Before I start rambling on incessantly let me first thank Fiona, who offered me not one but two airbeds to stay on after the first one deflated every night!

So we begin with Australia Day, which I know almost nothing about. It's a day to celebrate Australia. Beyond that I'm not sure. Anyway, there were things happening all over the place: classic cars aplenty, two dollar sausage sizzles (basically hotdogs), an air show and a big concert and fireworks at Federation Square to finish things off. Or so we thought. The evening actually ended with a crowd of people around two buskers who clearly had the slot of the day when the drunken hoards lurched back to Flinders St station and started enjoying the music. Shirts off, dancing around - one guy was being Bez and everyone loved it. Great way to finish an evening. No one really cares that we went to the war memorial, but it was in my notes.

Alex and I went to the Australian Open on 27th - a beautiful day to laze in the sun. Junior, wheelchair, doubles and exhibition tennis were all on the cards, and we even had the chance to take a sneaky peek at Novak Djokovic warming up, just as we missed big Roger. Harmen bought some god awful tawny port for our sweet and sour chicken...

Laziness was definitely the order of the day on Friday 28th. In one sentence, Harmen and Alex came over, we lazed on the Espy (Esplanade) and I cooked a chilli for dinner. I also found Jupiter, to continue the beachside walk that I started with Christa last December. Finally we went to Federation Square to watch Andy Murray reach the final of the Australian Open.

If anything, Saturday was the polar opposite of my lazy Friday, apart from the slow start! Victoria Market, very filling and cheap sushi, and the shot tower that is literally inside a shopping centre. The shot tower is basically a tower where drops of iron form perfect spheres as they drop down into water below, making pellets for a shotgun. It's heritage listed so you can't move it, so in an ingenious twist they built a shopping centre over the top of it. Progress!

We moved on to see the docklands including the weird Cow in a Tree, a sculpture that needs no description. Then off to see Fiona's brother James and Mark for Vietnamese Soup. Then we set off for St Kilda, got 7Apples gelato and went to the pier for the sunset and to see penguins and water rats.

Somehow, on the way back, we got into a mad obsessive hunt for Saturn - the next planet on the seafront walk. We must have searched for an hour in the dark using the map, but then we just walked the seafront and there it was. Duh. Then, joy of joys, we inexplicably ended the night watching Alvin and the Chipmunks - the movie - and having chipmunk music implanted in my head. Nobody wants that... Oh and I booked my flight to Cairns.

Sunday 30th did its level best to melt me. It was about 37 degrees in the shade, of which there was none. Certainly not Frankston, where I spent the day. I meant to get to Stony Point to catch the ferry to Philip Island, but the train connection was too far apart so I'd have missed it. Not to worry: I went to Sweetwater Creek instead, desperately seeking shade and trying not to drink all of my pint of water at once. Eventually I got back to Frankston beach and I spent the rest of the day reading and swimming. I could get used to this! The only thing that messed the day up was Andy Murray's straight sets loss that heard/watched on radio and at Fed Square. Tut.

So my final day in Melbourne came around and I had only one mission: to find Uranus (and the other planets - it just sounds better that way). So I completed the seaside walk from Saturn to Uranus (which was bigger than I expected) then through to Pluto, which by rights should not be there. Once I'd negotiated the missing tram to the city, I went to Eureka Tower for some stunning views over the city.

Afterwards, I cooked some salmon for Fiona for our "last supper". I seem to be making this a regular dish with any of my hosts when I travel!

And then, the end. I went to catch my flight to Cairns with the notorious Tiger Airways, and things went mostly without a hitch, other than the flight being marked as closed before it had even started boarding. Luckily that was a glitch.