Australia - 12 days, one entry!!

So how do you do one blog entry to cover 12 action packed days? We are about to find out!! Sorry no photos...they will follow soon.

The flight from Singapore arrived in Melbourne at 5am and the jetlag for this flight was worse than any other flight so far! Customs going into Oz (as anyone who has been there will know) are rather threatening, so in good faith we located the acorn in the bottom of Simon´s pocket and ticked ´been walking in forest in the last 30 days´box and braved the scary customs people. Our shoes didn´t offend enough for confiscation or even a cleaning and our honesty was met by an ´is this all?´
Poor Adrienne - our taxi managed record time from the airport and we were ringing her doorbell at 6.10am - followed by a long nap. Day 1 was all about the luxuries of a 1st world city: haircuts in a real salon, shopping (Simon!!) on Chaple Street and then out to party. Adrienne´s friends sing in a band, so we felt very rock ´n roll with our new haircuts heading out to the lead singers house for drink first and then off to the gig. I have to confess that the rockstar illusion was smashed when we discovered the lead singer drinking tea (and not champers like the rest of us) before the big performance!

Melbourne is a rather wonderful place and day 2 we headed out to meet up with friends in Sandringham, long story why we didn´t meet up, but Simon and I had a great walk along the beach with our coffee and croissants. Back to the city to hunt down the sights and with the weather a wonderful 25 degrees it was easy to do. We walked all over Federation Square, through the park and up to the Shrine of Remembrance...and squeezed in an afternoon nap, because the weekend partying continued on the Sat. Adrienne had just arrived back in Oz after being in the UK for three years, so we partied in style at her welcome home bash. As backpackers don´t carry high heals and party frocks, I had to borrow an outfit!! The bar (Baroque House) was very fancy and the music rather good. It felt like such a long time since we had drunk champagne, had canapes and dressed up...and a long time ´til we would do it again!!

Day 3 after all that partying was sleeping mostly. We did manage to fit in walking around the Botanical gardens (more by accident than design), watching our first game of local Aussie Rules Football and then pizza and movies on the couch. Simon nearly made enemies of the rather large football captain by insulting the game...and we made a swift exit!

Great Ocean Road - fancy name for a road on the coast. We decided to give Adrienne a break for two days and headed down the Great Ocean Road. Took all the obligatory pictures of Kangaroo and Koala signs and made it to the the Twelve (well 7 - the rest have fallen down) Apostles in time for a cool sunset. A couple of challenges along the way:
1 - the smallest car we could hire was a tank
2 - it was automatic
3 - I always fall asleep, so Simon enjoyed the last 30min of driving on his own!
Apollo Bay was our retreat for the evening and we dined at a lovely restaurant called Buffs - fish and red wine..yummy. The coast is really lovely (although a little too cold for a swim) and our favourite spot was Lorne with there very nice Aussie Meat Pies. On the way home we saw a Koala 25kms sign and thought ´yes, but we will never spot them in these trees!´ But they were everywhere. We must have seen about 20, all drunk on the eucalyptus trees and mostly sleeping in the branches. And Simon saw a kangaroo (I was asleep again) so we did well for our local wildlife spotting.

Back to cosmopolitan Melbourne and we met up with the lovely Paul and Kate in Lygon street for dinner. It is just like little Italy with hundreds of Italian restaurants lining the street and everyone out for the warm evening. Excellent food too - recommend Tiamo if anyone is in the area and Paul and Kate did a great job of selling Melbourne in a ´come and live here´ kind of way!

This eating theme in Oz continues...and on Wednesday we met Em and Jim for some home cooking at their house in Sandringham. Great Lasagna Em, good new music (check out Fat Freddies Drop and Sneaky Sound System) and rather good Aussie red wine too.

Thursday was city day and we visited Chris Lokum (my old boss who has moved back to Oz last year) for a coffee. Great to catch-up on some BP gossip and get some much needed career advice about setting up in Australia...and the BP office in Melbourne is rather well located vs Sunbury. Finally getting my bank cards after 2 months without them meant some much needed retail therapy in the very cool Aussie fashion stores, but sadly only sensible purchases like new walking trousers and cotton t-shirts were purchased!

Anzac Day (Friday 25th April) and we rose at 5am to join 40,000 locals at the Shrine of Remembrance from Dawn Service. It was rather moving seeing so many people pour up the hill into the dark to stand in silence and remember their heroes. Amazed too that we knew so many words to the national anthem. Glad we went, but back to bed for more sleep! Simon and Tony (Adrienne´s boyfriend aka John Farnham) watched a very one sided Aussie rule match and then we all got drunk and ate Thai food that Simon prepared. Too much dancing around the lounge saw superman dives onto the couch, Adrienne´s bleeding toe and another rendition of my ´Call on me.´

Our last weekend in Melbourne was spent like good locals - at a footie match. Paul and Kate took us to the MCG for a big Adelaide vs Carlton game (Paul is a Carlton supporter, so this was a big game) and Kate did a great job of explaining the rules. Most impressive was the National Sports Museum in the stadium - Paul is Artistic Director so we felt very special having a personal tour of his work (very impressive) Second most exciting was having a pie & a pint at the game! Sadly Carlton lost, but we don't talk about that anymore. We love Paul & Kate house and you can tell they are into design.
Dan - we need to tell you about Paul's 'man-zone' aka workshop and you will pleased to know they had a picture of you hanging in their kitchen (with a stylish orange in your mouth a la Sunday Curry Nights)
Saturday evening was a house party (not been to one in so long) and we spent many house dominating the ping-pong table. Not sure how good we were after all those vodka jellies? Sunday night we joined Em and her mates for their curry quest. Very serious about this they are with a scoring system and everything. I don't think this placed did too well as the waiter struggled to cope with 15 orders at once, but the quality of the food was excellent and Paul & Kate were happy as it was a new local for them!
Now you will never believe the next part - Paul came with us to the airport the next morning at 4.30am! He had a later flight to Sydney that day, but insisted on getting us to the airport the company taxi account...Paul - get some sleep!

Verdict is out on weather we will move to Melbourne, but for now it is good bye Oz...hello New Zealand!