Hello one and all!
It has taken some time to recover from the festive season what with the blazing sunshine and humidity! Slightly different to the chaos in Queensland at the moment, apparently 75% of Queensland is a natural disaster zone. Very sad to see the coverage on the news, not expected in Australia but also not the first time this has happened (apparently similar flooding after a cyclone hit in 1974). There has been a small amount of flooding in Victoria but not anywhere near us, and certainly not on the same scale as the east coast.
However, we certainly enjoyed the holiday and we had absolutely perfect weather. Perth is definitely the place to be! When the rest of Australia is having thunderstorms you can always rely on Western Australia to pull the sunshine out the bag. Having had a great holiday, the return to work was tricky, trying to get back into some sort of normality was harder than expected having had almost 3 weeks to do as we wished. Having said that, I only had a three day week to contend with before the weekend which was a nice way to start the year!
Bob started his new job with Baw Baw Shire as a home and community care assessment officer which started rather quietly and has now progressed to being a little more interesting. He also has a company car for the commute to and from work (he could walk in 5 mins!) and so Harry the Hyundai (even though it’s a piece of cheapness) is now living in the carport and poor Jimmy has been kicked to the kerb, quite literally! Overall work is going smoothly for both of us.
We have had visits from both Heather and Sally. Heather arrived on Monday 3rd Jan, and headed off to Tasmania, Sydney and Canberra on the 6th. She is due to return to us on Wednesday 19th Jan until her departure back to the UK on Monday 24th. Sally has returned from Perth and Tasmania and has been staying with us from Friday 14th until Tuesday 18th at which point she flys from Melbourne to Borneo before heading home. Lots of travel stories to tell!
Unfortunately for Heather, the poor girl’s plans for sightseeing have been replaced with lots of wedding chat and dress shopping! We started gently at Wild Dog Winery on the 3rd Jan, with some wedding mags and lots of wine in the sunshine, a relaxing and most enjoyable afternoon. I’ve missed my best bud! On her second day in Australia, she is accompanying me to various bridal shops on the High Street in Armadale, near St Kilda! No complaints however, it appears she is quite excited about her bridesmaid duties and she is keen to give me rather honest opinions on the meringues, puffs, lace and veils that are being thrust upon me by rather enthusiastic dressmakers and retail staff. We only encountered one scary woman who was rather abrupt but we did encounter many strange dresses including plenty net curtains and a few flamenco swan like dresses. A few meringues too! Back for a repeat trying on session this coming Thursday - hurrah!
We have had a fun weekend with Sally, beginning with a trip to the MCG for the 20/20 cricket match between the Aussies and the Poms. The Aussies managed to snatch a victory by 4 runs, a much needed victory given that they have lost on the last 9 occasions to the English. The “booos” given to poor Kevin Pieterson were quite spectacular, poor lad! I wouldn’t say that cricket is the most exciting sport to watch, however it was an experience to be in an awesome sporting atmosphere and it got quite interesting towards the end. Even though we were up in the back of beyond, we still had a good view and the telly that was in front of us helped to keep up with the score. Maybe next time, an all day match with a picnic and a few beers would go down a treat.
Feeling a little bit sore today as yesterday we took Sally to the beach at Inverloch for some beach, sea and surfing action! Bob and I both got a lesson from excellent instructors – we both managed to stand up at least twice, in fact Bob was the star of the show, he managed to surf all the way into shore 4 times in a row! The knees are holding up marvellously and he is chuffed to bits that he has mastered the standing up part. Now all he needs to do is find some bigger waves and stay up for longer! We shall be back in the next couple of weeks I think. There is already talk of buying a couple of wetsuits and surfboards.....watch this space. Surfing day finished with a BBQ and a beer. Very Aussie stylee!
Today we ventured to Mount Worth State Park, ½ hour from Warragul. Despite trekking through, at times, rather dense forest with the potential for spiders landing on my head, it was a beautiful day with absolute silence in some parts. A definite good spot for picnicking! Sally was on the hunt for a tawny frog mouthed bird (owl?) but unfortunately it was rather good at camouflaging itself and so we didn’t see one. We got further interesting environmental and wildlife facts from marine biologist Sally as we walked along – she is a handy person to have when you have no clue what you are looking at! Stopped in at Wild Dog Winery (again) for some wine tasting on the way home then onto Middels bar for a beer, or in Sally’s case a humungous piece of honeycomb caramel cake. Yum yum.
What else has been happening? Bob had another victory at the golf club with a gross score of 75 last weekend. He also took me for a golf lesson which (unsurprisingly) ended in a small tantrum. I am determined to master this game! More practice required. We are looking forward to Heather returning and Alan and Kelly visiting from Sydney next weekend for the Australian Open on Saturday 22nd. I believe the draw is out now, just need to check and see when Andy could potentially be playing! Better look out my Scotland sunglasses!!!!
Also planning a small engagement gathering in February and trying to get a final number for the wedding list (think we are on the 7th draft) – it’s all go at the moment!
Having loads of fun, so nice to see some old friends.
Miss you all back home, lots of love, Mo and Bob xxxx
It has taken some time to recover from the festive season what with the blazing sunshine and humidity! Slightly different to the chaos in Queensland at the moment, apparently 75% of Queensland is a natural disaster zone. Very sad to see the coverage on the news, not expected in Australia but also not the first time this has happened (apparently similar flooding after a cyclone hit in 1974). There has been a small amount of flooding in Victoria but not anywhere near us, and certainly not on the same scale as the east coast.
However, we certainly enjoyed the holiday and we had absolutely perfect weather. Perth is definitely the place to be! When the rest of Australia is having thunderstorms you can always rely on Western Australia to pull the sunshine out the bag. Having had a great holiday, the return to work was tricky, trying to get back into some sort of normality was harder than expected having had almost 3 weeks to do as we wished. Having said that, I only had a three day week to contend with before the weekend which was a nice way to start the year!
Bob started his new job with Baw Baw Shire as a home and community care assessment officer which started rather quietly and has now progressed to being a little more interesting. He also has a company car for the commute to and from work (he could walk in 5 mins!) and so Harry the Hyundai (even though it’s a piece of cheapness) is now living in the carport and poor Jimmy has been kicked to the kerb, quite literally! Overall work is going smoothly for both of us.
We have had visits from both Heather and Sally. Heather arrived on Monday 3rd Jan, and headed off to Tasmania, Sydney and Canberra on the 6th. She is due to return to us on Wednesday 19th Jan until her departure back to the UK on Monday 24th. Sally has returned from Perth and Tasmania and has been staying with us from Friday 14th until Tuesday 18th at which point she flys from Melbourne to Borneo before heading home. Lots of travel stories to tell!
Unfortunately for Heather, the poor girl’s plans for sightseeing have been replaced with lots of wedding chat and dress shopping! We started gently at Wild Dog Winery on the 3rd Jan, with some wedding mags and lots of wine in the sunshine, a relaxing and most enjoyable afternoon. I’ve missed my best bud! On her second day in Australia, she is accompanying me to various bridal shops on the High Street in Armadale, near St Kilda! No complaints however, it appears she is quite excited about her bridesmaid duties and she is keen to give me rather honest opinions on the meringues, puffs, lace and veils that are being thrust upon me by rather enthusiastic dressmakers and retail staff. We only encountered one scary woman who was rather abrupt but we did encounter many strange dresses including plenty net curtains and a few flamenco swan like dresses. A few meringues too! Back for a repeat trying on session this coming Thursday - hurrah!
We have had a fun weekend with Sally, beginning with a trip to the MCG for the 20/20 cricket match between the Aussies and the Poms. The Aussies managed to snatch a victory by 4 runs, a much needed victory given that they have lost on the last 9 occasions to the English. The “booos” given to poor Kevin Pieterson were quite spectacular, poor lad! I wouldn’t say that cricket is the most exciting sport to watch, however it was an experience to be in an awesome sporting atmosphere and it got quite interesting towards the end. Even though we were up in the back of beyond, we still had a good view and the telly that was in front of us helped to keep up with the score. Maybe next time, an all day match with a picnic and a few beers would go down a treat.
Feeling a little bit sore today as yesterday we took Sally to the beach at Inverloch for some beach, sea and surfing action! Bob and I both got a lesson from excellent instructors – we both managed to stand up at least twice, in fact Bob was the star of the show, he managed to surf all the way into shore 4 times in a row! The knees are holding up marvellously and he is chuffed to bits that he has mastered the standing up part. Now all he needs to do is find some bigger waves and stay up for longer! We shall be back in the next couple of weeks I think. There is already talk of buying a couple of wetsuits and surfboards.....watch this space. Surfing day finished with a BBQ and a beer. Very Aussie stylee!
Today we ventured to Mount Worth State Park, ½ hour from Warragul. Despite trekking through, at times, rather dense forest with the potential for spiders landing on my head, it was a beautiful day with absolute silence in some parts. A definite good spot for picnicking! Sally was on the hunt for a tawny frog mouthed bird (owl?) but unfortunately it was rather good at camouflaging itself and so we didn’t see one. We got further interesting environmental and wildlife facts from marine biologist Sally as we walked along – she is a handy person to have when you have no clue what you are looking at! Stopped in at Wild Dog Winery (again) for some wine tasting on the way home then onto Middels bar for a beer, or in Sally’s case a humungous piece of honeycomb caramel cake. Yum yum.
What else has been happening? Bob had another victory at the golf club with a gross score of 75 last weekend. He also took me for a golf lesson which (unsurprisingly) ended in a small tantrum. I am determined to master this game! More practice required. We are looking forward to Heather returning and Alan and Kelly visiting from Sydney next weekend for the Australian Open on Saturday 22nd. I believe the draw is out now, just need to check and see when Andy could potentially be playing! Better look out my Scotland sunglasses!!!!
Also planning a small engagement gathering in February and trying to get a final number for the wedding list (think we are on the 7th draft) – it’s all go at the moment!
Having loads of fun, so nice to see some old friends.
Miss you all back home, lots of love, Mo and Bob xxxx
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