G'day! How ya going? Wana beer? "Classic Aussie Lingo" to start our Oz Blog.

After a 9 hour and 7389km flight we arrived in Melbourne, Australia. We then spent about an hour trying to get through all of the security checks, whilst waiting for Barnes' bag, standard….last one off the plane! For the next 3 weeks we were going to be staying with The Magnano's, Vinnie and Belinda and their 3 daughters (Barnes' Australian family). We finally made it through and met Vinnie and Liv and they took us back to their house in Ballarat, which is about an hour outside of Melbourne.

The next day I got my hair cut at the local barbers! Bit nervous but they did an ok job! That night we had a mass BBQ with the rest of their family coming as well, this is where Barnes love of Snag's (Sausages!) was revealed to the family, and many and I mean many, have been eaten since then!

Weather has been great on the whole since we have been here, except a rainy day or 2, mid to high 20's generally, which meant the beer is served extra cold and extra frequent.

We were invited out by Matt, (one of their cousins) for a night in town with his mates who were our age. Went round his house for a good old game of ring of fire, I got stitched with drawing the last king which meant necking a good 2 pints of s*it whilst Barnes and the other lads watched as I tucked it away in one hit (must have been the Aussie weather, I haven't managed that before!). The night was a good one after a few more drinks at a local club, we ended it in true Bristolian fashion, I went for Chips n Cheese, Barnes chips and gravy. We then strolled home as we would do as standard on a Thursday back in Bristol. (Except it took well over an hour and a half).

A much needed recovery session of cold beer and a good old roast dinner on the Sunday was followed by a trip to the wildlife park on the Monday. It was good to experience my first real Aussie animals, Kangaroo's, Koala's, Wombat's (Dyl and Harley!) Wallaby's and a good reptile house, the Kangaroo's were just roaming freely around the park so we both managed to get a couple of photos with them! That evening Belinda arranged for Liv to get some of her friends around for a few beers, snags and some drinking games, the night was overshadowed by one incident, in my defence, we don't have doors like this in England, (sliding wire screens AND a sliding glass door) and usually its just the wire screen door that's shut! You can probably guess already what happened, in my drunken state I opened the wire screen and walked straight into the glass door!!.............as we were writing this I remembered that it was actually overshadowed by TWO incidents, the above, but also a certain someone trying to blow out a very large gas patio heater, again in a drunken moment, Barnesie must have suddenly thought he was superman or something!!

(change of writer )

Me and C then paid a visit to my Uncle Dave and Auntie Rose, last time I was in Oz he was building a 30ft yacht in his garage, he's still building it, but he's almost finished, we had a look inside walked on top, very impressive.

Next up into Melbourne with Vinnie, George and Liv for a tour of the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) home of cricket….after Lords of course. Was a really good tour, thoroughly enjoyed it, even if the tour guide was not only clueless when it came to the specifics of the MCG but he was a Bristol City fan. Tut Tut. O yea while I think of it, when C ran into the door hilarious- and in my defence I was drunk and genuinely thought I could blow it out. Anyways after the tour we walked over to fed square in the heart of Melbourne and had lunch then went to the Crown Casino, largest casino on the continent. C was the winner winner chicken dinner scooping a whopping 15 bucks, on roulette (just so you know AJ n Dyl etc, not a patch on the Gala with flat lemonade and apparently they never even had free b-fast at 1am Sundays, Mondays n Tuesdays. Ha.) After the casino we met Belinda, Mavis and the girls for tea at Lygon Street. C went for the Lamb Shanks, and I went for Kangaroo, I think it was the same one we had our photo taken with days before…. (im joking…..) However it was (please read in Borat accent)'very nice'.

That weekend we headed to Port Arlington via Geelong to pick up the 'freshest' of fresh mussels, caught that morning, 5kilos to be precise. The weather had let us down for the first time, and rain had stopped play on the beach, so fish n chips then home. Now in my years eating Belinda produced for tea what I can only describe as a 'Gem' Chili Marinara avec mussels. "O my days" was lovely.

On the Monday we headed to Melbourne Zoo, C was very excited, and it never disappointed, It took us 2 hours to do a quarter of the map to give you an idea of the size of it. Standard animals but lots of them, Gorillas, Lions, Tigers, Elephants, Giraffes, Monkeys, Penguins, Bears, you get the idea. One moment was pretty funny, a Scottish lady was stood in front of the Leopard cage trying to get the leopards attention by making the most random noise ever, much to her embarrassment we were stood behind her, Vinnie's quick Aussie humour intervened, he said "I think ya got something in ya throat there" she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was a top day.

Since we've been here Vinnie has introduced us to the 'Trots' or has we have re-named them 'Chariots or fire'. Basically, Harness racing. On the Tuesday night we went along to a meeting, think there was about 8 races. We had a cheeky bet on each one to keep it interesting as you do. (Only like a pound a race mum's were not wasting our hard earned cash). Yet again C's gambling fortunes continued, he backed 6-1 horse 'Walderon' which stormed home to win, happy days I believe were his words. I went for horse called 'Jays Babe' (just for you Jay) at 40-1, but that never won. Ran like donkey actually. Ha, and so my gambling fortunes continued.

Great Ocean Road- and that's exactly what it is. Vinnie, Belinda, Myself and C left the house at about 9am, headed for the coast, and along the most famous road in Australia. The views were amazing all along the drive, we stopped in Lorne for fish and chips, (possibly the best fish n chips we've had) then on we went along the windy roads, along the coastline, stopping at some of the lookout points for photos. We actually drove past about 5 or 6 wild Koala's which we could see up in the trees which lined the road. It is a much better sight than the ones which sit in the wildlife park. We then drove further along for almost 2 hours to the 12 apostles (of which there are only 7left). Where we walked out along the path to get the best views arguably we have seen so far this trip. Then on to Port Campbell for an ice cream before heading back.

On the Friday, Belinda had a house party of which there was around 40people, for us it meant even more cold beer and amazing party food, and it also sparked an event that you'll hear about in the next blog!

Sunday we went to Sovereign Hill which is an open air museum located in the old gold digging sites which is what Ballarat is famous for. It was a boiling day, probably the hottest so far, we watched how gold is made from rock form to a 'bar of gold', also went in an actual gold mine which has the story of the 65kilo nugget found in that mine. After walking round the old shops and watching the Muscat firing show, and sampling a classic sovereign hill pie, it was time for us to find some gold for ourselves, so off we went, panning in the river, after some stressful and dirty work we were rewarded, with specs the size of a few sugar grains, but gold is gold.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Thanks for the comments everyone…keep them coming!

Take care, hope your all well, and wrap up warm HA. O yea, is that right Liverpool still top of the league!?

O yea and stay tuned for our Christmas special (everyone loves a Christmas special) it'll be on in the next few days. It's sure to be a cracker!

Barnes and C

xxxx