He who dies with the most toys wins....

Well a third year of Christmas is done in Australia for us. We still miss the bad weather from England....the one day of the year you want it to be cold! The other 364 days we can live without though... As usual the kids got way too many bits of bright plastic for the garage/house to cope with. We seriously need a big toy sale one day soon. See the Christmas pictures here.

The weather over Christmas has been a bit odd for Melbourne. Just before Christmas it rained hard for almost two days and in drought ravaged Victoria, most people were very happy to see it. Since then its been a scorcher, with temps hitting 36 degrees yesterday..... so, the grass grew..... and the prospect of living on a fair bit of ground hit home. You have to garden. Given that the back is not landscaped yet, we have a lot of grass. SO only one course of action.... buy a ride on mower. 18.5 horses of grass ripping machine! We've finally joined the green welly brigade! A few more pics of the last couple of days are here.....

'Twas the night before Christmas....

Well, Rudolph and co. should be here any time soon (Santa visits Australia first you see). The unlucky turkey is sitting in our fridge and waiting to be roasted, Santa's cookies and milk are waiting for him and there's a big carrot for the first reindeer through the door. So, we're all done.

As we'd not updated the blog since we moved in there are a few pictures here of the new house and the surrounding views for those wanting to peruse. All visitors welcome.

Have a great Christmas everyone from Martin, Maxine, Ethan & Aidan.

Christmas is coming, the sun is getting hot

Three santa's in one week, he really is magical. Its a shame the queues to get into see him aren't quite as magical !
The last couple of weeks since posting has seen us out and about a bit (including yet more 4 year old parties....). The weather has been beautiful in late Nov, early Dec so far, as spring starts to give way to summer. We've been to Moorabbin outdoor pool, the botanical gardens and the mothers group xmas party at Elsternwick park over recent weekends. Last weekend was doing the santa thing in the city (exactly like Fenwicks window in Newcastle.....just a lot warmer). Aidan was a bit wary of sitting on santa's knee but Ethan piled in telling him about his 2007 demands for Playmobil, Lego and assorted Cars stuff! Santa's going to have a bad back carrying that lot down our chimney this year !

Planning for the house move is going well. All set for next week. Only 6 more sleeps as Ethan would say......

New Pad

This is our new pad in Melboune, we've finally taken the plunge & bought. It's in a place called Narre Warren North in the South East outskirts of the city. You get a lot more for your money further out and away from the bay, so this house has an acre of land! Its Martin's excuse to have a drive on mower & a gravel driveway ! Anyone who wants to help with the gardening is welcome to come ! As we're gluttons for punishment, we move in on the 14th December. More pictures then.....

Heavenly Hobart

This weekend we had a break away while the grandparents looked after Ethan & Aidan. We decided to go to "Tassie", a short hop of a flight due south from Melbourne to the beautiful island state of Tasmania. Apart from the Tasmanian Devil (Taz of cartoon fame) and the now extinct Tasmanian Tiger, the island is famous for its great beers, seafood, high quality timber and the great outdoors!!

Hobart is the state capital and the city with the greatest population. By UK standards its a very small city and easily walkable. Its set on a port, overlooked by Mt. Wellington in the background, a very very nice view from all angles. We thought we'd spend a few days exploring around the city and surrounding countryside. There's tons to do for a long weekend.

We saw our first Tasmanian Devil (unsurprisingly really since that's the only place in the world where they are naitive!) Quite 'chunky' little things about the size of a smallish dog ! They're actually marsuipials like the kangaroo but have got a nasty bite & are meat eaters.... not something you want to pick up and pet really.

The main tourist activity in the Hobart area is to visit Port Arthur so we went there on Saturday, about 90 kms away along the coast. The British set it up as a landing site for convict labour and it quickly developed into a penal colony in the 1820's. Its a fascinating place. Absolutely stunning scenery but with a very dark past. Its hard to believe it was a site for a prison - but it was apparently one of the most brutal & feared places in the British Empire - for hardened second offender prisoners only. We took the tour, looked around the largely ruined site (badly damaged in bush fire in the late 1800's). The tour guides were very good and the history of the place is just immense.

Unfortunately, it also happens to be the site of Australia's & the world's most lethal gunman atrocities, which happened shortly after Dunblane in the UK. A gunman went on the rampage in April 1996 and killed 35 tourists & locals at the site. There is next to no reference to what went on at the site other than a rememberance pool & stone with the names of those murdered. Its pretty sombre and quite weird standing in the cafe ruins where he killed 20. Wikipedia has a reference for those interested on it at the link here.

ANYWAY.........! On a brigher note, we rounded the trip off with a Saturday night out in the city and then after a lazy breakfast the next day, a car journey to the top of Mt. Wellington, a visit to Peppermint bay and a round trip of about 150 kms before heading back to the airport.

All the pictures are held here.

Almost Aussies!

We found out this week that we'd successfully applied to become permanent residents of Australia ! What that means is we can come & go as we please as long as we spend 2 years out of 5 in Australia... No more need for company sponsorship of our visas & we can work for whoever we want now. The next step would be to apply for Citizenship, which allows you to vote & also get an Australian passport. Not sure what the requirements are but we may end up doing it if we can get dual nationality for the kids... something to investigate.

Day at the races

The Melbourne Cup public holiday has come around again and we went off on Tuesday to gamble the day away. Like 2 years ago (the last time we went) it was a nice hot day. Hawkins Jr had a miserable day....bet on the donkeys every time. The actual cup race is like the Grand National, lots of horses, difficult to pick the winner out of a large field. Mam however managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat by picking the winner 'Efficient'. Not bad at 16 to 1 although she was kicking dad for betting each way. The beer & wine eased the pain of (largely) backing the loosers & it was a good day out!

Port Douglas

Just back from a week in the sun with Ma & Pa Hawkins up in Port Douglas, Queensland. We flew into Cairns last Monday to blue skies, blue seas and palm trees shading you from the 35 degree heat. Bliss.

Port Douglas is pretty much as far north as you can go in Australia for civilization. After that you need a 4 wheel drive and a shotgun for the crocs ! We baked by the pool at the hotel for a few days but also managed to complete another first and go walking in our first real tropical rainforest at Mossman Gorge. Very wet, very foresty - talk about humid. You could almost drink the air never mind breathe it. The forest included a wobbly bridge across the gorge like something you'd see in an Indiana Jones movie!

We took the kids to a tropical zoo, usual suspects of deadly Aussie animals were there including crocs, snakes and spiders but there were also the tropical birds and kangaroos, koalas etc. I think we've done the pics with those now!

We also went out to the barrier reef ... I (Martin) did another 'first' in that I went scuba diving on two different parts the reef. Utterly amazing experience and something I'll keep going back to. We saw barracuda, dolphins and even a Minke whale on the way back to port. There were hundreds of fish of all shapes, colours & sizes down there. If you ever come to Austrlia, you must go - its just one of those things you need to see.

The pictures from the holiday are on the Port Douglas link here.

Happy fireworks day to all in the UK !!!

New Motor

In 2003 the arrival of a black Porsche in our household caused much excitement & glee. Roll forward 4 years and we didn't honestly think we'd be feeling almost as excited about the arrival of a black....Volvo. Yes, I've officially joined my dad in the Volvo club. Its amazing what 4 years and 2 kids can do to you. Now instead of 0-60 and acceleration, its all safety and space. Anyway, we've got our shiny new XC90 parked on the driveway.... and we love it !! Who knows, what 4 more years and 2011 will bring. Maybe a black Kia.

The Canadian Blog

Well Cadbury has come up trumps again with a visit this week to Canada & the US. I've been up in Toronto for a flying visit to a distribution centre there and then drove across the border to NY state & Pensylvania to another one. We stayed in Niagra on the journey to the states - and as I'd never seen the falls before it was quite an experience. Something else ticked off the list of things to do. The falls are amazing, you can get right up close to the edge of the falls - the water is literally just a few feet away from you. Here's a picture of my good self just before getting a good soaking walking closer to the spray.

2007 Royal Melbourne Show

Its a footie mad weekend this weekend as the Grand Final of the AFL was staged yesterday. Its a huge event in Melbourne and everyone has their traditions of where to watch the match & what they do on the day. As mere specators of all the action we we can only equate it to the FA cup final in England. It just seems bigger than that in terms of everyone being interested in it and talking about it. For the record, the Geelong Cats thrashed Port Adelaide by a margin of 119 points - a record in the 120 year history of the AFL.....

Anyway, our weekend besides that, was looking for houses and going to the 2007 Royal Melbourne Show. It was a windy, rain threatend day but it didn't stop Ethan clamouring for the 'showbags' which as I said last year is another annual tradition in Melbourne. He finally settled on a racing car showbag and Aidan got a Bob the builder one (selected for him by his mother). Both came away happy... amazing what bright plastic toys made in China can do for your kids. Probably covered in highly toxic paint - but they love them anyway.

You can see some of the pics from the show here.

Arrrrgh Jim Lad !

Here's Pirate Ethan at his latest social event for 4 year olds in Hampton. Yet another one of his Kindergarten friends has had a party (it's just the thing to do you know)..... The theme this time was Fairies, Pirates & Superhero's. I was just very glad that it wasn't the former and he settled on a pirate. You can see a few more photos by clicking here.

Snow Patrol in Oz

Been a while since we posted again, lots of stuff happening around the house in the UK and trying to find a house in Melbourne so time is a bit on the short side. This year just seems to be flying by for us. We had a our first night out in a while last week when we went to see Snow Patrol in concert at the Rod Laver arena. They're on their last leg of a worldwide show, finishing up in NZ. They were excellent... Chasing Cars(obviously) got biggest cheer of the night.

Spring is in the air

Not posted in a while as there's just been no time. Busy, busy, busy.
Seems odd for the Northern hemisphereists among you but Spring is arriving in Aus.... Melbourne managed to get to 25 degrees one day last week and we even went to the beach yesterday (although its not quite warm enough for that yet). We've both been busy with work, Maxine taking on new projects and Martin spending a fair bit of time in New Zealand going live with a new SAP system.
In the mean time the kids have had colds, hopefully the last one's of the season. Aidan's getting bigger by the day and is now standing by himself (although not quite willing to walk yet). Here's a couple of pics of them in the garden yesterday.

In other news our house sale in Warwick has fallen through so we're looking at keeping it rented now and buying another house in Melbourne. We're keen to have our own house here, so we're just going to take the plunge.... so hopefully we will have our own place before Christmas. We're in the process of applying for permanent residency and have had all our medicals done and all the documentation filled in (and there's lots of it!). Getting that obviously allows us to remain here indefinately and not have to apply for residency extensions on our current working visas. Pretty soon it'll feel like we're Aussies for real. My cork hat is in the post.

Roman Northumberland

Just before we left for Aus we took the kids for their first cultural tour of the North. Just as I'm sure it did when I was a kid, it poured down with rain just as we arrived at Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall. The rain & 4" deep mud on the site wasn't what Maxine had dressed for.... Non-the-less, we hadn't come all this way to stay in the car so we braved the English "summer" to go around the ruins just as I did when I was last there when I was 10 or so. The kids weren't too impressed looking at the Roman ruins but perked up a bit when Ethan found the shop and the plastic swords. You just can't educate 4 year olds can you !

We've got back to Oz safely now and are back in the swing of work / nursery (depending on your age).

Last day in wet England

Today is our last day in the UK as tomorrow we head off to Newcastle airport for a 7:30am flight on the start of the epic journey back.

This trip has been a bit different to our one last July. The rain has barely stopped but that's probably just as well given the amount of stuff we've had to get done.
Ethan's had his 4th birthday for about the fourth time at Carolann's house (got the photo in just for you Carolann!), the kids have both enjoyed time at the Grandma's and we've squeezed in a few trips. Additional good news for us while being here is that we've sold the house (subject to contract). It's been hard work getting our final furniture ready for the container to Oz but it's all done now and we've left our home in Warwick for the very last time. It was quite emotional knowing we are not going to see the place again as we start another chapter of our lives as permanent residents of Australia. We can now look forward to house hunting for real in Melbourne when the sale completes. All exciting stuff.

Lynsey & Gary's Wedding

This weekend was the visit to the hallowed turf of St.James Park, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Oh.... and Lynsey (Martin's cousin) & Gary's wedding(!) The ceremony was at 11:00am so we were up to Newcastle bright & early on Saturday after Ethan opened all his presents. Martin was 'on-duty' taking many of the pics and was zooming all around St.James' including the changing rooms and down on pitchside. Excellent stuff for a Newcastle Utd excile. The wedding breakfast was great and before you knew it we were off back home to get ready for the evening bash back in Blyth. All in all a great day and Lynsey & Gary had a blast. Some of the pics from the day are here.

Ethan turns four!

Ethan turned 4 today... time is going so fast ! He'll soon be going to school & talking Aussie. We were up at 6:15 opening pressies at grandma & grandad Hawkins house, which is no bad thing as we've also got the wedding to go to today. Despite living in Aus I think Ethan's still had every birthday so far in the UK. He's very impressed with his new Playmobil combo of a Combine Harvester & a Fire Patrol boat. SO by my reconing he's going to be a farmer who likes to set fire to his fields and then put them out himself. An arsonist with a conscience. Lets hope he's playing doctors & nurses by the time he's five and can change his career to a brain surgeon. It's not too late yet.

Raffles

We spent the last day in Singapore taking tea at one of the cities famous institutions - Raffles hotel. The hotel is old colonial Britain at its best - its like stepping back in time to when Britain ruled the waves and were the global power ... that was before the Yanks took over that role. Ethan & Aidan had a great time rolling around and playing with their cars on the very expensive looking rugs. We picked a good time to go (Monday morning) as the hotel was very quiet and apart from a rich looking bunch of Europeans finishing breakfast, the kids had the run of the place. The hotel was built in 1887 and hardly looks like its changed - must be a great place to stay (if a bit pricey). Very interesting to take a look around the place though.

Later in the day we covered off another thing Singapore is famous for... shopping. We battled the humidity to walk up part of Orchard Road and hit some of the shopping centres. Its very modern and pretty much like any other major cities shopping centres but just a lot more of them! All the European shops are there (even Marks & Spencers!) so it felt very much like home, but with better prices.

After that it was back to the hotel for a play in the pool with the kids and then off for dinner before heading to Changi airport and off to blighty.

The photos from the last day in Singapore are here.

Singapore Sling

We've now been in Singapore for two days and so far have ate loads and moved very little! We're sheltering in the hotel room after a day out roaming in the city today. It's hot and extremely humid and exhausting to walk in. I don't understand how people live without air conditioning in a country like this.

Today we've only managed to walk down around Boat Quay & Clarke Quay, then champagne brunch at The Fullerton Hotel (very nice!) and then back to Sentosa for a swim.

Aidan seems to be a tourist attraction at the moment, we're thinking of charging for the Asian girls who want to take pictures of him and give him a cuddle. Its weird, quite surreal. I ended up taking pictures of them taking pictures of him. All the pics from the last two days are here on Picassa.

Ethans 4 Birthday Party

Last weeekend we ventured to "Lollipops" to hold Ethans 4th birthday party. The pictures are here. Ethan had a great time with 15 of his mates from Kinder (he reeled of a list of them to us as the ones he wanted to go !)

Its been another couple of weeks of travel. Maxine's been to Sydney and I've been to New Zealand for 3 days. Feels like I've never been off a plane and we're just about to get back on one. Later today we're off to Singapore for a few days sunshine (& humidity!) exploring the city. We're staying at the Shangri-La hotel on Sentosa Island, just on the outskirts of the city. Then on Monday we're going on to the UK, getting in on the 10th July. So hope to see lots of you in the couple of week's we're back.

Texas & Tonsils

Last week was an interesting one for a few reasons. While I was away in the Lone Star state again, Maxine was wrestling not only herself feeling poorly but Aidan developed a raging temperature. Having reached the US, the mobile bleeped telling me the cold we suspected he had was something a bit nastier. After a visit to the docs and several opinions, they concluded he had an ear infection coupled with tonsilitis. Nice. So the poor little man wasn't in the fittest of states, Maxine felt unwell and I was a 21 hour plane ride away. This is when being a long way from family is hard....

Anyway, after being also diagnosed with being allergic to penicillin, Aidan is now on the road to full recovery with new antibiotics. He's eating his way through everything which is a good sign. You dare not put any food down in case he sprints across the room on all fours to eat it. I think he's better.

Texas on the other hand has George Dubya to cope with as its most famous son. Not an easy thing to bear. It's great fun speaking to Texan's about their thoughts on the great man - it doesn't take much to get views at one extreme or the other. Texas is an odd place. I finally got to stand on the spot where JFK lost a few too many brain cells (they have a big X which marks the spot on the road - I kid you not). Grassy Knoll was viewed along with the book repository seen. Only the ranch at Southfork to see next time and I think I've covered the tourist trail in Dallas.

Pink

We went to see Pink in concert at the Rod Laver Arena last night as part of her "I'm not Dead" tour. Much, much better than we thought she would be. First night out together we've had for a while so it was good from that standpoint too. Aidan hasn't been too well (throat infection making him sound like he's smoking 40 a day!) for the last few weeks so he's been a bit of a handful. He's finally on the mend now, nursery/kindergarten has got a lot to answer for.

Not too much else to report, Martin's been promoted at work and starts a new role on 11th June and heads off to Dallas on his first day for a week. The house has been up for sale in Warwick now but no takers so far which is a bummer. We hate selling houses.... all the waiting, wondering etc etc. Hopefully we'll see some progress soon.

Our flights are booked to head to Singapore for a few days en-route to the UK (we get back to the UK on 10th July). Looking forward to exploring Singapore for 3 days and it will break the journey for the kids. Should be good.

Happy Birthday Maxine!

May the 13th is Mothers Day in Australia... as well as Maxine's birthday so its a bit of a double whammy, a bit like having your birthday on Christmas day really. Not fair for her (or those buying presents ... a.k.a. me).

Here's a picture of Maxine & the kids today with her main pressie, a private plate - "MAX1NE". She also had some Prada sunglasses (see face!) and a iPod titchie or whatever they're called. We went to St.Kilda for mothers day lunch on a beautiful autumn day. We then had a walk around the botanical gardens there. It's hard to believe its "winter" in 2 weeks time.

Maxine's off to Sydney tonight for a course all week. Not bad work if you can get it. So its role reversal this week, Maxines in a great hotel overlooking the opera house & bridge and I'm the lone working parent. Any babysitters out there !?!

May has arrived, another year older

The 29th April has come and gone and I'm another year older. Maxine bought me a new mountain bike so I'm now roaming the streets of Melbourne playing 'BMX Bandits'... for those born after 1980 they won't have a clue what I'm on about. The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur but did include a 7 day round trip to the UK for me and 'single parent child management' for Maxine. I didn't get to see anyone in the UK due to the fact that I was only there for a few days.... not something I'd recommend in a hurry, even if I did travel buisness class. I get get to see the highlights of Brum on mild UK nights so there's a plus eh ?

Maxine's started back at work properly now and is going to work in the city. The proximity of Channel, Dior, Tiffany's etc is likely to make me sweat every time she comes home at night. The concept of spending more money that she earns is very possible based on where Cisco's office is.

What else is going on ? Oh yeah, our house in Warwick is likely to go on sale this week. We've had the photo's done so it should be in the paper in the next 7 days. So, if anyone wants to buy a house in Warwick, England ... just let me know(!)

We've posted the pictures of the kids that we started getting done with a friend of ours. You can see them at : Pro Pictures. We had to stop when Aidan fell off the table and we had to take him to A&E.... oops. He was fine though but it was a bit worrying at the time.

Anyway, thats enough of an update I think. Lots more on the horizon but we'll save that for another post.

20/20

No, not the short form of cricket, or for that matter the foul tasting alchopop we all drank in the '80's. Its my vision. On Friday I (Martin) went to get my eyes blasted with lasers - 8 hours later after some R&R at home, perfect vision. Its amazing. After having put doing it off for years, I finally plucked up the courage to get it done and it was honestly less grief than going to the dentist. All done in an hour and a half from the minute I walked through the door to the minute I left. By 6:00pm on Friday after having slept for a few hours, I could see just as well as wearing my contacts! Should of done it years ago..... So thats the second operation in my life - both done on Friday 13th ! Must be my lucky day.

Its another nice sunny day & we're off (with my new found bionic vision) to the park this afternoon with Maxines "Bentleigh mothers group" for a 'party in the park'. There will be 10 other kids there with Aidan celebrating their 1st birthdays together... all of them were born within a few weeks of each other. Should be fun for the little man, as well as the adults (wine & beer already packed!).

Our baby turns one

Well it had to happen eventually, our little boy has grown up and turned one ! He had a surprisingly good night's sleep the night before and woke up bright and early at 6:15am ready to open his pressies. Many thanks to everyone who's sent something in the post or donated to the 'Aidan Porsche Boxter' fund, a.k.a. his bank account.

After bacon sarnies, we got ready and headed out for the day on another adventure into un-explored parts of Victoria. Today we threw the dart at the map and headed out to Torquay and Bell's Beach, the home of the surfing brand "Rip Curl". Unbenknown to us, it co-incided with the Rip-Curl Pro surfing tournament (link to site) which started a few days ago at Bell's beach. So after lunch and surf dude shopping at Torquay (a small seaside town about 60 miles out of Melbourne) we headed down to Bell's beach to see what a pro-surfing tournament looked like. We had actually found out from the surf shops that the waves weren't big enough for the main competition today so we knew we'd be seeing the juniors. We had a bit of a look for half an hour or so while the kids played on the sand. The waves looked plenty threatening to us, but clearly they looked like tiddlers to the big boys. It would be interesting to see that beach on a good surf day ... they've certainly got some bottle these guys. Note to self : Must have a lesson one day....perhaps when the kids force us to.... but I somehow doubt we'd ever graduate to this particular beach.

Anyway, we hope Aidan had a good day and has whetted his appitite to a be a pro-surfer. I somehow doubt that will happen though with a mother that thinks her son is bound to get eaten by a shark the minute he's got water above his knees! The pictures from today are at : Aidan's First Birthday.

Werribee Zoo

Today we've been to another Zoo just outside of Melbourne at Werribee. It's an open range 'Safari' style place so you can go around in a bus and get up (very) close to Rhino's, Giraffes, Bison etc etc. Ethan has a whale of a time while Aidan ignored the animals completely and paid attention to eating all the way around the place. The pictures from today can be seen at : Werribee Zoo. We also ventured back to Albert Park before the Grand Prix stuff had all been removed to do another 'lap' of the circuit. A few pictures are included, the last one showing how close the Cadbury building is to the track. In other news, Maxine has secured a new job with her company out in Melbourne as a permanent move. I've also signed on the dotted line for a permanent Oz role so it looks like the foreseeable future is in Melbourne!

Melbourne in Autumn

It's been a busy week this week with a lot going on. Maxine has been for two interviews internally with her company so that she can transfer to Oz fully. Sounds like it's going to be a positive outcome so the Champer's is on ice. Aidan has been on anti-biotics all week as he's got a chest infection (as well as a heavy cold) but he's just about come through that now. Nursery has got a lot to answer for.

It's also been Grand Prix week. My office (which is literally on the corner of the Albert Park track) has been abuzz with F1 car's screaming past in practice. It's quite surreal that its just touching distance. We drove the track about 5 days before practice started - all the bollards and grandstands were up etc. Shame we did it in a Holden Commodore rather than something a bit more exotic! Beggars can't be choosers. It was good all the same. The race has been on today and we could hear it loud and clear from our back garden..... and we live about 15 Km's away from the track ! Shows you how damn loud they are. Kimi Raikkonen won it for Ferrari at a stroll - leading from the off. There's talk of this being the last day time race in Melbourne as they want to host a night race for the viewing public in Europe. F1 cars will look odd with headlights ;-)

We didn't go to the Grand Prix as you might tell. We went to the St.Kilda botantic gardens instead (!) Thats showing our age. Another beautiful park in Melbourne. The kids had a great time playing and running before we all went to St.Kilda for lunch in the Autumn sunshine. The pictures as usual have been loaded on Picassa. See them at St.Kilda Botanic Gardens.

Williamstown

Yesterday we went to Williamstown which is just on the other side of the city, about a 30 minute drive away. Its amazing we'd not ventured there before but I suppose we've been

busy looking after a baby for the last 12 months. Williamstown is a seaside port, populated in the 1830's and now overlooks the Melbourne city skyline. No sooner had we got there and the link back to
England was found. This gun in the picture was made by Armstrong's in ... Newcastle Upon Tyne. You can probably see the engraving on the picture. Weird. The town itself is definately worth a visit and there seem to be some decent resturants & pubs although we didn't sample any on this occasion. We walked over to the pier and there is a maritime trust boat called the H.M.A.S. Castlemaine, a 1942 Australian Minesweeper (see the second picture of me & Ethan aboard!). Ethan had a great time running around and asking loads of questions (his constant shout is 'What does this say !?'). We were by the seaside so of course we then had to sample the local Chippie and then back home, driving past a potential suicide jumper on the Westgate bridge ! .... (but thats another story).

See more photo's from today at: Williamstown

The Hiscocks in Aus

We've had some visitors over from blighty ! Hurraahh ! Helen, David & Owen have been on their grand tour of Australia and Asia and stopped in at Melbourne for a few days. So far they've managed to get around Singapore, Cairns, Sydney and Melbourne and are about to head off to Hong Kong on Monday for a few days on the way home to England. Not a bad effort for 3 weeks away! I worked with Helen when we were both at Dixons and we did a lot of catching up on whos gone where and done what.... We spent yesterday at the Botanical Gardens in the city and then headed to Beaumauris and the beach at Ricketts point. Ethan loved having Owen to play with all day and the pair of them ran themselves ragged.

See more pictures from today at : Hiscocks Visit
Most of our pictures we now upload for family & friends on Picassa. You can see them all at : Our Web Album

Sizzler

The heat continues unabaited, the last week or so has just been hot, hot, hot. I'm typing this at 7:30pm and its still 37 degrees outside. The aircon is on at warp factor 9.
We've been to Rickkets Point beach this afternoon and lasted about an hour and a half before heading back to the shade. The boys had a whale of a time cooling down in the water and 'surfing'.... Kids are now in bed and we're off to sit outside and bask in the sunset and warmth. Oh and a cool bottle of Sauv Blanc no doubt. This is what weekends are all about !

See today's photos at : Sizzler

On top of Melbourne

On Sunday we headed into the city (mainly because Ethan 'wanted to go on the train' as soon as he got up. I'm starting to get worried about him now. He's 3 1/2 and he still loves trains ... we may have a trainspotter in
our midsts.
Anyway, we decided to do one of the few 'touristy' things we haven't done in Melbourne yet and headed to the Rialto Towers ( http://www.rialto.com.au/ ), alledgedly the tallest office block in the southern hemisphere. We decided to pick one of the few days where it was pretty blowy on the ground never mind 55 floors (832 feet !) up in the sky. We consequently didn't spend too long on the viewing platform but it does have one hell of a view from up there.
As you can see from the pics, apart from it being windy it was another glorious day with blue skies everywhere. The drought in Victoria has been going on all summer so there's a bit of a water crisis. Global warming may have a lot to answer for but for new tourists to Aus it doesn't seem too much of a hardship(!)

See more pics at : Rialto Towers

Return to Oz

Well after many hours sitting on a plane we came back to the sunshine of Australia last Friday. The kids have taken a while to re-adjust to the timezone and have had a busy week back at nursery/kindergarden. The picture is of Aidan with his Great-Grandparents just before we left. You can see the other pictures at the link : Return to UK
I timed the return pretty well as I got some free tickets in the corporate box at the MCG to see England vs Australia in the 1st of the Tri Series 1 day cricket finals. Its a pretty good way to watch any game from there....the beer was very free flowing followed by dinner and then ...... AN ENGLAND VICTORY ! Amazing.

Goodbye NY, Hello Toronto

This picture is of our last day in NY together. We decided we needed a bit of culture so we went to the world famous MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). I've decided that Ethan is now clearly an art prodigy and have promptly signed him up for the classes he needs to finish off his education. Judging from the stuff in here he should be finished that by the time he's 4 and a half. What utter tosh. That's the official view from an 'A' level art student I'll have you know. Give me some renaissance art any day. Leonardo could at least draw a picture. Honestly. The Scottish artist whose name I have no intention of ever remembering produced the 'On/Off' room. Literally, the light going on and off every 5 seconds in a room with nothing on the walls. Seriously - and he probably made some money out of that. The best bit was listening to him wittering on about it on the recorded tour guide thingy. He talked for about 10 minutes. I'm not really sure what he was saying about his 'art' as I was too busy laughing hysterically with Maxine. As I say - utter tosh. This picture is of Maxine obstructing the view of Andy Warhols 'Campbells Soup' from the 1960's. It was about the best thing in there, but that wouldn't of been hard, Ethans scribbles would of easily made it into the world's most pre-eminent art museum. I'll say it again, utter tosh.

Travel is definitely the topic of this week. Maxine's gone back to the UK now while I've been working in a place called Parsippany, New Jersey about 45 mins outside of Manhattan. Its been a good couple of days although the translation from 35 degree days into -5 degree days has been a bit of a shock to the system! I don't think the light jacket that I thought would be fine in Melbourne is really up to the job of the cold I'm about to hit in Canada. Its hard packing winter clothes when you're in your shorts and T-shirt. Something to remember for next time. I'm getting into the UK on Saturday morning but won't be taking any holiday, need to keep them for the warmer climes of Australia. So this trip to Blighty will be a short one. See the full pictures from New York at : New York, New York

Too many shops...

Well the shops in NY are all still there. I know that because I've been in EVERY ONE OF THEM today !!! Tiffany's, Dior, Gucci, Burberry, Mulberry, Channel, Calvin Klein, Prada, Hugo Boss, Escada, Coach, Abercrombie, Lacoste, Gant, Dior, DKNY, Bally etc etc. Been there, done that. At least I'll be able to justify the massive steak I plan to have tonight with a clear conscience due to all the walking we've done today ;-)

New York, New York

Or New Yoike, New Yoike as the locals like to call it.

We've abandoned the kids in England this time (yes I know .... AGAIN). Martin is working here for a few days so we've got the opportunity to do a few days shopping & sightseeing over here. Today we've been back to Ground Zero which hasn't really moved on that much since we were here last over a year ago. They have opened up a memorial type of place which was very moving. All of the posters that were created by friends & relatives that we saw on TV were put on a huge mural, along with all of the photos of those killed. Its quite sobering to see all of the faces, very very sad. Its a must see for anyone visiting really. On a brighter note, the new building at the WTC site should start being erected very soon and it looks like it will be just as big a landmark in lower Manhattan as the twin towers were. Lets just hope the idiots don't try it again.

After Ground Zero (and the HUGE lunch that followed) we were off shopping for bargains. It didn't take long for our feet to be walked off and in much need of some decent American beers. Off down 5th Ave and Maddison tomorrow so the credit card with be taking yet more of a hammering.

Bye Y'all.

Just not cricket

Well, I've let it wash over me for the last few days and tried not to think about or mention Englands 5-0 thrashing in the Ashes (despite seeing Shane Warne biographies, interviews and general all round TV gloating 24/7). You just have no idea the humiliation being suffered by us ex-pat poms over here.... All bragging rights firmly gone. Disaster. Still, we've got the 1 day series, the cricket world cup and the rugby world cup to look forward to....... Oh dear.

Happy New Year !!!

Well we ventured out into Melbourne with the other 490,000 people who decided to go down by the river. Man, it was packed with a capital P and hot with a capital H. We watched the 9:15 fireworks with the kids and Ethan stood up to it pretty well this time. No tears so we were very proud of him ! Adey passed out about 15 minutes before they started, so despite the 110 decibel bangs and 30 degree heat, he managed to sleep all the way through the show. So how come when I put him back to bed at 1:00am most nights he can hear a mouse squeak at 400 paces ? Kids eh. You take them to these places and they fall asleep on you right before the action starts!

The picture is of Aidan who not only now boasts two fine bottom teeth but also the ability to stand upright. Its amazing what a few days can bring.