We had a brilliant Christmas, whipped up quite a storm and managed to cook a roast which neither of us could finish!
We followed dinner with a nap and a walk on the beach in the sun - It is so wrong to be sat in the sun on Christmas day!
Boxing day we embraced the Aussie tradition of shopping!! What a bizarre thing, I have never seen so many people milling about the shops
They actually open the stores from 5am… We of course did not get up at such an antisocial hour!
We had great fun speaking to everyone on Christmas day I think all in all we spent more than 3 hours on the phone! By the end of it we were absolutely exhausted..
It was hard being so far away from all the people we love, especially on Christmas I think going to church on Christmas morning ands knowing so many of you were at Midnight Mass at the same time was a lovely thought, and we were both quite emotional as the vicar talked about remembering all those that were dear to us.
Apart from a reasonable amount of upset we both managed very well and on the weekend we actual went for our first proper swim on St Kilda Beach. The waves were pretty impressive and we got pretty bashed about. El took great delight in watching me fall over repeatedly!
Sunday we went our separate ways El fancied shopping and I was very excited about a day of reading. I now have quite a selection Secret Santa at work purchased me one and I got 2 very exciting reads from Nan and Grandad.
Sarah and I are on to the second of our Austen Book club Having chomped our way through Emma we are on to Mansfield Park so I find myself reading 3 books at once ( just the way I like it ) The only problem is that when I start I find it almost impossible to stop and could quite happily remain in my bookish state for a week! El returned from her shopping and reminded me that regardless we did have to eat! We tried a new eatery on Fitzroy and it was quite delightful.
Last night marked the end of our holiday and so as to make the very most of our free time we rented a movie. I have to tell you that if you have not already wasted 2 hours of your life watching 'The Happening' don’t.
I do not know how they managed to call a film where absolutely nothing of interest happens the Happening but there we go.
I watched a modern day production of the wizard of Oz called Tin Man. It was brilliant, but 6 hours is slightly full on … poor El I thought she was going to explode with frustration. After the first 3 hours she really thought we were done. But no, the next night we had 3 more hours to enjoy…
Tonight ( Monday ) I have got to hours overtime at the job from hell.. But the money is good and it all counts towards our adventures..
Well I shall leave you there,
Hope you are all well and had wonderful Christmas breaks
Much love
Leah and El
Monday, 29 December 2008
Friday, 26 December 2008
Christmas
We have just watched the Queens speech and sadly it means we are now celebrating boxing day
We have had a great day and have recorded the above Christmas speech for you.
If it sounds rehersed that is because it is! we recorded it when slightly tipsy, and although we could have easily recorded another one, we like it.
Love to you all
xx
We have had a great day and have recorded the above Christmas speech for you.
If it sounds rehersed that is because it is! we recorded it when slightly tipsy, and although we could have easily recorded another one, we like it.
Love to you all
xx
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Christmas time -
What a wonderful weekend,
Getting away is always good for you. We really did have a nice time
Ballarat is a funny little place, there really isn't a lot there to interest a person,
We stayed by the lake as I mentioned and it was entirely dry, the town is a little worn around the edges and
You can easily see that it sprung up to accommodate the needs of the gold miners and was not designed to look pretty or win any competitions.
Sovereign Hill was a wonderful experience, the whole place is created to look just like it would have all those years ago
And it was so real that you really believed you had travelled back in time.
We took the underground tour of the mine and actually walked the ground where the miners would have trodden collecting the quartz to find the gold.
Panning for gold went well, we have a little bottle of real gold which we are both most proud of!
We had a roast dinner and we were both left feeling a little sad at the thought that both our mums, and
My grandmother make such lovely roasts and we are far to far away to enjoy them! Next time you tuck in please think about us
Living in a land where a good roast is as unlikely as a white Christmas!
After so much concern over the lack of Christmas spirit I am finally feeling festive and excited about Christmas.
We are preparing our food list tonight and El ( who is working 5 hour days ) is going to do the shopping tomorrow.
We have found a church for the Christmas service and will be busy wrapping our stocking presents this evening.
It will be odd speaking to everyone - Those in England will at least be celebrating on the same day, Simon and Rachel and Mum
However are a whole 17 hours behind so we will be well into boxing day before I get to wish them Merry Christmas.
I do hope the snow has let off, I was reading a report online about how the roads are completely snow blocked, and I worry that they will never make it from Illinois to Indiana - I have my fingers crossed that I am very much mistaken.
Well with Christmas in mind I would just like to wish you all the very best Christmas, may it be full of wonderful things.
If we do not speak to you we shall certainly be raising a glass of something bubbly on Christmas day and toasting to Absent friends,
You will all be well remembered.
All our love Leah and El
Getting away is always good for you. We really did have a nice time
Ballarat is a funny little place, there really isn't a lot there to interest a person,
We stayed by the lake as I mentioned and it was entirely dry, the town is a little worn around the edges and
You can easily see that it sprung up to accommodate the needs of the gold miners and was not designed to look pretty or win any competitions.
Sovereign Hill was a wonderful experience, the whole place is created to look just like it would have all those years ago
And it was so real that you really believed you had travelled back in time.
We took the underground tour of the mine and actually walked the ground where the miners would have trodden collecting the quartz to find the gold.
Panning for gold went well, we have a little bottle of real gold which we are both most proud of!
We had a roast dinner and we were both left feeling a little sad at the thought that both our mums, and
My grandmother make such lovely roasts and we are far to far away to enjoy them! Next time you tuck in please think about us
Living in a land where a good roast is as unlikely as a white Christmas!
After so much concern over the lack of Christmas spirit I am finally feeling festive and excited about Christmas.
We are preparing our food list tonight and El ( who is working 5 hour days ) is going to do the shopping tomorrow.
We have found a church for the Christmas service and will be busy wrapping our stocking presents this evening.
It will be odd speaking to everyone - Those in England will at least be celebrating on the same day, Simon and Rachel and Mum
However are a whole 17 hours behind so we will be well into boxing day before I get to wish them Merry Christmas.
I do hope the snow has let off, I was reading a report online about how the roads are completely snow blocked, and I worry that they will never make it from Illinois to Indiana - I have my fingers crossed that I am very much mistaken.
Well with Christmas in mind I would just like to wish you all the very best Christmas, may it be full of wonderful things.
If we do not speak to you we shall certainly be raising a glass of something bubbly on Christmas day and toasting to Absent friends,
You will all be well remembered.
All our love Leah and El
Saturday, 20 December 2008
Welcome to Ballarat
hello guys, greetings from Ballarat, El and I took a road trip, thus far we have experienced
Christmas songs sung in an Reggae style, automotive disaster ( number 2 ) and the beautiful lake on which the Olympic rowing took place on has dried up !
I am not complaining - far from it we spent the afternoon at a wildlife reserve and hand feed kangaroos, we got within inch's of koala's and even saw a 15 foot croc. We have the delight of
Sovereign Hill tomorrow and we shall fill you in.
So whilst Mum, Simon and Rachel hit the snow covered Chicago Christmas market El and I will make the most of the sunshine and go and enjoy a beer or two before dinner
Love to you all xx
The battery went flat on the car, but it was all OK because a lovely man and his dad swung by with a set of jump leads... Brilliant luck!
Christmas songs sung in an Reggae style, automotive disaster ( number 2 ) and the beautiful lake on which the Olympic rowing took place on has dried up !
I am not complaining - far from it we spent the afternoon at a wildlife reserve and hand feed kangaroos, we got within inch's of koala's and even saw a 15 foot croc. We have the delight of
Sovereign Hill tomorrow and we shall fill you in.
So whilst Mum, Simon and Rachel hit the snow covered Chicago Christmas market El and I will make the most of the sunshine and go and enjoy a beer or two before dinner
Love to you all xx
The battery went flat on the car, but it was all OK because a lovely man and his dad swung by with a set of jump leads... Brilliant luck!
Monday, 15 December 2008
Monday evening
El and I have just blitzed the flat, and let me tell you it needed it.
We have now collapsed in a heap and I am off to bed shortly, but not before I make the most of the wonderful Internet and type a quick blog to you all.
I feel I must update you to the post peril.
Firstly I must say I have not been disappointed, such great volumes of post have been flooding into the mail box and I am busy replying to each. It is a great pleasure to sit in the evenings and pen my response. Today however brought a new dimension into the postal world.
The post box had flooded.
Very bad design, it's a small ( and I mean small ) grey painted metal box with a hinge lid, a number 4 on the front and a small slit for the postman to post through. As the actual box sits on the inside of our gate it is difficult for post poachers ( though not impossible) to steal the post.
Such is it's design, when we had the torrential rain on Saturday it filled 15cm of the box with rain water, and short of drilling a hole in the bottom ( or using the soup ladle ) there is very little I can do about it.
Tomorrow I am going to buy a sponge.
I wished dad was here, he'd have a solution worked out in a jiffy, El suggested I syphon it out with a straw.....I think she is just taking the mick as she knows I have become slightly post orientated since our arrival... I enclose below an actual email that was sent to me at work, it had ,me in floods of hysterical tears, more so because not a single other person got the joke...
Maybe it is just me...I think my mum might be tickled by it!!
Enjoy xx
Sent: Thursday, 4 December 2008 4:21
Subject: Level 4
To all MSC staff,
The hole outside the lifts on level 4 is currently being repaired.
You can still access the floor, lifts and toilets but please be careful around the workman and his equipment.
Thanks
MSC Administration and Facilities Supervisor
We have now collapsed in a heap and I am off to bed shortly, but not before I make the most of the wonderful Internet and type a quick blog to you all.
I feel I must update you to the post peril.
Firstly I must say I have not been disappointed, such great volumes of post have been flooding into the mail box and I am busy replying to each. It is a great pleasure to sit in the evenings and pen my response. Today however brought a new dimension into the postal world.
The post box had flooded.
Very bad design, it's a small ( and I mean small ) grey painted metal box with a hinge lid, a number 4 on the front and a small slit for the postman to post through. As the actual box sits on the inside of our gate it is difficult for post poachers ( though not impossible) to steal the post.
Such is it's design, when we had the torrential rain on Saturday it filled 15cm of the box with rain water, and short of drilling a hole in the bottom ( or using the soup ladle ) there is very little I can do about it.
Tomorrow I am going to buy a sponge.
I wished dad was here, he'd have a solution worked out in a jiffy, El suggested I syphon it out with a straw.....I think she is just taking the mick as she knows I have become slightly post orientated since our arrival... I enclose below an actual email that was sent to me at work, it had ,me in floods of hysterical tears, more so because not a single other person got the joke...
Maybe it is just me...I think my mum might be tickled by it!!
Enjoy xx
Sent: Thursday, 4 December 2008 4:21
Subject: Level 4
To all MSC staff,
The hole outside the lifts on level 4 is currently being repaired.
You can still access the floor, lifts and toilets but please be careful around the workman and his equipment.
Thanks
MSC Administration and Facilities Supervisor
Sunday, 14 December 2008
Sunday -
It is sunny, this is a shocking result as the last few weeks have not been good.
Yesterday it rained, it rained and rained and rained...in fact Melbourne have just recorded the highest rainfall in 7 years. It is most bizare, after all we are now in the height of summer here.
Oh well.
Lucky for us it was sunny on Thursaday evening - as I mentioned El booked us in for the outdoor cinema, it was abslutely delightful and we enjoyed a pic nic and a bottle of fizzy wine whilst watching Vicky,Cristina,Barcelona, it was a Woody Allan movie, so although not totally brilliant, it was engaging and just right for a summer evening. The most amazing thing about this evening however, was not the film but the fact that half the cast of Neighbours turned up and sat down next to us... very odd.
Yesterday we finished our Christmas shopping and spent the Evening in a new favourite bar, hidden behing our flat and fitzroy street, it was a wonderful night but one too many conctails has left me with a lightly wooly head! We are off now for our special Sunday lunch cooked by a gourmet Aussi Chef.. will up date you later...
We now have the internet at home, Dad has managed to get the lap top, and the dongal all the way to St Kilda ( not before the post office had searched and detained the package however!)
So we shall be better equipped for blog writing and emailing.
Speak soon
Much love Leah and El
Yesterday it rained, it rained and rained and rained...in fact Melbourne have just recorded the highest rainfall in 7 years. It is most bizare, after all we are now in the height of summer here.
Oh well.
Lucky for us it was sunny on Thursaday evening - as I mentioned El booked us in for the outdoor cinema, it was abslutely delightful and we enjoyed a pic nic and a bottle of fizzy wine whilst watching Vicky,Cristina,Barcelona, it was a Woody Allan movie, so although not totally brilliant, it was engaging and just right for a summer evening. The most amazing thing about this evening however, was not the film but the fact that half the cast of Neighbours turned up and sat down next to us... very odd.
Yesterday we finished our Christmas shopping and spent the Evening in a new favourite bar, hidden behing our flat and fitzroy street, it was a wonderful night but one too many conctails has left me with a lightly wooly head! We are off now for our special Sunday lunch cooked by a gourmet Aussi Chef.. will up date you later...
We now have the internet at home, Dad has managed to get the lap top, and the dongal all the way to St Kilda ( not before the post office had searched and detained the package however!)
So we shall be better equipped for blog writing and emailing.
Speak soon
Much love Leah and El
Thursday, 11 December 2008
Well what a delightfull thing, work is over for the day and El has just called to advise that she has booked us tickets to the open air cinema this evening and we are going to sit in the beautiful sunshine with a bottle of white wine and a pic-nic and watch a movie. it is right in the heart of the botanical gardens and so should be an absolute delight.
I have booked us a table for a seven course sunday lunch and so between us we are doing very well at finding nice things.
The weather is finally picking up and I can gladly report there is not a single cloud in the sky today.
With that thought I shall leave you, one more day to go till the weekend - and I really can't wait.
Love to you all
Leah and El
I have booked us a table for a seven course sunday lunch and so between us we are doing very well at finding nice things.
The weather is finally picking up and I can gladly report there is not a single cloud in the sky today.
With that thought I shall leave you, one more day to go till the weekend - and I really can't wait.
Love to you all
Leah and El
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
The tale of the terrible Monday
1st December
Well we had a good weekend, followed by a rather traumatic Monday (I’ll get to it)
We left the safe St Kilda shores for a weekend jaunt to Philip Island; El had managed to book us a car, a motel and tickets to see the tiny penguins that live there. It’s about 3 hours away and so we got to see some great scenery on the way and apart from a rather tricky diversion around Frankston we made it there unshaved. The motel was pretty nice and in the middle of Cowes (twinned with our Cowes) and we barely had time to layer up before heading the 10 km down the road to the penguin parade.
It’s a funny old buissness these tiny (30 cm tall) penguins swim to the shoreline before running up the beach to their nests. They each have there own little route back and there are over 1000 of them. El managed some illegal filming so we will be able to blog them for your eyes only. It was however bloody cold !! with jumpers, scarf’s, more layers than a lasagne and fleece blankets I was still quite glad of the complimentory hot chocolate and the warmth of our Italian restaurant where we had dinner when it was all over. Exhausted from a busy working week and excited about the plans for the day ahead I promptly fell asleep and left poor old El watching telly by herself!
We got up early and went to the most haphazard market I have ever come across in my life… you could buy anything ( not that you’d want a lot of it ) and we amused ourselves looking around. We then headed for Amazing things © If you are familiar with Ripley’s believe it or not museum in Blackpool then you are probably on the same page.. It is a collection of seemingly impossible things that turn out to be true.
Very entertaining. As with all these theme park esk things we have some delightful pictures ( you know the ones that cost a small fortune and come in their own brightly coloured cardboard frames ) so we’ll get them scanned in for your entertainment.
We headed to the beach next, El went for a surf whilst I settled for a swim and a spot of R and R on the sand, turns out I got quite burnt, and still bare slight resemblance to a warning beacon or a lobster.
With a 3 hour drive home we set off, stopping at a chocolate factory we stopped of for some takeaway, parked the car and within an hour were fast asleep, it’s amazing what the fresh air does for you.
Great weekend.
Not so good Monday – Got up for work, got to work, finished work, came home. Not so eventful. El however had a slightly different day She got up to drive the car back to the rental shop, only the car wasn’t there – why? Because the night before we mistook a towaway bay for a parking space, oh yes the hire car got towed. Poor old El had to go back to the rental shop and explain that we’d lost the car, pay $75 for the weekend car hire and then $370 to get the car back….
So there we go tonight we went for a beer each £100 down but united in out hatred for car tow people and united in the fact that we had a brilliant weekend and are looking forward to the next mini adventure ( and a better awareness of the Australian parking system )
Love to you all,
Leah and El
Well we had a good weekend, followed by a rather traumatic Monday (I’ll get to it)
We left the safe St Kilda shores for a weekend jaunt to Philip Island; El had managed to book us a car, a motel and tickets to see the tiny penguins that live there. It’s about 3 hours away and so we got to see some great scenery on the way and apart from a rather tricky diversion around Frankston we made it there unshaved. The motel was pretty nice and in the middle of Cowes (twinned with our Cowes) and we barely had time to layer up before heading the 10 km down the road to the penguin parade.
It’s a funny old buissness these tiny (30 cm tall) penguins swim to the shoreline before running up the beach to their nests. They each have there own little route back and there are over 1000 of them. El managed some illegal filming so we will be able to blog them for your eyes only. It was however bloody cold !! with jumpers, scarf’s, more layers than a lasagne and fleece blankets I was still quite glad of the complimentory hot chocolate and the warmth of our Italian restaurant where we had dinner when it was all over. Exhausted from a busy working week and excited about the plans for the day ahead I promptly fell asleep and left poor old El watching telly by herself!
We got up early and went to the most haphazard market I have ever come across in my life… you could buy anything ( not that you’d want a lot of it ) and we amused ourselves looking around. We then headed for Amazing things © If you are familiar with Ripley’s believe it or not museum in Blackpool then you are probably on the same page.. It is a collection of seemingly impossible things that turn out to be true.
Very entertaining. As with all these theme park esk things we have some delightful pictures ( you know the ones that cost a small fortune and come in their own brightly coloured cardboard frames ) so we’ll get them scanned in for your entertainment.
We headed to the beach next, El went for a surf whilst I settled for a swim and a spot of R and R on the sand, turns out I got quite burnt, and still bare slight resemblance to a warning beacon or a lobster.
With a 3 hour drive home we set off, stopping at a chocolate factory we stopped of for some takeaway, parked the car and within an hour were fast asleep, it’s amazing what the fresh air does for you.
Great weekend.
Not so good Monday – Got up for work, got to work, finished work, came home. Not so eventful. El however had a slightly different day She got up to drive the car back to the rental shop, only the car wasn’t there – why? Because the night before we mistook a towaway bay for a parking space, oh yes the hire car got towed. Poor old El had to go back to the rental shop and explain that we’d lost the car, pay $75 for the weekend car hire and then $370 to get the car back….
So there we go tonight we went for a beer each £100 down but united in out hatred for car tow people and united in the fact that we had a brilliant weekend and are looking forward to the next mini adventure ( and a better awareness of the Australian parking system )
Love to you all,
Leah and El
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