Two weeks ago on Melbourne Cup Day, Victoria fell asleep on her bus back from work and ended up in Canterbury, about five suburbs away from home. Although hilarious, I pointed out the dangers of napping on public transport; such as missing Neighbours. The cup is the horse race that stops the nation and is a public holiday in Melbourne and some lucky people in Sydney get the afternoon off work as Australia goes gambling mad. It was gambling Sydneysiders that funded the construction of the iconin Opera House via a state lottery. This we discovered on a tour that was part of our Victoria Barnes Day 2007 celebrations, which was a welcome day out of the office. Much of the day was spent with Victoria unwrapping pink thinks. Along with the pink cake, pink cards and rose wine, walking into our apartment was a bit like being trapped in a huge candyfloss. The day was capped off with a traditional visit to a Spanish restaurant, dancing to Stevie Wonders version of Happy Birthday and falling over our coffee table. Also a chap came to fix our leaky air-conditioning.Regular reader and message board contributor, Pat Barnes of Ashington, England, asked me to write something about the 'Australian work ethic'. From what we've seen, exactly the same as Britain although with less tea breaks would be my answer. Nobody in either of our offices seems to be Australian anyway and, even if you do manage to see one, they're usually working seriously hard in order to pay off their gambling debts. If Hitler and Jeremy Beadle ran a company it would probably be similar to the call centre where Victoria and I briefly worked. We started at 9.30am and lasted 4 and a half hours before quitting. Not bad, we've now both quit the same company on the same day twice in seven months. Now we're settling into our respective roles. My data entry gig is pretty boring, although I often amuse myself with some of the crazy Australian town names. We really must visit Wet Beaver Creek and Bald Man's Knob. Victoria likes the crew she works with but is angered by the company who won't let her go shopping during working hours or stay at home to watch Trisha. With circumstances like these, our weekends have obviously taken on a great significance.One excellent Saturday night was spent going to see The Killers at Darling Harbour - bloody awesome! Overcome with excitement (southern comfort more like), Victoria enjoyed singing loudly outside the arena, but stopped once I told her she was actually singing Razorlight songs. She then proceeded to eat a small pack of Frosties (they're grrreat!) whilst waiting for the band to come on stage.The following weekend was reserved for meet-ups. On Friday we managed to finally see Matt Pollins, who we strangely managed to miss when we were all at Iguazu Falls on the same day. At least we didn't have to share our mashed egg sandwiches. Having done essentially the same route around the world as Matt, we could have discussed the magnificence of Machu Picchu or the juxtaposition between rich and poor in Rio....nope...we argued about quotes from The Princess Bride and The Mask of Zorro with a random canadian bloke. That's what happens when you drink cocktails out of teapots.The next day we saw my sister, Carley, and her boyfriend Russell, who had booked into a five star hotel just one block away from my office just to taunt me. We had a cool evening and they contributed to VB Day 2007 by giving Victoria a bunch of flowers which make the apartment look really nice and are probably more practical than my idea to build a conservatory. We're on the third floor. Check out the photos!!! Thanks to everyone who sent cards, gifts or messages to Victoria on her Birthday. I'll send her your love when I find out which bus stop she's woken up at today.Loads of love,Victoria and Tom xxx