Yeah baby, I'm back! Pt 3

Day 5. With Mel's jet lag we now only got out after 12pm. The day consisted of shopping and a cruise trip down the River Yarra. This was to be our last full day as we were flying out the following evening.

guess who?
Me and Mel
Melbourne skyline and Melissa

Day 6. Started with packing, checking out and leaving our luggage in storage, then we jumped on the tram and headed to St Kilda and the beach. We had lunch and ice cream and generally enjoyed the nice 28c day. We rounded of the day with a coffee and a donut before flying home.

tram to St Kilda
Melissa
pier
St Kilda
Pimp Daddy Chocolat
Pimp Daddy (again)
Melissa
Melissa (again)
the plane home. 'Boo hoo!'

Yeah baby, I'm back! Pt 2

Day 3. Today was the day of the wedding, but before that, me and Mel hit the shops and had a general wander. The wedding was wonderful as was the reception after, with the food and the speeches and the dancing. All wrapped up at 12am but to continue the night Me, Melissa, Hilary (one of Carley's mates) and Amiee hit the town and when to a club till the wee small hours.

Mel and some horses
Steve and myself
Melissa and Me
Melissa and Amiee
Steve and Scott - The Best Man
Melissa and Hilary
Hilary and Carley

Day 4. Melissa had succumbed to a cold so felt like taking a time out. The advent of jet lag and 4.30 am finish also didn't help. I met up with the now joined two family's of Steve and Carley's, and Hilary, and Julie (Carley's best mate) at Carley's oldest sister's house. After some card and present opening we all took a walk to a BBQ restaurant on the banks of the Yarra. The day finished in the early evening as everyone was exhausted from the wedding. It was a night in this night as Mel still felt ill and I was tired and quite stuffed from lunch.

train to Fairfield
a trojan, something
Carley and Steve
Baxter

Yeah baby, I'm back!

What a hoo har! Get back from Oz and find that my computer keyboard ain't working, well, just the top line of letters from 'q' to 'p'. That meant; no blogging, no emails, no googling, no surfing. In fact, if I was to write this sentence with the keyboard it would read like this:-

"ha a h ha! G back fm z and fnd ha m cm kbad an' kng, ll, js h ln f ls fm '' ''. ha man; n blggng, n mals; n ggglng; n sfng. n fac, f as hs snnc h h kbad ld ad lk hs:-"

Needless to say I had to go out and buy a new one. Each letter is precious. Treasure them.

Problem. How do I condense a week in Australia and some 250 photos into concise blog style segments. Hmmmmmm. Lets see if this works.

Day 1. Me and Melissa went to the Melbourne zoo. Caught the tram. Saw loads of animals. That evening met up with Steve and his Mom, Dad and 2 of the friends he had lived with during his year long stay down under. Had dinner, then us youngsters stayed out and played; In an Irish themed pub on the banks of the city's river. The river Yarra.

Roos
Emu
Lions -"Roar"
Melissa
Me and Mel
Steve and Me
Aimee and Nerida (Steve's 'Queenslander' buds)
Melbourne at night

Day 2. Almost the same format as day 1. We decided to head to the same area for breakfast as we had dinner the night before with Steve. Next we visited the aquarium. Fishes! Then came an observation deck atop one of Melbourne's many skyscrapers. The evening was taken up with a meal with most of the wedding guests attending. Again us young stuffs continued the night once the food had gone. The bars are open till 3am as standard over there with free entry at any time. England take note!

Melissa
Pimp Daddy Chocolat aka Me
Melissa
sharks
Melissa
Carley, her Dad Phil, and Steve
Me, Steve and Nerida
Melissa, Aimee and yours truly

more to follow....

No church. No bell

Ah. Saturday was the wedding and thankfully the weather held up and the ceremony was held in the gardens of this magnificent looking function hall. It was really good, with us guests disappearing to the local bar for an hour whilst the dj set up. The dinner was very tasty and the dj played the standard wedding stuff, disco and party. Quite spookily both me and Mel caught the bouquet and garter (I didn't know this, but the garter is the male version. Maybe an Aussie thing. After the 12 o'clock finish a few of us headed into town to continue the evenings festivities. Dragged ourselves back to the hotel bout 4.

The next day I joined the 2 now joined families for a BBQ lunch down by the banks of the river in a picturesque suburb. Mel was feeling the effects of a cold, and jet lag, so stayed in bed. It's now Monday, and our last full day and night here, so we've gotta cram all the remaining stuff in. Today will be a river cruise and visiting the coast. Up and at em!

Wedding Day!

Me! (Don't worry. I didn't fall)

Toady is wedding day. Actually is less than 2 hours! Last night a lot of the wedding guests, family and friends met for dinner in an Afghan restaurant. We had a set menu so wasn't able to explore the cuisine fully. The weather has turned to its more seasonal temperature of low 20s but its still quiet pleasant. My plan to upload my photos from the hotel lobby terminal has been thwarted by the fact that it takes 4 years just to do 1 photo. Its cheap to be online though; $1 aus for 10 mins. That works out to be around 40p!

"Is this thing on....?"

Well here I am I Oz, 9 hours ahead of you guys back home. Unfortunately due to a technically hitch I can't update my blog from my phone - patchy wap service in this area. So here I am in the hotel lobby.

Now is our second morning here in this lovely city of Melbourne. The 1st thing that strikes you is the lack of people. Imagine London then delete around 3/4 of the population. Now stroll around your new imaginary London. That empty. Our first day was spent at the zoo (make sure we get to see some Roos and Koalas). That was fun, 34c, Wowzers! The average temperature is only supposed to be around 20-25c, so we've lucked out there!

Catherine, The Roos say 'Hi' back :-)

I've already taken over 100 photos so I'm gonna have to pick the very best ones for the blog, and I see here that this terminal has a memory card reader, so I'll try and venture back with memory card in toe to see if it works.

By for now guys!

See ya in a week!

Well blog fans, the time has come and I am off to the southern hemisphere. To the city of Melbourne, Australia. The purpose, well firstly to have a holiday to a part of the world I'm dying to see, and secondly, to witness the marriage Steve, and old co-worker, who emigrated earlier this year, to Carley, a full blooded Aussie, who had been studying nursing on these fair shores. Their nuptials takes place this saturday and it will be so good to see them again, and Steve is such a good man that despite being on another continent and a day ahead, has stayed in contact, with phonecalls, SMS and emails. Good on ya!



I'm hoping that my phone will work over there because I will be able to take a photo and upload it straight to squishpages, instantly. So stay tuned!

Also guys, there's a comments section at the bottom of each post. This is where YOU can participate. Leave your opinions, thoughts, well wishes and hellos! Use it or..... nothing I guess. Chow!

Crunch time

Payday at the end of the week. Yay! Into poor mode again (No going out. No hot meals, just bread and water, (made that one up). No treats like candy and cakes, (boo hoo!)). Made it an extra week into the month so that's got to be an improvement. It (payday) will also give me a very big answer; Can I afford to go to Australia?
Steve White, an old work colleague, recently emigrated there and on Oct 14th he gets married to fiancee Carley (an aussie, and cracking gal to boot) and me, with an invite only have next month's pay to cover - flight, accommodation and spending money! Sheesh!! So lots of penny counting and belt tightening to come. If I don't make it to Oz, well I've got Queenie's (Lucy) and Kinky's (Kirsty) birthday bashes to attend.

Also I've got one more week before a meeting with my regional manager for a performance review. I've been off all me targets year to date and the company are a bit concerned. They need 100% plus from all players and my 95% ain't cutting it, it seems. I am, though, on my way to my best overall monthly performance since joining the company so I hope its enough to turn the heat off.