A night out on the town with Louise and Nick

What a fantastic weekend! Despite the volcanic ash from Chile making an appearance in Australia and closing Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth airports at various times over the space of 3-4 days, Louise and Nick still managed to make it from Alice Springs to Melbourne to visit us for the weekend. Hurrah. Bob and I had taken the Friday off work and headed into the city to meet Lou and Nick down by the Yarra River where they were already tucking into a pot of cider each. Good work guys, think we’ll join you! It was sooo lovely to see Louise, just the same as ever and looking great, chatting at a million miles an hour and catching up on all our news over the past year. The boys soon cottoned on to the fact that they weren’t going to get a word in edgeways and so suggested we wander over to get the free city tram and head up to the Lygon Street then over to Brunswick St. As Louise and I got further and further behind due to more chatting, Bob and Nick got further and further ahead with of course a plan of action in mind. As soon as we got to Brunswick Street and started looking around for them, we spot a smiling Nick outside a pub and a happy looking Bob coming out of the pub doors with two pots of beer. Ah ha! Fair enough. We leave them to it and head to the shops. After half an hour or so, we get in touch and discover they have moved pubs and so we go and join them in a cosy couch by the fire. A boost from some cider and we’re off to the shops again as we here them shouting that they may move on elsewhere. Fine fine. Let the girly shopping and boyish pub crawl commence!
Three hours later, we leave the shops and pick up the boys before heading back to the hotel, happy with our purchases and looking forward to some tapas and fizz! But first, Lou very kindly bought us some Mango wine and we decided to taste it in the hotel room before heading out. It was ......different! And very very strong!

Dinner was in Movida, THE best tapas place in the city so I’m told. You have to book weeks in advance but we thought we would chance our arm (must have been the Mango wine.....) and see if there was a table available. Yes! Last minute cancellation, how lucky we were. Jug of Sangria ordered and we start to peruse the M.E.N.U. Some individual entrees and sharing plates ordered and we were on our way to food heaven – the octopus and chorizo dish was amazing, yum yum. To top it all off, Louise and Nick very kindly shouted us to some celebratory engagement champagne, thanks Lou! Perks of being engaged half way across the world – lots of celebrations when people come to visit!!

Onwards and upwards to a club, 24 Moons (so called because it changes location every 2 years and becomes a different type of club) on ACDC Lane. Cheesy music galore ( I seem to remember doing the “pulling the rope” move on the dancefloor). So much for me stopping drinking at midnight – never again am I having a Vodka and Frangelico shot at 2am (what the heck is that stuff anyway?!) Back to the hotel and the hunt for food begins, only to discover there is a pizza place that delivers pizza direct to the hotel room – RESULT!

Next morning, I can’t say I was feeling prepared for a netball match. Uh oh. This was not looking good. French toast helped but not a lot. I was faced with three very smug faces at breakfast, all of course were not planning on running around like headless chickens in several hours time. Why do I do this to myself? I’m old enough to know better!

We drive Louise and Nick to Koo Wee Rup to give them a taster of the local footie and netball games. Bob did a great job of entertaining them with whiskey and cola in a can, and a obligatory pie and they even got to see a bit of biff on the footie field. Bonus! Needless to say, we played pretty well and the Dusties were victorious, 65-17. Phew. Hometime to lie on the sofa and recover! A quick trip round Warragul to show them the sights, a Thai takeaway and a cup of tea and we all head to bed at 10pm. Rock and roll! Are we getting old?

Brilliant to see Louise and Nick and really looking forward to seeing them again in 3 and 6 months time –they are now in Japan having a great time!

Bob is currently on the squash court, he’s decided to join the local squash team in the bid to find some guys his age. I’m sure I’ll hear all about it in half an hour, fingers crossed he’s found a squash friend! Australian stag do is in progress, flights to Gold Coast booked for mid July, no idea what Bob, Alan and Matthew have in store for them but let’s hope it’s not a repeat of The Hangover.......unlikely but you can never be too sure!

Nothing new with me, although I have been inspired by Masterchef to get creative in the kitchen. I managed to pull off a rather delicious homemade pastry gruyere and onion tart with chive sabayon the other night, WITHOUT a tantrum! I’m making progress

Lots of Love, Mo and Bob xxx

Wine tasting and cooking distasters

Jings, hadn't realised it's been almost a month since the last blog post - I'm slipping! Or perhaps it's because Australia is just feeling a lot more like home and less like one big adventure. It's been over a year now and over 6 months that we've been in our house and it's flown by. The sun is still shining but it has cooled down for winter to a measley 14-16C on average. Our friends Louise and Nick are currently in Australia - they had a few days in Port Douglas where the weather was pretty sunny and now they are in Alice Springs camping in the outback for 3 days - I'm not sure they will love the cool 12C at Ayers Rock but fingers crossed they packed a woolly poolly!! Really looking forward to seeing them and showing them the local sights of Warragul and perhaps the slightly more interesting sights of Melbourne!

I have been out in the city on several occasions in the past 6 weeks or so. A few weeks ago, 6 of us netballers went to see the cheesy 80's rock show Rock of Ages which involved us waving fake lighters in the air whenever a particularly sad rock power ballad started up! Silly but good fun. Yesterday, Bob and I were on a wine tour to the Yarra Valley (a lovely engagement present from his sister Lindsey). It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed a spit roast carvery alongside wine tasting at three different wineries. We were glad to get the windy roads out of the way in the morning - judging by some of the drunk ones on the bus, it could've been disastrous on the way home! We came home with a couple of bottles of wine and some fudge, yum-ee. We also came across a lovely little chapel at one of the wineries but don't think we could squeeze more than 20 folk in there - Cramond Kirk it is then!!

We are midway through the netball season with 7 wins and 2 losses. The big crunch match on Saturday between Dusties and Ellinbank resulted in not only a loss but two skint knees, a skint elbow and a bruised jaw. Hmph! It was hard work and I really am getting too old for it all!! As usual the hot bath was calling!

Unfortunately Bob has been unable to exercise much the past week due to his recurrent neck injury (he had a mild whiplash incident with a photocopier a few weeks back......) and so he has been having daily physio and been strapped up to make his neck more comfortable. Sadly it has restricted his golf somewhat - hopefully his symptoms will settle down in time for this weekend.

We have been watching Australian Masterchef which has inspired us to cook different things over the past few weeks. We have now bought a French cooking book and are trying to work our way through the recipes. I was determined to make a Creme Caramel which appeared easy when I read it in the recipe book however Bob has his own ideas. Despite him warning me that it was a tricky thing to do, I stubbornly proceeded only to find out that (once again) he was indeed correct. It was only a minor tantrum but I failed miserably to make a caramel. Twice. Crystalised sugar does not taste good! Argh. Bob then tried to make an 'easy' sponge which unfortunately came out the oven looking a bit like an omelette. Oh well, we shall persevere!

Wedding plans are coming along nicely - just starting to make some invitations - we now have a caterer so now all big things are accounted for. Hurrah. Only 3 months until we come home! Yee ha!

Hope you are all well, lots of love Mo and Bob xx