Go Saints!

I just love a close final! 68-68 was the score at the end of the AFL grand final war between St Kilda saints and Collingwood magpies and I must admit, having taken on Richmond as my footie team for the season I've finally seen the light that they are actually rubbish and I was screaming at the telly for St Kilda to win - GO SAINTS!!! Our Irish friend Barry and his wife Kylie had invited us over to their house in Hallam, 45 mins from us, to join them in screaming at the telly and what a laugh that was. We weren't dressed for the occasion - everyone else had their St Kilda strip on and their scarves around their neck (Barry had his shorts over his jeans too) - so we will need to try harder for next week because (can you believe it) the grand final has to be played all over again! No extra time, no golden goal, no penalties, just another 4 quarters of silly footie fun. A ridiculous rule but that's just the way the cookie crumbles. We will be screaming at the telly yet again on Saturday at 2.30pm and as we'll be in Merimbula with Alan and Kelly, we'll need to fight for the remote control as the rugby league grand final is on as well, not to mention the Ryder Cup - Bob is beside himself with excitement

We stayed over at Barry and Kylie's so that Bob and Baz could play golf today - Baz looked a little worse for wear this morning and therefore didn't quite play his best. Bob had a shocker of a start to his game by hitting his first two shots off the tee straight into the water, dear oh dear. Things picked up though and he came home a happy camper and a big red nose from the sunburn! Yes, that's right the sun came out, it was a glorious day with blue sky and 22C! What did Kylie and I do? We went to the cinema. Ridiculous - we should've been in the great outdoors! Think we have found some friends though and plans are being made for a day at the races, hurrah.

We have booked tickets to the Melbourne cup and I believe I will have to get dolled up for the occasion. We'll be heading to the Flemington racecourse on our way back from our camping trip along the Great Ocean Road. Can't guarantee I'll be the best dressed after a few days roughing it oz stylee but I'll try my best. Bob is not looking forward to sweating it out in his suit, I'm sure he'll find a way to dress up his boardies and hawaiian shirt...

We had a first this week - we got up at 6am and went to the gym! Actually (never thought I'd say this) I felt great afterwards and it kept me awake for the whole day. Took a few minutes to get my body into gear to do some decent exercise but it paid off in the end. We rewarded ourselves with a fry up afterwards : ) not hugely productive for the weightloss goals but we reckon we deserved it for getting up so early!

On the exercising front, Bob and I have been asked to join the A grade tennis team!!! Hilarous. We both had a chuckle when we got that phone call, think we will need to get some training in before our first game. Think we might have to play together in the mixed doubles so I'll have to control my tantrums when I send the ball flying out the back of the court (this happens a lot). We will keep you up to date with the scores!!

Jimmy the Jeep is leaking!!!! Small puddle of water formed under the engine this afternoon after our trip back from Hallam - phoned our local mechanic (!) and we are crossing our fingers it is just condensation from the airconditioning or something like that. We don't want a repeat performance of the UGY radiator disaster......

We have brought our moving in date forwards by a week so we will be living in Drouin as of the 8th October, woo hoo! We will let you know our address as soon as I can remember it...

Think that's all folks, getting used to Australian life and loving the sunshine!! Hope you are all happy and well back home, speak soon Bob and Mo xxx

End of Season celebrations

Phew, these girls know how to celebrate the end of season, even if they were runners up in the grand final. Yesterday, the B grade Dusties played Poowong (can't help but laugh at that name) in the final and pulled off a good display of solid netball. Unfortunately it just wasn't enough and they lost 43-47. Never mind, a few shots later, all was forgotten and yep, you guessed it we ended up in the only discotheque in town, The Commercial!! Quality night out. Not quite feeling 100% today!

The netball and footie grand final day is probably the most popular day of the year, judging by the number of people there! Camping chairs lining the netball court and footie field, food and drink stalls galore and loyal supporters shaking their homemade banners and pom poms. The A grade final between Ellinbank and Poowong had the supporters booing and heckling in the final minutes, it was quite amazing to watch how dedicated these fans were! Each netball team correlates to an AFL team so Ellinbank are the West Coast Eagles and Poowong are Collingwood Magpies and so all the footie players come along and sing their footie song for the netballers. I've never seen anything like it!

This week in Warragul has been pretty quiet. Planning holidays! We have booked up for the Great Ocean Road at the end of October, camping in Apollo Bay for three nights and will visit Flemington Racecourse for the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday 2 November, hurrah!

Bob has been trawling the internet to find a golf strength and fitness programme that will make him a better golfer! He found one although I'm not entirely sure how effective it will be as he has been crippled for the past 2 days now and DencoRub has become his new best friend! Hot baths galore and he's walking like he's just gotten off his horse. What an old man. As a result, he played like an idiot yesterday (his words) and today he's off to play another round. Good luck with that! I'll not get the Vanilla Ice song ready just yet....

It's the Aussie Rules Grand Final next Saturday, St Kilda vs Collingwood and we're off to Barry and Kylie's neck of the woods for a BBQ and footie spectacular! Looking forward to it. I'm now off to find an alternative hangover cure to Irn Bru and a roll and square sausage......I miss Irn Bru.....

xx

Tennis Champs!

I blame the Andre Agassi autobiography I've just finished reading for the inspired return to tennis this afternoon! Unfortunately, I didn't quite meet his standard but I at least managed to brush off some cobwebs and get some balls over the net. Bob played too and was smacking the ball left right and centre back at the senior team selector - lots of testosterone flying about in a bid to win Alpha male status!! We both managed to get an offer of a place in the teams, woo hoo but I think we'll maybe just stick to recreational play as I'm likely not to wilt like a delicate little flower in evening temperatures! (I was struggling today and it was only 18C with some sunshine - does not bode well for the coming months!) Apparently Tennis Victoria have a rule that if the temperature gets above 35C you have the right to say you don't want to compete - em, I was thinking maybe 25C would be a good temperature to bow out!

All in all, the Drouin Tennis Club was friendly and laidback and it was good for us to go down on the Open Day to have a hit with the regulars. Not entirely sure how many people there are our age playing but I'm sure we'll find out in due course.

We had a lovely dinner at Brandy Creek Winery on Friday night with Bob and my workmates Renee and Natalie, and Nat's boyfriend Dave. Delicious tapas food, excellent wine and we even managed a christmas pudding liquer post dinner which was much nicer than the last liquer we were given (for free) the last time we were there! Saturday, I went along to support the B grade Dusties in their semi final, which they won and so a mad night out has been planned for next Saturday, Grand Final day, minibus and all will be provided! This could be messy but hopefully B grade will come away with the premiership! Go Dusties. A, C, D, E, F and all the footie teams have been kicked out already so they are the last remaining team to possibly win. Fingers and toes crossed.

Other exciting news.... we have booked a holiday, two holidays in fact! We are heading to Merimbula, half way between Sydney and Melbourne (approx 6 hours drive) to meet up with Alan and Kelly on the 1st weekend in October. We were meant to be camping with Matthew and Verity and their little one, but at the last second they called off! We thought we'd still go anyway so looking forward to a relaxing weekend in the sunshine.

The other holiday is to Perth for Christmas, again with Sydney friends Alan and Kelly and also Bob's good friend Sally from Brighton. We leave on 20th December, flying to Alice Springs/Uluru and staying there until 23rd December, where we fly to Perth. Still looking at accommodation but likely to be Cottlesloe beach or Fremantle. Then on the 28th Dec, we head back to Sydney with A and K for new year on Sydney Harbour! Possibly an Ashes cricket test match at the SCG before heading back to Melbourne on the 3rd. So excited!

Bob is well, he is playing golf pretty much every Saturday and has now managed to get his handicap reduced from 2 to 4 which he is a bit happier about! He hasn't had another Vanilla Ice dance off yet but I'm sure if he wins again, I'll see him throw some moves on the living room dancefloor! He is thinking about looking for a new job as he is not finding his current job is as stimulating as he would've hoped. Likely he will see out his 6 month contract but seems like a good idea to keep his eyes peeled for something more enjoyable. He saw an advert for trainee cheesemaker the other day.........

My work is going well, very very busy, we are in demand! Have a couple of courses booked, Strength and Conditioning course with an Olympic physio at the Melbourne Institute of Sport and also a Hip course which will help me unveil the mystery of that particular joint!! Hooray. Anyway enough boring work chat, hope all is well in the land of Scotlandshire and very exciting news for the Rev Dr Barr I hear!! Looking forward to hearing all about it ; )

Lots of Love, Mo and Bob xx

Sydney Silliness

This weekend was super smashin great. Excellent to catch up with Alan and Matthew, Kelly and Verity for the wedding part II and also good to catch some rays of warm sunshine before our return to rainy Warragul!

Jimmy took us to Melbourne on Thursday evening for a stay over in a rather cheesy pornstar style room, with jacuzzi and tacky mirrors all inclusive - not sure it was quite what Bob was expecting when he booked it but hey, it did the job and caused us not to stress out trying to find the airport on Friday morning! We stopped off in Lygon Street in the Carlton region of the city for some dinner. Lygon Street reminded me of Byres Road in Glasgow and Edinburgh's Stockbridge, with a vast array of Italian and Thai restaurants, cool little boutiques and rather arty farty looking students. I loved it. Delicious pizza in Copperwood before dodging the trams en route to our motel (no hook turns thank goodness)

After a leisurely breakfast at the airport, we're flying to Sydney and meet Alan in the CBD for after work drinks. Unfortunately for me, I'm taken to a bar where I'm on the only girl who isn't (a) working behind the bar or (b) stripped to my underwear. Excellent choice Alan! I'm distracting myself with beer and pool and I practically have to drag the boys away from the scantily clad waitresses to the next stop. Bob and I gatecrashed the after work party and failed miserably at making ourselves invisible. Think we might have needed a suit to blend in, but people took pity on our scruffy appearance and gave us free beer. Hurrah! Topped the night off nicely with a good curry in Kirribilli then back to Neutral Bay to play Band Hero. Alan tossed his toys out of the pram when he realised he wasn't quite the next Dave Grohl and Bob gave us all earache with his rendition of Honky Tonk Woman. Kelly and I of course were brilliant - I'm particularly proud of my 2am performance of Spice Girls Wannabe and I'm pretty sure the neightbours hate me as I managed to throw in the dance routine (or a baby elephant version thereof)

Saturday was the day of the second wedding, sorry blessing for Matthew and Verity. A spot of lunch, a cocktail and a badly made Jaegerbomb later and we make it to the church on time for a 10 minute ceremony which included a rather confusing story about a fox and a little prince - Kelly and I thought the moral of the story was to tame your wife but apparently it was about a deep relationship with trust being the core element. Hmmm, didn't quite get that the first time round. Must have been the jaegerbomb......

Time for fizz! We make friends and then hitch a ride with our new friend to the Long Reef Golf Club for the wedding dinner. Beautifully set out and a lovely view of the beach, even if the weather wasn't up to much. I opened the door onto the balcony and I virtually got blown into the railing. Oops. Unfortunatley the weather prevented us from walking along the beach to the golf club, but as Matthew tested it out the day before and found that it took 1 hour 10 mins to walk and part of it we would've have to wade up to our knees, we were quite glad for the cancellation!! I'm sure the grannies were too. Was great to have the powerpoint in the corner of the wedding photos - every time Brian was in a photo we boo-ed and everytime Bob's mum appeared we shouted hello to Margaret. I'm pretty sure we were the loudest bunch there as we were definitely in the minority in terms of marriage and babies and children. Just meant more room on the dance floor for Alan to lead the conga of the unmarrieds....

The night was drawing to a close about 11pm but not for us, oh no - off to Minskys! I don't think I've ever consumed as much red bull in my life but it got us on the dance floor for a couple of hours. I even managed to sleep for at least 5 hours which is a miracle given all the caffeine consumed. Never again!

Off to Dee Why to see Matthew and Verity for some Yum Cha lunch where we saw the return of our most hated dim sum 'the plughole minced pork wonton' - I didn't go near it. Cokes all round please! Spot the table with the hungover people.

So that pretty much sums up our weekend in Sydney. Lots of food and drink and silliness. Time to plan the next trip! After a lovely Sunday in warm sunshine, 23C, we fly into Melbourne with flooding and torrential rain. Home sweet home!

Hello to everyone, hope you are all well xx