Have had some great easy days in Melbourne, which has been fabulous to re-charge the batteries. Monday last week was a long day as we had to pick up Simon at the airport. It was a day of waiting around and driving! Simon's luggage had also gotten lost at Los Angeles airport where he had to change planes, so at least we didn't have to do a luggage jigsaw in the boot and the backseat! I think it would all have fitted, but I wasn't looking forward to re-arranging dogs and luggage....

Didn't do much on Monday afternoon and evening as everyone was tired - Simon with jetlag, April from driving (and she had to go to work the next day), and me from just travelling and even the doggies were tired!

Tuesday I had some errands to do, like go to the Post Office, get some shopping, and also get my phone looked at. It is still making a popping or cracking noise when I try and charge it or if it gets too hot. I was able to charge it up properly the other day, but when I try and connect it to my netbook, it does start sounding like it's about to blow up! There's no burning on the sim card or the memory card, and the battery isn't swelling or swollen so I have no idea what's wrong with it. It seems to work absolutely fine - taking pictures, waking me up, etc. but there's just this slight burning smell when I try and charge it....which is highly worrying.
Anyways, I took it to a phone shop and explained what had been happening with my phone, but he said exactly the same things. If there's no obvious burning of anything and it's still working then there's not really much anyone can do. If it does stop working, or the battery does start swelling, then I need to worry. He did say he could send it off for someone to have a look at, but they'd probably just come to the same conclusion!
Oh well, I just hope that it lasts me until I get home....and then I'll probably have to buy a new phone just to alleviate my worries. I have been drooling over the iPhone recently....and I fleetingly thought about buying one out here....but I haven't....yet....

Also went to the local cinema in the afternoon and saw 'Watchmen', which was far too long at about 2.5 hours. I was, however, the only one in that screen so I had the whole place to myself! Granted it was 2:30pm, but I thought I'd have at least a couple of other people there! Nope. I managed to take up three seats - one for my bags, and the two others for my bum and my feet :D

Didn't do that much in the evening apart from catch up with April and generally loaf about.
Tomorrow was looking like much the same - loafing about and re-charging my batteries. Ah, such is life!

Wednesday I took the dogs out for a bit of a walk as they were looking rather forlonly at me. They're a bit of a handful both together as well! Benton is usually ok by himself as he's older (14 months) but Bubbles is only 8 months and so is still a puppy. She's not the smartest doggy either, bless her, so she misbehaves but I think she just doesn't realise she is!

Thursday, had to get up early as April had a home working environment assesment. It basically meant that someone from her workplace had to visit the house to make sure her home working environment was suitable. She only works from home for a couple of hours each morning, but they still recommended that she should have a new chair (though work gave her a new one) and that she should have a desk that's a proper height for her.
Took the dogs out for another walk in the afternoon, down to a local park which was very nice.
Been looking at when to go to Tasmania today as well, and will probably go Tuesday or Wednesday next week. It is going to be a bit chilly there, so I don't want to spend too long there as well as needing to get on with my journey around the East Coast. Going by train means that I do need to plan my journey a bit more in advance seeing as it'll take 4 times as long as flying for each journey!
Booked my Neighbours set tour today. I know it's completely cheesy but I have to seeing as I'm in Australia and only a stone's throw away from where they film! For $50 I get pciked up in Melbourne city centre, get a tour around the set, and also meet one of the Neighbours stars - past or present. I'm hoping to meet Harold myself, but I'll probably meet some cast member who I don't even recognise seeing as I haven't watched Neighbours for several years! I have caught a few episodes over here but really have no idea what's going on obviously!

Friday I went into Melbourne City for the day, which was cool. It was quite a nice day and so I thought I'd make the most of it. I also had to validate my rail pass for the East Coast, buy a Rough Guide book to the East Coast (as the one I currently have isn't that detailed), and I wanted to take in a museum or an art gallery too.
I successfully validated my rail pass but found out that there aren't any interesting stops along the way, so I thought that it'd probably be best to take the night train. It leaves at 8pm and arrives in Sydney at 7am the next day. That way I can get on the train, shuffle about in my seat for a couple of hours and then hopefully zonk out for most of the rest of the journey!
Went to the National Gallery of Victoria, which was lovely. Quite small but had really interesting exhibits and I especially liked the aboriginal art on the ground floor. Had a good wander around the centre of Melbourne and did want to stay there for the evening and find a nice bar or something but as it takes an hour and a half on the train back to Warragul, I did need to get back at a sensible time :(
Also, the trains are only one an hour and I think they stop around 9pm....rubbish! I haven't come to expect much of public transport in Australia and I hope to not moan too much about public transport at home now!!

Saturday we had wanted to go to Mornington Peninsula but even though the day started out really sunny and nice, it ended up just pouring with rain on and off all day, and it really poured in the evening! I had searched for dolphin swimming in Australia earlier and by coincidence they did it at Sorrento which is just near the Peninsula. I called them and unforunately they had cancelled the day's swims, and tomorrow wasn't looking too great either. It seems the weather is going to almost always be against me for dolphin swimming! Twice I tried to go in New Zealand and falied, then the time I did go, the dolphins didn't want to play!
They did take my number in case the weather did perk up and so we could go on Sunday.
I also booked my flights to Tasmania for Wednesday and will be staying there for a week. I'll be flying into Launceston, and then flying out of Hobart, which will be cool. Simon's family live in Launceston and so I'm able to stay at Simon's brother's house (which will be empty - yay!) whilst I'm there. He also said that his family might be able to show me around too, which will be really nice of them.
I also came to the conclusion that it was completely senseless to fly back to Melbourne from Tasmania and then take the train from Melbourne to Sydney. Considering the price was the same to fly from Tasmania to Melbourne and to fly from Tasmania to Sydney, it didn't really make sense. Also, the flight was only 50 minutes longer whereas the train journey is 13 hours....I'd also have to pay for the airport shuttle bus from the airport to Southern Cross station where I'd take the train from which meant exra expense. Am I justifying this too much? Just remind me to carbon offset when I get home (and get a job so I can actually pay for it!).
Simon also has a friend who runs a B&B in Hobart, and they've agreed I can stay there for just $20 a night! It really is useful to know people, isn't it? :D
Peak tourist season is officially over in Tasmania as it generally runs from December to February and so a few tours aren't running anymore! However, Simon did say that Lyle does know Tasmania pretty well and so I should be well looked after. There's a Saturday market in Hobart too, called Salamanca market, where they have lots of local food, and arts and crafts and things so that should be pretty cool to see.

Sunday was another easy day really as the weather has basically just gone Pete Tong. We had thought about going out to the Peninsula again, but as there were gale warnings, we decided to stay in again. Went to Noojee for some lunch, which is a little town about an hour's drive away. There's a nice cafe called the Red Parrot Cafe there (which April took me to when I was here before I went to New Zealand) and there are also some nice walk's around there. Unfortunately, as it's rainforest area, there are leeches about, urgh. Thus, we decided not to go as the last time they went walking in the rainforest when it was a bit damp, the poor doggies got leeches all over their paws!! :(
It was probably a good thing we didn't go for a walk even though there are nice waterfalls around there, as the rain basically started pouring down again after we'd had lunch! It had been cloudy and chilly up until then, but then the heavens opened. I know that Melbourne needs the rain but this is ruining my holiday!! :D
Oh, I also saw my first huntsman spider. Doggone it they're ugly things. It was on the car as I got out but luckily it just scuttled off before it could leap on me or the dogs and take a chunk out of any of us.
Simon had warned us yesterday that they usually come in the house when it's been raining, but they're quite big spiders so we should be able to spot them. I made the mistake of googling them yesterday, and gees they're ugly things. Big spiders that resemble crabs because of they're legs and they're kind of speckly orange-y coloured like crabs. But they're just U-G-L-Y.
The one we saw today was only small (apparently) as well. Still Ew.
April and I went to the cinema to watch 'Slumdog Millionaire' and I loved it! It only cost $7 for the cinema (bargain!) so I was pleasantly surprised! Absolutely cracking film, so glad I got to catch it :)

Looking forward to the Neighbours tour on Monday. Should be as cheesy as a cheese factory after the cows have been milked – great!