My last week in Australia I was in Sydney with Chantelle and Chris. I just want to say thank you first for putting me up and entertaining me. I hope you guys enjoyed yourself as much as I did?!?

Shortly after writing my last blog entry, I moved into a flat share in Richmond sharing with Kartja from New Zealand and Heidi from Estonia. Funnily I met Heidi before when searching around for other flats. Melbourne is very small and these kinds of coincidents happen all the time. I stayed in this flat share for the last two month in Melbourne.

During this time I managed to join two Volleyball teams which both played once a week. This was really good fun as it is very casual, mixed gender and still competitive. No such thing in London. One team was called Euro 2008 of which all players were from Europe. This team, although rather new to the game, where not bad and we won the first 9 games in a row. I bet they end up B grade champions. Good luck guys!!!

I also played in Grade A with a team called Ghostbusters Return. Playing at A grade, the standard of games where a bit more challenging and I think we didn't do too badly. I also played occasionally with an other group called 'Ueberschnitzel'. Not surprisingly there were two Germans in the team. So I had fun keeping/getting fit for my upcoming holiday in Asia!

I also kept fit by cycling everywhere. As you know I bought a bike, which I ended up selling during my last week for almost double the price. Well, I have to make somewhere some cash that pays for my Malaria pills!

Most of the time I was hanging out with Melanie. She's become a really close friend. She is also from Germany and although she is from Bavaria, she is really funny and down to earth. Can't wait to catch up with here in Bali at the end of November!!! I met loads of other people too including Joan from Holland, whose Farmer boyfriend invited us to stay at his farm and gave us a private Tomato fabric tour. And there was Tom from England, with whom I travelled through Tasmania. It was nice, apart from Tom's crazy driving.

One of the best things in Melbourne are the bars and pubs. There are a million of them. Our offices moved into the city centre (away from the beach) and above us was a company called 'Deck of secrets'. They basically create a deck of cards which tell you the best bars, restaurants and shopping places in the major cities in Australia. They gave us a set of them and this was my help to find all the great hidden gems in the city because the best bars are tucked away in small alleys and dodgy lanes, between bins and graffiti covered walls. Nightlife is great, and even the house party to which I went to with my new friends from the skiing trip! Shame I can't remember anymore how I fall and scratched my knees. Errr...

Yes, I went skiing in Australia! I would never have believed how much snow there is. I went with Maaike from Holland whom I met on the Tram. Another one of those random situations. All in all we were six people and hired out a large apartment in the mountain area Hortham. I already put up some pictures on Facebook. Apart from Tasmania and the Skiing trip, I also managed to visit Tarryn and Mike one more time on the Gold Coast. It was lovely seeing them again and little Ross is such a cutie. He is such a good baby; I don't think he cried much at all!

Of course, I went surfing again and this time together with Tarryn. She was happy to have an opportunity since Ross was born. Whilst I was there we also walked up a hill (Burleigh Heads) from where you had a good view over the coast to Surfers and Palm Beach. There are also some pictures on Facebook.

Just before I left Melbourne I celebrated my birthday and combined it with some leaving drinks. During this week I really felt how much I will miss Melbourne and how much I actually didn't really want to leave this place. It is such a fantastic city and I met sooo many lovely people with whom I had a brilliant time. Although I look forward to return to London, I think this is where I left my heard!

So I had one more week left in Oz and I spend it in Sydney. On my first day, I went out with Chris and his flat mates/friends to a party in the park. Unfortunately we queued 2 hours for beer and then shortly after, before we really had a chance to dance, the police closed the celebration down early! That same night was Chantelle's birthday too and we had some champagne at her place. I stayed mainly with her, but during the week I visited Chris's home. He is living in a recording studio, so we had some fun playing guitar and singing (not so much in tune) along to it. Thank god we couldn't figure out how to record it, it would have had NO hits on YouTube! ;-)