Christmas Abroad: How ex-pat Brummies celebrate the festive season
BARBECUED turkey, mosquito bites and eating mince pies while overlooking the Atlantic Ocean is hardly the stuff of a Christmas Carol.
But expats from the West Midlands will be tucking into their Christmas dinner thousands of miles away from the place they once called home.
The Birmingham Mail caught up with three couples who swapped the streets of Brum for sunnier climes to see what Christmas is like on the other side of the globe.
One couple who are opting to shun traditional turkey for a taste of the exotic are roving pair David Turner and Jayne Wilkinson, from Erdington.
The couple parted with their worldly possessions and off-roaded on a ten-year trip to take on seven continents four months ago.
The Mail has been following the couple’s progress after they sold more than £1,000 of possessions, rented their homes and set off in their Land Rover Defender four months ago.
Ex-call centre worker Jayne and former legal rep David have been making their way through Africa en route to Senegal for the holidays.
Jayne, 51, said: “Our journey through Africa so far has been fantastic.
“We have soaked up the sights and sounds of Marrakech in Morocco, the pungent colourful tannies of Fez and fantastic mountain ranges and awe-inspiring gorges Todra and Dadess.”
“Bonfire night has come and gone and I am now looking at the first Christmas without my family. I am trying not to think about it.”
The pair, who are financing their adventure with savings and rental income from their three properties, have been taking time to update an online diary. Despite mosquito bites, language barriers and a hankering for beer and cheese, Jayne and David, 48, say they have “no regrets”.
Jayne said: “There are times why I question why I am so far away from home with squat toilets, cold showers and a damp tent.
“But despite all that, we are still glad we have taken this step into a future unknown.”
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ANOTHER Midland expat who will be opening his Christmas gifts across the water this year is IT consultant Lee Abercrombiecarswell from Hamstead.
Former Stuart Bathurst School pupil Lee left the UK in 2003 and moved to California with his American wife, Jeni.
The couple, who moved to north Seattle four years ago, will be celebrating Christmas with their daughters Rita, four, and two-year-old Zola, plus some very special guests.
Lee, 34, said: “My mum, dad and brothers are coming over for Christmas this year.
“They will be staying with me and my family and on Christmas day we’ll get together at the in-laws for a big celebration. The best things about Christmas over here include the scenery, which is beautiful, with snow, the Pacific Ocean and the mountains.”
Cadbury’s chocolate, roast pork sandwiches from West Brom market and Aston Villa top the list of things Lee misses the most about Christmas in England.
He added: “I miss the daft things like the Christmas number one and getting the Radio Times.”
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IT MAY be 41 years since Gordon and Jenni Kirkham went Down Under in search of a better life but turkey is still the centrepiece for their annual festive feast.
Sutton Coldfeld-born Jenni and Gordon, from Aston, were only two of up to one million British migrants who travelled to Australia under the Assisted Passage Scheme.
Nicknamed the Ten Pound Poms, migrants paid ten pound for their passage, with the Australian Government making up the rest of the fare, provided people stayed and worked there for two years.
Jenni and Gordon married at the Register Office on Broad Street in 1968, two weeks before they boarded the Achille Lauro after transformer coil winder Gordon was offered a job in Perth. Four decades on and the Kirkhams have made a life with their daughters, Sarah, 29, Gail, 38, two grandchildren and son-in-law Brian.
Jenni, now 63, said Christmas was still a big family celebration. The office worker-turned-writer said: “We have established a family tradition since our elder daughter married in 1993, so each year we go to lunch at her house.
“My daughter and I cook the food, traditionally we have a turkey breast roasted in the oven or if it gets very hot we do it in the barbecue, and a ham, with vegetables and salad to go with it.”
Just like back in Brum, Jenni and Gordon, 69, watch the Queen’s speech on TV. But, Jenni said, “seeing tinsel and decorations in the streets of Perth in harsh sunlight still doesn’t seem right.”
