OMG....it's hot!

Caroline (walking to the car and wearing a cardi):

"...it feels really cold today...what is the temperature...?"

Chris (laughing):

"33c!"

It is amazing how quickly we have adjusted to the different temperature here. If it is below 22/23c it does actually feel cold! I go to work most days without a jacket which is rather nice.

Today it has hit 36c in the shade so far and possibly still rising. Won't be much fun for Andy Murray.......

...our visitors have gone :-(

Sadly our visitors John and Joss returned to the UK yesterday after staying with us for a week. We all had a lovely time together and it was great to see them and catch up with all their news.

Caroline had arranged a fun packed week which went as follows:

Monday: J&J, Caroline and the boys headed into the centre of Melbourne to take a look around. They took the train as it is very quick and only costs $3 for a day pass if you are a Senior Citizen!! Following a walk around the various lanes they took a tram tour around the city before heading home for tea.

Tuesday: A trip to the Dandenong Range which is about an hour drive from our house. From here there are spectacular views back across Melbourne and the surrounding area. It is also a lovely area to wander around with little villages to explore, serving cream teas!

Wednesday: This was Australia Day (or Invasion Day as the indigenous people call it) so a public holiday. It marks the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney in 1788 but is generally seen as a day to celebrate being Australian. Jack wanted to hang our Union Jack out the front of the house...but we decided not to! We spent the day at Phillip Island which is about a 90 minute drive away. Here there is a very famous penguin colony and people come to see them returning from the sea at sunset to return to their nests on land. It was a really great day and before seeing the penguins we stopped off at a Koala reserve. Here we got to see Koalas in their natural habitat including a baby Koala. There are some lovely pics on our Flickr site as usual (look to the right of this post). Also we stopped off at Surf Beach and had fun for a couple of hours in the rock pools and playing on the beach. Will and Sam decided to take a swim even thought the temperature was a cold 23c (....we are local now...). We ended the day watching the penguins return at sun down...they are so cute and I have no idea how they can find their little nests!

Thursday: John and Joss headed back into Melbourne to do some more exploring and visited the Immigration Museum, the Bodies exhibition and the Aboriginal Art Gallery.

Friday: A lazy day including a walk along Mordi beach and a nice lunch at a local restaurant. Sadly J&J had to leave about 6:30pm to catch their flight and we were sorry to see them go.

So it was a lovely week, great to see John and Joss and we are looking forward to our next visitors in about 4 weeks time.

Our first visitors!

Our first visitors from the UK have just touched down in Melbourne and we are awaiting their arrival as I write! John and Joss Duffield (my Mum's cousin) have been visiting their daughter, Sara, husband Jarod and Grandson, Reuben in New Zealand and are popping into see us on their way home back to England! I am sooo excited - can't wait to see them and show them a little of Marvellous Melbourne!

This week I have gone completely mad and have finally been persuaded by my friend Natalie to enter my first (and maybe last?) Triathlon which takes place in Mordi on February 13th. Having been resisting for many weeks, ( due to my lack of confidence in the water), I am now doing a 200m swim in the sea, followed by a 8k bike ride, finishing with a 3k run. What changed my mind...? Good question! Basically, I went for an early morning run on Thursday and the water was so still and inviting, I thought I'd have a go (and there was no one watching!) and dived into the water fully clothed! The run home afterwards was actually quite refreshing, and by the afternoon I'd headed down to DFO and bought my first Speedo cossie! The next day, Nat and I went for a bike ride, followed by a swim, and the rest is history! I have been out every morning since! This morning, there were 4 jellyfish joining me, one of which kindly stung me, but it was more irritating than painful.

On Saturday, we hosted a PwC BBQ at ours. I was a bit worried that after one hour, no one had turned up, but in the end we had about 30 people and lots of children. Jack did a fantastic job of manning the BBQ and it was very successful. Also nice for me to meet people that Chris works with so I can now put a face to the name. Over here, it's the norm for the person hosting to supply basics like rolls, sausages (snags) and salad, then everyone brings their own meat and drink (then take what they haven't eaten back with them) However, they also brought more salads and desserts and DIDN'T take anything home so we had our neighbours over today to help us polish it all off!

The days are beautiful at the moment. You can head down to the beach at 7.30p.m and it's just beautiful - definitely what being in Australia is all about :) Chris has put a few new fotos on Flickr (to your right)

The Aussie Open begins...!

Today (Monday 17th) is the first day of the Australian Open Tennis Tournament and Sam, Will and myself went along. Unlike Wimbledon, where you have to get up very early in the morning, drive to London and queue for several hours to get in (if you don't have a ticket), I had bought a family ticket at the shops the day before for $75.

It was hassle free and we waltzed in at 10.30 with me meeting up with my friends Jackie and Viv.Everything is very "blue" compared to the green, purple and white colours at Wimbledon, and the lines-people and ball boys/girls were wearing yellow - NOT the smart green/blue blazers of Wimbledon.

Saw some great matches - Francesca Schiavone (number 6), Sam Querrey (USA's number 18) who was knocked out by a Polish guy and Na Li - China's number 9 seed who had a huge following. Watched a bit of Tomas Berdych (number 6) and then went to watch our token English girl - Elena Baltacha on court number 10 (who I bumped into in the ladies loo just before the match started!) We had front row seats and rallied up tons of support for her, especially when it looked like she was going to lose at the last hurdle due to a leg injury. However, she rallied through and won ! Andy Murry's Mum was there watching too!

The only down side of the day was that it was sooo cold! The day before it had started cloudy but then cleared by 10a.m and was lovely and sunny. I assumed the same would happen again, so wore a dress. But it didn't and me, Viv and Jackie were huddled under a blanket most of the day wishing we had worn jeans! So much for the Aussie summer - definitely warmer at Wimbledon!

20/20 Fun

Hello everyone - just a quick post to say I have put some more photos on our Flickr site. We had a good time at the 20/20 cricket on Friday with our friends....sadly England lost but it is always great to experience the atmosphere at the MCG. Well...we had to let the Aussies win a game I guess.. :-)

You can see the photos by clicking here..

PS. Happy Birthday Alice!!!

Not a bad week...

Well I've now returned to normality after living life like a bit of a celebrity! I've had 2 of the best weeks of my life meeting cricketing legends, watching the Sydney New Years fireworks from a boat in the harbour and to top it all off, watched England beat Australia twice in 2 different cities!

It all started when my friend Jack who I played football and cricket with at home, arrived in Melbourne just before Christmas. We met up and we planned to go to the cricket together as he had spare tickets for all of the other days whilst Mum and Dad were away, so that was me sorted for the week! Once Mum and Dad had gone to Sydney I pretty much lived at Jack's hotel with him and on the third night had dinner with Shane Watson and his wife Leigh Furlong who is a TV presenter out here. They were both really nice people and we had a great evening! Jack and his family then asked if I wanted to go to Sydney with them for New Years and the cricket and of course it was a very hard decision to make!

So the day after the cricket finished I was on a plane to Sydney! In the business lounge at Melbourne airport we bumped into Ricky Ponting who was on our flight! He had missed his earlier flight so was sitting in economy and a few of the barmy army sang him a few songs! Ricky seemed like a nice guy, however, I don't know how he played with his finger like it was as he had a metal support on it! When we arrived in Sydney there were lots of press waiting there for us, nothing to do with Ricky being on the plane! They hounded Ricky at the airport even when he was picking up his bags, which I thought was pretty bad. Also, in the airport at the same time, were the Sydney football team who attracted no attention from the press at all, show's how popular football is!

We got to the hotel and it was great, 5 stars and all! Sharing our hotel with us were a few famous names including Nasser Hussain. David Gower and Michael Holding. The latter 2 I would meet later in the week! When I arrived I met up with Mum and Dad and I went for dinner with them which was nice.

The next day was New Year's Eve and during the day we headed over to Manly beach on the ferry. I had a go at surfing and I did surprisingly well and I managed to properly surf after about an hour, pretty proud! Then in the evening we headed down to Darling Harbour to board a boat from which we would enjoy the Sydney fireworks! On the way around the harbour we got some great views of Sydney including the bridge and the opera house. On the boat were a few cricketing legends including Ian Botham, Michael Holding, David Gower and Steve Finn! They were all really nice people and I got to have a good chat with them all. We welcomed in the new year watching the fire works in Sydney Harbour and a rendition of a few barmy army songs!

On New Years Day we just chilled and went out for a meal in the evening. The next day we were at a BBQ all day at Ian Botham's house which was great fun, met a few more cricketers including Michael Atherton! Beefy's house is by the beach so Jack and I went for a swim and there was lot's of sea life including ray's and some brightly coloured fish.

Jack and I then hit the sales the next day and then in the evening we went for dinner round the Watson's which was pretty awesome. Playing backyard cricket with "Watto" isn't something you do every day! The next day the cricket began and the Aussies once again managed to prove how bad they are at cricket! The next few day's were spent at the cricket watching England decimate the convicts. The Barmy army were in full voice the whole time which made it good fun!

On the final evening we went for a brilliant meal at Cafe Sydney which is one of the best restaurants in the city. We went with a group of friends from NZ and Brett Lee. We returned to the hotel about half 12 and Binger had gone home to get his guitar and we were all up singing songs until about 5am!!

My week in heaven had to come to an end and the next day I flew home and instead of a limo waiting for me at the airport I had to get a bus and a train! Brought back to reality with a thud!

Well that is how one of the best week's of my life happened and it is an experience I will never forget and will be able to tell stories about for years to come!

Home again!

Back home again in Melbourne now having had a great time in Sydney. The highlights of the holiday were taking a walk from our apartment in Wooloomooloo all through the Botanical Gardens and around Mrs. Macquarie's Point to view the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House for the first time; the Bridge climb; having a tour round the Opera House; New Years Eve fireworks and for the Boys, playing in the surf on Whale Beach on New Years Day 2011.

Jack's last two weeks have been surreal. His friend from the UK, Jack Bransgrove, (who he used to play football and cricket with ) has been over here in Australia for three weeks watching the Tests in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. Jacks father (Rod) is Chairman of Hampshire Cricket Club and hence knows all of the Aussie team. Our Jack met up with his friend Jack when he first arrived in Melbourne 2 weeks ago and has been staying with him ever since - in Shane Warne's Penthouse Suite in the Crown Casino in the city!

He also went to the cricket every day at the MCG courtesy of the Bransgroves.

When we booked to go to Sydney several months ago, Jack decided he didn't want to come with us but wanted to stay in Melbourne for New Year. That was until he had a better offer from the Bransgroves to stay with them in the 5* Sheraton and go to the cricket every day in Sydney! Not only that, but he met Ricky Ponting in the Business lounge of the airport, had a BBQ at Sir Ian Botham's house and to cap it all, a BBQ at Shane Watson's house with the rest of the Aussie cricket team!!! One text he sent us said "it's funny watching Shane Watson on the TV when I was at his house yesterday having a BBQ!" He returns on Friday and we are looking forward to hearing all about his adventures. It will be a bit of a shock for him coming back down to earth and having to socialise with his family!!!

Today, (Chris's last day of his holiday) we went to Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary where we saw roos, koalas, dingoes, a Tasmanian Devil and platypus! The platypus were gorgeous - much smaller than they are always portrayed. They are mammals but of the Monotreme family and can hold their breath under water for 11 minutes. The males also have a venomous spur on their foot to ward off any other males! The Boys also enjoyed the Birds of Prey show.

A selection of moments from our 1st 4 months in Australia

Hi Everyone - I have put together a few short video clips and photos from our first four months in Australia. Hope you like them!!

I have also added a few more photos to our Flickr site so take a look there too! In case you can't remember it can be found by clicking here.

NYE and NYDay...Aussie style...

Hi Everyone - Happy New Year!!!!

We had a very different New Year this year but a really good one.

For New Year's Eve we decided to go to the harbour to watch the fireworks. There are a number of good view points and people start queueing as early as 8am!! We turned up about 11:30 and there was a big queue but Chris used his commuter skills (ie. pushing in) to accelerate the Morgan position :-)

Anyway we managed to secure a really good spot and spent the afternoon just chilling out. At 9pm the first set of fireworks went off and they were pretty spectacular. However the midnight fireworks were wonderful - they are being described in the papers as the best ever. Luckily for us the journey home was only a short walk so we were back in our apartment by 1am!

On New Years Day we drove to the Northern Beaches area of Sydney where there are some wonderful beaches. These are much less busy than Manly and Bondi as the tourists tend not to venture there. However as we have a hire car (and as Chris know's the area well as this is where he has been working) we headed for Whale beach. Sam, Will and Chris had great fun in the surf and with the temperature pushing 30c Caroline enjoyed taking in the rays. Will 'enjoyed' a Morgan first by getting stung by a Bluebottle jellyfish - actually it was quite painful and I did have to offer to amputate his foot but Will declined. After applying some ice the pain rescinded but he did also have to take some Ibuprofen :-(

It still seems strange to hit the beach on New Year's Day...but I have to say it is better than freezing in the cold !!

Tomorrow we are heading for the Blue Mountains but stopping off at the Olympic stadium first for a tour...