Sorrento Sun

Not the Italian Sorrento, but Sorrento on the Mornington Penninsular, about an hour outside of Melbourne. After some showery days over Christmas the temps headed back up to the high 20's so we had a day by the beach with a picnic. We wandered around the seaside town (which was packed due to the holidays), then headed up to a place called Arthurs Seat which is around 310m above sea level with some great views over the bay. Then back to Melbourne for a barbie & beer.....its a hard life.
As its New Years Eve, we'll all be off into the city tonight to watch the fireworks down by the Yarra river. Hopefully this year Ethan won't be screaming when the fireworks go off. The grandparents are taking the kids home after the 9:30 fireworks show, so the parents can party into the night (thats about 12:30am these days !!). Should be good. Hope everyone has a great New Year whatever you're doing ! See you in 2007.

Boxing Day Test

Well we can say at least that we saw some more history made yesterday as "Warney" took his 700th test wicket....closely followed by 4 more of Englands hapless 'Batsmen'. But 159 all out didn't stop the Barmy Army singing and shouting all the way through the day and they were all sat in a big section next to us. At least it provided some much needed amusement as the wickets tumbled. As you can see from the pic, Mr Hawkins Snr has donned one of his Christmas pressies for todays session. Lets hope he's got something to cheer about when the Aussies resume batting.

'Twas the day before Christmas

Well its Christmas Eve and Maxine is finished studying the cookbooks on the perfect Christmas Turkey - the *huge* bird is in the oven, the last minute shopping is done and its time to drink and be merry in the Australian Christmas sun. 26 degrees gives a very different feeling to Christmas rather than the cold and fog ! It feels like a June day in England. Wearing
shorts around the festivities takes some getting used to.

Ethan keeps looking in the sky and seeing Santa Claus apparently but so far there have been no sightings by the adults. He is still after 'Electric Trains and Lego Muck' which is a huge relief all round really.... 'cos he's not getting anything else at this late hour. He's been distracted from all the excitement by his grandparents who've taken him to the pictures to see 'Flushed Away'. I doubt we'll be getting many hours sleep tonight somehow. Aidan continues to sleep, eat and play - oblivious to the madness of Christmas activity around him.

Finally, we'd like to wish everyone we know from all around the globe and who reads our little blog, a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year. Have a good one all and we hope to see you in 2007.

Sydneysiders

On Friday Maxine & I jetted off to Sydney for four days to have a spot of R&R. We stayed at the Four Seasons down on Circular Quay and we couldn't of picked a better
hotel.
The view of Sydney Harbour from our room on the 30th floor was amazing. The night time picture here is taken from our room (!!) The first two days we actually had
dodgy weather but we did some shopping in the city and did the Opera House tour which was good. It seemed a bit surreal being inside what you'd seen on TV so many
times. On Sunday the weather got back to being summer and we headed to Manly beach on the ferry. Manly is Bondi's northern cousin and is considered the better beach. There were loads of surfers doing their stuff out in the huge waves but we opted for the 'bask in the sun' approach to beach life. These are proper Aussie beaches just as you'd imagine them.

We headed back to Sydney (after more afternoon beers looking over the beach!) in time to get ready for dinner. We ate in two seriously good resturants in our time there, on recommendations from others. So if anyone reading this is heading to Sydney soon (that's you Helen!), two very good resturants are ARIA and QUAY. Unreal views over the Opera House and Harbour Bridge while you eat.

On Monday we did loads more walking around the city before heading back to the hotel pool and then catching our flight back (just as the Aussies nailed the coffin down on English Cricket). Nuff said on that subject.

Sydney is a great city to visit and there's so much to see, we've only just scratched the surface. We'll definately go back soon. All in all, a nice way to build up to Christmas !!

Kylie Comes Home

As the folks are now safely here and recovering from the jetlag, we abandoned them to go to Kylie's first night back in her home town of Melbourne. It was the first night of six in her 'Showgirl' return so you can imagine how much the Melbourne crowd loved it. She looked and sounded amazing for someone who's just gone through cancer. Mam & dad have got tickets for Wednesday nights show too before the tour heads off to the UK in the New Year. Another memorable night in our time here.

Just too hot

I had to post this, given the dark December nights now keeping the UK nice & chilly. It's in the 40's today for the first time in this Aussie summer. So far its hit 42.2 degrees according to the thermometer in the back garden. It has the same effect as being in the cold of the UK.... i.e. you have to stay in the house ( just with the aircon on full blast instead of the heating). Mam & Dad were supposed to arrive today but got held up because of the 'London Tornado' delaying flights. Probably a good job given this heat. Off to see if its possible to sunbathe for 5 minutes before I cook myself.

3 Wombats tall

Just as we all suspected. Ethan is in fact 3 wombats tall. We found out this 'amazing' fact at Melbourne Museum. I don't think the kids were that excited about the museum but dad had a great time (dinosaurs, rainforest walk and 3D movies especially) and it appealed to his wallet at only $6 per adult and the kids go free. I think we'll go there every weekend (!)

The folks arrive out from the UK on Saturday for a month in the sun. Its forecast to be 37 degrees C on Saturday so I think they'll have a bit of adjusting to do from the cold shores of the north-east.

Its Official : We're rubbish

And by we, I mean England's Cricket team (there's not enought space in the blog to write about our crap Football, Rugby, Athletics etc etc).

Being on this side of the world I have to endure not only the live coverage but also the commentry from my workmates. After being very optimistic after Englands first innings in the second Ashes test they've managed to perform like Newcastle Utd with 10 minutes to go and a 1-0 lead.... i.e. loose. Absolute tosh. I'd sell our MCG tickets now if they were actually worth anything !!

Old bloke with a beard

I'm not sure who the bloke with the beard is but the other two cuties are my boys apparently asking for **MORE** toys. As if the house could actually cram any more bits of bright plastic in it. I think we as a family are quite possibly to blame for global warming given the amount of plastic we own. Ethan alledgedly wants "electric trains and a Lego Muck"... all fans of Bob the Builder knows who "Muck" is. All Aidan said is, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." Boom boom.