First week....Done!

Bob and I are having a great time in Warragul or 'the 'Gul' as people call it here! Work is going well, the people are lovely and our flat mate is very easy going. Bob had an interview on Friday for a social work job so fingers crossed he gets it! He's also applied for several more so hopefully he'll be working soon. He's played a competition already at the local golf club although it's apparently a very short course and it's all measured in metres instead of yards so he ended up with a handicap of 13 = not happy!!

I've also played my first netball match with the A grade Warragul Industrials - the Dusties - and we won 52-33! They already have a nickname for me - Moz - although I think the other nickname will be Granny as I'm the oldest in the team. Rubbish! Hot bath was definitely required last night....Also been offered to join training for the team that are top of the league at the moment, Ellinbank so may pop along to that next Thursday and check it out.

Netball and Aussie Rules teams have a joint clubhouse and therefore organise a lot of social activities together. Footie players come and watch the netballers and vice versa, it's a good atmosphere and an event that lasts the whole day once we get through from U17's, C, B and A grade. A post match beer is encouraged! The footie is very popular - all the cars park up around the pitch and beep their horns when a goal is scored. You have to get there early! I just missed the Dusties retro 80's night (rubbish!) but think the next one is a Seafood night in July so we'll pop along to that.

We finally made it to the Thai! It was Fraser's leaving do from the clinic on Friday so we went along to try the famous Curry Puffs which were not quite up to scratch according to Fraser. The wine was flowing, mainly into Helen's glass (the boss) - she was quite entertaining by the end of the evening!! It was good to meet everyone in the clinic on a social level.

Today we are having a lazy one. Unfortunately I've now completely lost my voice due to some sort of chest infection so I think a trip to the doc's may have to be done. I'll need to figure out how to use the Medicare card thing first! Hopefully I'll be good for work tomorrow afternoon.

The weather is variable although rain seems to be dominating! Playing netball outside in the puddles was a novelty for me, and one I'll need to get used to!

Hope you are still basking in the sunshine at home.

Mo and Bob xx

First working day!

My brain is already fried and I've only been at work for 2.5 hours! It will definitely take some time to adjust to working life again and I'm going to be busy from what I've seen so far. Slightly overwhelming how much knowledge my employer has but I'm sure to learn great things from her. I need to get to grips with all the equipment, strappings and appliances they have first of all! I'm sure it'll get easier once I get into the swing of things.

Our weekend has been entertaining. After watching our first AFL game at the golf club on Friday (at the granny table) we were pleased to see some young faces at the local pub on Saturday night. Hurrah. Our flat mate Bec was on a sort-of-blind date which didn't turn out very well and so we went to rescue her. Very funny and we met some of her friends too which was good. Bob is thinking about signing up for Boot Camp with a guy we met.....we'll see if that ever materialises!!

Sunday was spent at Brandy Creek Winery, just 5 miles up the road. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful setting for some cheese and wine and pudding. Yum scrum.

The house is good, a little on the cold side but blankets and heaters are coming in very handy. I feel the need to buy some UGG boots!! We have no TV at the moment, or internet, so there has been lots of chatting and book reading. Rather pleasant. May need to take another trip up to the golf club to watch the ANZ netball match tonight.

Bob is doing well with his job hunting - fingers crossed he'll find something soon, perhaps at the local hospital. Watch this space.

Netball training not started yet - I need to pick a team first! Think I'll try some out then decide which one will suit best.

Hope you are all well, lots of love

Mo and Bob xx

Wagga Wagga Baw Baw

We might have moved into the most friendly area in Australia!

Warragul is certainly a lot bigger than we had both expected. A population of 12,000, pleasant locals and sporting facilities everywhere, we think we'll be quite happy here.

My employer, Helen, picked us up from the hostel on Thursday lunchtime (we weren't sad to leave) and drove us to Warragul. After a guided tour, some lunch, a visit to the clinic and the supermarche, we moved into our new home. Bec, our landlord/flatmate is lovely and the house is great too, photos to follow! Unfortunately we don't have the internet at home so will wait until we do before uploading.

Today we have achieved all priority formalities - bank account, medicare and of course joining the local golf and country club. Bob has already charmed a wee lady member into nominating him for membership at a discount price, well done Bob! Country club is lovely, we are off to the raffle there tonight to try and win a Wii or BBQ then a few pies and Victoria Bitters in front of the Aussie Footie match - a showdown between Collingwood and Geelong. A sell out of 90,000 so it's being shown live.

We have also found the tennis club, 10 outdoor netball courts for public use, lawn bowls, greyhound track, arts centre showing Les Miserables (although have been informed perhaps not up to Broadway standard...), the Edinburgh Motel, cinema and lots of cafes/restaurants etc. Already met the locals - Bobbie at the library, Chris at the bank, most of my work colleagues, Kirby in the medicare office and of course the lovely Maureen who is nominating Bob. Super friendly place.

The clinic looks great and very laid back. Don't have to work Saturdays, start at 9.30am on a Monday morning, start at 8.40am all other mornings and it's only a 10 minute walk from our house Bob has also found some relevant job adverts in the local Warragul gazette so looks promising that he will find something close to home.

Tomorrow we are having dinner at Helen's house with her family and the following Friday we are off to the Thai restaurant for a work night out. Pilates on a Thursday night, lots of golf and a netball team lined up.

It's all good!

Will update more soon, Bob and Mo xx

Melborneo

We've changed. Gone are the days of not really caring what your hostel bed looks like or who's in your room, eating from the not-so-clean plates and sleeping through noise. We are officially old. In fact, we had to go buy our own mugs yesterday for infection control purposes. I was even tempted to go and buy a packet of flashwipes, however perhaps that was taking it too far. I fear our hostelling days may be coming to an end! Noooooooooooo

Despite this however, Melbourne is fab. It's quite different to Sydney - definitely more multicultural and definitely colder! Lots of cool areas to explore here. St Kilda (where we're staying), Cartlon (which is near the uni and similar to Glasgow West End) Fitzroy and Chapel Street are places that we have on our to-do list. All can be explored on the free tram or bus which is pretty good.

Yesterday we made it round half the tourist bus route taking in where various things are for future trips to the city. Rod Laver Arena and MCG - check. Federation Square - check. Melbourne Museum - check. Docklands - check. We hopped off at Queen Victoria Market, an institution in Melbourne which had some very interesting items for sale! Food market is amazing. I know where I'll be going for my touristy t-shirts and an inflatable crocodile!

With a little help from our Lonely Planet friend, we found a cool bar for an aperatif - the roof terrace above Cookie which is also an open air cinema. Quite studenty but we could see why it was so popular, the views are great. Then onto a chinese 'Supper Inn' in China Town, tucked away down a dark alley which was extremely tasty and hugely popular. Yum Cha.

xx

Anyone for tennis?

Not us, we opted for Lawn Bowls, an obvious choice for our last day in Sydney.

Not that we're competitive, but we had the tape measure out. Bob, Kelly and Verity beat Alan, Mo and Matthew by 5 despite AMM's best efforts. We had a few bowls veering off into different rinks but all in all, an admirable performance by both teams.

Jolly good. xx

I saw a little silhouette of a man......scaramouche!

Too much sunshine - it's quite silly but funny

Gooned

Hello folks! Another lazy day for Bob and Mo, although we did manage to go for a 3k run with some press ups thrown in for good measure. Having survived the run and also the Jessica Watson day yesterday (the Aussies were super super enthusiastic and the tv presenters awful) we felt the need to go out and celebrate! Hence the title 'GOON'

A trip to the bottle shop ended with Alan and Bob buying a 4 litre box of cheap white wine type stuff (Goon) which included chicken, fish, egg and nut extract. Not very nice but appears to be an Ozzie thing so we thought we'd give it a go - coupled with the Diamond card game, it was found to be the cause of a lot of giggling before we even headed into town.

This morning, we have been officially gooned, and Bob's socks are in a tree. Enough said.

Hangover cure - Surfing! xx

A quiet two days

A laid back two days here in Sydney have been profitable and relaxed - Qantas have given us even more money for the 'inconvenience' caused by my baggage loss (hurrah), Bob has squeezed in 9 holes of golf with Matthew and prevented shoplifting in the local CottonOn clothing shop, I've worn out my flip flops getting lost in the underground shopping malls and we both finally succumbed to a Hungry Jacks for lunch. Never again do we want to eat raw chips and a teeny weeny chicken wrap thing. Bad move!

The botanic gardens here are quite something - I chilled out there during the golfing afternoon and avoided the bats and cockateels flying about in their abundance. Found Mrs Macquaries chair although not entirely sure what it signifies as there was a rather large bunch of foreign excited people huddled round so I couldn't get a very good look at the sign. Shall need to revert to the Lonely Planet for that one.

Today Bob and I wandered around town, headed to Oxford street (famous for the annual Mardi Gras festival/parade), treated ourselves to some lunch with our qantas winnings, sorry compensation, and ate some Tim Tams. They are rather good.

Finished off the day with a rather expensive bottle of wine in Neutral Bay. Ah, holiday time.

xx

Wine tasting!

Hello hello. Monday was a quiet day but a productive one at that. Managed to get some compensation from Quantas for my lost bag, $100 hurrah, and also managed to change our flights to Melbourne with little hassle. We are now flying to Melbourne Monday 17th so more Sydney fun to come! On recommendation from some friends, we decided to hire a car (Toyota Corolla, no sticky accelerator though, phew although it was from a company called 'No Birds'...hmmmm) and booked ourselves a wine tour in the Hunter Valley for the Tuesday! Wine and cheese, here we come!

Up silly o'clock on Tuesday morning so we could arrive at our Hill Top Guesthouse for 9am, minibus pick up at 9.30am. Lovely 90 year old wee lady called Margaret running the guesthouse although she did advertise billiards, in house massage and exquisite lingerie on the sign at the entrance which sounded a little risque to say the least! Turned out she was quite normal.

Typical Australian Bloke (TAB) called Alan picked us up in his bus and, as this was the quiet season, we got our own personal tour of the wineries. 8 in total, plus a chocolate shop! Brilliant. Didn't really get tipsy just very very sleepy. Our theory was to buy some wine only if it tasted good and we got some interesting chat. 5 bottles bought in total, including a chilled red. Very interesting! Couldn't handle the sparkling red, it was just too bizarre.

Alan told some local stories, mainly about tragedies happening to the families who owned the wineries, these stories included someone getting their arm shattered by a tractor, someone else getting stuck in a tank, someone else getting blown up and someone else committing suicide. I think what Alan was trying to tell us was to never own a winery.

After all that wine, in bed by 10pm. Rock'n'roll.

Visit to Newcastle the next day, not the most exciting place in the world but lovely lovely beaches so we stayed for a bite to eat then on our way back to Sydney we popped into Dee Why to catch up with Matthew, Verity and baby Lachlan. Thai takeaway and beer, perfect holiday food.

Good news for today - found a house in Warragul! Sharing with a 28 year old girl Rebecca in a 3 bedroom house. Trial for a month then we'll see where we go from there. My employer Helen also arranged to come pick us up on Thursday 20th May from Melbourne to head to Warragul, the best place to stay in Australia, if not the world. Warragul in 8 days, woo hoo

Love and cuddles, Borag xxx

More beach!

BBQ today - sunshine galore, throwing a football, cooking some sausages, dip in the sea, what more could you ask for on a Sunday afternoon on Palm Beach. Think we'll be tucked up in bed by 9pm tonight, all that fresh air makes for sleepy people!

Hope you are all well and enjoying the longer lighter evenings - it gets dark here at 5pm, rubbish! xx

Beach!

The past couple of days have been fairly relaxed. After a lazy morning on the 7th we headed to Manly to catch up with some friends, and 1 month old Lachlan. The beach was gorgeous, lots of posh houses and posers out running. So far we've made it to Manly Beach, Dee Why beach where Matthew and Verity live for some surfing and tomorrow we are planning on heading to Palm Beach, made famous by Home and Away, for a spot of BBQ-ing, awesome. Our first BBQ in Aussie.

Surfing is soooooo addictive! Managed to stand up for approximately 0.5 secs, so I reckon some practice is needed. No sharks visible thank goodness but a lot of seawater was consumed during some nosedives that went a bit wrong. Ah well, better luck next time!

Pub crawl later on in Neutral Bay - what was meant to be a few quiet beers in The Oaks turned into a bit of a mad night out. Headed to The Pickled Possum for some karaoke then on to Minsky's piano bar, Alan's favourite. Managed to get in some boogieing to Madonna with Kelly on the dancefloor. All in all, a fun night out. xx

Tourist-tastic!

Greetings from Sydney!

A tourist-tastic day on the 6th May - maps out, snap happy and a cheesy photo with a koala!

Bob and I took a walk along the harbour bridge from Neutral Bay to the harbour, managing to avoid avid followers of Australian Fashion Week to get a few snaps of the Opera House. Once inside the Opera House, we must have been in the right place at the right time because a lovely granny came up to us and offered us a free ticket to the show due to begin later that morning. How kind! A quick purchase of another ticket (front row of the circle no less) and we were watching the ballet 'Coppelia'! Brilliant. A good start to the day.

Next stop Pie Shop

Next stop Taronga Zoo! Stroked a wallaby, stood very close to a big spider without crying, rode a giraffe and got our cheesy koala photo. All in all, a good day out.

Back to the city for cocktail hour, mmm Raspberry Mule please, then on to watch Alan lose the rag with this team mates during a 5-a-side footie match. Not pretty! Pizza and beer cheered him up though.

Roll on Day 3 in Sydneyville - perhaps Manly beach today! xx

hot stuff baby!!!

Morag forgot to mention the worlds hottest curry! On recommendation of Kim (forever now known as the evil one) we went to the SOHO area of Hong Kong island and to a Sezchwan restaurant. the menu suggested we have a "tang" dish to start, to open up our taste buds, followed by a "ma" dish to tingle and numb your mouth and then a "ta" dish which translates as "will blow yer heid aff!" We followed the instructions to the letter and I can report that my heid is now well and truly aff!

Video and photos to follow. It was fantastic food and great fun, but boysh oh boysh was it hot

'straya!

Hello! We made it to Sydney!

Our last day in Hong Kong was fairly chilled out. Wandered to the Luk Yu Tea House in Soho to try some Dim Sum - this place was mental. The lonely planet guide described the waiters as being the grumpiest ever, and true enough they were. Quite entertaining though. Ate some lovely food apart from one minced pork and shrimp dumpling which Bob described as 'the stuff you pick out of the plughole'. Thanks Bob, that really made it look even more appealing......

Met up with netball pal Anna and her little one Abby who is just the cutest thing. Also met up with Kim, an old school friend of my sisters, she has not changed one bit. Had some beers overlooking the harbour, under the skyscraper made famous by The Dark Knight (apparently the man who likes bats jumped off this building). Lovely location for some catch up chat.

Flight to Oz allowed no sleep at all so Bob and I are a little like zombies today! Arrived in Sydney at 8.30am this morning, caught a sleepy glimpse of the Opera House and Harbour bridge then ferried to the Wee Man's house in Neutral Bay for some snoozing.

It's now 4.30pm in the afternoon and exploring is needed.

Loving Australia already!

xx