Good Morning / Evening Blog Readers.

Wow, it's been that long since I have wrote one of these blogs, I've almost forgot how to write them. I could come up with excuses that I've been busy and stuff but the fact is I have been too lazy and the longer it has gone on the harder it has been for me to recap the last couple of months. And boy what a couple of months they have been! When I last left you we had just welcomed back Tom Ellis to Melbourne with an awesome night out! In which I may have shared a kiss or two with an attractive female. So now to fast forward to the present day and Tom Ellis is back in the UK and I'm still sharing kisses with the same girl. So what happened to Tom Ellis? Who is this girl? And what else has happened over the past two months. Well I invite you good readers to read what is most likely going to be a blog longer than the Harry Potter series! Enjoy!

So Tom Ellis slotted straight back into the flat with me, a flat that got the nickname of the man cave. This time around pants days were few and far between as we needed to get Tom a job, he was down to bare bones and in desperate need of some work, so I employed myself as his job coach and motivator. I assured him I'd have him a job by the end of the week. I always like to follow up on my bold claims and this one was no different, it was ambitious but I was confident. We did it! Thanks to a mutual friend of ours G & T Dee who we worked with at the Noodle Markets, she was able to get Tom a job as a runner / waiter at Melbourne's busiest restaurant Chin Chin. Success! My job coaching was not done there, Nat had lost her job over New Year, so I decided to help her on her job hunt the best I could too. I claim to have succeeded here too by prepping her before an interview she had to get the job, but the rest of the job hunt didn't go exactly to plan, one day when Tom, Nat and I went CV dropping it turned into a bit of an afternoon session on the beers which led me to turn up to work rather worse for wear. There is one more job I claim on my job coaching role and that is my friend Lynsey, who had an interview at a café. Her interviewer a chap called Rafael said he would get back to her, when he didn't I convinced Lynsey to send him a banterous message. It didn't work straight away but eventually she got the job! So anyone looking for a job, apply with in for a successful job coach J

January was a great month for sporting occasions in Melbourne, we had cricket - one dayers and 20/20s. The Australian Open and The A-League was still in swing. I managed to attend quite a few of the events. Firstly the MCG drew me back for the one day international. We won't talk about the embarrassing score line, but Jack, Jess, Lauren, Nat and myself had a cracking day out on the beers followed by a few socialable jars in Richmond afterwards. Next up was The Australian Open. We had tickets for the first day which included Klara Zakopalova vs Sam Stosur, Angelique Kerber vs and Jarmila Gajdosova and number three seed David Ferrer vs Alejandro Gonzalez. It was the first time I had been to a Tennis match and I found the atmosphere really strange being quite through points and only being able to move seats at the end of games, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. The highlight being when Jack, Jess, Tom and Myself got interviewed for 5-live after the day. Clearly we had a few beers and didn't know what we were talking about much but it was good fun! After seeing Del Piero play for Sydney FC in Melbourne, the next 'star' of the A-League I was eager to see was none other than Emile Heskey. Now football fans in England will understand how useless big Emile is. Heskey is now playing for Newcastle Jets and they came to play Melbourne Heart, so my and Matt took ourselves to watch the big useless lummox and see if he could set the poor standard of the A-League alive. The simple answer is no. He was still awful. He may have won every header, but his work rate was no existent as was his running and his talent was nowhere to be seen. Still it was a good game and we also got to see Harry Kewell in action as his Melbourne Heart team recorded their first win of the season with a comfortable 3-1 victory.

Also in January, Korean Kev made an appearance. Our first meeting was to see the controlled explosions outside of the Crown Casino, these were a lot less spectacular than I thought they would be. Our next meeting was on a trip to the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road was a fantastic experience and we got to see some incredible things such as wild Koala's, Apollo Bay and the 12 Apostles. The only problem was Korean Kev had booked us on a Korean tour, so I didn't understand nothing! I was on a trip with 11 other People all Korean who spoke very little English. It was a strange experience to say the least. The trip also had a downer on it as I was getting berated by my boss for the Man Cave being a mess. This fact was massively exaggerated and almost caused me to quit my job and move out. There were claims that there was beer bottles everywhere, piss on the floor and smoking in the flat. All of this was absolute Bull s***. There was beer bottles but they were organised in the corner in a pyramid formation. The fact I had to remove the structure was most upsetting. The piss claim and fags were also ridiculous! I ended up staying on, the flat was too good to leave, however, it meant I had to ask Tom to leave, he wasn't supposed to be there anyway, so he went and moved in with Jack, Big Mike and Danny down the road after a short stay in Base.

The Great Ocean Road was another thing ticked off of my Melbourne bucket list and there was more to come too. On one of the days Melbourne was having a massive 45 degree heatwave myself and Tom went to visit the Shrine of Remembrance, we weren't there long though opting instead for the coolness of the sea. One day I decided to visit my friend Sam in Mornington, she was leaving soon and I always said I'd visit so I did, we went to Story World, where they had amazing sand sculptures, and had a few drinks by the beach. After going to watch a boring 0-0 draw between Arsenal and Man Utd with Matt at the Casino, I took a trip to Melbourne Aquarium. The aquarium was really nice, my highlights being the massive croc they had and the jellyfish. Recently Matt, Cliona, Grace and myself went to see American Hustle at the Moonlight Cinema in the Botanical gardens. In my opinion the film wasn't all that and dragged on a little but the cinema itself was nice, with the Melbourne skyline in the background and bats flying above you making the experience very unique. We also re visited the Victoria Night Markets where I had my first experience trying Ostrich, and also tried Crocodile again. Big Mike and I went to visit Melbourne Museum and its James Bond exhibition. We had a good day out, got loads of nice pictures but it was when Big Mike left me things turned a little mental. I had been talking about getting a banana tattoo for a while, and today was the day I was going to finally make it happen. I walked past a tattoo shop and went in and got a price, they said they could get me in today and that it would only take 15 minutes. I said I would think about it. After a bit of deliberation I decided to go for it. I didn't want to be a guy who was all talk. It was time. I strolled back in and approx. thirty minutes later I was out with a superhero Banana on my bum which reads Top Banana above it. I was, I am chuffed with it, and the tattoo is located on my bum / thigh area and is a tribute to my father whose catch phrase is Top Banana and also to my time working on the Banana Farms in Innisfail. Most of my friends were pretty surprised, and I'm still not sure if my Mum and Dad believe I have had it done.

Nights out and drunken shenanigans have also been plenty. I'm not even sure where to start with this one. I'm not sure if it's drunken memory loss or the fact it's been too long since I wrote a blog. But we have had some good nights out in St Kilda's Veludo's, recently Track on Toorak Road where Generous Gary made an appearance. A night out in Richmond with Jack where we had a slight altercation with a Mexican Midget Bouncer. Then there was the Superbowl, which ended up with me going to see Saving Mr Banks with Lynsey and Emma, and then going to see the toilets with the best view of Melbourne at the Sofitel. There has also been a fair few festivals happening in Melbourne. One St Kilda festival, was free and had some great live music. There was also White Night which happened in the city between 7pm and 7am and involved images being projected on to buildings. I found that night a bit over rated but still had fun, and then just last weekend there was a festival in Brunswick where we enjoyed many of beer and some entertainment. As well as this there was the crazy Australian Day weekend where Becky came to visit, and also there has been frequent house parties and drinks on the beach. No doubt I have probably missed many of great night out and could have gone into much more detail about each of these but I don't want to bore you all too much.

One of my other favourite things in the world apart from sport, beer and women is food! Now Melbourne has treated me to a lot of fine delicacies in the past few months but special praise has to go to La Roche for their Mexican Parma and the Espy for their Mexican night. I have also had some fantastic homemade meals cooked for me a curry particular stand outs. And not to toot my own horn too much but my lasagne, pasta bakes and fajitas have been nothing short of sensational.

In random events that have occurred I decided to shave my luscious long locks off. After eventually finding some manly head bands I was happy with my look. But after many people told me they think it would look better short and after having a few gays trying it on with me I decided that enough was enough and let Matt go wild with the clippers. I finaly bought some converse after years of anting some. I've had a visa accepted allowing me to have a working holiday to Canada and I have also booked flights to Argentina for when I travel South America at the end of my Australian Visa. I've also caught up with various friends such as Nina and Dean and as mentioned earlier Korean Kev.

So at the start of proceedings I said Tom was back in the UK, yeah he is. Unfortunately for me, the rest of his friends and Melbourne Tom had to return to England due to the fact his Visa had run its course. I'm pretty sure I paid tribute to him in my last blog but it's not going to stop me doing it again. Tom was such a sound lad, would do anything for anyone, unless it was washing dishes, he was a yes man, and years beyond his age, he was a friendly ear, someone who gave/gives good advice and someone who knows how to have a good time. He is one hell of a bloke and I have a sense he is set for big things in the world. He will be sorely missed. However, I know I will see the big man again, if not in Canada, then back in our home town of Nottinghamshire! We gave Tom a quality send off with a weekend away at Phillip Island. Eleven of us rented a mini bus and headed down to see penguins, have drunken fun, play mini golf - where I spotted a magnificent hole in one on the first hole and also visited an animal sanctuary.

And the girl you ask, yeah Miss Natalie Horak. When you are travelling there are certain people you meet and you just click with, you can say anything, talk about anything and silence isn't awkward. Tom was one of them, as was Brooke. I can also put Nat in that bracket. She is a remarkable lass. 23 and the stand out girl from the Leicester group of girls she is with. She is one of the most kind and likeable people I have ever met, and she has the time for everyone and anyone and is always ready to make people feel welcome. If there is someone who seems slightly odd on a tram Nat will talk to them, when most people would laugh or turn away. If there is someone new to the group Nat will be the first or one of the first to greet them and welcome them. She's been likened to the Mum of the group and I can guess you can see that with her caring nature. It's also a bonus she is attractive, great cook, funny and don't even get me started on the Horak Special. I have the upmost respect for her and love putting her awesome smile on her face. And I'm really enjoying just going with it.

Melbourne has been a really fun place to be over the last two months and I can see the finish line soon. I'm not sure if this excites me or scares the s*** out of me. So at the moment I'm not even going to worry and just enjoy my last six weeks or so.

So until next time

Take Care and Stay Safe

Adi