Christmas in Melbourne!

For once we have time to stop and breath and not care about checking out the next day as we are staying a whole week in Melbourne for Christmas and general merriment. It has been a mixed bag of fortune though. firstly the weather has been ghastly and is only just starting to improve now, which is typical since we depart for Sydney tomorrow! Chrismtas day was the coldest on record which was unbelievable, so all of you who had the image of me on the beach with the bbq are sadly mistaken. Our orphans christmas lunch at the hostel was a little disappointing - the veggie option consisting of mere boiled vegetables with not a brussel sprout in sight! Melbourne is a vibrant city with a very multicutlural feel to it. We have enjoyed a couple of delicious meals in Little Italy area - they have chocolate pizza there which is yummy! Obviously with the Barmy Army being in town, we have done much partying too. Christmas eve started at a BYO restaurant and goon fuelled, we went off in search of a midnight mass, only to end up in some weird Orthodox church! We initially thought it was greek as lots of greeks live in Melbourne, but then the sermon began in Arabic and we discovered it was in fact a Lebanese Church! There werent all that many carols either!

Boxing day saw Al and Nick go to the mighty MCG whilst Sam and I hit the boxing day sales, though with limited success which may be a good thing for me as it's difficult not to spend loads of money here. We also went to see the Holiday which is a good christmassy film for all you girlies!

Yesterday I went the test, soemthing I have been looking forward to for ages. It was a great atmosphere as the MCG has a 100,000 capacity and had an attendance of about 90k yesterday. It's such a shame about the quality of the bloody cricket - the barmy army are fantastic even when we have nothing to cheer about and just sitting with them is an experience in itself. Despite England look destined to go 4-0 down, we went out last night and ended up in some club until about 6am so am feeling a little peaky today! Luckily I had the neighbours tour to take my mind off it. And what fun it proved to be, even the tour bus played dvds of old episodes and music videos of all the neighbours actors who have gone into music! We visited Erinsborough high, which is in fact a primary school and also the legendary Ramsey st which is unbelievably small in reality and is called Oak Pine court or something. People do actually live in those houses and get paid by the production company - must be annoying for them to have tourists outside twice a day gushing at 'Harold Bishop's pad!' We also met Libby Kennedy at the shop, but sadly no other actors were about as they are on Christmas vacation.