We have been busy once again this week! Our penultimate week at work and there is still so much we want to see and do before we leave Melbourne after Christmas.

Wednesday evening we went to check out a Melbourne tradition, late night Victoria Market, which is filled with every type of food stall imaginable, lots of stalls selling all sorts of stuff from candles to sweets and chocolate to jewellery and clothes, all ideal for Christmas presents. It was great fun and very busy, we went with Hugh, Andrew C (who I work with) and two of his friends. Afterwards we managed to find a pub that actually served pints, Andrew was very happy as you can imagine!

Friday night was spent in a Monty Python parallel universe! We had set the kids a quest in order for them to receive their Christmas presents! This involved collecting many things such as a black knight with no arms or legs, a dead parrot, 14 blades, a pigs bladder and a round table (the list went on Andrew got a bit carried away!) They also had to put on a banquet together (instead of a wild boar with apple in its mouth we had two chickens with a banana up their butts!!) and some entertainment for King Andrew and Queen Sarah. We had a great evening, they succeeded in the quest and received their Christmas Present - tickets to see Spamalot!

Saturday we went to Ballarat with Hugh and Andrew C. Ballarat is a historic gold mining town best known for its simulated town Sovereign Hill, where there are actors going about their daily business just like it was in the 1860s! Gold was discovered here in 1951 and for many years thousands of diggers mined the area looking for the rich quartz reefs where the gold can be found. It was pouring with rain when we got there and it felt very real as we had to tiptoe our way through inches of mud! Thankfully the weather cleared up as we wandered around the town, looked in all the shops, houses and the school.

We went on a tour of an underground mine which was really interesting, looked around the battery house and saw a gold bar being made! We did some gold panning and we all manged to find a few speaks of gold (they put about $300 of gold in the creek every week for the visitors to find!) but not enough to make our fortunes! There was of course time to have a beer in the bar! We also made friends with the local 'policeman' who took a bit of shine to this English Rose and gave us a musket demostration! The Gold Museum was also very interesting. There was so much to see and do we could have done with a whole weekend to spend there.

Saturday night Andrew and I went to the drive in to see Bee Movie. The film was good, definately worth seeing but we were there mainly for the experience. It was so funny, just like being in the movies. You drive in, choose the movie, then park on a bank facing the screen and tune in your radio! Some people were all tucked up with blankets and you can have food and drink delivered to your car!

Sunday we gave Caroline, Sarah J, Laura and Ryan their Christmas Present, tickets to see Spamalot, which they completely loved! We wanted to say a huge thank you to them for having us to stay over the last two months and since they love Monty Python, this was the ideal present. They had a great time and were really happy so that made us happy too!

Sunday afternoon we all went over to Caroline's brother's house, Richard, to meet him, his wife Gaylene and their three daughters Isabelle, Ebony and Yianna. We had a lovely roast dinner there and it was great to meet more family that I have not met before.

Well only a week left at work, 9 days till Christmas and then we head up the east coast and back to living out of a rucksack!

Lots of Love to everyone.

Sarah and Andrew xxx