Looking forward to the New Year.....

Hello.  Good news!  My handknitted scarf has been modelled by my new little cute grump of a nephew, Fraser Steven Black, born in the wee small hours of Wednesday 28th November @ 8lb 13oz.  He is a gorgeous wee squidgy thing with a permanent frown and I would love nothing more than to give him a cuddle - Skype will just have to do for the time being! My mum and dad appear to be over the moon with the new arrival and I hear from Helen that Mum is finding it hard to share him around with other visitors! Looking forward to our next trip home to meet the little fella and I'm sure he'll love his Auntie Mo and Uncle 'Boo Boo' haha.

November and December have been busy busy months, with fun triathlons, golf championships, weekends away and christmas parties.  I completed my first triathlon which was relatively short in distance (6 lengths swim, 6km cycle, 2km run) on 3rd November which was quite an achievement for me having been out of action with this stupid foot/ankle injury since early May this year.  My foot felt fine but my calf was in a bit of shock - I felt like it was going to ping after about 200m! Much fun.  The funniest thing was that I completed it on a mountain bike, as did our friends Corinna and James - well actually James did the cycle leg on an old lady's bike complete with bell and basket.....he looked like he was on the way to do his groceries....but hey, we all completed it and had a good time.  Bring on the next one.

Bob played in the club golf championships held over 3 Saturdays in November.  Unfortunately, he managed to acquire a rather strange injury to his right big toe - the one he swivels on when hitting a drive off the tee - and didn't think he'd be able to play.  Turns out he has a necrotic medial sesamoid bone with synovitis of his 1st metatarsalphalangeal joint and is now in a moon boot awaiting day surgery for excision of the little tiny dead bone.  However, he got himself a golf cart to drive around in and managed to adapt his golf shots to complete the 18 holes and put himself in 2nd place, 1 shot behind Matt Long going into the final round.

Now, as most of you will be aware, he came 2nd last year and also came 2nd the year before so it was his year this year.  All very close going into the 17th hole - Matt fluffed a chip onto the green and Bob sank a beauty of a putt so all even going into the 18th.  Bob to tee off first - and hit a less than perfect shot to the left of the bunker! Argh.  Matt Long played short.  Bob chipped over the bunker.....and over the green to the other side.  No!  Matt Long chipped onto the green.....let's just say, Bob unfortunately is the runner up for the 3rd year.  Never mind Bob, next year NEXT YEAR!

I had a fab weekend in Melbourne city with my mates from work, Corinna and Renee mid November.  We got a mystery deal to stay at the 5* Stamford Plaza and stayed in a gorgeous suite - very swish.  Our plan for the weekend was to head to our favourite restaurant (gluten free for Corinna) Mamasita which is mexican tapas.  Sooo much yummy food, we didn't want to leave.  Then we headed for more food at the Taste of Melbourne in Albert Park St Kilda, which was the evening session from 4pm - 9pm.  Loads of free tastings and lovely food from the top notch restaurants in the city.  Our idea of heaven!  Unfortunately we were late for our next 'fun' event - how to please your man part 1 (haha) so we didn't get admitted and therefore headed to Madame Brussels rooftop bar for cocktails and chocolate fondue, topping off the night at the swanky Sofitel for a nightcap and almost getting stuck in a lift - a narrow escape!  Breakfast the next day in Hopetoun Tea Rooms and a spot of shopping in the arcade (which included a few bits and bobs for Bob's birthday from the Treats from Home store - Branston pickle for $8!!!) before heading home.  Another weekend to be planned soon I think!

 Cider tent!

Deciding what to eat...

 Corinna, Me and Ren

We had another fun weekend away at the end of November with our group of friends - Joe and Lauren, Chelsea and Gary, Corinna and James and their friend Tammy - where we went to A Day on the Green in Healesville, north of Melbourne.  Chels, Gary, Bob and I decided to camp out while the rest opted for a cabin 1 minute away from us.  Who got the huntsman? Not us, hurrah!  Our tent was super cosy and super dry, with not a bug/spider/snake in sight.  Poor Lauren had to sleep under a huge hairy thing for two nights - why they didn't decide to put it outside I will never know but I'm glad that wasn't me!  We had a BBQ on the Friday night complete with party hats and Pass the Parcel (thanks Corinna!) for the two birthday boys, Gary and James.  Much silliness that evening but we still made it to bed before midnight in preparation for our long fun filled day on the Saturday. 

On the Saturday morning, the four of us had our BBQ breakfast then headed into Healsville for a look round the little independent shops before heading for some beer tasting at the Buckley's shed (we bought you some Dad!) then onwards to a restaurant in the hills for a caffeine fix.  So nice in fact that we booked ourselves in for lunch the following day.    Anyway, back to the Saturday - on the bus by 2pm, picnics in our eskys, suncream lathered on, sundresses and sunhats on, picnic blankets and folding chairs all ready for action.  We parked ourselves to the left of the stage and got ourselves cosy in the sun for the entertainment - Australian bands, The Church and DEVO - DEVO were quite possibly the worst band in the world ever, EVER!  A bunch of 60 year old men dressed as the wiggles chanting electro pop songs whilst leaping around the stage.  I particularly didn't enjoy Peekaboo or Are We Not Men?  Please type in DEVO in youtube and I guarantee you'll have switched them off by about 30seconds.  Then the final act came on, Simple Minds!  Brilliant.  Only realised how many songs of theirs we knew when they started singing them, Jim Kerr has still got a good voice and despite the rain, we were all leaping around like idiots.  A really fun day was had by all.  And we got to play 'hoseball' on our campsite before hometime too - see Hewitt vs Cash photo below!!

Lauren, Corinna & James

 Birthday Boys

Joe

Her Madonna impersonation! Oh dear

Lauren and sticky sweaty poncho!

Just like home!

Glo-sticks!

Hoseball!

  

It's Bob's birthday tomorrow - 33 years of age - and we had planned to host a fancy dress "BOB" party.  Sadly due to receiving some upsetting news, we have decided to postpone the party until the new year when we will be refreshed from our holiday and hopefully ready to party in style.  Bob has decided to go as Bob Parr a.k.a. Mr Incredible and I have decided to go as Bob Marley complete with black face paint and toy whale (get it? Bob Marley and the Whale..rs! Groan)  Rumour has it that there will be a Bobcat, JimBob, Robert Palmer and Sideshow Bob but we'll just have to wait and see who or what shows up!  So instead of partying it up, we are heading to Inverloch for the night - chilling out by the beach, fish and chips for tea and a few beers.  I have also decided to attempt a chocolate birthday cake but may have to opt for Plan B of top hats and crispy cakes if it all goes awry!

And finally, here is a photo of Albert Street Sports and Spinal Injuries centre work christmas party - these are all my colleagues and their partners.  The lady sitting next to me on my left is Helen, my boss, just so you can put a face to the name!  On her left is Deb, one of the receptionists.  On my right is good friend Natalie, the podiatrist, on her right her hubby Dave then on his right David, another physio.  Across from me in the orange dress is myotherapist Renee.  Looking forward to our holiday on Hamilton Island, we fly out on the 22nd December for 8 nights.  Also looking forward to my mum and dad coming to visit at the end of January and then we will be planning when we will be coming home - possibly either September time or Christmas time depending on developments over the coming year!  

Merry Christmas everyone and hope 2013 brings happiness to you all, lots of love, Mo and Bob xxx

The Latest News from Gippsland

Spring is here and it's almost time for daylight savings to begin!  About time too, as the winter has been long and drawn out, pretty much like a Scottish wet and windy autumn for 6 months.  There have been glimpses of hot weather, yesterday for example was a lovely 27C and as I have a half day on a Thursday, it was nice to come home at lunchtime and munch on a sandwich in the sunshine!

Bob has been away all week with the regional country golf team, based in Frankston which is west of Melbourne (we are 1 hour east) and so I have been in the house myself without a live-in spider catcher! Which led to me buying the outdoor spider spray from Woolies and spray each and every little nook and cranny of the house, including doors and windows so that I wouldn't be faced with a big hairy and not know what to do! It seems to be working : )  The first night was a bit strange being in the house all by myself, but I must admit, i had the best sleep ever!! Ha.  I probably shouldn't tell Bob that.  In 4 days, I seem to have turned into a peppermint tea drinking culinary herb growing knitter who watches 'don't tell the bride' and has taken to organising things - the things you do to get out of studying for an exam!  I'm sure Bob won't recognise his trashy tv watching new age wife when he gets home tonight.

I am currently knitting Baby Black a scarf.  It's a scarf because I can only knit in a straight line at the moment!  But I'm sure he/she will love it.  Or hate it because it might be quite itchy.......Hmm.  It's the thought that counts!

Bob played in the individual Victorian country championships Monday and Tuesday with one of the highest handicaps of 4.  He had a brilliant round, only to have a nightmare of a hole on the 18th where he took 8 shots to get the ball in the hole.  This was due to him hitting it into a bunker, hitting the ball out of the bunker only to hit the ball with his club again while it was in the air and knocked it back into where his foot had been in the bunker!  Argh.  Despite going round in 79, he still managed to finish top 30 out of 144 golfers in Victoria.  Pretty damn good!  Watch out Tiger.

The golf team seem to be playing well and are strong contenders for winning the 'bowl' going into the final match today.  Bob has the highest handicap in the team, but has been consistently picked over alleged better golfers going on his great performances this week.  He was quite nervous tee-ing off first in front of everyone watching on the first day of the tournament, knowing that there were plenty of golfers there off scratch and +2, +3; he didn't hit an amazing shot but as his caddy said - it went forward, that's all you need!  Sounds like he has had a great time and he is looking forward to using his new golf clubs when he gets back.

As for my golf, lessons start for us ladies next Friday evening.  Think my clubs have been gathering dust over the winter so will need to give them a bit of TLC before next week.

My old friend Lindsey Park, now Falla (Dad, you'll remember her from Strathgryffe tennis, she also worked in the Fox) was on holiday with her hubby Davy in New Zealand and had a stop off in Melbourne for the night last weekend.  Bob and I drove up to meet up with them and had a great night - love meeting up with people I haven't seen for years and just picking up where we left off.  Lindsay is still working as a dentist in the Navy and has been posted to Brunei for 3 years.  Davy has now left the Navy and is working as a Dive Master, as well as lecturing at the local university in engineering.  They are thinking of returning to Melbourne for the Australian Open so would be great to see them over here again.  And now we have a new stop over for when we next fly home - a trip to Brunei or Borneo! Brilliant.

Last weekend was also AFL Grand Final weekend - Hawthorn Hawks vs Sydney Swans.  Gary and Chelsea had a joint housewarming/grand final party in their new house/basement which was good fun.  Looking forward to our next get together - Mexican night at Corinna and James' new house mid October!  Apparently fake moustaches and sombreros compulsory.

What else.....I am going on a dry needling/acupuncture course next weekend, heading to Mornington Peninsula the weekend after that, and the girls from work have organised a night in the city mid November.  Also got A Day on the Green coming up at the beginning of December to go see Simple Minds live!!! Ha. "Promised you a miracle....dah dah da da"  Camping for a couple of nights then too.

Think that's all our news!  Trying to get into a routine of studying for an hour every night - I've got something like 20 weeks until my exam.  Eeekk!

Hope you are all well back home, emails welcome as always Love Mo and Bob xxxx

Italy Part III!

Part III of our Italy trip began with a drive to Florence via Siena.  Siena is a 2 hour drive from Rome and we needed to be alert for all the mental Italian drivers who cut you up and beep at you at every available opportunity!  Madness.  Not only were the drivers interesting, but the one way road system was interesting too! Siena was beautiful, especially the medieval Piazzo Del Campo where the bi-annual horse race is held in July and August - 10 of the 17 districts in Siena compete against each other by racing their horses around the Piazzo 3 times, meaning the race lasts under 2 minutes.  Quite amazing that such a short race can attract people from all over the world!

We had a lovely lunch in a little authentic Italian restaurant tucked up a side street before recommencing our drive to Florence to meet up with Brian and Polly by the rooftop pool - it was lovely to see them, and of course a beer, a nice view, sun and pool complimented the great company nicely.  Florence itself is a pretty city, with the Duomo being the main feature in the heart of the city, and the Statue of David being the most famous of Michaelangelo's work.  We did try and get in to see the original David and exhibition but we bailed out once we saw the long queue and opted for the fake one instead.  Bad tourists!

Our night in Florence consisted of a rather expensive restaurant, where the boys tucked into an enormous steak (apparently this is the thing to do in Florence) and rubbing a piggy nose (Il Porcellino) so that we will return to Florence one day.   I think we were meant to put a coin in it's mouth before rubbing it's snout so not sure if we ever will return to Florence again......!

We bid farewell to Florence in our hire car with the wedding ribbon still on - next stop was Lake Bolsena.  This was a bit of a gamble booking this place - the guidebook described it as an Italian hideaway, where Italians come on holiday to escape the tourists!! Sorry Italians but we decided it must be a nice place and chose to stay here for two nights.  We didn't know much about it, but decided to go with the internet reviews and book "Hotel Holiday"! We were all expecting a replica of Fawlty Towers when we arrived but it was really nice with a fantastic pool, just situated by the stunning lake.  We couldn't have been happier.  Not really much to report here - we spent a couple of days chilling out with our books by the pool, swimming in the lake, eating lemon sorbets and Calipos in true summer holiday style and eating the biggest pizza's ever.  Seriously, these pizzas were taking over the tablecloth.   A lovely little hidden gem that I would recommend to anyone visiting Tuscany.  We could have stayed here a week!

Then onto our final destination - back to Roma! En route, we decided to stop into Orveito.  Virna has recommended it to us and Brian and Polly were both keen to take a look.  Turned out we had to get the funicular railway up to the town and what another little gem this was.  Ancient architecture with lovely little streets and boutiques, it was great just to take a leisurely stroll through the town and see what it had to offer.  The reward at the top of the hill was the stunning Duomo.

And so we return to Rome and we meet up with Bob's cousins David and Isobel, who are travelling on student budgets and are staying in hostels to try and save some pennies.  Time to feel old and buy them some drinks and dinner! It was lovely to go back to the restaurant Virna had taken us to before and treat them to some yummy food, along with Brian and Polly.  We also had the opportunity to buy them some fizz to celebrate Brian and Polly's recent engagement!

In Rome, we had our own funky little apartment in the Trastevere region, just 5 minutes walk from the hotel Brian and Polly were staying at.  Very glad the apartment had air conditioning as the weather was staying at a consistent 30C - bliss! We arranged to meet up with B & P on Friday to do the tour of the Collosseum as we hadn't managed to do this on our first visit.  Super roasting hot, we were ducking into shade whenever we could.  Our tour guide was reasonably entertaining but I think he was more interested in telling us about Italians in general, rather than what went on at the Colloseum! In true tourist style, I bought the guide book and found out some other little interesting facts.  Following the tour, we headed over to the Roman Forum.  Pretty cool to think Julius Caeser was here years ago.

More Aperitivo before heading into the Trastevere region to a little pizza place that is a favourite of Brian and Polly's.  Great pizza, way to much food ordered as usual and lots of wine made for a very funny evening, especially the entertaining part about David Lott!

Our final day was spent chilling out in the Piazza Navone with Bob's parents who very kindly treated us to lunch and a couple of beers, under a fan blowing out cool water.  Off we popped to walk to the Spanish Steps to meet up with Brian and Polly again and we had to get out of the heat so what better excuse did we have for some Gelato?  More beer, ice-cream and some wandering through the streets of Rome before bidding farewell to Maw and Paw in Law, and Brian and Polly and heading to the airport.

Absolutely fantastic holiday, great to meet up with family and friends, that was my third visit to Italy and I'm sure there will be a fourth!! xxxx