I jumped straight off the plane and pretty much straight into the Melbourne scene with a few catch up drinks with Michael Green (who sailed with us at home), his new wife (Liesel) and some of their friends at the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron.After dinner at Leo's in St Kilda we ended up having "dessert" (cocktails) in a great small bar, where I had the strangest chance encounter yet - Helen Platts (one of Thalia's best friend's from school) was in there!Such a bizarre coincidence, off all the places she just happened to be there visiting a friend from med school for a couple of weeks.

On Sunday morning Suvi and I had a quick wander along the St Kilda Esplanade market.I spoke to Annabel who I had met in Sydney through my friend Sam from uni who was also in Melbourne.Annabel had decided to spend the day watching the exhibition tennis match in aid of the Queensland flooding victims, followed by the England-Australia one day cricket at the MCG.A day of sport on such a lovely day seemed like too good an opportunity to miss so I jumped on a tram and headed up to Federation Square.Melbourne's sports city is a short walk from Federation Square along the Yarra River.On Sunday there happened to be a Gay Pride festival thing going on between Fed Square and the stadiums which was pretty lively!I met Annabel at the tennis, had a wander around the grounds where there were qualifiers going on for the Australian Open and watched the first hour or so of the exhibition tennis game on the big screen outside the Rod Laver Arena.It was pretty funny with 8 or so of the world's best players mucking about on the court, sitting on the ground drinking Slurpees still hitting shots and Andy Murray's female grunting got a lot of giggles from the crowd.

A short stroll from the tennis is Australia's answer to Lords, the MCG.Claire Hodd (a friend from home) and her boyfriend Alex were also in Melbourne and had a spare ticket for the cricket so Annabel and I met them and a bunch of Annabel's friends and got settled in for an extremely long game of cricket.Good fun day with plenty of entertainment from the crowd (chants of "fit cop give us a wave, fit cop give us a wave", lots of Mexican waves, people getting removed from the grounds for provocatively blowing whistles etc) as well as from the players.During the game I got some fantastic news from Bex that she was on her way to Melbourne!Luckily the flashpackers we were staying at in St Kilda had a spare bed for her so I gave her directions to the MCG from Tullamarine airport and she joined us about 8pm straight from the plane.After I gave the doorman a bit of sweet talking he even let her in for free - result!

Monday's weather was considerably cooler and greyer so Suvi, Bex and I got the tram up to Brunswick Street in Fitzroy for a spot of shopping, browsing and lunch.Cool shops, bars, cafes etc and quite a "London" feel about the area.I bought a handbag (early birthday present to myself) and replacement sunnies as I had lost mine at the cricket. We also took a ride on the free city loop tram with all the other tourists which was a good way of getting our bearings.To reward our shopping trip we also indulged at one of the many cake shops on Acland Street in St Kilda.There were so many shops and cakes to choose from we were completely spoilt for choice - as it was we picked the place that smelt the best as we walked past! As we were in Melbourne Bex and I felt that we had to pay homage to one of Australia's best exports - Neighbours.We couldn't be bothered with the official tour of Ramsey Street, but the trivia night at the Frog and Wheelbarrow pub could not be missed.Annabel decided to come again too (she'd already been at least once before!)Absolutely comedy night with guest appearances from Dr Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher), Izzy Hoyland (in real life Jason Donovan's brother) and Stingray.I very nearly won myself a bus ride around New Zealand with a few cricket chants and a rendition of the Neighbours theme tune, but was pipped to the post by an Irish girl singing the Irish national anthem!Karl Kennedy's band (the Right Prescription) was actually pretty good and Dr Karl's enthusiasm more than made up for his less than good singing voice!

On Tuesday Bex and I took a full day tour to Phillip Island, visiting a wildlife sanctuary (where Bex got her obligatory koala cuddle and we were able to hand feed wallabies), a historic farm (with highlights such as sheepdog display, sheep shearing demo and whip cracking - we felt like we were on a school trip), koala woodland sanctuary (an opportunity to see lots of koalas in the (semi) wild) and the absolute highlight the penguin parade.The penguin parade is an incredible sight where thousands of fairy penguins come out of the water each night to feed their young in holes on the land.They were completely paranoid about getting out of the sea and crossing the beach so it was pretty funny seeing how wussy they were until there was a large group of them and then literally storming across the beach to the shelter of the bushes.Phillip Island itself is a very beautiful spot, unfortunately it was also rather cold and exposed - we were both wishing that we'd brought a few more clothes…Luckily the tea and biscuits on Woolamai beach warmed us up (even if the tour guide was trying to hide them from us!)

The weather again on Wednesday started off pretty average.Unlike Sydney there aren't so many big sights in Melbourne, but we decided that a good way of seeing some more of the city would be to hire bikes.It worked out really well as we did a good loop up St Kilda road to the Botanical Gardens and Shrine of Remembrance to the river and then back down Chapel Street.By the time we were heading back to St Kilda the sun was shining, it was hot and we were desperate for food, which came in the form of yummy veggie food on the roof of the St Kilda baths overlooking Port Phillip bay.I had arranged to sail on Wednesday night from the Yacht Squadron in their twilight series.The old boys on the boat were hilarious; they'd been sailing together for over 40 years!Mike also managed to escape from work early so he jumped on too.The race took rather longer than expected so I had to jump off as soon as we docked to go and meet Bex as we'd arranged to go to the open air cinema in the Botanical Gardens to see "Let me in".Alex and Claire also went and had saved us a spot on the grass - was great to see them again before they head back to England.The setting of the big screen was beautiful and the film was good - there was something particularly apt about watching a vampire movie with the huge fruit bats circling overhead!

Thursday was my 30th birthday!I started my day with a chat with a few people over breakfast before heading down to St Kilda beach with the girls.I was incredibly lucky as the weather after being pretty ropey for a few days was utterly perfect.It was a really relaxing day soaking up the sun - a complete novelty for me having never had a hot birthday and sipping on cocktails over a delicious Mexican lunch.In the evening we headed over to North Brunswick to the pub that Annabel was living in which was hosting a free BBQ.Mike and Liesel met us there too and we had a couple of jugs of Coopers in the evening sunshine in the pub's courtyard.The rest of the night was spent in the cocktail bars of Brunswick Street - great fun and good to spend it with both old and new friends!I will have to make sure that I keep on celebrating all year!

On Friday Bex headed back to London.It was fabulous having her in Australia for a few weeks and made me realize how much I miss my friends from home.I am pretty jealous that she'll get to see everyone, meet Suzanne and Danny's new son Sammuel and Lucy and Andy's Bernese Mountain dog puppy Winston well before me!!!After Bex's farewell Suvi and I went into the city to the Queen Victoria Market to pick up a picnic.The QVM is huge and we got a great selection of fruit, dips, bread and mezze to take to the evening session of the tennis.We got to the grounds about 5pm and got a good spot in front of the big screen TV.Claire Weber, a friend from primary school who I had not seen for about 15 years now lives in Melbourne and she came and met us after she finished work.Was great to see her and reminisce about all the people that had been in our class 20 years ago!!!Makes me grateful for facebook as otherwise I would have had no idea what she was up to!