Over in Australia at this time of year is th Melbourne cup, which is a week long horse racing extravaganza. Lots of people have the week off work, and Melbourne gets an offical day off for the Melbourne Cup day (like the Grand National.)

As we are not avid gamblers, we went to only one race meet, Derby Day, and had a couple fo wins so we broke even, which wasnt bad. That same weekend was our friend Jamie's 33rd birthday, and his girlfriend Kath decided that surprise paintballing would be a good idea! It was actually a really rainy day and the paintballs are SO painful, I honestly still have bruises and that was 2 weeks ago. Russ was in his element, and we were actually on different teams, so he relished shooting at me quite a lot! Although one shot actually made me cry, so Russ spent a minute consoling me, then was off brandishing his gun like rambo into battle! I made it through to the last game, which is basically keep going until you cant take anymore. A close range shot to the ribs by Jamie's housemate Darby made me put my hand up to come out of the compound - I was done. We then went for some amazing Greek food for his birthday dinner, which was much less painful :-)

So that was Saturday, and the Monday most people had off, Russ's site closed down but I had to work! Then that evening (as the next day was the day off for Melbourne Cup) we went to a Halloween Party, as you can see from the pics. It was an amazing houseparty with about 150 people! Russ and I had bought costumes that said "For children up to 10 years" which is quite worrying that they fit....

Melbourne cup day is usually spent by Aussies having bbq's and watching the race having a little punt, but we just relaxed and spent time in the garden - it had been a long weekend...

xx