Blimey, blimey, blimey. . . . . Wow, wow, wow! Can’t stop smiling, yeah yeah, still, I know I keep saying that, but it is so true. . . . !

Now before I go into the events of the last few days, lets finish Sydney. . . Now the lovely Xanthe took me to a gig at a place called ‘The Basement’. I had mentioned my liking for all music and occasionally a bit of Jazz, as when I was in New York with Dave, we saw some great Jazz. So, off we went to see a band called ‘The Necks’, who had supposedly won some Australian music award. . . . God knows how. . . they weren’t that good! If you read the write up the Guardian journalist gave them, they sound pretty good, hmmm. . . . . Not the kind of Jazz that I know and like! Anyway, not wanting to sound horrible to Xanthe, she was in total agreement and we actually had a good laugh about how bad it was. . . . We were able to sneak out to the back room where they had a pool table, so we just chatted and played pool. . . . Also, as a bonus, when the band took a break, the miusic in the bar was Crowded House, so we had a good singalong to that!

The great night and last night with Xanthe was topped off by a really nice walk around the Sydney Opera House at night with no one else around. . . .Awesome!

Thanks Xanthe. . . . . See ya again soon beautiful x x

Now then. . . . Thursday 22nd March I headed back to Melbourne, because I had some crazy chick visiting Australia and well, I had to meet up with her. . . . !

I landed in Melb in the morning and picked up a hire car and headed to the city and then to St Kilda. . . .Such a strange feeling when I got to St Kilda and starting mozying on round. . . .It felt like home. . . ?!?! Now don’t worry Ma n Pa, I still know where my home is, however, I think because I had been here before and have come back. . . You know what I mean?!?

Anyway, great to be back. . . . I chatted to Chrissie, made the arrangements for picking her up from the city before heading off to pick Em up from the airport. . . ! Had a very chilled out day and read lots of my book while sitting in the glorious sunshine!

So, that evening me and Chrissie got to the airport and about 20 or so minutes later she appeared. . . . The little tired and weary Emelie. . . . Having no sympathy for her 22 hour journey, we dragged her back to Chrissies, chucked her into the shower and headed off to a gig. . . . Now then, get this guys. . . . We went to see ‘Arrested Development’. Now if you are not saying wow, then fair enough, but if you are from my era, you will know who they are and I would hope, be very jealous?!? One word to describe the evening. . . . Awesome! Absolutely. . . . ! Even better, we were put on the guest list by some friends, so didn’t even have to pay. . . . The highlight for me was after their set, they came back out and did the song ‘People Everyday’. . . Wow, the place was bouncing and the energy was something else! We all had a great night and before the zombie that Em was turning into passed out we got her home to bed. . . . hmmm, even had to give her a bit of a piggy back home!

Friday, we got up, got our stuff ready for the road trip and headed out for brekky. . . . We ate at JackieO’s, popped down Ackland street after to get Em some thongs. . . Now steady on guys, thongs in Oz are flip flops!

After sorting that out, we were ready. . . . Let’s hit the road. . . . Great Ocean Road here we come. . . First we passed through Torquay (Where a lot of the surf culture is Oz originated – Rip Curl Clothing, etc), then through to Anglesea and more specifically their local golf course to show Em here first native animal (The Kangaroo). We parked up and walk for a short while down the golf course and found our first set of Roo’s chillin in the shade. . . It was cool to see the look on Em’s face, probably looked just like mine, when I first saw them?!

After there, we headed to Lorne. Quite a busy coastal town. We stopped here for a while and had some lunch before hitting the beach and the huge surf! Me and Em went in the water and I loved the waves crashing in. Em wasn’t so sure and got a little confused at the concept of diving under the waves to not get hit. . . . I have to tell you this because it really made me laugh, but picture this. . . . We were wading out into the water and the waves are crashing in, some big, some small. . . . Here’s me trying to explain that you need to dive under the waves and suddenly a set of big waves start coming in, the first one hits, not to hard and I am saying to Em, you need to dive under. . . . Now the big ones start, Em panics and says “no, I am going back in a bit’. Hhhmmmmm, a little late for that as I dive under and come out the other side, I look for Em as she is heading for the shore, not running, but more like tumbling in a washing machine, mixed amongst a huge wave that had just bowled her over. . . . ! Obviously I made sure she was ok before I laughed. . . It was funny, I think she was more concerned about the fact that the wave had also tried to steal the bottom half of her bikini, which apparently got to about her knees. . . . Well done Em, welcome to Australia!

After that little experience, we got on the road again and headed towards our main destination (Apollo Bay). Before arriving there, we passed a well known spot on the road where you can spot Koalas. . . I had stopped here before, however didn’t see them as close as this time. You could literally reach up and touch one of them (Obviously we didn’t touch them). Em seemed to love this bit of the road and wanted to hug them all. . . .hhhhmmmmmm. . . . !

We got to Apollo bay and met up with Ben, Chrissies friend who we were due to stay with. Seemed like a nice guy, English, but lived in Oz for about 4 years. . . . We went for a few beers at the local pub as Ben needed to drop some eggs off. It was quite funny walking down the street as everyone seemed to know Ben and say Hi. . . . After the couple of beers we headed up to Ben place, wow, how nice was this place, quite open plan, loads of room, with great country views. We got ourselves sorted, showers and stuff and headed back out to the restaurant that we had met Ben at. . . . Funnily enough, this was were Ben worked as a Chef. Café 153, Apollo Bay, get yourself in there, the food is awesome! And I am not just saying that because of Ben. . . ! Now Ben is sort of part of the family to the owners Pete and Suzy. Suzy is the mum of Talia, who happens to be one of Chrissies best friends. . . You still with me? Not to worry, put it this way everyone knows everyone, which is great. They all made us feel extremely welcome, as we ate there also. We started the meal with an assortment of great Tapas dishes, washed down with some very nice white wine, followed by a seafood platted, with crab, oysters, king prawns, scallops, etc, etc. Yum Yum, it was marvelous!

After the meal, me and Ben headed to the bottle shop for some booze to take home and the girls went upstairs with Pete and Suzy for some drinks. . . Me and Ben accidentally had a beer in the pub on the way, hehehe. We all then headed back to Bens to continue the fun! Needless to say that we all got a little drunk. . . . We played the Didgeridoo, guitar, listened to cool tunes, danced around and just laugh loads. It was great fun!

The following day was my birthday. . . Blimey, 30 years old. . . . ! Well it all started very nice, Em gave me some prezzies and then said I also have something else for you and passed me a brown envelope with my name on it in my mum’s handwriting. . . . hmmmm, I thought and as I opened it I saw cards from all my family. . . . You know what I did. . . ? I cried. . . ! You know when you are just not expecting something and it really shocks you. . . ? Well that was me, a card from my little nephew Joseph (He doesn’t write much), one from my gorgeous niece Amelia, with lots of notes saying she missed me and loved me, etc. plus Joe had a note asking me to catch him a shark, arrrrr bless. . . . It’s actually putting a lump in my throat now thinking about it. . . I also had cards from my parents and sister / brother-in-law. I miss them guys so so much!

So anyway, after I got over my little sobbing session (I would like to add, Emelie knew that I would cry – badass!), we had some brekky, cooked clearly by the master chef. . . No no, not me. . . . Ben! Very nice it was too, poached eggs, bacon and spinach on crusty toasted bread with Hollandaise sauce. Yum yum, thanks Ben!

At some stage during the evening or morning, we had decided to stay on for another night, as we didn’t want to have to rush back to Melbourne and we were having such a nice chilled out time here. . . So with that in mind, we dropped Ben off at work (unfortunately he had to work) and we headed off further west along the great Ocean Road towards Port Campbell. There were a few stops I had planned for us to do on the way, other than the 12 Apostles. . .

First stop was in the Otway National Park at Maits Rest Rainforest Walk. Now, some of you may recall that I did this and some of the other things previously about 2 months ago when I start my Oz trip, but this all felt different and somewhat better. . . I felt like a bit of a tour guide, it was coolio! The walk was as beautiful as I had remembered and being able to share it with chrissie and Em was just great. I even remembered some of the Flora / Fauna details from my trips and managed to sound intelligent for about 2 minutes?! The girls loved the walk and it put a smile on all of our faces!

Next stop off the road was at a place called Gibson’s Steps. I really wanted to share this place with the girls, as I remembered it being awesome. It had the same affect on Em, she loved it and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the Great Ocean Road trip. It’s not much to talk about really, just a beach and a few rocks, but it’s the feel of the place, the buzz and energy that it gives you. . . . Go there and you’ll see, I recommend it!

Next was the renowned 12 Apostles. . . . Slightly more touristy than some of the other places and certainly busier than when I was last here, probably because it was a weekend. . . ?! We did the usual walk around the boardwalk and took photos, Em liked it, but as me and Chrissie had seen it before, it had lost it’s wow factor edge!

We then headed to the furthest point west that we were going to, Port Campbell. I showed them where I stayed for the night previously and then we sat down and had some fish and chips (they weren’t that good, but filled a hole).

We then decided to head back to Apollo bay as the day was getting on and it was a good drive back. There was however one last stop I wanted Em to see and that was Loch Ard Gorge, some ship had crashed there in 18something. Nice walk down some step, but as the weather wasn’t that brilliant now, it was a little cold (actually freezing). Plus the tide was in, so we couldn’t explore the caves there. However, it was nice watching the waves crash against the rocks!

On the road again, we got back to Apollo, picked up the key from Ben and headed back to the house for a snooze before heading back to the restaurant again for another meal. What a great birthday so far! I didn’t manage my snooze, as I had some good chats with my Ma n Pa and also Xanthe, so that was nice!

We headed out for dinner and Ben was still working and subsequently gonna be cooking our meals. . . . Hmmm, good opportunity to give him some grief! You know what though, the food was awesome. I had a fillet steak, that was about the size of my fist, cooked to perfection, so, well done Ben! I still told him it was crap though! He then made me a great cheese board, that wasn’t even on the menu! Yum Yum! Washed down with some nice red wine. . . .Happy Days!

Ben finished work and we all headed back to his, but after a few beers we were all exhausted. . . We showed Ben the photos from the day and crashed out for the evening!

Up early in the morning and needing to get back to Melbourne for the official birthday bash for Chrissie and sort of me. We headed down to café 153 for a change and had brekky, Ben sat with us for a coffee, but needed to start work and make our breakfasts of course. He did and made me a really nice omelet with everything in it! Then we said our goodbyes to everyone and headed back to Melbourne, this time on the inland road though, different scenery and slightly quicker.

Typical to the mad weekend that we had, there was no rest for the wicked, as it was a quick, lets get showered and changed and back out there. . . . the Do was at a bar in the St Kilda Sea baths complex. We met the manager Gary who gave us our first drinks on the house and then we hit the Mojitos. . . . Yeah baby! People started to arrive, the first wave of people I didn’t know, however later on Erica and Pete arrived with David, Mick and Rob turned up and later on Josh. I knew all of them and had a good chat and laugh with them all, some more people arrived and some left, we drank lots and ate some food. . . . Later on the outdoor area was turned into a bit of a salsa dance floor and music was puming and people were twisting and turning and jigging all over the place. . . . !

I had a bit of a dance with Em and later on she hit the dance floor again with Josh. I also got amongst it again with Chrissie and we really got it moving, I was throwing her all over the place (in a salsa style – obviously). It was coolio. . . . Then evening kicked in and later on we went to The George Lane Bar for late drinks. . . We were all tired following the weekend, so didn’t last too much after midnight.

Monday and it was Chrissies birthday and some great news came through, Talia, one of her best mates who was out with us the previous night (and who was heavily pregnant went into labour). Chrissie was very excited, also because Ben was coming to visit from Apollo Bay. Ben arrived earlier than expected with Suzy, Talia’s excited mother and we all went out for lunch for Chrissies birthday. We headed to The Waterfront Restaurant in Port Melbourne and had some really nice fish dishes. . . . During lunch Ben’s phone rang and it was Talia. . . . She had given birth to a healthy baby girl, Ben was a sort of uncle! Big smiles all round.

Later on we shared a bottle of champagne with Chrissie and Ben and left her with the present we had bought before me and Em hit the beach for the last bit of sunshine of the day. On the way back from the beach feeling absolutely exhausted from the last few days, we walked passed a guy in the street that really looked like a good friend from Derby (Ian Mackinnon). I had to literally rub my eyes to focus, then suddenly and as cool as you like he says ‘ Ey up Rob, how ya doin mate?’. To say I was gobsmacked would be a massive understatement. . . Now this guy if you don’t know him was part of my inspiration to travel, he gave me great advise prior to leaving and always let me beat him at golf, hehehe. But, blimey, he was here with his lovely wife Marion in Australia. . . Crazy small world. . . . Not only that, we saw him on a small side street. . . .Weird! We had a good chat and arranged to meet up later for some beers.

We then headed back home and packed all our bags ready for the morning, as we were leaving quite early. That evening, for Chrissie’s birthday meal, we went to Claypots, a really nice restaurant I didn’t get chance to go to last time I was here. We were joined by David, Chrissies house mate and his friend (sorry forgot his name). We got some drinks in and were advised by the barman to try this new Czech beer that had just won the best beer in the world competition or something, can’t remember the name, but it was really nice.

For food we started with some small tapas dishes and then went into a giant garlic king prawn each, yum! For main course, David and Ben had been up and chosen the fish that we were going to share. Out came a huge Blue Eyed Cod with a spinach, potatoes and a tomato dressing thing. One word – delicious!

Following on from there we headed up to one of my favorite bars in St Kilda, The Vineyard, to meet Ian, Marion and Marion’s brother, who lived in St Kilda. What a great night, we were only gonna have a few, but it turned into a late one. So much to talk about, etc. . . . . A really funny part was when I rang David in New York. David lived with Ian and Marion for a long time, so is really good friends with them. . . I called him and said Hi, as normal, then said, ‘oh, somebody wants to say Hi’. He was obviously overwhelmed as he sent me a message later on saying that it was so strange that the only people he thinks of that he isn’t with that are outside his family are together! How nice! Miss you mate!

We had said our goodbyes to Chrissie and Ben earlier and finished the evening with Ian and Marion, before heading off home and seeing a possum on the way. Another Australian creature for Em to remember. We crashed out and set the alarm early for our trip to the airport and Sydney. Doh. . . . Nearly overslept!

Got to the airport on time, but the flight was delayed, ultimately for about an hour, so we had some brekky and Em did a bit of shopping! So after the crazy time we had in and around Melbourne we got our flight to Sydney. . . Back again so soon. . . . For me that is. . . . !