Why does it always rain on me? Yes the weather here has been rubbish again, I got soaking wet and to add insult to injury my umbrella decided to collapse on me too!

My time down here has been split between Melbourne itself and a place just south of Melbourne called Geelong. The first few days I spent in the centre of Melbourne where I was reunited with D again for a spot of sightseeing around St Kilda and Melbourne. Melbourne likes to sell itself as being a city of culture so whilst there I decided to indulge myself and go to the theatre. I chose the play August : The Osage County the longest play I've ever seen at 3 hours long and with 2 intervals! The play was great but typically I ended up with the strangest man in the theatre sitting right next to me - all very uncomfortable but fortunately he left after 2 acts, his reason - the first 2 acts were so good that he didn't want to spoil it for himself, ok...!

The following day saw the celebration of Victoria Day, the anniversary of the day Victoria became a seperate state from New South Wales. 1 month after seperation gold was discovered in Victoria so NSW wasn't too happy as they had just missed out on all the associated revenues. With the discovery of gold the population of Melbourne increased from 77,000 to 340,000 in just one year and with that came an increase in crime resulting in the construction of Melbourne Gaol. The gaol is now a museum and I have to say it is pretty interesting - criminals were confined to their cells for 23 hours a day only being allowed out for 1 hour to excercise or go to church. When they were allowed out they had to wear a hood over their head and there was absolutely no talking.

Doctors were convinced that crime was genetic and so they started taking death masks of all those executed to check the phrenology of criminals - it is most bizarre because the gaol is full of these things. There's even one of Ned Kelly the infamous Australian criminal who was eventually captured in a famous 12 hour gun battle when it allegedly took 27 bullets to bring him down. Ironically they then treated him in the gaol hospital for 4 months to bring him back to full health ready for his trial and ultimately his execution! In the final gun battle Ned wore a suit of armour he'd made from bar and plough shears, the original now sits in the state library and is valued at NZ $7 million! Here's a statistic - the youngest inmate in the gaol was 3 years old, his offence : being idle and disorderly, his sentence : 6 months - what on earth!

After Melbourne I jumped on the commuter train for the 40 minute journey to Geelong, to stay wth Annabel who David and I met in Laos on the Mekong River trip. David was there too and we had quite an eventful time all said and done! In short in the few days there Annabel and I went to Lorne, took a drive on the Great Ocean Road and hung out with the kids at a University party. One thing I've noticed about Australia is that the students go to university for years and years!!! The great Ocean Road is a really beautiful coastal drive and was a project set up by the government to provide work for WW2 returning soldiers. The weather was very changeable when we drove along it, but it was perfect conditions for the creation of some really amazing rainbows!