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...

Kristy and Colin drove us to Wangaratta Saturday afternoon; the temp in Melbourne when we left was 21c and less than 3 hours later we were dealing with 40c plus. Mat's dad has the heat problem sorted out by installing a large air fan by the swimming pool with a hose pipe attached that successfully blows a mist of water over the area thereby cooling the area. Mat cooked a large amount of lamb on the barbie together with some sausages. Alan, (Mat's dad) brews hi...

Back with Tom and Sarah and invited on Saturday to a birthday barbie in a local park with a few of their friends. On the way we popped into the apartment of Jen, who lives on the 26th floor of a central apartment block. The views from her balcony are fantastic, you can see way beyond Melbourne to distant hills. David and I are invited to watch the Melbourne New Years Eve fireworks from this apartment so looking forward to that. Picture attached is the view So...