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:

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!