The holiday comes to an end...

Well, Mum and Dad are now winging their way back to England :( The house seems quite empty without them, especially at the dinner table. We had a lovely day on Friday though, going to Phillip Island to see the penguins. Got down there for lunch and then went to the Koala Conservation Sanctuary, where we saw 9 koalas including a nine month old infant. It was so cute and woke up to feed off it's Mum. She then spent ages grooming it and giving it cuddles. The three of us stood there for half an hour just watching him (there was no one else around!) Then we went off to see the penguins. While we were sitting waiting for dusk to fall, we watched a seal playing in the sea. The penguins came up off the beach at 7.30 p.m so not so long to wait this time, but they were equally as entertaining. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take photos of them so we can't put any on the blog.

It was lovely having Mum and Dad here and for them to see everything and meet everyone, so they know who and what we are talking about. Hopefully, it won't be too long before they can come out again. Our next visitors (Jane, Olly and Alice ) are arriving next Monday (11th) - VERY early in the morning (5a.m!!!!) so just gives me time to do all the washing!

By the way, our clocks went back at the weekend so we are now 9 hours ahead of the UK. This means no chance for early morning phone calls from this end since by the time we wake up, you Guys will (most probably) be in bed :( So we can only call at the weekends from now on.

Tassie....

Last week, Mum, Dad and myself flew to Tasmania to do a whistle-stop tour of the island. After only an hours flight, we landed at Launceston, where we picked up our hire car. Our first stop was a place called Cataract Gorge, which is only a 15 minute walk out of the town and where the North and South Esk rivers meet with the main Tamar River. We got the chairlift over the first basin and when we got off it, were met by some friendly wallabies! Spent a couple of hours there afterwhich, we went to find our B and B, which was great and did a mean breakfast.

Over the next couple of days we headed westwards along very winding roads towards Cradle Mountain and Lake St. Clair, but unfortunately, because the weather was so bad, we didn't get to see much. Still raining, we arrived at Hobart where we stayed in another lovely B and B and had a good fish "n" chip meal at Meurs. We did pass through some pretty villages called Strahan and Richmond, but to be honest, there's not much to Tasmania and I don't think I'd go again, especially with the Boys - they would be bored silly! It's great if you like walking holidays in the rain, but funnily enough... I don't!

On Saturday, Sam had his first friendly and won 2 - 1 which pleased him. Last weekend, Will played in his AFL game. Unfortunately, they didn't quite have the same result! However Will did get credited with an 'assist' which is great for a first game (he plays the position of pocket forward)

Yesterday (Sunday ) we went to the Australian Grand Prix which was a great experience. Gates opened at 10.30a.m and we pitched our spot on a hill right by the first bend - along with 50,000 other people! There was loads going on all through the day until the actual race began at 5 p.m and it was good to see Lewis Hamilton on the podium at the end in second place. At the end of the race everyone rushes onto the track and heads down to the podium - Jack and his mate Dan ran off....and turned up home a couple of hours later!

Today, I took Mum and Dad down the Mornington Peninsula where we stopped off at Arthurs Seat for a good view and a lovely walk. Then, off to Sorrento for a delicious lunch, before returning home at 5p.m. Tomorrow is going to be another gorgeous day and we are off to Lysterfield National Park to see the kangeroos :)

First two weeks...

OMG! Can't believe it's two weeks since I updated the blog! I was sure I did it last week but think I must've just put new pictures on Flickr and Facebook. We have done soooo much in the last two weeks that I don't know where to start!

In the first few days we went into the City and up the Eureka Tower, did the walking tour "Melbourne by Foot" and visited Redhill Craft market. Took Mum and Dad to Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary where we saw lots of lazy koalas, platypus, roos and lots more.

For our birthdays, Mum and I went to see Mary Poppins at the theatre (which was supercalafragerlistically fantastic) whilst Dad had a look round the MCG Sports museum. After that, we went on the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant on which we had a 3 course meal whilst travelling around Melbourne!

Thursday we went to Anglesea to meet up with Mum and Dad's friends and then after school on Friday, we drove to Wilsons Prom which is a National Parks area located 2.5 hrs away from Mordialloc ( a cross between the New Forest and Yosemite!!!) We had booked two cottages as we went with Natalie, Jason and the girls and spent a lovely Bank Holiday weekend relaxing and chilling out. The weather was fantastic and we spent all day Saturday at "Squeaky Beach" surfing on the waves and swimming in the sea. The scenery is pretty spectacular and we saw several wombats and kangeroos and a group of 24 emus!

Tomorrow, I am taking Mum and Dad to the Dandenong Ranges and Friday we are hitting the city once more.Then next week, the three of us are off toTasmania!

Loads of new piccies on Flickr...

Mum and Dad arrive!!!

Well, March 2nd arrived and so have my parents. I was very impressed that all the Boys wanted to come to the airport to meet them, even though it meant getting up at 5.30 a.m! Maybe it was more the fact that they would be late into school that appealed?! They had a good journey flying Business Class with Qantas and we were all a bit teary-eyed when they walked through the gates.

After dropping the Boys off at their schools en route, we arrived back at ours at 9.30 a.m. They unpacked, showered and then we walked along the beach to have lunch at the beachside cafe. They don't seem to be too jet lagged though fall asleep very early in the evening (so what's new?!!!)

Yesterday, (Friday) we headed into the city and went up the Eureka Tower and did the "Melbourne by Foot" walking tour, after-which they were exhausted!

Sam made it into the "A" team of Brighton F.C so is now training twice a week. Will has joined an Aussie Rules team and he, too is training twice a week. So things are getting back to normal on the "running the kids around" front!

This week, Chris bought me a beautiful new road bike for my birthday. We have just come back from a ride to St. Kilda and for the first time EVER, I was faster than him!!! This bike is amazing - just makes cycling sooo easy!

6 months

Hi Everyone,

Not a lot to report on this week, but amazingly, it's 6 months already since we arrived in Oz! My! How the time has flown and how much have we done!

I have kept up with my fitness regime this week, even though the Tri is over, starting a cycling club on Tuesday and tennis at a new club on Thursday. Friday, I felt like I'd been kicked in the kidneys and ached all over, having played 3.5 hours of tennis non-stop the day before!

Chris, Natalie, Jason and myself had "Take 2" of the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant experience, and although storms were forecast, we managed to see out the night with a feeling of "deja vu". Having stopped off at a bar on the way there, it didn't take us long to relax into the atmosphere

The food was great, as was the company and the whole experience - would definitely recommend it :) Photos, as always, on Flickr.

My First Triathlon!

Well, the day I had been training a mere 3 weeks for had arrived! Needless to say - I had a very bad nights sleep. When I went to bed, my heart was going mad - the adrenalin was pumping round so fast! Sleep was very fitful and when Sarah Hamlet sent me a text sending me "Good Luck Wishes" at 5a.m, I decided to get up and have a cup of tea! How English is that!!

Nat and I cycled down to the beach, only to be told that the swim had actually been cancelled due to the poor water quality since the flood a week earlier. I was actually a bit disappointed, because although this was the part I was dreading, I had actually been training every day in the sea that they said wasn't safe enough ...oops!

Instead, it had been replaced with a 500m run, bare-foot, along the beach - still wearing the swim cap - what was that all about?!!! This was actually to my benefit, although it is hard running on sand that has been indented with hundreds of other people's footprints!

That run was then followed by a 8k bike ride and then a 2k run. None of it sounds very far on paper, but believe me, the final run was a killer after the bike ride because your legs feel completely dead. What I would normally run very easily seemed a real struggle. BUT... I finished!!! And lived to tell the tale! And will probably do another one very soon so that I can experience the swim part.

Overall, I came 77th/230 and in my age category 17th/38, so I was quite pleased :)

The Morgans and the Pribils then returned to ours for a well deserved BBQ breakfast cooked by Chris :) I would like to thank Chris, Sam and Will for turning out at the crack of dawn (literally) to support me - they were fab! Sam and Will had written on their chests "Go Mum!" which was sooo lovely. Will did a great job videoing the event and Chris and Sam on the fotos. THANK YOU my lovely Boys - U R gr8!!!

There is a little video below (thanks to Will the camera man) and more pictures on our Flickr site (or take a look to the right..)

Floods in Mordialloc!!

Well, we had a bit of a surprise last night when it started to rain. Will came home from school warning us that a storm was on the way.....did we listen...?

Within 10 minutes the rain was lashing and the water levels started to rise. The drains from our house are quite slow normally so suddenly there was no way they could cope with the mass of water. The road out the front of our house was about a foot deep and the garage was getting flooded as the drains overflowed!

I (Chris) was at work when all this was going on and Caroline was giving me updates. We were meeting up in the centre of Melbourne in the evening with Jason and Natalie for a meal on a tram that takes you around the city! So Caroline left Will and Sam baling out water from the garage and headed to the station with Natalie! The trains were running fine and I had helpfully reported that there was no rain in the city :-)

However, with perfect timing the rain started lashing again in the city just as Caroline and Natalie stepped off the train. Unfortunately they got absolutely soaked walking to the bar where Jason and I were waiting...

After a swift glass of champagne (as you do) we headed off to the tram restaurant, but now the rain was really heavy. The roads were all flooded in a foot deep of water and I decided to take my shoes off and roll up my trousers - a good look! We crossed the road with water up to our knees but soon realised that there was no way the tram was coming so we headed off to another restaurant.

Once again the Morgan rain dance hits again - it's the middle of summer in Melbourne.....and there are floods...hmmmm...

In reality I think we got the tail end of the Queensland cyclone so should think ourselves very lucky.

By this morning some of the water had subsided but many roads are still blocked. Take a look at our Flickr site for lots of photos....like the one below: