After a relaxing few hours by and in the pool at Tom and Sarah's apartment we set off to begin our New Year celebrations. We had been invited to watch The 10 pm fireworks from the roof top of an apartment block which has a spectacular view of Melbourne city skyline. We were entertained and fed by Mat and Kristy with another of Mat's wonderful barbecues. Their friend, Sammy has recently moved into the brand new apartment block and we were delighted to be able ...

We drove to Ballarat today with the intention of visiting Sovereign Hill, a reproduction of an early township during the Australia gold rush. We quickly realised that thousands of families had the same idea as we drove into the overflow car park - and then out. We will do this attraction when the school holidays end! Ballarat is a beautiful city about 100 kilometres west of Melbourne. It has many attractions, and we visited the Botanical gardens, a huge lake (...

Yesterday, as the temperature was rumoured to be 38c, David and I drove Tom's car down to Frankston. This town hosts an annual sand sculpting exhibition and has a different theme each year. This year is 'Storyland' and the sculptures are fantastic. There are about 10 different ones. Each one is sculpted from a huge mound of special sand in which the grains hold together better than beach sand. They are then sprayed with a biodegradable silicone to help preserve...

Mat and David, Kristy, Colin and I and Tom and Sarah all drove back to Melbourne early today ( 3 cars) so that all but Kristy and Sarah could be at the opening day of the test match at the MCG. England played as well as in the last 3 test matches but as They have already lost to Australia 3 - 0 it is only pride they are playing for now. The MCG was hoping to break the record for the highest number of attendees at a test match, this was accomplished with over 91...

Christmas Day in Wangarratta is a unique experience. We started with an early lunch at Mat and Kristy's Mum's where 10 sat down to Mat's infamous dish of a duck inside a chicken inside a turkey ( that maybe a chicken first the duck then a turkey) anyway it is delicious. Liz, Mat's mum also baked an enormous ham and roast pork. The whole meal was a meat fest which lasted 3 hours as we opened presents between courses. All very enjoyable. I volunteered to be th...