After taking Wednesday off to explore (and walk my legs off), it was back to work and reality on Thursday and Friday. Both days were spent powering through a project for work - making reasonable progress. I have found working from the appartment is great, because I can sit without interuption and focus, rather than back in hostels where I was working from my dorm room with people coming and going.

It is coming to the end of the month and on Friday this meant it was time to sort out next months finances. I dealt with that online - thankfully repeating an international money transfer was much easier than setting one up - though again the money would not be in my Australian account till next Wednesday.

Having spent a good amount of time in South Yarra at my new home, I decided I'd really like to catch up with Tom, Jill and the family Clark. It had been over 3 weeks since I last saw my adopted Australian family, and I had a hankering to catch up and to see Molly too. I phoned Jill up and arranged to head over for the weekend on Saturday night.

I woke up on Saturday at around 11am, got dressed and headed straight out to Kananook station. When I arrived I called Jill, and within seconds she was at the bus stop outside the station to pick me up. It was great to see her again, and after saying our hellos I proceeded to ask her what she had been up to. The reason she was so fast at picking me up was that she was already running a mass of errands and was very close by.

Next on her list of things to do was to pick up some pizzas for Phil and his voulenteer fire fighting friends, who were busy building a parking area outside the fire station. We grabbed the pizzas and some shopping, and headed off to Carrum Downs CFA where we dropped off the pizzas. When we arrived we got out the car, and I could see everyone but Phil. I walked around the corner and there I saw Phil sitting in the digger flattening / digging up the land. He really is a big kid!

After leaving the CFA we headed to Tom and Jills and spent most of the day catching up. In the evening we left to head back to Frankston, where Tom and Jill took me to a Thai banquet. The food was absolutely fantastic - we ordered a Green Thai curry for me, Tom had Stir Fry Satay Beef, and Jill ordered another Stir Fry, this time sizzling. We all shared our mains, together with the soup, starter nick-nacks (wan-tans / samosas etc), desert and coffee. After tea we headed back and crashed out.

I awoke on Sunday and began my weekly catch up with CJ. We sat and chatted for almost 2 hours before I finally dragged myself out of bed and in to the waking world. I headed down stairs and had breakfast, before spending some time chatting to Jill. She asked me what my plans were, and I told her I had planned to leave later on in the afternoon. She asked me to stay - and had a very powerful persuasion technique through the temptation of a Sunday dinner. I could hardly refuse, and agreed to stay another night.

The rest of Sunday was spent chilling in Tom and Jills until tea time. Jill is a truely fantastic cook - and she put on a Sunday dinner that was to die for. I dont think I have ever tasted cauliflower cheese as good, her vegtables were all roasted and tasted fantastic, and the beef was cooked to perfection. I had my fill before spending the evening talking to Tom, and then catching up with the UK.

Next morning it was time to head back to South Yarra. Cassie is learning to drive, and she voulenteered to take me back to Frankston station - which I gladly took her up on. I arrived back at home, ready to get cracking back on with work once again.