Australia Day!!!

Australia doesn't have many traditions. Attempts to get Halloween off the ground have stalled due to one too many homeowners telling little kids to get off their property or they will see a scary sight. Australia's equivalent of America's Thanksgiving Day is Australia Day on January 26, the landing of the First Fleet of Convicts in Botany Bay.

Unfortunately, there is much more emotional resonance in celebrating pioneering pilgrims who broke bread with the natives than there is in celebrating criminals that stole bread and were duly hung. Needless to say, Australia has no tradition of putting the old ball and chain on your leg, and subsequently walking down the street in tribute to the founding fathers. Likewise, Australia has no statues of the pioneering Convicts holding up their shackled wrists in triumph!

Ironically, the suffering the Convicts and the cruelty of the wardens makes the anniversary of their landing quite a useful date for a national celebration. Because Australia commenced in such a negative way, the date provides a great opportunity to reflect upon how far Australia has come, and how far it still has to go.

Many Australians put such sentiments into action by using Australia day to have a barbeque. Because there are no firm prescriptions about how they should think or feel, most Australians simply take the initiative to make the day into what they want it to be. Consequently, whereas many national days around the world involve citizens reflecting on the achievements of their ancestors that they have not personally lived up to, Australia’s national day involves citizens acting in a vastly superior way to the people that the date acknowledges.

For us, Australia Day is a day off work and a good time to remember that we're lucky to be here and enjoy our surroundings.  In the afternoon we take a wander down to the beach and up Church Street in Brighton.  We then head back for own little barbie, complete with burgers the shape of Australia, and Havaianas lights......

Work, Tennis and a Barbie!

My four months of enjoying a lady of leisure lifestyle came to an end 19/01/2010.  The time had come to get back to reality, and with nerves a plenty I went to Axa, with Darren, as a Process Improvement Specialist.  It felt a bit like 'bring your wife to work day', but it was really nice to go in and travel home with Darren, as well as go to lunch with him and his boss.  Day one was spent reading and familiarising myself with stuff, and day two was a bit more tricky when the first thing they asked me to do I didn't have clue where to start!  (bored to stressed in about two minutes!).  Day three was better as I figured out what I was meant to do, and day four the girl I am taking over from left for her maternity leave.  On my own from here on in.....

I'd survived almost a full week and I was glad when Friday night came!  Amazing how tiring it is to use your brain after leaving it to rest for a while!

Saturday morning we headed to the Australian Open for a day of tennis.  I'm not the most avid tennis fan (probably due to the fact that I can't hit a ball myself) so I was glad that we'd got ground passes so that we were free to wander around and see all the shops and entertainment and stuff as well as the tennis! 

First of all we made our way to the Margaret Court Arena, and no sooner had we sat down for the ladies singles and they were finishing their warm up when there was a rain delay!  The rain didn't last too long though and after they'd wiped off the courts, Vera Zvonareva (Russia) defeated Gisela Dulko (Argentina) 6-1,7-5.

There is a grass area in the grounds with a big screen so from there we watched Roger Federer (Swiss) defeat Albert Montanes (Spanish) 6-3,6-4,6-4.  After the initial rain, it turned into the most gorgeous sunshiney day - perfect for sitting around, people watching, and obviously keeping an eye on the tennis!

We then went for a wander around when we were lucky enough to spot Jesse Metcalfe - the gardener in Desperate Housewives! I know, I know, I was meant to be there for the tennis - but it was a highlight of the day for me!

We then went back to the big screen and watched Venus Williams (American) defeat Casey Dellacqua (Australian) 6-1, 7-6(4).

With most of the big day games over we headed to the practice courts where we were lucky enough to see Marcos Baghdatis (Cypriot) and Lleyton Hewitt (Australian) warming up for their game that was due to start that evening!

A last trip to the shop to get some souvenirs (including an oversized tennis ball!) and it was back on the train and home to watch Baghdatis and Hewitt on the telly!

Brilliant day - even for someone that hasn't shown any interest in tennis til now!
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It's Australia Day on Tuesday and Jo and Lee had a barbeque on Sunday as an early celebration.11 of us were there and it was a good excuse to all get together for some food and a few drinks in the sun...

Hit For Haiti

Last Tuesday a devastating earthquake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale decimated Haiti leaving around 3 million people in need of help.

Although it’s the eve of the Australian Open’s first round, Roger Federer put aside thoughts of his preparation and brought together an entourage of the world's top tennis players to play a special mixed-doubles event at the Rod Laver Arena to support the Haiti earthquake victims.

Although we were only able to attend this event as a result of a tragedy, it was amazing to be able to go to see world class players on centre court at the Rod Laver Arena, along with thousands of others.
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Novak Djokovic, Sam Stosur, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick paired up for the special mixed doubles match that was the best of two sets.

The match was fun to watch with lots of banter and trick shots and we felt priviledged to be a part of an event that raised at least $200,000.

One year ends.....another begins.....

29th December and Darren and I are on babysitting duty.  Mark and Emma are off to see Shakespeare in the Park and it's a beautiful night for it.  We arrive at the Perry's to much excitement from Mabel and Kieran.  We watch a cartoon with them, which luckily is about going to bed, which means that saying it's bedtime is easy!  Tonight it's my turn to read the bedtime story and Kieran asks if they can get into mine and Darren's bed for the story because it's cosy!  Of course!

The next morning Darren has to go to work so Mark drops us at the station so that Darren can go to the city and I can get off at Brighton.  I do a last minute shop and then head into the city myself to meet our guest for 3 nights - Tom.  Tom is someone I worked with at Messier Services in Gloucester and will be our first guest, and the first person I've seen from home!  He's been travelling for the last few months, and Melbourne is one of his stops before heading to New Zealand.

I meet Tom at Flinders Street station, under the famous clocks and bring him and his back packs back to Brighton.  Washing on!  Darren gets home from work early so the 3 of us head to Church Street for some cake at the Dendy Deli.  In the evening we have a barbie (putting our Christmas present from mum and dad to good use!) and then watch a dvd that Tom has bought for us.

The next day is New Year's Eve and it's 38 degrees!  We get the bus to St Kilda and show Tom a few of the sights and take a walk to the end of the pier where there's a good view of the city and the beaches.  After that we head back to Brighton where the boys play on the X-Box for a bit.  I think Tom was glad of somewhere he could just relax after having stayed in many hostels on his travels!  We then grab some chips (Tom and I have shark) before getting ready for a night out to celebrate the New Year!

I had New Year's Eve all mapped out!  Meet up with friends in a bar on Chapel Street, go into the city to meet up with more friends for the 9pm fireworks and then go to Port Melbourne to meet up with more friends for some fizz on the beach and watch the 12 o'clock fireworks.....best laid plans and all that!

We meet up with friends on Chapel Street and have a few drinks there before heading to the city. 

As we are waiting for the train the sky suddenly blackens and the lightening starts.  By the time we reach the city it's chucking it down!  We manage to meet up with our friends, but because of the lightening the fireworks are delayed.  Luckily I brought a brolly with me and the 5 of us stand around and wait for the fireworks, along with a lot of other people with the same idea! 

At about 9.30pm there's a break in the weather and the fireworks begin - not the most impressive display, but the fork lightening that followed was quite impressive!

After the fireworks we hang around for a bit debating whether to chance going to Port Melbourne or not.  The decision was a no because the weather didn't look like it was going to let us go to the beach.  We try to find a bar close by that was still letting people in, but at $160 per person we decided to give it a miss!  We said our 'Happy new Year's' and 'Goodbye's' to our friends and headed back to Brighton and saw the New Year in at a local bar in Brighton!  Not quite what I had in mind, but a good night anyway!  Still can't believe I carried a bottle of bubbly around with me all night and ended up bringing it home again unopened!

Lots of texts were sent back and forth to the UK wishing everyone Happy new Year - even though they still had another 11 hours to wait til theirs arrived!  Lots of people we would have liked to have seen the new year in with - but to be honest with the rain we could have been back home - although it's a lot warmer here!

New Year's Day and Tom, Darren and I went to the Coffee Club for brekkie.  Tom took on the Coffee Club Big Breakfast and managed it, even mopping up the last of the egg with his toast - we were impressed!

After breakfast we went to the MCG to do the tour and go to the National Sports Museum.  It was nice to have Tom as an excuse to do something touristy!  The tour was really good, and for an older gentleman, Max our tour guide didn't half move around the stadium with some pace!  We got to stand on the grass and we also saw Dwayne Bravo (a West Indian cricketer, so I'm told!).  An impressive part of the tour was to go into the Member's Lounge which was dead posh.  We were allowed to sit on the leather couch that is reserved for the oldest members and has the best view of the oval.  As we sat down there was the sound of a clatter of tiny things hitting the highly polished wooden floor and everyone looked in my direction.  I was mortified as I realised that my beaded bracelet had broken and the tiny beads were scattering all over the place.  I then had to bite my lip to try and stop laughing and Max continued.  The beads are still there as far as I know and I'm just praying that one of the oldest members doesn't have a mishap on that highly polished floor with tiny beads all over it!

One more night with Tom staying and then in the morning, backpack crammed full again, we head into the city to say our farewells, and wish Tom well with the rest of his adventure.  It was lovely to have someone from home to stay and show them where we live and what we're up to now!  We're quite proud of it all!!!

Chuck another snag on the barbie!

We've been in Oz for 3 months now and we still didn't have a bar-be-que, so we thought we'd treat ourselves with the money that my parents gave us for Christmas.  The trouble is that we don't have a car and most of the bbq places are out of the way/how would we get it back? 

We looked on the internet and saw that 'Barbeques Galore' were having a sale and there was a store in Richmond that we could get to on a train then tram.  It's not our closest store, but it was the easiest one to get to!  So off we set.

When we got there we found a barbie and a 7 piece dining set for the court yard pretty much straight away - the trouble was how to get it back?  The guy who served us, Ron, asked his boss if we could have it delivered but they only deliver locally so it was a no, no.  Ron said that he lived our way and could drop it off after work, but the trouble was how would it fit in his car?  Delivery costs are really high and he was doing his best to save us the expense.

So, because Ron is a legend, he said that he and Darren could go in his lunch hour and take the store van.  He chucked in some stuff for us free too, for cleaning the barbie and stuff  If I had something in my hand he told me to chuck it in the bag for free!  So Ron and Darren headed back to Brighton in the van while I did some shopping in Richmond and an hour later it was all delivered and Ron brought Darren back with him!

The next day we assembled the dining set and bbq which was a bit of a chore with no John Booy on speed dial to put it together for us!  But it seemed solid enough and that night we had our first bbq - Darren was the chef (didn't just supervise this time!) and we're still here to tell the tale!  First of many I feel!