Bob grows a Mo for Movember!

Movember
I’ve donated my face to Movember! Now I’m asking you to make a small donation to support my moustache and the 3,300 men who will die of prostate cancer and the one in eight men who will experience depression in their lifetime. Thank you. http://au.movember.com/donate/

As Crowded House would say "Everywhere you go...Always take the weather with you" Bah Humbug!

The plan for the Melbourne Cup 4 day weekend was to stay over in Geelong (2 hours west of Warragul) on the Friday night and then head along the Great Ocean Road on Saturday morning, camping in Apollo Bay for 3 nights and heading to the Melbourne Cup Races on Tuesday.

Sounds great! Alas, 'twas not to be. Factor in the worst weather ever and suddenly there is a change of plan. Yup, that's right, I'm not typing this blog from my tent, I'm back home warm and dry with a good cup of coffee and rotten morning tv in the background. Never before have we been defeated on a camping trip but we were both in agreement having spent a miserable night in the tent that heading home was the best option.

However, I'll tell you from the start what we did manage to do - it wasn't all bad!

Packed up Jimmy on Friday early evening with a tonne of stuff that we probably didn't need but thought we'd take anyway. Headed to Geelong, 2 hours west of Warragul/Drouin, and stayed the night in a motel on the esplanade. Ordered a nice bottle of Clyde Sauv Blanc, made in Rutherglen, Melbourne! Mmmm. Next morning we set off bright and early, just as the grey clouds set in, and stop off in Torquay for some information - the lovely Marie was very excited about our trip and gave us lots of good advice about where to stop and what to see. Really would recommend anyone coming to do the Great Ocean Road to go and see Marie, excellent guide! Anyway that's by the by...

We head into Torquay, 17km from Geelong, for a spot of breakfast and a caffeine fix before heading to the Aboriginal Sundial which was quite stunning but of course didn't work - no sun!! Bah. Still optomistic we drive to Bells Beach to admire some good surfers surfing but that didn't quite work either - no surf! Bah. Trying to stay optomistic, we drive through Point Addis, Anglesea, stop off in Aireys Inlet to attend a local random market and try some wine from Moggs Creek (liked the name, sadly didn't like the wine) then arrived in Lorne, surfing town extravaganza! More wine and fudge tasting for us. Mid afternoon we drive through Wye River and on to Kennett River for some koala spotting - found one - before arriving in Apollo Bay for some camping. Would we say we were still optomistic about camping, when all we can see is rain and fog? Em, no, but we still put up our tent....

Isn't it funny that the weather just waits on you to arrive at the campsite and step out the car before it chucks it down good and proper, flinging in a bit of wind just to make it even more exciting? It was actually quite hilarous trying to put up our tent - by the time it was up, a small moat had formed round the outskirts - and blowing up our airbed proved hard to do inside Jimmy - it got a bit stuck - and when we pulled it out it got a bit wet. We looked like drowned rats by the time we got into the tent! There was a couple pitching their tent next to ours having a proper domestic - not quite sure how long they were going to last!

So anyway, we were still thinking that we could have a good weekend. Gone were the plans of basking in the sunshine, sunglasses on, glass of wine in hand, burger in the other, chilling out with a good book, planning the surfing and hang-gliding lessons! We sat in the indoor area cooking our sausages trying to keep warm and decided to head into the town for a small beer or two. Funnily enough, the pub was very busy!! A safe haven from the stormy weather.

Arriving back to the tent, rain lashing against the sides, we decided the best thing to do would be to go to sleep and hopefully wake up to glorious sunshine. The persistent drips to the head every 20 secs or so did not make for a good sleep and so at approximately 4am in the morning, we made the executive decision to GIVE UP!!

Slightly disappointed that we didn't get to complete the Great Ocean Road but we'll just need to go it another day when the sun is shining. We still have the trip to the Twelve (now eight) Apostles to do and then onto the end at Warnambool, the end being 3 hours from Apollo Bay.

Anyway, on the up side, we are still on holiday and I've got to pretend to be creative and make my fascinator for tomorrow even though my feathers are now looking a little worse for wear! Will update the blog in a couple of days to let you know the outcome of the Races. What's the forecast for the Races? Rain. What's the forecast for this weekend? 25C and sunny. C'est la vie!

One funny thing happened to us when we arrived back to the house yesterday early evening. We had totally forgotten it was Halloween and when we saw all these little kids dressed up in their scary outfits walking up our street, Bob was thrown into a panic, screaming "uh oh, we're in big trouble here, BIG TROUBLE", trying to miraculously conjure up sweeties for the kids. All he could manage was 3 small cans of coke and 5 timtams which he clearly wasn't happy about so he shut the blinds and sat in silence, hoping that they would all miss out our house. That didn't happen but at the same time, we weren't inundated with them either. Our friend Liza popped round and when we told her our story about hiding from the kids, she kindly offered to pop round the corner to her sisters and brought us back some sweets. Lifesaver! Bob was much happier. NB Children here don't even tell a joke or sing a song! They just stand there. Think the next Halloween we'll have to get them dooking for apples or something. That is if they even understand the work 'dook'. Bah.

In the end, we only had two more kids come round so we got to eat the sweets ourselves. Result : )

Love to all! xx

Army Girls Rule O.K

I've survived the Dusties netball trip 2010! Was messy but not too messy. Started off at 8.30am at the clubrooms, fancy dress galore and two massive esky's filled with alcohol to go onto the bus. We were under strict instructions not to touch the esky's until Activity 1 was over so we all behaved ourselves for the first hour of the trip. We arrived in a rainy muddy field for some paintballing action! Out of the 30 girls on the trip, not one of us had tried paintball before, but we had all heard how sore it was if you got shot! Having signed the disclaimer to acknowledge risk of death (!) and having been reminded 20 times or so about not taking our mask off during the game, we embarked on our expedition up to the safety haven, to begin our first paintball game. It all took a bit of getting used to, hiding places were few and far between but we soon got the hang of it. We had divided ourselves into two teams, one attacking, one defending the flag. Unfortunately, 2o mins into the paintballing action, one of our girls Laura got hit in the eye with a paintball - she took her mask off in a sheltered hut for only a second but managed to get hit pretty bad. It was bleeding a little so we stopped the game and got her eye rinsed out. No more paintball for us, it was trip for all of us to A&E! Bit of a detour. The poor girl was well aware that she shouldn't have taken her mask off and I think the paintballing company were scared we would sue them or something. Put a bit of a dampener on the day but the most important thing was to get Laura to the hospital. She ended up staying there for most of the day but the outcome was good, just a very bad black eye and some blurred vision.

After some drunken games involving some lethal punch and spinning round a broomstick several times, we got back on the bus and headed for Activity No. 2 - The Yarra Valley Races! Pitched up our deckchairs and placed some bets on the horses. I won $30, hoorah. All in all, a fantastic day, we were awesome in our army outfits, especially Natalie who had a pretty seethrough dress on (she gots lots of attention at the races - see photos!)

Today we had a rather impromptu trip to the beach at Inverloch - the sun was shining and Bob and I thought it was most definitely BBQ weather. Very relaxing until we decided to head home and try and put up our tent prior to our camping trip this weekend. If there is ever one way to get yourself into a tizz, or throw the toys out of the pram, it's putting up a bloomin' big tent with no instructions!! Too many poles, not enough pegs and most importantly, not enough grass to pitch it on! Quite hilarious really. We have ditched that tent and plan to buy a new one this week : )

More news to come but it's bedtime for me - hope you are all well, miss you xx

Golfing champ

Hello folks!

Hope you liked the videos. Can't say Bob and I are exactly top class film makers but you got to see our new house at least, hurrah!

Monday was glorious sunshine.....and then stormy weather, and more rain and even hailstones, would you believe it! Nevertheless, we still made it out for a couple of games of tennis after work and Bob got out on the golf course. Fairly quiet week, I had a busy few days at work and a course to go to on Wednesday night. Bob has been looking for a new job for when his contract ends in December, and has found one in Drouin which would be perfect!

The big news of the week - Bob is the golf club champion! (for the month of October) The prize? A beautiful shiny tankard. Quality prize. He's quite chuffed and as we don't have a mantlepiece, he's claimed the top of the tv as his "trophy cabinet". Even in wind, rain and hailstones, he managed to make it round the course in almost the course record - he was on 4 under par going into the 17 hole and his golfing buddies were actually getting quite excited for him....he needed a birdie birdie finish to break the course record and his knees were shaking...he unfortunately managed bogie double bogie for a one under par - a disappointing finish for the soon to be pro golfer Mr Barr! He got to say a few words in the clubhouse yet again, but failed to produce the goods with the Vanilla Ice victory dance this time.

Our weekend was a busy one - obviously Bob played golf yesterday, I headed into Melbourne on Saturday morning to do a spot of shopping! My netball weekend is this coming Saturday and I needed to sort out my slightly tarty army girl outfit - best to hunt around for these things by oneself I find so off I went for some bargains! Got my outfit sorted - will def post some photos after this coming weekend (bet you can't wait). Met up with some Bellahouston netball pals in Melbourne, Shiv and Gill, and had a good catch over some beer and chinese food. The younglings then went off to party and Bob arrived in Melbourne at 8pm for us to go to our Thirsty Merc gig at HiFi on Swanston Street. It was AWESOME - what a fantastic band and an entertaining show all round. Finished off the evening with a mug of tea and wedges in the late night cafe before heading back to our bargain hotel. Excellent city night out!

This morning I was up early doors to attend a Strength and Conditioning course at the Victorian Institute of Sport. Very pleased with it - the lead presenter for the course is a guy called Wayne Rodgers who was the sports physiotherapist to the Australian Netball team for the commonwealth games in 2006 and 2002. The sports institute is where the Premiership AFL winners Collingwood train and it's quite an impressive venue. Met some lovely physio folk and learned loads too. Apart from losing my purse in the institute of sport which involved a 60 minute round trip from the station back to there and also involved a missed train, the day was a success! Look out elite athletes, I'll get you stronger!! : )

Think that's about it for us, tune in for the next installment Sunday 24th!! Hope you are all well, missing you xx

everybody needs good neighbours.......

Cheese!

Jimmy held up well for our trip to Merimbula, with a round trip of 1000km and only one small leak from the air conditioning, hurrah well done gold star. Merimbula is a lovely coastal town approximately 6.5 hours drive from Warragul, heading east towards Sydney. A hotspot for holiday weekends and many of my patients have spoken highly of it, so we were looking forward to seeing what everyone was talking about. 3 hours from Warragul is Lakes Entrance, another holiday favourite where 90 mile beach lives. We thought we'd stay over in Lakes Entrance to break up the drive. We arrived on Thursday evening to what appeared to be a ghost town - everything shut early, noone outside. all that was open was the local pizza takeaway so pizza it was for us and an early night. Rock and roll.

Next morning the sun was shining, at last! We got up early for a big breakfast then headed over to 90 mile beach to play like little kids in the sand. We did take approximately 43 pictures to capture an image of us both jumping in the air (we were determined) but we had fun all the same. Factor 30+ was lathered over my pale freckled skin to try and escape the white to red to peeling effect and I succeeded. Bob of course just had to look at the sun and he turned brown. 'sno fair. Managed to sneak in a game of Mini Golf before heading off to Merimbula - would you believe it, Tiger Bob Woods lost (I think he had a rather hefty handicap which he regretted). I'd like to say it was skill that helped me win....

Another 3 hours in the car through the bush and we arrived in Merimbula - a busy little place, lots of surf shops and cafes - before heading another 10 mins to Tura Beach where we were to stay with Alan and Kelly for 3 nights. The beach house that we had rented was amazing even if the driveway was at a 70 degree slope - I thought Jimmy was never going to make it back up in reverse without the gearbox giving up but alas, he did. We were only 100 yards to the beach through a spider infested jungle (I may exaggerate but there was potential for big hairies) and we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. The house had a huge balcony that surrounded the upper floor of the house for a spot of whale watching. We didn't see any whales but we watched in hope. The man next door had his telescope all set up, he obviously had done this before, with better results than us! Hmph. We maybe should've asked him for tips.

The view was amazing, looking straight out to the Pacific Ocean and the balcony was best visited first thing in the morning when the sun was out but the wind had yet to appear. Bliss. Bob got rather overexcited on Saturday morning and decided we should be out enjoying the sun at 7am. He promptly fell asleep in the deckchair about 10 mins later....

Saturday was tennis day! Alan had never played tennis before but seemed to have a natural flair for it - he only threw his toys out of the pram once so was surprisingly rather restrained. Kelly was up for action although couldn't quite pull off the Steffi Graf shots in the end..all in all it was a hoot and I think Kelan might have caught the tennis bug!



Off to watch Grand Final Part II - dull dull dull, the Saints lost to the Pies - but we managed to drink several beers in the process and taxied into Merimbula for an evening of silliness. Two jugs of Sangria later and we stumbled into the local posh(ish) restaurant, Zanzibar, for some dindins. We'd like to think that we behaved ourselves but sadly, I think we might have been somewhat loud. Quote of the day by Alan when ordering desserts "these are the same menus you gave us before only they're turned over". Good, well done Alan. When my creme brulee arrived..."is that lasagne you ordered?"....when Bob's cheese arrived, it got some butterscotch sauce drizzled over it. Taxi for Alan.

Sunday was the day for beach games! I made it through the spider infested jungle with only one minor hiccup when Alan thought it would be funny to tickle my leg with a twig. Ha ha how funny. After much running around with the frisbee we decided to play some lacrosse game where I broke the plastic catcher thing and Scatch, where the velcro fell off the hand held thing. The whole beach game kit was only $1 so I guess we couldn't expect it to last for long! I hit Kelly on the head with the footie ball when my kick for goal went askew (sorry Kelly) and there were a few minor tackling injuries followed by some sandy pants but all in all, the beach was fun and the sun was out.

Bega cheese factory was our next stop for the day for some cheese tasting - bit of a disappointment but we did have a giggle at some of the arts and crafts on sale in the shop. I found a mugsack - a bag to carry your mug in - absolutely hilarious, now if someone could explain this to me, I'd be most grateful. Watch out, one of you might even get it in the post for your Christmas present....mwahahahah

NRL rugby league final in the pub later then a quiet evening in playing a particularly silly verson of Scrabble, trying to make as many cheese related words as possible and also making up a few words along the way - a particular favourite was Jabytired (don't ask).

A rather hilarous weekend was had by all and the long drive was worth it.

Now for the coming weekend - moving in on Friday to our new house in Drouin! And on Saturday Bob and I have been asked to play in an A grade tennis match - this should be funny. Will keep you posted on how we get on.

Off to make a lemon tart for the tennis tea!!

Love to all, Bob and Mo xx