Christmas Day was spent in Colac with Sarah's family, Irene and Goff, Caroline and her children Sarah, Laura and Ryan, Mike and his children Ben, Jessie and Emily and Richard, his wife Gaylene and their children Isabelle, Ebony and Yianna - 17 of us in total! So as you can imagine it was a big Christmas and lots of fun, games and laughter. We had turkey with all the trimmings, were spoilt with lots of presents and had plenty to drink - I don't think Andrew went all day without a drink in his hand!! It was so lovely to be part of a family for Christmas and we even got to see and chat with our families at home in the evening through the wonder of skype!

It was quite strange though having a Christmas Day in 26oc heat with blue sky and bright sun and in the evening we were able to have a BBQ to make sure we were having a traditional Aussie Christmas! Mike also took us all out for a spin on his motorbike which was great fun and really refreshing in the heat!

Boxing Day and we had to say goodbye to everyone as we headed back to Melbourne. It was really sad as we have become really close to everyone, particularly Caroline, Sarah, Laura and Ryan and they have been so kind to us, letting us stay with them for so long and allowing us to spend Christmas with them, we are very grateful! As our train sped past Goff and Irene's house they were all out waving red sheets to say goodbye (just like the railway children!)

We spent Boxing Day watching the first day of the Australia v India Test Match Cricket at the MCG. We went with Jo and Neil who Andrew used to work with at Herefordshire Council and Hugh. We had a great day, the atmosphere at the MCG was amazing, with all the chanting and Mexican waves, particularly in the area next to the pitch. Attendance at the MCG was about 68,500 - a lot of people! We were up in the gods for most of the day in a shaded part and were actually really grateful that we had been out of the sun, as when we moved into the sun later on in the afternoon, we were all dripping with sweat after a few minutes it was that hot!

It was actually a good day of cricket to watch, Australia who were batting started well reaching 100 quickly and Matthew Hayden scored a century to leave Australia 135/0 at lunch. Then India started pulling it back and took several wickets and by the end of the day it was 330/9! We finished the day off with a BBQ, our last one in Melbourne.

Today we catch an overnight bus up to Sydney and our Round the World Adventures kick off again!

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

Lots of Love

Sarah and Andrew xxx