Aussie-versary!

Can you believe that we've been down under for a whole year!!!  In some ways (missing family and friends), it seems like we've been away for a lifetime, but in others (still so many new things to do) it seems like we've only just got here!

When we arrived last year we missed the AFL Grand Final.  It's a really big thing here, and our team - St Kilda - were playing so it was our chance to get involved.  So September 25, we headed to the St Kilda Fan Zone Live Site, where there was a big screen showing the game, and plenty of support.

INXS played before the game!

Collingwood (The Magpies) were hot favourites as they aimed for their first flag since 1990, while the Saints wanted to erase the bad memories of last year's loss to the Cats.

Collingwood were leading 50-26 at halftime, but St Kilda fought back to force a thrilling 68-all draw - only the third drawn grand final in AFL/VFL history.  All very exciting as I expected it to go to extra time - but no!  They were set to replay the grand final the same time the following week!
 
So with a feeling of de-ja-vu, October 2nd we headed back to St Kilda!  This time there were even more St Kilda fans packed into the fan zone live site - only to be disappointed!  Collingwood defeated St Kilda by 56 points - boo!!!!!

In between the first and second grand final of 2010, Darren and I bought a car!!!  We thought it was about time that we gave ourselves some more freedom to explore more of what Australia has to offer!  Much as we love Melbourne and being close to the city, it's time to go further afield and at the very least see what the rest of Victoria has for us!  The car is a Peugeot 307 - a bit smaller than Darren is used to and a bit bigger than I'm used to so a happy compromise!  I've only driven it once so far - the night that it was delivered - around the block!  It's an automatic, and I've only ever driven a manual, and I nearly gave us whiplash as I pulled into the side of the road!  I took my right foot off the accelerator and put my left foot on the clutch (which of course was the brake!), followed by my right foot also on the brake!  Needless to say, we stopped quite abruptly!
 
This week has been quite busy too!  I took my Black Belt Six Sigma exam (still waiting for the results!), went to see The Script, and today Darren and I did the Melbourne half Marathon.  Well that's a whole marathon between us!  Last year we did 5km of it, so this year it was quite a jump to do the half marathon!  The weather was perfect, the course was great, but we're now both walking around like we're 90!!!  Darren has sworn that he will never, ever do it again!  We'll see.........