Gday Guys!

Have had nearly a week in Melbourne now and we both think it's fantastic here!

Have taken loads of great snaps and tragically our memory card has corrupted all our photos & videos - dating back to Singapore :( We've been told it will cost around $250 to try and retrieve them, but to save money we're going to try and get them back, once we return home to England.

Apart from this sad hiccup, we have actually had a great time doing the following:

Wednesday 19th Jan: After our 7 hour journey from Bali, Danny's friend Scott collects us from Melbourne airport. We arrive at his apartment, meet his girlfriend Kitt, friend Mark and have a chinese take away for the first time since leaving home! We ended up staying at quite an expensive hotel as we left booking accommodation to the very last minute.

Thursday 20th Jan: Completely overslept (by like 3 hours), missing our expensive breakfast that was included in the night's stay! We then checked into a cheaper hotel just down the road. Spent what was a lovely day on St.Kilda beach with Danny's friend from Rhodes, Stergo - the beach and surroundings are weirdly similar to one you would find in England - only with great weather! Around 7pm Scott and Kitt joined us on the beach for a BBQ whilst the sun went down.

Friday 21st Jan: We checked out "Chapel Street" which has some great boutique shops and restaurants, we met Scott for a bite to eat on his lunch break and both treated ourselves to an outfit - ready for Saturday evening (felt great to buy something new in so many months!) In the evening we went to the "Moonlight Cinema" with Stergo and his girlfriend Emma, which was in Melbourne's Royal Botanical Gardens. We watched "MegaMind" on beanbags with a picnic and champagne which was great - like something you see in the films!

Saturday 22nd Jan: We woke up with a slight headache from the Champagne intake! However took ourselves into the city centre for some lunch and window shopping. We then went to the Docklands and had a drink in a pub garden to kill some time before going to watch Melbourne Victory V Melbourne Hearts (Danny's friend is a coach for the Victory football team and managed to get us some complimentary tickets) Was a great game and after we went to Scotts - put on our glad rags and had an evening out at "Seven" Nightclub, where his friend was playing - played some great cheesy tunes so Kitt and I were stuck to the dance floor!

Sunday 23rd Jan: We checked out of our hotel and moved into Scott's apartment (now that Mark has left for Thailand), although feeling a little worse for wear again, we visited "Brighton Beach" which was great - especially as young lads dressed as fruit and veg were giving away fruit smoothies (these perked us up somewhat!) Once back at Scott's apartment we went to a festival which was held to celebrate Chinese new year and had some great stalls and food markets.

Monday 24th Jan: Was quite a lazy day for us - we booked our flights to Sydney for Thursday afternoon, did some research into the Greyhound bus we intend to take up to Cairns and around 4pm we took the tram to Brunswick street and met Stergo for coffee and cakes at a divine little Italian cafe! Came back to the apartment and had dinner with Scott and to Danny and Scott's dismay, I managed to catch up on "The only way is Essex"!

Tuesday 25th Jan: Today! We've just had brekkie and are getting ourselves dressed (well, will be after this entry!) to go food shopping for another barbie and game of Basketball in the park. Going to do the "Neighbours" tour tomorrow (as Danny is desperate to do it - lol) and plan to go to a festival after to celebrate "Australian Day" - which is a bank holiday for the Aussies.

Will be writing another blog once we get to Sydney, where I will hopefully have some piccys to upload and my blog writing mojo back!

Lots of Love & Chow for Now,

Meika & Danny

XxX