Down by the Yarra

Here's a picture we took of the Commonwealth 'fish' on the Yarra.....with the city in the background.

Its all over....

Well, the Commonwealth Games finished on a high last night with the city in full party swing well into the night. We went into the city with the folks (who arrived safe & sound the day before) to have a meal around 4:00pm and then strolled along the Yarra river to see the commonwealth 'fish' do their stuff. The city was packed, there must of been a couple of hundred thousand people watching various events and the closing of the games itself. I won't bang on too much about how great it was .... but it was a fantastic night. I've never been too interested in the Commonwealth Games but having it on your doorstep is a different story. Hopefully the closing ceremony looked just as good on UK TV as it did here.

The English atheletes have let me down badly however. I now have to face the fact that the Australians won 84 gold medals compared to our pathetic 36.... with a population 1/3 of the size. At least we beat the Canadian's (sorry Jason !) and the South African's (sorry Zoe !).... ;-)

We've been lucky to be in Melbourne for the experience, something I doubt we'll forget. Good on 'ya Melbourne.

Day at the 'G'

We did manage to make it to the MCG today to watch the 1st day of Athletics in the games. We saw the 100m heats (including the world record holder Asafa Powell), marathon, javelin & shot put. The MCG was pretty impressive, holding around 100,000 people when full. The best cheers of the day (which Ethan didn't like) were for the Australians winning the Ladies Marathon. 100,000 screaming people are pretty loud.

The Games Commence

The 2006 Commonwealth games start today in our adopted city with the opening ceremony kicking off tonight along the Yarra river (8:30pm our time)....9:30am your time. The city is looking fantastic and there's a lot of hype over here - especially as the city is trying to outdo the Sydney Olympics from 2000. Hope you're all watching !! We're off to the MCG on Sunday to see the athletics .... barring any early child arriving.... we may be the first couple to have a baby in the stadium. Keep an eye out on TV, should be easy to spot amongst the 100,000 people there too.

March & Autumn has arrived

March has arrived which is the start of Autumn over here.....so the temps have dipped to the mid 30's (!!) ;-) This picture of Maxine & Ethan was taken today at 7:00pm in the back garden.
We're on the final countdown to the big day and have done the hospital tour so we know what to expect. Maxine has opted for the 'give me everything' approach to childbirth pain relief! The nursery is all ready and the Hawkins grandparents are being shipped out on the 23rd March so we can leave them with the two kids while we run off for a month. All-in-all we're about as ready as we can be....