Finishing up...

Jobs are reaching or have reached an end...couldn't do the tele sales thing anymore though, finished up a couple of weeks early on that one! May my name forever try reaching the top of that ladder!

The Yarra Valley

For my birthday a group of us headed out to the Yarra Valley, the wine making region of Victoria. We went on a tour bus from the centre of Melbourne and headed out into the valley. We visited three different winerys, one of which was the Australian equivalent of Moet et Chandon. Lush!

As you can imagine the day progressed swimmingly. After arriving back in Melbourne we headed for the park to guzzle more champers and then went on to a Thai restaurant on Brunswick Street. This was topped off with a couple of water pipes on Lygon and finally bed. What a fabulous birthday. To make it even more perfect the sun was shining and the views of the valley incredible. The only down side was turning 29!

Snow Patrol

Melbourne seems to be hosting a magnitude of muscial events at the moment, most of which we will miss. Thankfully we were still here for Snow Patrol, which we went to see last night. WOW! They were incredible. The blog site has also decided that we are able to upload video now so maybe this one will work!

Thought we'd try and keep up with the technology!

Going...going...BonGO's GONE!

Well, things are certainly moving on here...with only one month left in the 'real' world we are having to sell up, move out and cancel the life that we've started in Australia. How much bloody paperwork???!!!

This morning brought on the sale of the Bongo. Half the price we paid for it but thank goodness we got something! Tried for $3000 but in the end had to cut my losses and managed to get him to pay $500 more than he wanted to (this was our actual asking price), as I was signing the sale contract we both looked at the oil leaking out of the bottom and I was relieved that it's now his problem! Must say that I felt sad saying goodbye to it though. The Bongo has been a fine friend who has provided us with many wondrful memories.

Bye Bye Bongie!

Not much excitement for me this weekend. Ed's out on the lash, he left the flat at 4am this morning to watch a Rugby match and will return sometime after our house inspection tonight. Not visualising a pretty sight!

Hope you are all well and look forward to hearing from you some time soon. xxx

All Good Things Come to an end...

Friday was my last day at the zoo, thought I should share some final moments with you...

Marmot the Carpet Python

Australia's unknown Tree Kangaroos

AT LAST a baby Koala

Baby possum. How cute is that!

Boa

I had great fun working at the zoo, did loads of things that I never thought I would be able to do...handled and touched loads of animals, went behind the scenes for elephant feedings, training of tiger cubs, met a rhino up close, not to mention getting over (ish) my fear of snakes, I also managed to teach science to A Level students. Not bad!

Over the next few weeks I have to look after animals of a different kind...here's just three of them!

Turning 30!

Last weekend saw Mark turn 30, what a better way to accept the wrinkles than heading down to the local bowling green.

Mark

Ed turned out to be a cracking shot

My technique left a little to be desired!

Birthday Cake Time

The evening ended with another trip to the Waiters Restaurant...we love them but I think that they have had more than enough of us after 3 rowdy trips! On Sunday Mark, Paul, Ed and I headed out for breakfast, the boys then headed to the footie followed by drinks at the pub.

Monday was the start of a three week placement I have at a local school, hard work. Nevermind, soon enough we will be able to leave work behind us once again. Determined not to stop the partying despite the work, Claire, Cindy and I headed off to a fashion show being hosted in the Victoria Markets. We had a top night...needless to say,

with free champers, I was not on top of the world come Tuesday morning!

Just a couple of shots to show you the randomness of the evening!

Forgot the Camera Again, and Again

Hello peeps. Well we've had a busy couple of weeks. Rella has been pushing to almost managing another 5 day week of work, combining zoo, relief teaching and call centre joy. I've been busy, busy, busy at ANZ, but we haven't let that dampen our weekend escapades. Except for forgetting our camera, so apologies for the lack of photos in this blog.

Last weekend started early - about 4:30 on the Friday, as my birthday celebrations kicked off with cake in the office and then proceeded to the pub downstairs and then off into the bright lights and dark laneways of the city. Saturday began with a trip to the market to collect goodies for my birthday picnic, which ended up being indoors at Paul's as the weather turned a bit UKish!

Some monster prawns, dips, cheese and strawberries plus a drop of fine wine then turned into a bit of over indulgence. We ventured to a really good pub in a back street by us, before heading out into the bohemian backwaters of Brunswick St for a Greek tavern.

The next day was a bit of a right off, but Rella and I did manage to drag our sorry arses from our flat and go for a run in the evening.

This weekend just gone was another fun packed one (well for me anyway). It started with a joyous trip to Ikea, with the highlight being a jar of picked herring! On Sat I took Rella through her paces in the park at 8am with squats, sit ups, step ups, shuttle runs and a run.

Mark had managed to get 3 free tickets to the footy. Good job it was free as the game was poor, really poor, but we were sitting with the hardened Carlton supporters so the language and comments were providing ample entertainment. After the game, the 3 boys (Simon, Mark and I) headed to the mountains for skiing on Sunday at Mount Buller. It's only about 3 hours drive away, so we stopped at a town at the bottom of the mountain and got up early on Sunday to be skiing by 8:15.

Mark and Simon are a damn sight better on plank(s) than I am, so I was put through my paces somewhat. I tackled and overcame my first sets of black runs (didn't count the one from a few weeks ago, which I spent sliding down on my arse). Happy - yes, fun - not really, give me the blues any day. My legs are killing today. Again, I forgot the camera, the views were amazing, and it was really warm, but the season is almost over as the snow was beginning to melt.

Rella, as I understand it, walked a dog and ate cheese.

Just to keep you up to date

Not a huge amount has happened since our last up date. Over the last couple of weeks I have gone into a bit a of a wedding frenzy, reading nothing but wedding mags, attending bridal fairs, trying on a number of dresses and trying the patience of Ed who constantly gives me wedding 'time outs'! At this rate the wedding will be planned by the end of the month. Just so that you can save the date...we have confirmed with the vicar that we will be tying the knot on...

Saturday 26th July 2008.

Aside from wedding plans, we have had a number of fun nights, dancing at an 80s club for Claire's birthday, dining on canelloni at the waiters restaurant, listening to 'soul/funk' at a rather ritzy jazz club, going to the cinema and all in all drinking and eating far too much!

Just incase you needed some drunken evidence!

Last weekend brought the Evans family over from Perth, a game of footy at the Telstra Dome, drinks at the casino and a meal on Sunday made Monday morning rather difficult to cope with.

This weekend is Ed's birthday so no doubt further indulgence will take place.

We have now booked our flights home and will land in England on 9th Feb 2008, after a month in Indonesia. We look forward to seeing you then! Of course we will continue to update the blog until then. xxx

Rella's Ring

What do you think?

Of course, no full hand shots as the nails are still terrible and I can't put falsies on because of the bloody snakes!

Vampirates

The Birthday Bash!

This weekend arrived with two birthdays to celebrate, Cindy's and Claire's. For the want of doing something different we decided that fancy dress was definitely in order and headed for Draculas (Ed and I had been here before with Stef). The theme this time was Vampirates, which I believe Ed and I managed in style! The costumes created by everyone were great and it made for a very fun night! Here are some piccies just to give you the idea of how we were looking!

Thankfully the sickly pallor was more to do with face paint rather than Melbourne's winter!

Here's hoping that Ed would not like this look at the wedding!

Can you even figure out who this person is???