Where in the world are we?

Guests and Visitors

We've had lots of people passing through Melbourne. Keep 'em coming I say. We have a lovely spare room and love to have guests.

Mom was our most recent guest. What a gorgeous time we had - that will have to be a whole post on it's own..

Our mates from NZ KG and Craig came by - we had a lovely time at the Windsor for high tea and they also took us on our first whirlwind tour of YUM CHA! What a weird and wonderful breakfast. That's a picture of Tim eating a duck's foot.. we were so proud of him..

Tim's mate from Wales spent a few days.. Justin. Sorry guys - we forgot to take pics - we ate out a few times.. the usual.

Dan and his brother Jonny came to "work" in Melbourne. They seemed to spend a lot of time at the fancy Japanese restaurant Nobu. Not sure how much they worked.. we had some awesome times with them - lots of laughing as always.

Adi and Fra came for a very special visit.. Adi was about to POP. Little Pierre was taking up so much room Fra had to do her laces for her - very cute. We took them to our favourite little Melbourne haunt, Pellegrini's - it was Tuesday which is spinach and ricotta canneloni day - YUM. We also took them past our best ice-cream joint just after breakfast - but we still managed to eat one each. Tim was ever so elegant as usual (that's an ice-cream cone in there this time - not a duck bill - you never know with him - he'll eat anything off an animal). You can see how shocked he is to see the grafitti...

My Uncle John and cousin, Bindi came to Melbourne for footy and my cousin-in-law's 30th birthday bash. We took a lovely circular drive around the 2 peninsula's of Melbourne - the Mornington first, then the ferry across to Queenscliff, then along the Bellarine peninsula. Gorgeous trip. The beach at Portsea is my favourite one in Oz so far - stunning. We also took John to our ice cream spot - he was joking saying he wanted "red wine flavour" - lo and behold when we arrived - guess what he had to order! Red wine ice-cream... be careful what you wish for folks - even if in jest!

Our most rowdy guest of course is the larger-than-life-Markie Mark, all the way from London. He's so precious. We came home to find him with his feet dangling off the balcony and all the beers in the fridge consumed by 10am. But we had great fun with him.

Thanks for coming guys.

For the rest - get yourselves over..

Mount Buller

We did a kinda crazy one day adventure to the snow. All of this was only 225km from our house! Pretty gorgeous drive, sandwiches and tea packed - off we went to make sure we hadn't forgotten the basics of snowboarding we picked up in NZ. It's been two years since we had been on the snow. I was terrified.. but after half a day we were back to where we left off. Thankfully there were lots of beginners slopes open for me to get comfy on again.

Sadly on the way home I had the worst gastro and was seen by a whole school bus of kids puking on the side of the road. I now know all the toilets along the route. Each time we stopped Tim would have to buy something so I could use the facilities.. he's a good boyfriend!

Pink

What can I say? We went to see Pink at one of her 17 shows in Melbourne. Expecting little - we were blown away. She is a succulent, sexy, athletic woman with a kick-ass voice. For all of you non-believers out there - you should see the show before laughing at us!

Taste of Melbourne

We had a gorgeous night out at the Taste festival - stunning old building as the venue. Basically 15 of Melbourne's top restaurants put on 3 dishes to try. We also saw a few cooking demos and watched a chef interview. It's great fun - you pay with crowns - which is like monopoly money and it's easy to spend loads! We sampled lots of little yummy things (and wines of course). Timmo does enjoy the odd bit of yummy red wine these days. But the highlight of his night was the massive chocolate fountain of course!

AFL and Netball

We are engaging in true Ozziedom and have been to 2 games.

Our first was with my uncle and cousins, the Hawks vs Port Adelaide – Australian Rules Footy at the MCG – 33 000 people in the crowd. All dressed as their favourite team – pretty random. We were given some team regalia to wear by my dedicated family and got comments the whole day – on the tram, on the street corner and from vendors! I didn’t realise what a conversation opener wearing a hat could be! This town is mad with AFL fever.

It was a great vibe watching the game – it is a massive field and a lot faster than “real” rugby – it’s pretty cool to watch. Never did quite get a hang of the scoring though. And the men’s bodies are to die for – best of any sport!

The second game we went to was with our lovely mate Debbie and her family. Her sister plays for the Steel netball team representing Otago and Southland (the area we lived in in NZ). We watched Steel vs the Melbourne team Vixens. It was awesome and fast – a real treat for me to see high level netball. Tim loved the girls in their teeny skirts and was a very exuberant spectator!
We noticed at both games it seems to be tradition to eat a “meat pie” at the game – horrendous and only “25% meat” – really makes your mind wonder.. 13 pis per capita are consumed a year here! (No wonder 15% of the police are obese and Australia has taken over as the fattest people on earth..! Not really what we were expecting with the typical idea of a sexy oz beach babe that’s out there. But hey – it keeps me in work in these tough times).
Sadly both teams we were supporting were pummelled.. maybe it’s us?

Cycle tour..

Hey. So much has been happening I am overwhelmed with things to write about. So I picked something small.. and will put some short articles on the blog to get caught up – slowly chipping away so you are all left with a clearer picture of where we are at..!

Last weekend we had a gorgeous, clear winter’s day. There was a chilly wind but you could only feel it in the shade. We took a 28km gentle cycle over the day along Hobson’s Bay.
Our first stop was a lovely brekkie with mates only 3km from home. With full bellies we took a ride through the park and under the massive westgate bridge to the edge of the Yarra. We caught a cyclist punt across the water and continued on along the water passed the hopeful fishermen (for once we actually saw people catching things!) and happy dogs being taken for walks. We arrived in Williamstown – Melbourne’s first sea port and now a heritage area. The main street is very quaint and felt like a million miles away from the city.

We had a look around and could not resist the French creperie - lovely buckwheat crepes complete with typical glasses of apple cider! Tim had an ox tongue which was surprisingly nice.. He loves the weird stuff the French serve up! We meandered slowly back – just in time for a stunning sunset. Lovely day.