magazine