Crikey!

Hello folks, another update from the Land of Oz, we had the pleasure of yet another holiday (woo hoo) in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast for the Easter Weekend. 5 days off work as we had Anzac Day included in there as well. Bob and I joined Matthew, Verity and 1 year old Lachlan in a lovely beachside house "The Retreat" along with best man to be Alan and his missus Kelly. All in all, a very relaxing few days mainly spent on the tennis court across the road or on the beach.

First day was Good Friday where we spent a rather sober day in the house as alcohol is not allowed to be sold on that particular day - all of us coped other than Alan who was slightly grumpy! However, it worked out quite well as we needed to get up early for our trip to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo the next day. The zoo was pretty big and interactive with the tamer animals free to roam around as they wished. We made it to the Croc show with Steve's wife Terri, daughter Bindi and son Robert. Their interaction with the crowd was rather false and weird to be honest, Bindi seems to have been coached in entertaining the crowds and it just makes you think whether she really wants to be in the limelight or whether she is forced into it. She has a kid's TV show over here and she has several books published about her exploits with wildlife so good luck to her! The tiger show was quite spectacular - interesting but rather sad fact was that there are only approximately 4000 tigers left in the world and if efforts to save them as unsuccessful, they will be extinct in 10 years. Boo.

The next day we had a rather chilled out day on Peregian Beach, 10 mins from Noosa. We were in the sea at 7am that morning, which was a very pleasant temperature, makes you think it would be great to be able to do that every morning! We didn't do very much at all other than to watch the 1000 greatest songs ever, keeping track of it (sadly) over the whole weekend. We made it to #52 only to miss #1!! Argh. I'm sure we'll live. We should be in the sunshine anyway, rather than watching the telly! Into Noosa the following day - Noosa is quite a trendy (some would say pretentious) beachside resort with lots of shops, cafes, restaurants etc, definitely a favourite with the backpackers! More lounging around and relaxing to be done as well as some more swimming in the sea. Hurrah. Bob decided to hire a surf board but unfortunately didn't quite manage to negotiate the rips and waves very well and after being given a bit of a lecture from a worried Mo, he continued to try, only to be flailing around hanging onto his surfboard and needed to be (slightly) rescued by lifeguard Matthew - tut tut. He won't be trying that again!! Maybe stick to the baby waves that we're used to......Oh how we can laugh about it now!

A great holiday was had however on returning to the airport on Tuesday night at 10pm, Jimmy wouldn't start!! Grrr. Flat battery. Had to wait on the RACV man to come out and rescue us but Jimmy is back on the road now, phew. Not the best end to the holiday and it didn't help that I left a $17 unread photography magazine on the plane, d'oh!

What else have we been up to.......ah yes, the Royal Wedding! On at a perfect time, 8pm on Friday night, the Australians are just fanatical about it all and the commentary by Dame Edna Everage was just cringeworthy so we were quite glad to find Huw on the BBC World channel, hurrah! Much better. Just made me more excited about our own wedding, can't believe Kate stole my dress design, will need to get something different now! Haha. Maybe I should put my bridesmaids into Pippa's dress?!?! I think she looked hotter than the bride!

Bob is doing well with the gym, we found out his MRI results and there is no tear to his ACL thank goodness. Just a bit more strengthening required. He is managing to lose a few pounds, and is looking fit and healthy, well done Bob. He is off to the golf today to play in the A Grade penant at Drouin Golf Club, Warragul vs Morwell. Fingers crossed they win!

Hope all is well back home, counting down the days before we arrive back in September. Lots of love to everyone xxxxxxx

Once upon a time, there was a dog.....

Meet Hamish, the whippett cross dog who arrived at approximately 530pm last night and took up his position on the door mat looking rather sad at me through the glass. Goodness knows where he came from but he wasn’t for leaving. My friend Liza popped round for 10 minutes and as she was leaving, told me I’d probably still be chatting to him in an hour or so. Well, she was right. I was pretty certain if I let it in the house, Mr Not-so-fond-of-dogs wouldn’t be too happy to have a stray dog wandering around the house however when he got home from the gym, he took one look at the sad eyes and agreed to bring him inside. Couldn’t find any details on the collar other than a number so we phoned the council to see if he could be picked up – apparently they don’t do that after hours, so we had to entertain poor Hamish (I named him, how ridiculous) until the next morning. Bob went out for dog food and came back with extra treats and a lead, he just couldn’t resist. We even took him out for a walk later that night in the pissing rain. We couldn’t help but think that Hamish was having a good chuckle to himself that we were being so kind to him when he probably does this kind of thing all the time. He was certainly taking to the nice comfy blankie we had put in the corner of the laundry and he wasn’t for getting off it. He didn’t even sniff at the ball that we rolled his way, nor did he even let out a bark for the entire time we was with us. Ah well, we’ll never know his life story. Bob took him in the car to work with him this morning and between you and me, I think he developed a wee soft spot for him. He swore he would never have a dog but I reckon he could be persuaded.....give him 20 years and he might come round! So the dog was picked up by the council, apparently an experienced escapee called Santa. He had us wrapped round his little finger, the sneaky wee mutt. It was fun though, if only for a short while. Who knows if he’ll pay us a visit again, now that he knows what great hosts we are. Maybe we’ll get some extra Pedigree Chum in, just in case.

A quick update!

Latest news report from down under - Dusties are top of the leader board after Round 2, get in! A convincing win against Nilma Darnum 60-30 was a good start to the season - think it was definitely the warm up which helped us start well, the phrase for the season is going to be 'let's get sweaty' as it seemed to do the job first time round! Goal setting is the key and those were all achieved. We are awesome : ) Round 2 was against Nyora, who were bottom of the league last season. B grade beat them 85-13 and A grade won 70-19. That says it all really. Looking forward to Round 3 against Buln Buln, who will be tougher competitors but hopefully another win is coming our way. Yee ha!

Bob had a good start too with his golf A grade penant team, where the team won 4-1. Bob had to play an extra hole to decide the winner in his tie and a beautiful birdie putt sealed the deal to beat his 18 year old rather cocky opponent. The youngling said "I really should've beaten you out there" to which Bob replied "well........you didn't". Ah, simply put.

Sadly, a setback at Yoga last week saw Bob back at the physio for an assessment of his knee. Too many lunges tired out his reconstructed knee and it appears to be a little lax in the ligament department. Off for an MRI scan next week to assess the damage. Hopefully nothing that a little bit of TLC and rehab can't fix but I think he'll be passing on the Yoga for the time being. His hamstrings are definitely longer though, something positive, if not miraculous!

On the social front, we have been entertaining guests in our little hoose. Firstly my boss Helen and her hubby Brad came round for dinner last Saturday night, armed with beer that poor Bob couldn't refuse (he'd given up for Lent) and some rejected muffins from the school fete. They were actually rather tasty! Brad was falling asleep on the sofa about 10pm, glad to see our chat hasn't gotten any better!!

We have also had a few nights out in the city, one to watch our Tigers kick some butt against St Kilda 95-95 at the mighty MCG and another to celebrate Renee's birthday at posh tapas restaurant Movida followed by cocktails in quirky Brunswick Street. The footie match was fantastic, such a great atmosphere and we were treated to smoked salmon with a squeeze of lemon at half time, courtesy of Bob's work mate Paul who sneaked it in! We did get a few funny looks as I guess salmon is a little different to a greasy pie and a pint, but it certainly hit the spot, washed down with a hot latte. Maybe we need to revert back to the pie and pint every so often, but I could definitely cope with the salmon again! Maybe a bit of black pepper next time....ha. The game was close all the way to the finish and we thought our underdog tigers were going to do it at the last minute but they just couldn't pull it off. Next time! Think I'll need to buy a scarf

Unfortunately, I am unable to take my antenatal classes as the visa department aren't too happy with me working for someone else and technically I would be breaking the law. So all my pregnant ladies will just need to squeeze back into the one room for Helen's class again, until she finds another physio to take the class, preferably an Australian one this time! At least I got an insight into the women's health physio side of things and it's another string to my bow so to speak.

Looking forward to our holiday to Noosa over the Easter break, 6 more working days and counting! Will blog soon, I promise xx