Tennis Torched

Its hot. SERIOUSLY hot. We went to the Australian open quarter finals yesterday at the Rod Laver Arena in the middle of one of Melbournes biggest ever heatwaves. It was about 38 degrees when we got there at 11am and crept up to 43 degrees by 5pm. It's expected to be like that for 4 or 5 days !! We could barely walk in it so god only knows how the tennis players could actually play before the roof was closed. We saw two of the womens QFs and then the Andy Murray conquerer Fernando Verdasco beat Jo-Wildried Tsonga. It was a good day out.....just too damn hot!

Folks Arrive

The long flight from Blighty has delivered the folks to the warmth & sunshine of Oz in January.... their milky white skin looks ready for a tan! As you can see from these pictures, its not taken them long to discover the pool & spa and have spent the last couple of days recovering from the jetlag horizontal on the sunbeds.

We've also been up to the Dandenong ranges on Australia Day (Today) to take in the view over Melbourne and once again fatten up the birds (the feathered variety). Now they're just off to the 4th Round of the Australian Open ... so for anyone watching the James Blake vs Jo-Wilfried Tsong match today - look out for the 'whities' in the crowd.

Happy New Year !!

A bit late as usual but HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all (whoever you are that's still reading this !) We spent New Years Eve with some friends this year at our place (now that we have our swish entertaining area!). They came across for the traditional barbie for dinner and then we had a few beers before they had to get back. So we watched the fireworks from Sydney on the telly as well as those in the city and then had an early(ish) night ... we're getting on a bit now you see...

A couple of days into the new year and we decided on venturing to a new part of Melbourne we'd not explored and went to Cranbourne Royal botanic gardens - which is actually only about 10 miles away from where we live. Something else for the folks to explore when they are over later in the month. Some of our photos of the day are here....