Injuries!

We are injured.

Bob got hit by a car on his bike on Tuesday, scraped his knee the poor lamb and bashed his wrist although it couldn't have been too bad as he managed to punch his way through a full session of boxing training without too many tears. He is recovering well, bit of strapping goes a long way! My stupid achilles tendon has decided to play up so I'm out of the netball for a week or so, have to sit on the sidelines for tomorrow's game against Longwarry (boo) but don't want to play and have it ping on me - hospitals over here equals $$$$$! We will both try and be more careful in future : )

We have a car for a week! The red jeep is back in town, Laurelle has gone on holiday and we are car sitting. Woo hoo. Heading to an awesome restaurant tomorrow night, The Outpost, which is in Noojee (30 mins down the road) then off to Lakes Entrance, East Gippsland for some exploring in the bush.

Winter in Australia is quite funny. Despite it being 18C outside, people hide away in their homes as soon as the darkness sets in. All we seem to have done over the past two weeks is stay in, cook some food and watch the rubbish telly (it really is awful - never complain about the BBC! - oh, and Masterchef is finished, sob sob) Especially missing BBC news in the morning, today we had Grant chucking a chook at a crocodile, the winners of the latest diet craze and everyone whinging about the upset on the trains at Flinders Street because they were late to work on one day - surely there must be more interesting things happening in the world? I could be wrong

We have made some friends. We are off to Port Philip, Wilson's promontory next weekend with Casey and Phil, fellow Dusties, for a spot of camping and surfing. Goodness knows how I'm going to manage sleeping in a tent with the possibility of a spider coming to sleep in the tent too but I'm just going to have to get on with it. I'm getting better it must be said, maybe coming to the country with the biggest spiders is the best cure for arachnophobia? Time will tell! We have also been invited through to Narre Warren (45 mins from us) to stay with Irish Baz (Bob's new golfing friend) and his Australian wife Kylie. We know a Kylie! Awesome.

Cannot wait for summer. It's going to be fab. xxx

Beat Bunyip last week by 30 goals hurrah! Garfield tomorrow and we should win again. Trying to get our percentage up to stay in the top 6, then we can fight for a place in the grand final on 18th September. Exciting stuff! I'm getting fitter at least which is a bonus. Bring on Ellinbank in the final, that's what I say!

Bob has negotiated a handicap at the golf club. Apparently he needs to hand in 10 competition cards before he can get a handicap but the club pro called him up to 'discuss it' which has speeded up the process immensely. 'I hear you are quite good' says club pro. 'perhaps' says Bob. 'best and most recent handicaps? asks pro. '4 and 13' says Bob. Negotiated an 8 handicap. Bob delighted. Playing in the medal on Saturday and about to kick some ass with his newly purchased ebay driver. Bob is happy.

It's Friday night and it's Gillian's wedding at the moment back home! Sad to be missing it. I'm sat at home following some netball training with a cold stubbie, steak and chips and some AFL footie on the telly. I should be having some champers and preparing for a wee ceilidh jig! Not to worry. Looking forward to hearing all about it, fingers crossed it all goes to plan!

Enjoyed our impromptu night out in Melbourne last Saturday night, with Casey and Phil from dusties. We drove into Melbourne (90 mins there and back) for some Thai food, would you believe it? I've heard there's a good one down the road, but not to worry......A few stubbies in the car on the way there to warm us up and a good night was had by all. Snoozing on the way home, poor Casey had to put up with Bob's chat as Phil and I were not much company!

Looking forward to the $10,000 draw at Dusties in a couple of weeks time, the event of the season apparently!

Love to all, Mo and Bob xx

Four Seasons in one day!

Melbourne people love to talk about the weather!! Every patient I see starts the conversation with how cold it is, how their joints are sore because it's so chilly blah blah blah. It's 15C outside, not -7! This morning, it's 10am on Saturday and it's a clear blue sky with the sun shining. At last, some sunshine! A much better day to play netball compared to the washout two weeks ago. It was -3 in Canberra this morning according to the dreadful morning tv that is on in the background so for that reason alone I'm glad I'm in Melbourne!

On the tv theme, the only worthwhile thing watching at the moment is The Footy Show (AFL mad but really quite funny) and Masterchef - Marion got voted off! (Of course this will probably not mean anything to you guys back home but let me tell you it was a shocker) Masterchef inspired Bob to poach his eggs in clingfilm and inspired me to try and do some more cooking. However, when I did attempt to make pancakes the other morning, not only did I burn the pancake to a crisp, I managed to melt the fishslice and burn my finger. All in all, another culinary disaster to write home about. Will try again!

It's all go here with the General Election about to be called. No one likes Tony Abbott because he's not interested in economics and he's got big ears so I think Julia Gillard might win. She really does look like Tilda Swinton....

The past week in Warragul has been good fun although Lemsip have been bought in bulk! Now recovering from the worst, hurrah. Bob is off playing golf this morning in the medal competition although the fact that i had to massage his arms and back before he got out of bed does not bode well for the golf swing! Think the boxing has a lot to answer for. He is playing golf tomorrow too with Brad (my boss Helen's hubby) and an Irishman Baz (long story - Baz's wife sits next to Bec at work) and Baz's Scottish mate who has no name at the moment! Will be good if he can meet some golfers as the last competition he played in, he went round the course with two 80 year old men and had a cup of tea and a biscuit afterwards. Nice, but not as good as a cold beer! Bob is certainly missing the Open that's on at the moment - think this is the first time he's not been able to catch up with it on the telly so I'm sure he'll be up at the golf course just now begging for some Sky Sports action. McIlroy to win apparently!

Today Dusties play Bunyip at home. The sun is out, we're 5th in the league and Bunyip are 10th so hopefully we shall win. Social night in the clubhouse afterwards, pizza and Minute to Win It games for example ping down empty cans with an elastic band, and pick up assorted heights of cardboard box with your teeth. You get the picture! Sillyness at it's best. My Scottish accent is still the cause of much hilarity with the netball girls - apparently me saying 'I'm off to get a cup of tea and a Crunchie' was the funniest thing ever and resulted in them all repeating this phrase parrot fashion for the next half hour. There is only so long you can smile and nod until you want to throw something at their heads!! If I could only do an Ozzie accent in return, I would get my revenge. The only thing I can manage well is '30 bucks' for some reason and I sound a bit ridiculous even saying that - must get practicing.

Work is going well. I'm treating an Aberdonian man at the moment - last week we had a rather unproductive treatment session but we both had a good chuckle with the Billy Connolly jokes, particularly the Incontence man tying his pants on round the ankles. Another good one - Archie and Jock talking about Archie's up and coming wedding, flowers check, cars check, photographer check, church check. 'So Archie, what colour's your tartan?' ' I would hope white!' says Archie. Hilarious. Park your bike and never trust a fart. Need I go on???

Although I did treat him again yesterday and he told me a rather interesting story. Like me, he's cynical about these psychic fortuneteller type people but about 20 years ago he went to see this 'world famous' woman for some predictions about his future. She told him he was married with a boy and a girl, even though he wasn't wearing a wedding ring. She told him his son was being a right pain in the neck, which at the time he was. She also said that he would have problems with drugs and that he would overdose, although he couldn't overdose more than 3 times. Turns out sadly his son was a morphine addict, he overdosed 3 times and was saved in hospital each time. He overdosed a 4th time and died unfortunately. Spooky eh? But the most relevant thing she said (for me anyway!) was that he would have problems with his sciatic nerve and that he was to tell the medical people that it was definitely his sciatic nerve even though they may not think it is. So even though I don't think he has a problem with his sciatic nerve, I'm treating it anyway!!!!!!!! Clinical reasoning has gone out of the window but hey, he's getting better so not to worry.

Blabbing on and on, I could just waffle for days.....what else has been happening? We are still trying to find a car, although Bob is quite keen to buy a van and kit it out as a campervan for when we finish work in 10 months. We are hunting on Gumtree and have found a few vans that look great and are already kitted out, so we'll be able to head off for weekends on the cheap! First stop Mornington Peninsula we think, there are hot springs down there and lots of golf courses so sounds perfect! Might wait until it heats up a bit though.

I've also gone blonde!! Not really, but thought I'd get some highlights done, photos to follow. I came all this way for an Australian haircut and I get Debbie from Lancashire! Ah well, we had a good chat.

Last night, Bob and I went out for dinner....no, not to the Thai, but to Chambers, the wine bar down the street. It was love-lee. Wild Dog Shiraz, prawn and bug linguine, lamb with pea and pumpkin, duck confit, fat chips, chocolate plate for one (yum) and Eton mess. We'll be back!

Think that's all the news from Down Under. Love to you all back home x x x x

A celebrity!

Suffering from ManFlu does not a well boyfriend make, so it would seem. I've been trying to play nurse for the past few days, but I'm doubting my nursing skills as the Lemsips and tissues don't appear to be helping unfortunately. Must admit though, Bob is looking a lot brighter today that the sad miserable state he was in yesterday. Had to abandon him for most of the afternoon to go and play netball but he seemed to survive on the sofa under the blanket. Fingers crossed the worst is over and the germs haven't spread too far, I want to keep my voice this time!!

Due to the afore mentioned illness, there has been a distinct lack of golf this past week, in fact there has been a distinct lack of any wild nights out in Warragul this weekend. Didn't even make it to Boxfit this week, poor effort! Although I really did think my left arm was going to fall off after last week's boxing session - the woman who takes the class is a little bit scary and so times to skive are rare. We'll see how we get on this week!

The funniest story of the week - I've been asked to be the 'celebrity sportsperson' at the Dusties Football and Netball sponsors dinner! Apparently I need to be interviewed on the sofa, Parkinson style, about my netballing career! Uh oh. Sounds great, but when it actually comes to the day, I know I'll clam up and not give particularly interesting answers! I'll write something down, I'll do a one-to-one interview, ANYTHING but sit infront of 100 people and tell stories. My worst nightmare! Sadly I may have to chicken out - watch this space!

Although I did manage to get the award of 'Auction' player for the netball match yesterday so my footie player will be pleased to have won $1000. Hurrah!

We headed through to Geelong today, which is one hour west of Melbourne. Laurelle very kindly offered us her car again (we were VERY observant of the speed limits this time) and so we went for a BBQ/50th birthday party for cake and wine. Yum scrum. Bit of a longwinded story but an old colleague of Bob's is on holiday in Geelong and her friend who she is staying with was organising the BBQ and we were very kindly invited. Bit random but fun all the same!

Hmmmm what else.....

Dusties won 45-42, nailbiting finish!

No dog episodes or speeding fines this week

Bob being silly and getting up at 4.30am this morning to watch the World Cup final (alone)

Hope you have all recovered from the heatwave, I believe it has now returned to a normal 14C - we beat you with 15C today! Chat soon xx

Dusties defeated!

Daka Dave was our first visitor and an interesting visit it was too. Straight off the train in Warragul on Thursday evening and into the wine bar for a swift Little Creatures ale or two. An hour later and we're in the Thai, scoffing Panang curries and Curry puffs while Dave tells his travelling stories about a random backpackers birthday party in a field along the Great Ocean Road somewhere and his request of a cheeseboard in the local pub being met by a plateful of battered cheddar - hmmm! He is on a month holiday to Oz, to visit us (of course) but mainly to catch up with his 'friend' Steph who moved to Melbourne a couple of months ago. His plan is to catch the overnight bus to Sydney tonight (yuk) then head up the east coast to skydive, whitewater raft and most important sail around the Whitsundays for a few days. Being the sailor boy that he is, he'll love it, and we're quite jealous too! Was great to catch up with him on Thursday and we had a fantastic night out on Saturday with him and Steph too (I'll get to that later....)

Our week has been fairly quiet, been busy at work, the usual Warragul goings on, sore arms post Boxfit on Tuesday. Come Friday night after work and a couple of hours netball training, it was feet up on the sofa and a cup of tea thanks very much! Rock and roll. Had to get the preparation in for the big Dusties/Ellinbank showdown on Saturday, although the preferred option of carb loading with the pasta and an early night was taken over by the fish and chips and lucozade that I consumed, getting to bed at 2am after a sporty TV evening of AFL, UFC, World Cup and of course Wimbledon - Andy Murray didn't come on until 00.30am our time so I managed only one set before I had to go to bedfordshire.

Nevertheless, I awoke on Saturday feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed. That was until I looked out of the window to see horizontal rain lashing against the window and the trees blowing at a funny angle. Would we say I was looking forward to the netball match? Not so much.... Anyways after a feeble attempt at a warm up trying not to freeze our socks off, we went on to play Ellinbank - head to head with the famous Sam Hodge (she plays GD, and made it to Australian state level last year) we had a good tussle even if she did try to kill me with a blow to the head at one point - sneaky sneaky! Despite a horrible first quarter of 18-5, we came back to match them in every way, ending with a 43-33 score. Bah humbug! Better luck next time. Very wet with soggy feet at the end, but lucky me got player of the match for our team and I got a free voucher to the cinema, hurrah! A silver lining as they say

Quick shower then onto the train to Melbourne - checked into our rather compact boutique hotel (to give you an idea of the size of the room, we could only open the door halfway because it whacked against the bed) got some fizz from room service (!) and then headed into town for some Vietnamese food with Dave and Steph. This was followed by a few wee drinkies in Cookie and Toff in the Town before Dave decided to take us on a wild goose chase through the streets of Melbourne looking for a bar that no longer exists - this is what happens when you print off some pub names which hasn't been updated since 2003! Nevertheless we came across an R&B club giving us free entry and free 'champagne' (you can guess what the quality was like) and Bob and Dave gave us an attempt at a pole dance before we legged it out of there.

Ended up in a jazzy salsa type place on 'ACDC lane' (excellent) with a saxophonist and bongo drum player and a Lenny Kravitz lookalike bouncer. I have flashbacks of having a tequila shot, not with the usual salt and lemon, but with something that resembled a mix between the mingy dim sum we had in HongKong (plughole stuff) and a spicy pasta sauce. Bob and Steph were drunk enough to like it; Dave and I both had the same thought that if we let that stuff go down, we were surely to have it come back up again. How clever of us

This morning we met up with Bob's mate Beck who lives in Geelong with her hubby Johnny and their 1 year old daughter Inara, who is the cutest but most hyperactive little person I've ever come across. Most of the time we spent running after her and we did have a chuckle when she ran straight into a very clean window - it's happened to us all at some point (Mum and Dad - remember Helen in that maze?!?! hilarous)

Met up with Dave and Steph again for some morning after chat and some stodgy breakfast in Degraves Lane just off Flinders Street. Excellent for people watching and indeed we saw some very weird and wonderful fashions, particularly a guy in sunglasses, a horrendous homemade woolly jumper and his trousers on back to front (see photo)

Back to Warragul for tea time and early to bed, ready for another week! Maybe one weekend I'll manage to do some sort of detox for my poor liver. Hope all is well back home, miss you all, B & M xx

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELEN - your pressie is in the post......xx